Gimbal does not stay in the level position

dantheburlyman1 · Feb 13, 2017

I can not figure out why my P3S gimbal slowly will aim down within 1 minute and 30 seconds. Please help

Dazzauk · Feb 14, 2017

Have you added any weight to it?

Have you tried a gimbal calibration?

Is it working on other than that?

Have you crashed it?

120CCPM · Feb 14, 2017

I go by memory, but I think RC sticks calibration includes the gimbal dial too... if that's the case, give it a shot, maybe yours is just a bit off-center, that's all.

dantheburlyman1 · Feb 14, 2017

I did do a calibration test on it and that didn't help but I did another flight today and had no issues. It's weird only thing I changed was put the original gimbal lock on it when I was storing it in the case. No crashed by the way.

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120CCPM · Feb 14, 2017

dantheburlyman1 said:
I did do a calibration test on it and that didn't help but I did another flight today and had no issues. It's weird only thing I changed was put the original gimbal lock on it when I was storing it in the case. No crashed by the way.

Just to be clear, since "calibration test" seems to indicate something you launch rather than you do: I'm talking about the Remote Controller Calibration (aka RC sticks calibration), the one you do with the aircraft OFF and you move the RC sticks and gimbal to their limits several times to set their range and midpoint.

dantheburlyman1 · Feb 15, 2017

I did NOT do the calibration you are talking about. Can you please tell me how to do so? I have not done that calibration in the past from what I can remember. Thanks

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120CCPM · Feb 15, 2017

dantheburlyman1 said:
I did NOT do the calibration you are talking about. Can you please tell me how to do so? I have not done that calibration in the past from what I can remember. Thanks

I'm glad I asked, then. More or less the procedure is this: turn on the RC, connect your phone/tablet to the RC's WiFi, open DJI GO, click on the RC icon at the top of the screen (or any other icon that opens the Settings menu, then click on the RC icon in the menu) and select Remote Controller Calibration, then follow the steps.

As a general rule, I occasionally spend some time exploring all the menus of DJI GO, as DJI might have added some features. For example, maybe they have been there for ages, but I recently discovered two gimbal properties that are very useful: the first is a setting to manually level the gimbal, in case you get a tilted horizon despite IMU/gimbal calibration; the second is a "buffer" value, which makes the gimbal accelerate/decelerate gradually when commanded to move/stop.

kjohn · Feb 16, 2017

120CCPM said:
I'm glad I asked, then. More or less the procedure is this: turn on the RC, connect your phone/tablet to the RC's WiFi, open DJI GO, click on the RC icon at the top of the screen (or any other icon that opens the Settings menu, then click on the RC icon in the menu) and select Remote Controller Calibration, then follow the steps.

As a general rule, I occasionally spend some time exploring all the menus of DJI GO, as DJI might have added some features. For example, maybe they have been there for ages, but I recently discovered two gimbal properties that are very useful: the first is a setting to manually level the gimbal, in case you get a tilted horizon despite IMU/gimbal calibration; the second is a "buffer" value, which makes the gimbal accelerate/decelerate gradually when commanded to move/stop.

I wonder, could you tell us where and how to find this? I have two P3S and on one the camera hangs straight down. Gimbal dial works as it should, but the camera hangs down. I haven't actually flown that one yet.

Thanks in advance for any help!

120CCPM · Feb 16, 2017

kjohn said:
I wonder, could you tell us where and how to find this? I have two P3S and on one the camera hangs straight down. Gimbal dial works as it should, but the camera hangs down. I haven't actually flown that one yet.
Thanks in advance for any help!

The procedure to do RC sticks calibration is explained in my previous post, there's really not much to add. As for your gimbal pointing straight down... if it slowly moves by itself, then it could be a problem with the gimbal dial center position, which you can fix with the RC sticks calibration. But if it's just pointing straight down as soon as you power up the AC, then the problem is likely elsewhere.
Anyways, this is what I would do:
1. RC sticks calibration
2. If you manually adjusted the camera tilt (to level the horizon), put it back to zero
3. Do a full IMU calibration (done on a level surface, no vibrations etc)
4. Without touching the AC, do a gimbal calibration
5. Re-set manual camera tilt if needed

kingfisher555 · Feb 16, 2017

Did you do The imu calibration on a level surface?

kjohn · Feb 16, 2017

Flew them both today. Had to relink RC from #2 AC to #1 AC, then both worked fine. Relinked #1 RC to #2 AC. Need to fine tune both sets now. Flew them each for about 5 minutes or so, out in an open area.

Yee Haw!!!!!!!!!!!!!

120CCPM · Feb 17, 2017

kjohn said:
I wonder, could you tell us where and how to find this? I have two P3S and on one the camera hangs straight down. Gimbal dial works as it should, but the camera hangs down. I haven't actually flown that one yet.
Thanks in advance for any help!

I just realized that you were referring to the gimbal level and buffer, not RC sticks calibration, so my previous reply was a bit off-target. So, to answer your question: both those settings (level and buffer) are somewhere in the settings menu of DJI GO, under gimbal. Don't remember the details, but - now that you know they are there - look around and you'll find them.