ARRIS CM2000 problem

[auck]

this was probably posted somewhere already, but i can find it so i'm putting this up.

the problem i am running into is that the gimbal is not staying level. for some reason, after a while the gimbal end up a position as if the phantom is making a steep left banking turn. it doesn't happen fast, it is a very slow process but the gimbal will eventually end up in that position. is there a setting that i over looked that controls tihs?

i have my gimbal hooked up to the phantom's IMU.

any help is appriciated.

 

[BruceTS]

Picked up mine today, finally had a chance to go home, right away noticed the zip ties clamping the wires to the frame. This will cause erroneous reading when trying to balance the gimbal.

Next, when I went to balance my hero3, I couldn't the adjustments were already maxed out. Solution, Take a dremel or drill with small bit and make the 2 outside slots longer that the gimbal motors attach at, the center slot needs no tweaking. The white cross brace near the gimbal next to the GoPro has one hole stripped out, no biggie the frame is glued and by me removing it allowed me to snug up the camera closer. Spent about 2 hours overall just balancing my camera, now it holds pretty steady without any power. After I first turned it on the gimbal would just oscillate. Took it back apart and rotated the gimbal motor 1/3 turn and reassembled, problem solved. I still need to hook it up to the software and do final calibrations, will be tweaking it all over the place, then fine tune it once again, just to get the settings all messed up once more. Mainly to try and put a series of steps together, so others can follow.

Mine came with red board and blue stiffer balls, no tilt wire or screws.

 

[Audaciter]

I am kind of loosely following these posts regarding the Arris CM2000, and I don't know if anyone is able to remove it
from the box, attach it to the Phantom and have it work properly.
It seems everyone is having a problem of some sort or the other, and or parts are missing.

On the website, they claim that it is taking a long time to get the gimbals shipped out, because their highly trained staff
are making sure it is properly balanced, programmed correctly, etc. They even ship a dvd, that shows your personal
gimbal in action.

If I were to purchase one, I would expect it to perform flawlessly upon installing, but it seems very unlikely to happen
that way.

I realize that it is relatively inexpensive, but you shouldn't have to become a brushless gimbal expert to own one.

The time it takes in between ordering and receiving is quite long, and it may be just as easy to deal with the problems
than return it, and expect by some miracle, that they set it up right this time.

Am I being too picky ? btw, I don't like brussel sprouts either. :mrgreen:

 

[Gizmo3000]

A lot of people have had no problems at all with their Arris gimbals, while a fair number have indeed had to do some tweaking to get it right.

for this problem, I'd recommend running Calib_Acc in the gimbal GUI, that might possibly fix things

(from the SimpleBGC website
http://www.simplebgc.com/eng/downloads/
)

Accelerometer calibration
This is generally done one time at the beginning of the system tuning. But It is better to re-calibrate accelerometer after a long time, or when the temperature was considerably changed since last calibration.
To calibrate accelerometer, you don't need to connect main power. Just connect FTDI cable.
Simple mode: level the sensor board strictly horizontally (this is “base position”), fix it in this position by hands, and press CALIB_ACC button (or menu button). Signal LED will flash about 2-3 seconds. Don't move sensor board while calibrating.

 

[Audaciter]

A lot of people have had no problems at all with their Arris gimbals, while a fair number have indeed had to do some tweaking to get it right

I'm sure you're correct, perhaps the only time there is anything to write, is if there is something to be solved.

It will be the same when the DJI gimbals arrive too. We'll be seeing a lot of threads describing problems, and the methods
used to solve them. But at $700 gosh darn dollars, they better be few and far between, or there will be a lot of
these. :x :x :x :x :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

[BruceTS]

Ok I went through the software tonight and had to reduce the power settings, this removed all oscillations and the gimbal is working flawlessly, still have not hooked up 7th channel, got a new Futaba T8J coming, I'll do it then.

Test flight coming tomorrow

 

[Audaciter]

got a new Futaba T8J coming, I'll do it then.

Sweet, You'll like it for sure.

 

[auck]

ok. tried the calibration for the gimbal. it works. and then i plug a battery into the phantom and the problem persists. it looks like the phantom is sending it a signal to do that pitchthing. at any rate, only happens when i have the gimbal plugged into the DJI IMU. I don't know if this makes a huge difference, but i have the blue board.... maybe i should just unplug the cable to the pitch unless someone can help me figure out why it is doing what it is doing?

 

[Gizmo3000]

ok. tried the calibration for the gimbal. it works. and then i plug a battery into the phantom and the problem persists. it looks like the phantom is sending it a signal to do that pitchthing. at any rate, only happens when i have the gimbal plugged into the DJI IMU. I don't know if this makes a huge difference, but i have the blue board.... maybe i should just unplug the cable to the pitch unless someone can help me figure out why it is doing what it is doing?

Well at least you've narrowed it down a bit..
so it's gradually pitching down, or both pitching and rolling? and you're using a phantom tx with with the 7th lever, or something else?

What INC mode settings do you have set in the software? if the checkboxes are white, perhaps check them to turn off by clicking and making them grey (this will then make the pitch and roll react proportionally and absolute in relation to stick settings, which most people prefer anyhow)

 

[auck]

Sorry for the confusion. It is just the roll that is doing that. I can control the tilt perfectly.

As for the check box thingies which software are you talking about? And where do I find these boxes?

 

[Gizmo3000]

Sorry for the confusion. It is just the roll that is doing that. I can control the tilt perfectly.

As for the check box thingies which software are you talking about? And where do I find these boxes?

In the Arris GUI software that comes on the DVD they packaged with the gimbal. (have you connected your gimbal to your computer?)
it can be a bit tricky getting the software to run.. seems Windows8 people have had some troubles.

But when you run the GUI, under the manual pitch/roll control there's a white box under "INC", that you can check to make grey, then write those settings back to the controller board.

if you've not done the GUI software, be cautious, safe your initial settings first just in case.