The FlySky Nirvana NV14 has been my daily driver from almost the beginning. I originally started with the FS-i6 AFHDS 2A 2.4GHz 6CH then moving to the FS-i6X 10CH and then transitioning to the NV14 Nirvana 2.4G 14CH.
FS-i6 AFHDS 2A 2.4GHz 6CH
FS-i6X 10CH
NV14 Nirvana 2.4G 14CH.
The NV14 has been an absolutely awesome radio for my needs. Its sexy looks, excellent build quality coupled with open TX software made it a winner in my book. Hence, It has turned into my daily driver for the past couple of years. But, this little radio is not without its shortcomings. Powered by 2 x 18650 cells, The most egregious shortcoming is; Low Power Shut Downs… If battery levels fall too low, the radio would shut down with little-to-no warning especially when using an external receiver module. These Power Failures could also cause deletion of your ‘Models Folder” in OpenTX.
Solution #1:
NIRVANA POWER MOD (Open Heart Surgery)
Not wanting to give up my precious nv14. I started searching for a solution to this problem. It turns out; there is a workaround modification available. However, it requires open-heart surgery on the radio; the idea of opening up the radio and if that’s not bad enough cutting traces on the PDB, rerouting power via jumper wires to existing solder-pads and or components, not to mention removing and upgrading existing electronic components. Don’t get me wrong I consider myself to be electro-technically competent…I just made that term up… seriously though. I considered this modification/Hack to be a little too much for my beautiful NV14.
” Nirvana has several major issues with the power. We were forced to made the mods ourselves as Flysky did nothing to fix this so far.
Main problems that we aimed to solve:
a) external module from Nirvana settings menu can’t be switched off fully, power to ext module remains 3V.
b) main circuit has no DC-DC booster so if battery drops 3.4V (underload 3.2) it becomes unstable and dies and also batteries are used not depleted fully. It is not efficient.
c) ext module stepup is powered from the same point as main circuit so that is why crossfire and other modules can’t run on high power – ext module makes the power drop to ❤.3v for main circuit so it dies if batteries are not full or crossfire is on full power.
d) polarity protection circuit uses crapy transistors, that make voltage drop ~200mV. That could be saved by using mosfets.
Detailed instructions how to fix these problemas are attached as PDF on RCgroups Nirvana forum. These mods requires:
a) Splicing 2 FETS for ext module, to cut power properly when module is not uses
b) Replacing two polarity transistors to FETS, to reduce voltage drop by 200mA, shortening 2 uneeded transistors
c) cuting main circuit powering line that comes from transistor switch that powers radio, and inserting there DC DC stepup
d) rerouting ext module input to the input of installed new stepup
e) rerouting battery level voltage divider resistor to the same stepup input.
Then we got the radio that can be used properly and safe:
a) properly shuts on/off ext module
b) uses batteries to full depletion, and runs on stable 5V from stepup
c) can handle ext module (Crossfire, Lora 1W) with higher power demand.
Detailed instructions are on this RCgroups page: “
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=43209073&postcount=2996
Slibbinas; Nov 20, 2019 at 01:16 PM
NirvanaBayPowerMod NirvanaPowerMod NV14 Power Mod
Solution #2:
USB Charge Port Work-Around (Non-invasive)
After chewing on this problem for a couple of days, I realize that this is just a power issue. The nv14 has two power inputs; 1- main power via 18650s 2- USB port… I opted for the USB Charging Port option.
I repurposed one of my old 5 volt USB Power Banks and plugged it into the USB charge port on the radio. Lo and behold, when main battery levels fall too low… the USB charge port kicks in. At least in theory and my practice that’s how it has been working. But, since I don’t fly long range I would be very interested in finding out how this particular setup will perform in a long-range scenario…
