Rotorpixel gimbal for Phantom Vision

Patb01027 · Mar 30, 2014

Rotorpixel - Facebook update a few minutes ago - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...496.1073741828.239409639542940&type=1&theater

After a few manufacturing/assembly hiccups, we're finally ready to make a bulk shipment this week. We're currently able to produce around 50 units per week, but will shortly be increasing our capacity up to around 100 units per week. Once we reach full speed, we'll blow through orders quickly!

Do you see yours in the photo?

wfilleman · Mar 30, 2014

Maybe 1 of you with the RP gimbal can help me out.

I've notice in my videos I get a lot of jello affect.
I have tighten the thumb screws all the way and loosen them up and inbetween. But I still get jello affect.

Today I was showing off the gimbal to my friend. I had the phantom powered on and started to show him how it works. When I tilted the phantom forward slowly I notice the gimbal started shaking. I believe this is the cause of my videos having jello affect.

Now my question is, do any of you know what might be causing the gimbal to shake like that?
I've reached out to Keri but haven't heard from him yet.

I had the same issues and finally had the time tonight to sit down with the BaseCam software to dig into the SimpleBGC board settings. The good news is I figured it out for my scenario and hope this info helps for others with this same issue. I will preface this with a big "do at your own risk". I have no insider knowledge of the settings nor have received advanced instructions from RotorPixel. Just felt like taking a risk tonight on my own to dig in and tweak.

The problem seems to be that the power output set for the motors is too high. At least in my case. When you bring up the BaseCam SimpleBGC GUI 2.2b software and connect it to your gimbal board through USB, take a look at the right gauges. If you see the blue arrows shaking back and forth around the zero point, that would be symptomatic of the same issue I saw.

I think what's happening here is the motors are fighting a little similar to when you tense your muscles up in your arm and your arm starts shaking. The solution is to back off the power to the motors until you find where you can physically tap the camera and watch the gimbal level back out to where the blue arrows no longer shake back and forth. Also, if you take the vision in your hands and manipulate it around you shouldn't see that blue arrow ever shaking/vibrating around the zero point.

The fix is this: I ended up dropping the power output to both motors to around 65 down from what was set at 80 roll/95 pitch. With these settings I no longer get the camera shakes. If you go too low, there's not enough power to the motor to handle abrupt changes in pitch/roll, so you'll likely need to play with these power settings a bit to fine tune it for your environment. My guess is each individual gimbal may have slightly different numbers and especially with the filter attached. I suspect that those with the filter don't see this shaking because the added weight would match the power output from the motors pretty well.

Anyways, hope this helps.

Wes

Pull_Up · Mar 31, 2014

I think that there might be user selectable profiles in there as well, without hooking up to the PC. But I'm not going to go pressing that block button without some instructions! (Although didn't need to as mine was tuned fine). Hopefully the instructions and extra resources section gets updates soon to explain all.

Pull_Up · Mar 31, 2014

Patb01027 said:
Rotorpixel - Facebook update a few minutes ago - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...496.1073741828.239409639542940&type=1&theater

After a few manufacturing/assembly hiccups, we're finally ready to make a bulk shipment this week. We're currently able to produce around 50 units per week, but will shortly be increasing our capacity up to around 100 units per week. Once we reach full speed, we'll blow through orders quickly!

Do you see yours in the photo?

Woah, that's a lot of gimbals. So a shipment of 50+ out this week then a minimum of 50 per week, getting to 100 soon. Looks like the systems are in place and the whip's been cracked...

Xcopter · Mar 31, 2014

Hi Wes,

Can you tell me if the SimpleBGC board is an 8-bit or 32-bit board?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

tizzl10 · Mar 31, 2014

now all rotorpixel has to do is get them from china to Canada! yay!!

Pull_Up · Mar 31, 2014

Huh? They are assembled in Toronto. They even use some bits that aren't plastic.:shock:

WeaponsHot · Mar 31, 2014

Pull_Up said:
Huh? They are assembled in Toronto. They even use some bits that aren't plastic.:shock:

LoL

Shedracer · Mar 31, 2014

Patb01027 said:
Rotorpixel - Facebook update a few minutes ago - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...496.1073741828.239409639542940&type=1&theater

After a few manufacturing/assembly hiccups, we're finally ready to make a bulk shipment this week. We're currently able to produce around 50 units per week, but will shortly be increasing our capacity up to around 100 units per week. Once we reach full speed, we'll blow through orders quickly!

Do you see yours in the photo?

Hopefully ###425 is the third one along in the middle.

Pull_Up · Mar 31, 2014

The control boards come from Europe (soon to be made in Canada), the CNC work is local, the industrial 3d printing is in-house. The motors are probably Chinese. Don't know about the flux capacitor and the dilithium crystal container...

RCRookie · Mar 31, 2014

I have to give Keri the benefit of doubt for the next two weeks on this one.. Wait and see approach... Hopefully larger batches will soon be shipping every week. I think he is working on it, and I am confident he will ramp up production as he stated.

I flipped my Vision over on a bad landing yesterday.. No damage thankfully.
I'd like to get my new gimbal and try it out... before i smash up my vision tho.. :lol:

Seahorse · Mar 31, 2014

Patb01027 said:
Do you see yours in the photo?

It appears to be the second one on the left in black

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Pull_Up · Mar 31, 2014

More flying footage

Hello.

It was a windy day on Saturday so I revisited a site I'd shot before pre-Rotorpixel. Surface winds 10-12mph, gusting 18-20mph (measured by anemometer) so a challenge both for the gimbal and the Vision's ability to hold station. The gimbal performed flawlessly (there's a couple of frames where a big gust hit and the props suddenly appear in shot but the horizon doesn't flinch), the Vision's capabilities in the (unstabilized) yaw axis? Not so much...

Oh, and I had a little "unexpected landing" at one point into the side of a bank - no damage to the Vision, no damage to the Rotorpixel. I used a circular polarizing filter on the new video, naked camera on the old one. No post-processing for colour or fisheye or stability was used on either vid.

Here's the new one (switch to HD):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_-77HLKzVA[/youtube]

Here's the first one I did from the same location back in November with a purely stock Vision (switch to HD):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXux-s_ARk8[/youtube]

PhantomDave · Mar 31, 2014

Re: More flying footage

Pull_Up said:
Hello.

It was a windy day on Saturday so I revisited a site I'd shot before pre-Rotorpixel. Surface winds 10-12mph, gusting 18-20mph (measured by anemometer) so a challenge both for the gimbal and the Vision's ability to hold station. The gimbal performed flawlessly (there's a couple of frames where a big gust hit and the props suddenly appear in shot but the horizon doesn't flinch), the Vision's capabilities in the (unstabilized) yaw axis? Not so much... Oh, and I had a little "unexpected landing" at one point into the side of a bank - no damage to the Vision, no damage to the Rotorpixel. I used a circular polarizing filter on the new video, naked camera on the old one. No post-processing for colour or fisheye or stability was used on either vid.

Here's the new one (switch to HD):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_-77HLKzVA[/youtube]

Here's the first one I did from the same location back in November with a purely stock Vision (switch to HD):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXux-s_ARk8[/youtube]

While I was watching these videos (nice work), I started noticing the the Yaw problem and it got me thinking. Why didn't we see that in the Keri's video? I mean, you can see a very slight amount of it, but not nearly as much as I am seeing it in end user videos. I realize it was windy when you recorded this, however, it looked pretty windy out on the water in his video. Thoughts?

iResq · Mar 31, 2014

IS in post?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

wfilleman · Mar 31, 2014

Hi Wes,

Can you tell me if the SimpleBGC board is an 8-bit or 32-bit board?

I can't say with 100% certainty if the board is 8-bit or 32-bit. What I do know is the 2.2b2 version of the SimpleBGC GUI worked with the RotorPixel included control board found here: http://www.basecamelectronics.com/downloads/8bit/

Without official tuning instructions from RotorPixel, proceed at your own risk.

Wes

Pull_Up · Mar 31, 2014

My aircraft's gains are all completely stock. I need to spend some time playing with the gains to see if I can make the Vision's response a little softer without setting up a nauseous side-to-side oscillation. It also depends which way you are facing compared to the wind direction and a steady wind will have less effect than the gusts I had. If you watch the Rotorpixel video again you can see some yawing going on - just as you can in most Zenmuse H3-2D video - but with enough footage shot over several days in different conditions you can edit most of it out.

Or just wait impatiently for the Rotorpixel 3-axis upgrade. :lol:

Xcopter · Mar 31, 2014

Thanks Wes.

I see that the SimpleBGC board supports Bluetooth capability with an ad-on card. I wonder if this is included on RotorPixel gimbal. If it has the Bluetooth connecting board included we will be able to use a mobile app to change settings or choose profiles. That will be cool!! [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH]

Pull_Up · Mar 31, 2014

Xcopter said:
Thanks Wes.

I see that the SimpleBGC board supports Bluetooth capability with an ad-on card. I wonder if this is included on RotorPixel gimbal. If it has the Bluetooth connecting board included we will be able to use a mobile app to change settings or choose profiles. That will be cool!! [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH]

That would be especially cool if you wanted to change between fully stabilized (i.e. flat) roll and then a "follow-me" FPV style roll profile during the same flying session to get different results, for example.

tedw123 · Mar 31, 2014

Pull_Up said:
My aircraft's gains are all completely stock. I need to spend some time playing with the gains to see if I can make the Vision's response a little softer without setting up a nauseous side-to-side oscillation. It also depends which way you are facing compared to the wind direction and a steady wind will have less effect than the gusts I had. If you watch the Rotorpixel video again you can see some yawing going on - just as you can in most Zenmuse H3-2D video - but with enough footage shot over several days in different conditions you can edit most of it out.

Or just wait impatiently for the Rotorpixel 3-axis upgrade. :lol:

I just want to confirm something. The nauseous side-to-side yaw movement is so apparent do to high winds? In softer winds is it not as apparent?