Tilted horizon fixed? (test are welcome)

[StevenQX]

Sorry sir, I didn't see that you asked me a question. I thought you simply made a statement regarding my post to wheeliesteve. If I misunderstood, please repeat your question and I will try to answer more to your liking. Ciao.

You could rubbish my statment simply showing us a raw phantom video with a perfectly leveled horizon during the whole flight. Everyone is able to get a shot with a straight horizon, in 4k you can even crop and make it straight without significant loss of quality. BTW that doesn't mean that this phantoms is perfect while all others has defective hardware.

If it was only defective hardware and DJI could repair this, why all new P4 have this issue too? And why also on dji forum there are a lot of people that sent the bird back to resolve this issue and they still have a bird with this issue?.

 

[2nd2non]

I think you guys are confusing two different issues. I've had my P3P since day 1 release and agree there are both hardware and software/system reasons for the titled gimbal. If you have had your hardware checked out (ie. set screw, etc), then that is the best you can do. I would love to adjust my gimbal settings, but need it slow for video. I will try the gimbal follow setting.

 

[wheeliesteve]

Nobody is able to show a raw 15 min video while flying and turning pointing at the seaside horizon with an always perfect leveled gimbal. I'm sure about that.

But if you're flying straight, your horizontal horizon shouldn't be off where it looks like the horizon is going up hill on one side. That's not right. Here are some pics showing what I'm referring to. These are while flying straight, not turning or going side to side


.

 

[StevenQX]

But if you're flying straight, your horizontal horizon shouldn't be off where it looks like the horizon is going up hill on one side. That's not right. Here are some pics showing what I'm referring to. These are while flying straight, not turning or going side to side


.View attachment 49887 View attachment 49888 View attachment 49889 View attachment 49890

Yes, this is easy adjustable even with C2 + Exposure Wheel to adjust gimbal roll while flying. Your horizon is not correct but for me your imu cal is not done properly with gimbal auto calibration as i wrote.

Remember with that kind of gimbal angle you will notice more the lens distortion in the centre (i mean the swollen in the centre) that is normal for all the phantoms. Is the straight lens that make this kind of distortion...

 

[Oso]

I think you guys are confusing two different issues. I've had my P3P since day 1 release and agree there are both hardware and software/system reasons for the titled gimbal. If you have had your hardware checked out (ie. set screw, etc), then that is the best you can do. I would love to adjust my gimbal settings, but need it slow for video. I will try the gimbal follow setting.

I agree that there are different types of horizon issues. Here was my assessment back in October with the info I had at that time.

Most Annoying P3P Problem - Gimbal horizon not level

 

[shockwave199]

Part of the difficulty in doing lots of things at once is you never really know which of them actually helped. It certainly doesn't hurt to do every single thing suggested by the OP, but this step may actually be the thing that is helping-

So using DJI GO APP in the gimbal advanced settings i changed Gimbal Pitch from 50% to 100% and Gimbal syncronous follow to OFF

And even that has two different things within it. Whatever gets you there though, that's great. I consider my phantom in the category of not effected by severe horizon tilt. Mine behaves perfectly almost always but I do notice it can get ever so tilted on windy days aloft and even then it's slight. I think too much importance is placed on perfect horizon but there are birds that clearly are worse than others and need fixing by dji.

Also, wasn't a gimbal tweak included in the latest firmware update? Yet another variable.

 

[StevenQX]

I agree that there are different types of horizon issues. Here was my assessment back in October with the info I had at that time.

Most Annoying P3P Problem - Gimbal horizon not level

You were right in your assessment [emoji106]

 

[Oso]

You could rubbish my statment simply showing us a raw phantom video with a perfectly leveled horizon during the whole flight. Everyone is able to get a shot with a straight horizon, in 4k you can even crop and make it straight without significant loss of quality. BTW that doesn't mean that this phantoms is perfect while all others has defective hardware.

If it was only defective hardware and DJI could repair this, why all new P4 have this issue too? And why also on dji forum there are a lot of people that sent the bird back to resolve this issue and they still have a bird with this issue?.

Thanks for your reply sir. I have a follow up question just for clarity.

Are you saying that anyone who posts video with a level horizon actually has a tilted horizon that they fix in post. Also, anyone who says they don't have a tilted horizon actually does have a tilted horizon but they just cant see it?

It feels to me that can't be what you are saying, so I must be misunderstanding. Sorry, can you confirm or clarify?

 

[StevenQX]

Part of the difficulty in doing lots of things at once is you never really know which of them actually helped. It certainly doesn't hurt to do every single thing suggested by the OP, but this step may actually be the thing that is helping-

So using DJI GO APP in the gimbal advanced settings i changed Gimbal Pitch from 50% to 100% and Gimbal syncronous follow to OFF

And even that has two different things within it. Whatever gets you there though, that's great. I consider my phantom in the category of not effected by severe horizon tilt. Mine behaves perfectly almost always but I do notice it can get ever so tilted on windy days aloft and even then it's slight. I think too much importance is placed on perfect horizon but there are birds that clearly are worse than others and need fixing by dji.

Also, wasn't a gimbal tweak included in the latest firmware update? Yet another variable.

Yes shockwave199 you get the point! Those 2 settings solved my issue. But i can't wrote only these 2 points because first of all people must have a perfect imu calibrated bird...that's why i started explaining how i make my imu and gimbal autocalibration [emoji106]

 

[StevenQX]

Thanks for your reply sir. I have a follow up question just for clarity.

Are you saying that anyone who posts video with a level horizon actually has a tilted horizon that they fix in post. Also, anyone who says they don't have a tilted horizon actually does have a tilted horizon but they just cant see it?

It feels to me that can't be what you are saying, so I must be misunderstanding. Sorry, can you confirm or clarify?

I read here and on dji forum many people write "look at my beautiful p3 video" and then after watching a little bit the first thing i noticed is the horizon tilted at least in some parts of the video. So i assume that there are a lot of people that ignore the issue, sum this to all the ones that notice the issue and the result could be that there are more phantoms not ok than phantoms ok. Sum also all the P4 owners that report same issue, look at all raw P4 video and you can state that there also more P4 defective than P4 ok.

Many people have this issue more clearly visible (pheraps because they've never done a proper imu cal, pheraps because they've really defective units) but no one is able, as i told you, to show a raw long video with all the time perfectly, and i bold perfectly, horizon alligned gimbal.

I think that phantoms are assembled with same components and software in an assembly line like most factory use to do, so the issue is more software related to sensors than phisical hardware of the gimbal. Sorry for my english, it's not easy to explain in english technical concepts for me.


It's the same like when people complain about range. Why in that case all of us talk about environments, wifi disturbed areas, line of sight, antenna position...not to send the bird back to dji to be repaired because of defective antennas and when talking about gimbal horizon issue the first answer is always send it back to dji you've a defective unit? Because gimbal topic is more difficult to understand for most of us, there is mechanism inside and also lot of settings in DJI Go that 90% of people even don't know what are there for because DJI doesn't explain well those.

I wrote this because maybe most of the bird considered defective can be adjusted simply following the steps. Trying cost nothing and break nothing.

 

[alokbhargava]

Hi Steve
I know what you are saying however, I did my IMU cal after cooling the P3P in the fridge at 2°C , my mate did the same thing at at 10°C result when we fly together my Bird is ready to fly GPS mode at least twice as fast as his, quite a bit has been posted about this, some positive some negative, it worked for me I will do it again when IMU needs recalibrating

I knew that calibration affects the flying speeds and one can reach theoretically ATTI speed in P-GPS mode for ideal calibration (which never happens) but never knew it will have so much impact as 200% improvement. Hope both pulled up the sticks to max.

 

[Oso]

I read here and on dji forum many people write "look at my beautiful p3 video" and then after watching a little bit the first thing i noticed is the horizon tilted at least in some parts of the video. So i assume that there are a lot of people that ignore the issue, sum this to all the ones that notice the issue and the result could be that there are more phantoms not ok than phantoms ok. Sum also all the P4 owners that report same issue, look at all raw P4 video and you can state that there also more P4 defective than P4 ok.

Many people have this issue more clearly visible (pheraps because they've never done a proper imu cal, pheraps because they've really defective units) but no one is able, as i told you, to show a raw long video with all the time perfectly, and i bold perfectly, horizon alligned gimbal.

I think that phantoms are assembled with same components and software in an assembly line like most factory use to do, so the issue is more software related to sensors than phisical hardware of the gimbal. Sorry for my english, it's not easy to explain in english technical concepts for me.

Thanks. No worries, your English is excellent. I understand your point now, thanks for taking a moment to explain.

As for me, my belief is that the issue is more widespread than people realize, but also that there are a majority of Phantoms that do have a very level horizon when correctly calibrated.

Some also have issues that can be corrected. Hani (well known here for P3 repair) noted this one for example:
"I've seen a couple of them doing this, instead of horizontally moving left and right when you move the yaw stick left and right they actually pan left and right. very rare but when IMU is replaced all is good again. it's a cheap fix and possibly you can DIY but bird will have to be opened and IMU black box opened very carefully and replaced with a working one."

I guess the bottom line is that if people are happy with what they have, thats wonderful. Happy is good. If someone is unhappy, they have some options that may help so they should try.

Thanks for your thread sir. Ciao.

 

[alokbhargava]

Today i've to discharge 2 batteries to 50% to keep them stored for some days and i dedicated my whole 2 flights to try to improve gimbal horizon issue. I flew on the seaside to have the better place where to check what i'm doing. I think that at the end of the 2nd flight i reached the optimal and maximum performance achievable with our gimbal.

First of all perform what written in the exact order:

- Take a flat small square surface (wood or plastic are good)

- Put the tablet somewhere and level it paying attention to be leveled horizontally, vertically and diagonally.

- Then put the phantom in the fridge, wait 30 minutes (to avoid long time warm up) and bring it outside on the level tablet you prepared before

- Switch it on and perform immediately an imu calibration.

- When imu finished make signs with a pen where the phantoms legs are (on the corner is ok) on the tablet.

- Take the phantom and perform a compass calibration (thats why i advise to do it outside, houses are full of interferences).

- After done compass calibration put back the phantom on the table in the exact position where it was when performed imu calibration. Switch it on and check the mod value, it should be 1500~ (+ or - 15-20 is ok)

- . If it is, with the bird always on the table in the same position, perform gimbal autocalibration.

NB: Before to perform gimbal autocalibration be sure that your gimbal offset in dji go is set to zero.

After done this, i noticed a good horizon when fly slowly that keep stay leveled but when flying aggressive i noticed the horizon becomes tilted and took a little bit of time with the bird flying slowly to recover and become again straight.

So using DJI GO APP in the gimbal advanced settings i changed Gimbal Pitch from 50% to 100% and Gimbal syncronous follow to OFF

I've not so much battery at that moment to make deep test but within the nexts minutes of flying i noticed that the gimbal recover faster and was straight even when flying and turning aggresively.

If someone want to try and share the results is welcome.

Appreciate your efforts and publishing your results.

It gives me lots of insight into P3 working.

 

[Trackman1]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Now I know how much off horizon you mean. Mine is slightly off, depending on what direction was turned last. Sometimes not any. I have calibrated IMU several times.
20c, 18c, 11c. The only difference I have noticed is the cooler temp. made for less warm up time.

 

[wheeliesteve]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Now I know how much off horizon you mean. Mine is slightly off, depending on what direction was turned last. Sometimes not any. I have calibrated IMU several times.
20c, 18c, 11c. The only difference I have noticed is the cooler temp. made for less warm up time.

No problem. Depending on how much I turn, sometimes mine will be level, but not for long if I make any turns. Don't know why it won't stay level unless the IMU or Gimbal is malfunctioning.

 

[shockwave199]

I read here and on dji forum many people write "look at my beautiful p3 video" and then after watching a little bit the first thing i noticed is the horizon tilted at least in some parts of the video. So i assume that there are a lot of people that ignore the issue, sum this to all the ones that notice the issue and the result could be that there are more phantoms not ok than phantoms ok. Sum also all the P4 owners that report same issue, look at all raw P4 video and you can state that there also more P4 defective than P4 ok.

Many people have this issue more clearly visible (pheraps because they've never done a proper imu cal, pheraps because they've really defective units) but no one is able, as i told you, to show a raw long video with all the time perfectly, and i bold perfectly, horizon alligned gimbal.

I think that phantoms are assembled with same components and software in an assembly line like most factory use to do, so the issue is more software related to sensors than phisical hardware of the gimbal. Sorry for my english, it's not easy to explain in english technical concepts for me.


It's the same like when people complain about range. Why in that case all of us talk about environments, wifi disturbed areas, line of sight, antenna position...not to send the bird back to dji to be repaired because of defective antennas and when talking about gimbal horizon issue the first answer is always send it back to dji you've a defective unit? Because gimbal topic is more difficult to understand for most of us, there is mechanism inside and also lot of settings in DJI Go that 90% of people even don't know what are there for because DJI doesn't explain well those.

I wrote this because maybe most of the bird considered defective can be adjusted simply following the steps. Trying cost nothing and break nothing.

If you have bad horizon tilt it certainly is worth trying what you suggested in your original post. At that point you have nothing to lose and I hope it helps some people. I do think that anyone with consistent bad tilt has a hardware issue that needs to be repaired. I don't remember anyone saying that they were able to correct it without sending it in for repair. The typical gentle horizon "sway" I believe to be normal for most gimbals regardless of what bird you're flying. I've yet to see perfect horizon all the time in any video from any brand of drone, not just dji. But then, I don't judge a great film by perfectly level horizon either. If it's really bad than yes, it ruins the shot. But generally, within the margins of mostly straight is not an issue.

These two videos of mine, although edited, show some gimbal sway but is what I mean by a non issue for ruining a shot.

This next video was literally the calmest day I have filmed by the water to date and had what I would consider zero gimbal tilt throughout. I do believe wind conditions aloft are the toughest for any gimbal to mitigate.

Look at 4:50 for an absolutely beautiful horizon reveal. I was blown away as it was filming, myself. So straight the horizon remains, you almost think the video is paused but the bird is in motion the whole time. It can be done in the right conditions.

 

[matti]

> put the phantom in the fridge

In the winter months I put the phantom out below 0°C. Next winter I plan to calibrate it there as well -- wouldn't that be cool ;-)

> good horizon when fly slowly that keep stay leveled but when flying aggressive i noticed the horizon becomes tilted and took a little bit of time with the bird flying slowly to recover and become again straight.

I have noticed the same behaviour. So in the same mission some shots are OK and some shots must be corrected in post.

> So using DJI GO APP in the gimbal advanced settings i changed Gimbal Pitch from 50% to 100% and Gimbal syncronous follow to OFF

Thanks for the tip!

 

[StevenQX]

If you have bad horizon tilt it certainly is worth trying what you suggested in your original post. At that point you have nothing to lose and I hope it helps some people. I do think that anyone with consistent bad tilt has a hardware issue that needs to be repaired. I don't remember anyone saying that they were able to correct it without sending it in for repair. The typical gentle horizon "sway" I believe to be normal for most gimbals regardless of what bird you're flying. I've yet to see perfect horizon all the time in any video from any brand of drone, not just dji. But then, I don't judge a great film by perfectly level horizon either. If it's really bad than yes, it ruins the shot. But generally, within the margins of mostly straight is not an issue.

These two videos of mine, although edited, show some gimbal sway but is what I mean by a non issue for ruining a shot.

This next video was literally the calmest day I have filmed by the water to date and had what I would consider zero gimbal tilt throughout. I do believe wind conditions aloft are the toughest for any gimbal to mitigate.

Look at 4:50 for an absolutely beautiful horizon reveal. I was blown away as it was filming, myself. So straight the horizon remains, you almost think the video is paused but the bird is in motion the whole time. It can be done in the right conditions.

Yes yours is as good as mine after done what's in the OP [emoji106]

 

[shockwave199]

Yes yours is as good as mine after done what's in the OP [emoji106]

Mine is that good having not done that. I have done a cold imu months ago but because my gimbal behaves well, I refrain from doing gimbal calibration, ever, unless something goes bad along the way which would make sense to try and fix.

 

[StevenQX]

Mine is that good having not done that. I have done a cold imu months ago but because my gimbal behaves well, I refrain from doing gimbal calibration, ever, unless something goes bad along the way which would make sense to try and fix.

Is always better to do gimbal autocalibration when and where done imu calibration. Gimbal works using imu sensor as you know.

I played with some firmwares lately, thats why I repeated a cold imu calibration. At this point we're in the same condition, then which are yours DJI GO gimbal settings?