Monday, November 14, 2016

Eachine ET526 VTX transmitter review


Link to product page:  Eachine ET526 VTX Transmitter

This VTX has 4 power levels: 0 mW – 25 mW – 200mW – 600mW, 5 bands: A – B– C – D – E, 40 channels total. 
Weight is 8.5 grams. This is slightly more than typical VTX weights and this is mainly because of the heat sink attached.


Heatsink plate on the top

LEDS for Band, Channel, Power level ant TX ON indicator

Size is almost the same as other similar VTX‘es


First interesting feature is Transmitting Power OFF on startup. Every time you power this VTX, it starts with TX power OFF (TX led is dim). You have to double click upper button after you power up the VTX to turn video transmission on.
Second interesting feature is on-board microphone, which can be turned ON and OFF 
Changing of the channels and bands is done with lower button pressing. Short press of the button to change channel, longer press (2sec) for changing band and long press (5sec) for on-board microphone On/Off.
Double click of the upper button turns the video transmitting on. Longer press (3sec) changes power level selection 25 – 200 – 600 mW.
Cable is 6-pin JST-SH 1.25mm one. Cable has a 3-pin camera connector on another end of the cable, also female servo connector for Power in (7-24V) and female servo connector for PWM input. Camera connector compatible with Eachine 1000TVL CCD camera.
Antenna connector is SMA type. This is good for VAS/Fatshark users as their antennas have SMA connectors. Others can use SMA->RP-SMA type changing adapter (like this one: https://goo.gl/Cfbc9p).

I have measured the output voltage for camera under load (Eachine CCD 100TVL). It turned to be 5.16V while transmitter is TX OFF and 5.19V when TX in ON. The same for all power levels. 

Current measurements
Power level: 0 mW, Power usage: 20mA
Power level: 25 mW, Power usage: 120mA
Power level: 200 mW, Power usage: 210mA
Power level: 600 mW, Power usage: 310mA


Pros
• Switchable transmitting power level – from ZERO to 25, 200, 600 mW. 
• 5 bands, total of 40 Channels
• Video transmitter can be turned OFF/ON. 
• Has on-board microphone
• On board microphone can be turned OFF;
• Remembers last settings after power off-on cycle (except transmitting is turned off every time VTX is power cycled)
• Has 5V output for camera
• Channels can be switched by PWM signal from receiver

Cons
• You need to manually turn on the transmitter every time you plug the battery. Have this is mind when installing this VTX into your quad/aircraft
• Tends to reset (rarely) to default channel/band after multiple battery connects/disconnects


Additional thoughts
• This transmitting OFF by default feature is good, but not always wanted one. In the future revisions I suggest to make a setting – weather to start the VTX with TX power OFF or to start with TX ON by default. Could be made in such a way: Press upper button for 5 seconds to switch between these two modes
• Bands are somehow mixed up. You have to search for the right band on your RX, because letters doesn’t correspond to usual band labeling.

Eachine ET526 VTX FPV transmitter review (9 min 14 sec)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Featured Post

Racerstar RF2205 (RF2205S) motor review and thrust test

   I have recently  received  a set of Racerstar RF2205 2300Kv motors  from Banggood  for a review . Motors came well packed in a carton...