Flintstone said:
I emailed my "diagnosis" to HeliDirect few hours ago, expect their response in a couple of days...
I would like to have Cyclops gimbal, but the one I have now is useless. Hope the short did not damage any other CAN-bus device.
Aerial Freaks Cyclops Vision Brushless Gimbal
- Thread starter 007trains
- Start date
I emailed my "diagnosis" to HeliDirect few hours ago, expect their response in a couple of days...
I would like to have Cyclops gimbal, but the one I have now is useless. Hope the short did not damage any other CAN-bus device.
AnselA said:
I have already disconnected the gimbal and boxed it up for return to HeliDirect for store credit. I did not go flying with it...thank God. I am going to go ahead and order the P2V+ and get out of the gimbal nightmare. I will sell my P2V and accessories later. When I hooked everything back up on the P2V I had all the data showing on my Android Tablet, tilt function worked fine. I will test fly tomorrow if weather permits. If I would have waited just 1 month I would have bought the P2V+ when it came out. Thank you for all your help researching this issue...I hope you can get something going.
AnselA said:
Can you make a sketch where you measured? I still can not understand what was shorted and how come it could be? Is it shorted incise a Jack wire or in the connector?
Piranha said:
Have a look at Motorpixie doc: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid= ... EwNDE4ZDk0
I disconnected the Phantom/NAZA cable/jack (or "plug") from BaseCam (SimpleBGC) and disconnected the BaseCam cable/jack from the camera. BaseCam unit was then isolated from other electronics. Then measured (DC) resistance between the two connectors (marked as "green" and "white" in the Motorpixie image -- don't know if colors actually match with cyclops wires) of the jack coming from BaseCam. The resistance was "zero" (or 0.3 ohm, as there's some resistance in measuring tools, Fluke multimeter). These two connectors are part of the CAN-bus (?), which cannot carry messages when it is short circuited. CAN-bus is the "backbone" of the Phantom, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus .
I did not disassemble the BaseCam, so I don't know what is actually causing the short; may be the socket where the plug coming from Phantom goes, may be the cable/jack coming from BaseCam, most probably a poor soldering on circuit board. Anyway, it's easy to isolate BaseCam and do the measurement. I will not disassemble the BaseCam unit, it would make the warranty void? I am discussing with the dealer for a replacement unit.
AnselA said:
One thing I see in the Motorpixie schematic the wire connections they indicate on the SimpleBGC coming from the female 3.5mm jack (one that goes to the P2V) do not match what is on my gimbals board. I don't believe this schematic is the exact same as the Cyclops Vision Gimbal I have..not sure what version/design you have?? Without the exact same board schematic I don't know for sure which portions of the miniature plug from the SimpleBGC are what?? From this schematic you would assume the last two contact points are your data links.
Flintstone said:
I agree, Motorpixel schematic differs from Aerial Freaks implementation in details, but as they both are "compatible" with P2V, in/out cables must carry same signals -- correct?
Because there are 4 contact points, they are supposed to have different funtions -- correct?. It doesn't make sense any of the contacs are connected to another one -- correct? Gimbal and camera need power, meaning 2 of the contacts must be +V and ground -- correct? If these 2 were shorted, I had got "smoke signals". You know, smoke makes electronics working, if the smoke escapes the electronics stops working
The other 2 wires must carry data between camera and NAZA, two directions. I am not sure if this "bus" is standard CAN or a proprietory one (Why would DJI design their own just for the camera? Would be nice to have DJI documention of this...). But it doesn't matter, if there is short circuit, data cannot move.
Not to get into the broken gimbal thread, but as this is about the cyclops, I hesitate creating a new thread.
Balancing: I find that with the power off, my camera wants to flop over and invert itself. What I've read, you want it to basically stay wherever it is left. Has anyone balanced this gimbal?
Balancing: I find that with the power off, my camera wants to flop over and invert itself. What I've read, you want it to basically stay wherever it is left. Has anyone balanced this gimbal?
AnselA said:
Excellent, hope you can get something that works. I sent mine back today for a store credit and applied the credit to the purchase of the P2V+. Hopefully it will be here this weekend. I am glad to get away from the gimbal nightmare. Between the AerialFreaks and the Rotorpixel I ordered and got a refund on because it looked like they would never ship it, I have had it with gimbals. Thank you for sharing your troubleshooting information.
mchad said:
Couple of things...did you mount the gimbal to carbon fiber mount with the screws going down through the carbon fiber board or did you mount the support on top of the carbon fiber board and mount the 3 screws from the bottom. The 3 screw mounting bracket should go up through the SimpleBGC board and the screws should go in from the bottom. I held the carbon fiber board and did not tighten the 3 screws to much so I could move the gimbal forwards/backwards to help balance the mount (with the camera in it). It is still a delicate balance and the camera does not necessarily stay level all the time.
Flintstone said:
I originally mounted it backwards originally, but after reading a post about it, I corrected it. I don't, however, see how that would make a difference from a *balance* standpoint (clearly it would in other regards) - as the balance, as I understand it, needs to be done at the mounts by each motor? Or am I missing something?
Thanks
Couple of things...did you mount the gimbal to carbon fiber mount with the screws going down through the carbon fiber board or did you mount the support on top of the carbon fiber board and mount the 3 screws from the bottom. The 3 screw mounting bracket should go up through the SimpleBGC board and the screws should go in from the bottom. I held the carbon fiber board and did not tighten the 3 screws to much so I could move the gimbal forwards/backwards to help balance the mount (with the camera in it). It is still a delicate balance and the camera does not necessarily stay level all the time.[/quote]
God, am I stupid! I must have read this advice at least 4 times in this thread, but it never dawned on me that I had done this wrong. I should have known that something was wrong, when the camera was almost touching the ground, even when level. I reversed it today and figured out how it was supposed to go. I don't think the directions were very clear on this point.
At any rate, I had terrible high frequency vibrations the first time I flew with this gimbal (straight out of the box). I later set the gimbal gain to zero in Phantom Assistant and then ajusted the PID settings that Piranha used. It got a little better, but still vibrations. I'm hoping that this adjustment will correct most/all of that. The only problem I see is now that the camera is sitting higher and closer to the board, the right fin (as looking from the rear) hits the board after rolling just a few degrees to the right. I tried to lower the camera by loosening the two screws on the bracket that is attached to the rear gimbal motor, but I stripped the head on the top screw. Any way of getting that screw out now and replacing it with a new one? Where would you find one, if I could get it out? The only other alternative is to file a few millimeters off the camera fins, which I don't want to do. Maybe the P2V won't roll that much in normal flight, so I might not have to worry about it? I plan to fly it this afternoon, so I guess I'll find out then.
Ron
God, am I stupid! I must have read this advice at least 4 times in this thread, but it never dawned on me that I had done this wrong. I should have known that something was wrong, when the camera was almost touching the ground, even when level. I reversed it today and figured out how it was supposed to go. I don't think the directions were very clear on this point.
At any rate, I had terrible high frequency vibrations the first time I flew with this gimbal (straight out of the box). I later set the gimbal gain to zero in Phantom Assistant and then ajusted the PID settings that Piranha used. It got a little better, but still vibrations. I'm hoping that this adjustment will correct most/all of that. The only problem I see is now that the camera is sitting higher and closer to the board, the right fin (as looking from the rear) hits the board after rolling just a few degrees to the right. I tried to lower the camera by loosening the two screws on the bracket that is attached to the rear gimbal motor, but I stripped the head on the top screw. Any way of getting that screw out now and replacing it with a new one? Where would you find one, if I could get it out? The only other alternative is to file a few millimeters off the camera fins, which I don't want to do. Maybe the P2V won't roll that much in normal flight, so I might not have to worry about it? I plan to fly it this afternoon, so I guess I'll find out then.
Ron
rmwilson said:
Just FYI, when I was playing around with balancing mine (successfully, btw - almost perfect) I actually lowered the camera in a couple of ways. On the down bracket (the one which the top of mounts to the board) by the motor are two screws that can lower the motor about 1/4" - that alone made a big clearance difference, and it lowers the entire assembly so it doesn't appear to have any effect on the balance. Also, when balancing, I found I needed to lower the arm going from the roll arm to the pitch motor a degree or two downwards to get a good balance. This also had the effect of lowering the camera a few more mm's. I can now roll the Phantom more then it will likely ever need in normal flight (though one day I may very well have some very stable video of it on its way to auguring in...)
rmwilson said:
WOW, what a difference it makes when you have the gimbal mounted correctly! It now does a much better job, but still some minor vibrations upon rapid acceleration in any direction. Also during a strong roll to the right (looking from the rear), the right camera fin did hit the board, as I feared. Maybe I can get the camera a little lower to avoid that. Otherwise, I'll just have to avoid hard rolls to the right, which I don't normally do anyway, while filming.
Ron
Received the Gimbal in the post today - really happy with the price from RC Depot, Freight was $35USD and took 4 business days to get to New Zealand.
Out of the box without touching any of the settings there was some vibrations in the video, a lot less than I expected after reading this thread. When trying a few of the suggested settings and several flights it seemed to get worse. I had about 20min of darkness to play with the settings when I got home and I think I've got it pretty smooth - unfortunately it was too dark to tell for sure.
Weather permitting I"ll take it into work tomorrow and confirm, will post my settings if it is good - so far I'm really happy with it.
I must say I wouldn't have got as far without everyone in this thread - thanks a lot.
Out of the box without touching any of the settings there was some vibrations in the video, a lot less than I expected after reading this thread. When trying a few of the suggested settings and several flights it seemed to get worse. I had about 20min of darkness to play with the settings when I got home and I think I've got it pretty smooth - unfortunately it was too dark to tell for sure.
Weather permitting I"ll take it into work tomorrow and confirm, will post my settings if it is good - so far I'm really happy with it.
I must say I wouldn't have got as far without everyone in this thread - thanks a lot.
It rained most of today but managed to get a quick flight test in near the end of the day, still notice some vibrations but will have to wait until the weekend to spend some time fine tuning.
A lot of my movements were quick and jerky to really test it, so far still very happy with it:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROhrl0StPYc[/youtube]
A lot of my movements were quick and jerky to really test it, so far still very happy with it:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROhrl0StPYc[/youtube]
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Video looks pretty good to me. I would be satisfied with it if it were mine.
timbertitans said:
For fast movements that looks pretty **** good. The one thing that still confuses me is why some have the roll motor inverted and others the pitch. I used the auto button and neither of my motors are inverted. Can someone explain this in layman's terms? I've read if it's not set right it can damage a motor.
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