I finally set all my analog quads with low on disarm on the video transmitter page on BetaFlight.

Then I realize I don't do anything on the video transmitter page on my Walksnail quads. 

So the question is if I can setup a "low on disarm" with the Walksnail VTX. In case I crash and have to walk a bit to retrieve the quad. The VTX will heat up without any cooling from flying nor the props spinning.

There is no low power on disarm for the Walksnail system AFAIK unless Caddx have reimplemented a feature to allow that. The Walksnail VTX's used to go into low power mode when a failsafe / disarm occurred on earlier firmware versions, but people complained that if they crashed some distance away, the automatic switch to low power mode was then too weak so they lost image in their goggles which meant they couldn't then attempt to do a turtle mode flip and take off again, because doing that is impossible with no video image. You can end up with the same scenario on analog if you're not careful. On my analog quads I have the Low Power Disarm set to "On until first arm" which means it stays at low power after being plugged in until first armed but it remains at high power if I disarm or failsafe during a flight so that the image transmission is maintained which can help with recovery of the quad.

If your FC has a built in pit switch on it or you install an external pit switch, you can power off the Walksnail VTX using a switch on your transmitter, assuming of course that you still have RC link connectivity to the quad.

I believe the Walksnail VTX's will automatically shut down if they overheat anyway to protect themselves from getting damaged, so if they were left crashed in a particular location for an extended period of time, the VTX should eventually just shut itself down.

(28-Apr-2024, 07:14 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: There is no low power on disarm for the Walksnail system AFAIK unless Caddx have reimplemented a feature to allow that. The Walksnail VTX's used to go into low power mode when a failsafe / disarm occurred on earlier firmware versions, but people complained that if they crashed some distance away, the automatic switch to low power mode was then too weak so they lost image in their goggles which meant they couldn't then attempt to do a turtle mode flip and take off again, because doing that is impossible with no video image. You can end up with the same scenario on analog if you're not careful. On my analog quads I have the Low Power Disarm set to "On until first arm" which means it stays at low power after being plugged in until first armed but it remains at high power if I disarm or failsafe during a flight so that the image transmission is maintained which can help with recovery of the quad.

If your FC has a built in pit switch on it or you install an external pit switch, you can power off the Walksnail VTX using a switch on your transmitter, assuming of course that you still have RC link connectivity to the quad.

I believe the Walksnail VTX's will automatically shut down if the overheat anyway to protect themselves from getting damaged anyway, so if they were left crashed in a particular location for an extended period of time, the VTX should eventually just shut itself down.

Thanks, I guess my yard is not that big and if I walk fast I can usually get to the quad in 30 seconds. I am glad the VTX has a thermal shut down feature instead of burning up. I just noticed the digital VTX gets hot a bit quick. I did have a few VTX over heating warning on my goggles when I am not careful. Especially doing a bit of adjustments after I land. I usually don't have a fan with me.

As snow says, I believe WS will shutdown if temp is too high, but I have not really tested it by leaving it plugged in. If you take off quickly, usually the overheat warning goes away after 10-20 seconds in flight. However if you take too long to get to it, it will oveheat and the video will freeze up, in which case you have to unplug the power and let it cool first.
Otherwise it is pretty easy to attach a pit switch, you can use a simple mosfet+resistor, a BEC with an enable pin, or an actual pit switch, and some boards have built-in pit switches (it seems Flywoo's new 1-2S HD board has a pit switch on their 9v regulator).

I spent my morning updating all my quads and goggles and a VRX to Walksnail Avatar firmware V37.42.5 stable.

I downloaded them a while back but only this morning I had the impetus to update the hardware.

The reason is that I just watched a YouTube video saying that there is less smearing on the grass with this firmware. I have to confirm that is indeed the case. I fly in my grassy backyard so grass smearing in the video was a pretty accepted item with firmware V34.x.x.

There are still a tiny bit when signal quality is not at the best level but overall it is good.

The reason I am posting in this thread is because I did find a pleasant surprise. Instead of the "normal" standby mode on the bottom of the goggles' screen I found a line that said low RF signal on disarm. So I am guessing that the firmware does drop the RF signal to low when the FC is not armed.

I have been looking for something like that and I did set my analog quads to have low on disarm. I am glad Walksnail is now doing that.

Ok I just found it. The standby mode line was changed with firmware V36.92.4 I still have no idea if it does lower the RF signal in standby mode or not.

I use low power on disarm all the time, but if I was doing a LR build obviously would set it up the other way.

Do all digital systems not support low power on disarm or is this a problem specific to WS?

With analog, low on disarm goes back to full power in turtle mode when you re-arm. I have used video signal strength between armed and disarmed (low power) to roughly locate downed quads.

(10-May-2024, 12:22 PM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: I use low power on disarm all the time, but if I was doing a LR build obviously would set it up the other way.

Do all digital systems not support low power on disarm or is this a problem specific to WS?

I can see why low on disarm may not work for losing a long range quad. Luckily I don't fly long range. I try not to fly outside of my chain link fence in the yard.

I have no clue if other digital systems will go to low power on disarm. I have not used them yet.  I only noticed my Walksnail setup gave me VTX temperature warning when I didn't put a fan on it and messed around not flying.

The DJI FPV System will go into low power mode when disarmed unless you have explicitly switched off the low power mode which can be done on the first generation system but not with the newer O3 system. In the event of a crash and disarm, or a failsafe a long distance away where low power mode won't be strong enough to broadcast a signal back the goggles, as long as there is still RC link connectivity with the quad, the "workaround" is that you can force full power mode without arming the props (which you may not want to do in case they are caught on something) by first enabling turtle mode and then arming the quad. By doing that the quad will be "armed" but the props won't spin unless you deflect the roll/pitch stick. So doing that can enable you to try and ascertain which way up your quad is, if it is safe to actually try and turtle mode if it is upside down, and/or if it is possible to try and take off again from the crash site. This is what drumgod was referring to in post #7.