RotorPixel Gimbal Technical Discussion

Are we to expect jello with aggressive flying in high winds? I don't even want to post todays videos they are so bad.

Winds were about 25 mph and speeds going downwind were 45-50 mph. Lots of props showing and tons of jello. I tried 6, 7, 8, & 9 full turns on the thumb screws. Even coming back into the headwind at 20 mph the video was very bumpy.

When it's hovering in place it's fairly solid (still some jello at times) but heavy jello starts with any speed in one direction.

I also had a horizon issue after a turn where it took about 10 seconds for the horizon to level back out.

Camera is balanced on both axis' and no wires are hitting/snagging on anything.

Pitch motor is still making loud noise and vibrating at a high frequency.

I can't figure this thing out.

HELP :!:
 
New issue during this morning’s test flight.

The white camera cable that comes from the RP gimbal and inserts into the camera is losing its connection. It took me 15 minutes rebooting and restarting everything several times to figure out why I couldn't get the video feed to work in the vision app. I finally looked at the camera and the green light was off.

I rotated the white RP 3D printed jack about 5 degrees and the green light came on, rotated another 5 degrees and it lost power again. I kept doing this all the way around and it intermittently powers up then disconnects. Why???

On a positive note I've eliminated most of my jello (except at full power on the stick) by taping the pitch cable out of the way and with more fine tuning of the damper screws.

The gimbal motor is still whining...

Keri hasn't responded yet.

UPDATE: Buzzing noise and vibrations fixed with Keri's assistance. He said he will cover this issue in a troubleshooting write up at a later date. When I have some time later this evening I'll post my own brief write up with pictures. It's an easy fix!

As far as the camera plug I may need to shave a bit of 3D printed material from where the metal jack and plastic meet so that it's perfectly even on all sides.
 
The fix is in! Are you ready for this? You may need to find a professional in your area to help with this one...

Keri's response to the noise and vibration problem:

"The buzzing has been a bit of mystery to us, since they're all tested through their entire tilt range before they're packed up and shipped out... but we may have pin-pointed the issue now"

"The issue is that there is the slightest amount of flex to the frame, and a portion of the camera is *barely* in contact with a part of the camera mount, so the very small vibration that is coming out of the motors (which is perfectly normal, and usually almost imperceptible) is causing the camera surface and camera mount surface to hit each other back and forth very quickly, causing this nasty sound."

My simple fix:

Below is the picture of my quick and hopefully final fix on the buzzing motor sound and camera housing vibrations. It only took one square of blue painters tape to stop all sounds and vibrations. Maybe Keri should include a square in the accessory bag going forward. ;)

I found the sweet spot by sliding a piece of copy paper I cut into a tiny rectangle in between the camera housing and camera mount. My area of contact happened to be near the back of the mount as show in the picture below.



UPDATE: I fired the P2V back up just to make sure everything was still good and it was buzzing a little bit again, so I applied 3 layers of blue tape across the entire inner surface of the camera mount and it's back to being silent. Hardest part is exacto knifing out the cutouts and corners. Other than that easy fix if yours is making noise. If i can find some super thin felt tape I may eventually go that route for the final version.
 

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gfredrone said:
UPDATE: I fired the P2V back up just to make sure everything was still good and it was buzzing a little bit again, so I applied 3 layers of blue tape across the entire inner surface of the camera mount and it's back to being silent. Hardest part is exacto knifing out the cutouts and corners. Other than that easy fix if yours is making noise. If i can find some super thin felt tape I may eventually go that route for the final version.

WOW ............. I mean W O W

You are having a friggin laugh! You pay huge amounts of ££$$ for a "professional" kit and you have to use tape to stop the vibration!! and you have to shave stuff off so that a plug will fit!!

I am now seriously thinking about cancelling MY order for this "professional" gimbal.
 
Its a new Gimbal. There is always going to be variations in the manufacturing process, this is easily rectified with a more stringent (less vibration) design fitting of the cradle to the camera housing. TAPE will work in a pinch, for the newly discovered issue, until Keri can address it with a better fitting or upgraded cushioning of the camera into the fixture. I'm thinking the adhesive foam strips, as they can be cut to the dimensions required to insulate the vibration from the cradle to the camera as a good solution.
http://www.officemax.com/office-supplies/tape/mounting-tape-squares/product-prod3292572

If you want an exact science your expecting to much with a newly released "aftermarket" gimbal solution. DJI's new Plus is an alternative, for those who seek out of the box solutions but, they also suffer from failures and glitches.

2cents
The Rookie
 
+1 RCRookie

This is an Indy product and some tinkering is expected. I don't know how many others are having the noise and vibration issues, so don't know if it's warranted for Keri to include some sort of felt or foam liner for the camera mount.
 
Pull_Up said:
I have to say I had one of the first production models and had/have no issues with vibration, noise or anything else. Don't forget that Rotorpixel will have manufactured their camera mounts assuming DJI's manufacturing processes were perfect and therefore no variation in the camera bodies...
ah.... your back.... rested and full of energy!! :)
 
Pull_Up said:
Not quite. Still here until Friday. Local WiFi has some sort of DNS issue so the only thing that works for me is tapatalk and BBC News! No email, Youtube or G+, so apologies to anyone with unanswered messages on any of those. On a positive note I've got a tan of Guinn-like proportions... ;)

Just don't spike your hair to match... :shock:

-slinger
 
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gfredrone said:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZmQNT-hZ5Y[/youtube]

@gfredrone can you please provide some details on the landing gear extensions shown in your video? I have also installed the Rotorpixel gimbal on my PV2 and could use a little more clearance.
Thanks.
 
BManCan said:
@gfredrone can you please provide some details on the landing gear extensions shown in your video? I have also installed the Rotorpixel gimbal on my PV2 and could use a little more clearance.
Thanks.

1" schedule 40 PVC cut into 1/4" slivers. After you have the 4 circles razor cut a spot on them so they will clip into the recessed part of the landing skid on the inside and grip onto the outside of the skid.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8666&hilit=pvc#p72383

I've noticed that the wind pushes them back during flight sometimes and they will flip up meaning you will have to do a hand grab landing. Some foam tape in the insert behind each one will stop them from being pushed to the larger portion of the channel on the skid.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8666&hilit=pvc#p72613

With the 1" PVC I have full tilt clearance, though I still don't recommend landing with the camera pointed down.
 
gfredrone said:
BManCan said:
@gfredrone can you please provide some details on the landing gear extensions shown in your video? I have also installed the Rotorpixel gimbal on my PV2 and could use a little more clearance.
Thanks.

1" schedule 40 PVC cut into 1/4" slivers. After you have the 4 circles razor cut a spot on them so they will clip into the recessed part of the landing skid on the inside and grip onto the outside of the skid.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8666&hilit=pvc#p72383

I've noticed that the wind pushes them back during flight sometimes and they will flip up meaning you will have to do a hand grab landing. Some foam tape in the insert behind each one will stop them from being pushed to the larger portion of the channel on the skid.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8666&hilit=pvc#p72613

With the 1" PVC I have full tilt clearance, though I still don't recommend landing with the camera pointed down.

Many thanks for the info and links.

P.S. Ignore the PM that I sent you requesting the same info. ;)
 
5 things I've noticed so far with RP on board.

1. Takeoff:

The bird feels heavier on the stick. Make sure you give it full throttle on takeoff in windy conditions so you don't have a tip over.

I normally always do a quick full throttle at takeoff to 10-15 feet but today I eased it up for some reason and almost had a flip. If the ground wouldn't have been lower in the way it quickly drifted I wouldn't have been so lucky.

2. Battery:

At 30% battery mine will slightly start losing altitude without some up throttle to counteract. My advice is be close to your landing spot at 30% or below.

I was downwind about 1500' away over a lake today and turned back home at 30%. When I started back alt was about 200'. About half way back I was checking telemetry and the reading was near 150'. I pushed it back up to 200' upon noticing the decline then watched it drop another 50' by the time I was back overhead. At this point I'm nearing 15% on the battery and had to use more than normal up throttle to safely land.

I've noticed the altitude decline at 30% on two separate flights with different batteries.

3. Jello:

I still haven't been able to fine tune the thumbscrews enough to remove all of the jello. I don't know if I'm expecting too much or if the 15-20 mph winds are a factor. I haven't been able to fly in calm air yet.

The funny thing is sometimes I think my screen is frozen it's so smooth and then a few seconds later I hear Bill Cosby jello pudding skits in my head.

4. Horizon:

Sometimes when I yaw 90 deg it takes a few seconds for the horizon to level back out. Have no clue what's going on here but this might be something that needs to be addressed in the SBGC software.

5. Still Pictures:

Seem to have more detail. Also the Horizon is level. Below is a screen grab of a JPG straight from the camera at 100%.
 

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Rotorpixel (429) was shipped on Friday, 4/11 by Canada Post. Tracking number worked usps.com website. Arrived on Tuesday, 4/16 in good shape.

Unboxing was similar to Pull_Up's video, with minor exceptions. There is a black thumbscrew with a black fitting that goes into the left “ear” of the camera. The white thumbscrews that go into the damping balls in the early videos show a five-sided star shape. Mine are two-sided, more like turn-keys, probably for ease of counting turns. The 3D printed parts are satisfactory in appearance, you can tell however, they were printed with the speed turned up, probably in order to push production quantities.

The metal CNC parts of my set up were fairly dirty. Some black, dusty gunk (oxidation maybe) was on all of those parts. The stuff was carried over on some of the white 3D printed parts (maybe during testing and packaging) and gave them a dusty, dirty appearance too. I'd suggest wiping those parts well before handling them to prevent making a mess on the rest of your set up.

The printed instructions are fairly easy to follow. I'd add a step to remove the battery before starting the actual installation. Removing the camera from the original is “fiddly”, you'll have to put some significant pressure on the camera ears to remove it from the original gimbal.

Step 12 of the instructions refers to a small white spacer that goes into the left camera ear. In my kit there was a black thumbscrew and black spacer – so I believe this is a mod and the instructions have not been updated.

After connecting the cable from the inside of the P2V to the gimbal, you'll want to make sure there are no pinched wires. I used the allen wrench to keep tension on the wire bundle while attaching the metal isolation plate to the white damping balls. By doing this, it left a good amount of slack in the wire bundle with no pinching between the top plate and aircraft body and no interference with any moving parts.

The redesigned white thumbscrews went in easily and I did not have to slip the isolation plate down onto them – just screwed them in for 7 turns. Before powering up, check that all connections were well seated and pushed all the way in.

With the Rotorpixel mounted and sitting on a flat surface, my camera just bottoms out. I raised the PV2 up by putting 1” x 2”s under the landing gear. This allowed the gimbal to boot up for the first time without touching anything or bottoming out. Once it “woke up” and aligned itself, after 5 seconds, it was balanced and aligned and almost silent. No vibration or rattling noises.

For the first flight, I used the 1” x 2”s to launch from – again so that the camera was not bottoming out. There was a significant increase in left stick up required to make a positive lift off. I used full left stick up, where I rarely had to do that with the original gimbal. This was not a big deal – just be ready to apply more left stick due to the added weight.

This flight was in very light winds. The Rotorpixel performance was excellent. No jello, no props in view and very, very little yaw correction in GPS mode. I am pretty convinced, that with smooth flying I'll get very good video clips. I am and will continue to be a hand landing guy, especially with the camera now hanging right down to the same level as the landing gear.

I have a TradeCraft case. I will have to make a few minor modifications to make my PV2/RotorPixel fit properly. It will fit – but it will require some minor surgery to the TradeCraft case first.

Overall, I'm very impressed and glad I have this setup. I'll have to wait for windier conditions to see if I think the third axis will be necessary. At this early stage, as a first impression I'd rate it a 9.25 out of 10.00.
 
gfredrone said:
5 things I've noticed so far with RP on board.

1. Takeoff:

The bird feels heavier on the stick. Make sure you give it full throttle on takeoff in windy conditions so you don't have a tip over
2. Battery:

At 30% battery mine will slightly start losing altitude without some up throttle to counteract. My advice is be close to your landing spot at 30% or below.

I was downwind about 1500' away over a lake today and turned back home at 30%. When I started back alt was about 200'. About half way back I was checking telemetry and the reading was near 150'. I pushed it back up to 200' upon noticing the decline then watched it drop another 50' by the time I was back overhead. At this point I'm nearing 15% on the battery and had to use more than normal up throttle to safely land.

I've noticed the altitude decline at 30% on two separate flights .

Have you increased your vertical gain for the extra weight ? Dropping 50' is not good.
 
I haven't messed with gains yet but will play around with them to see if I can get better results. It's not having any problems hovering and keeping altitude unless the battery is running below 30%.

For the vibration issue on the camera mount I would like to source the same foam tape that is on the inside of the controllers battery compartment door for a final solution in place of painters tape. Does anyone know where to get something like that? Arts and crafts store? None of the home improvement or automotive stores I have checked have anything that's thin or compressible enough.
 
I just flew a battery from 100% to 6% and the video from takeoff to landing was 18:52 long. Noticed lots of jello over the tree line so I brought it in at about 5 minutes and loosened the thumbscrews 1.5 turns.The jello was softer throughout the rest of the video but there was more of it, even below the tree line. Still tweaking...

I think I've drilled the 30% or below battery, slight altitude loss, to only when flying at full throttle. It will hover and keep altitude below 30%. At 15% it's coming down, as before RP gimbal.
 

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