Gimbal calibration and horizon tilt

[mikep2323]

So there are 2 things getting me nuts and ican't find a solution to fix my problem. Every time i turn my p3s off and when i turn back on i have to calibrate the sticks. My left stick always seems to be off. I've opened numerous times and there is nothing in the way. It works fine after calibrating it but when i turn on my controller beeps and when i go to calibrate my sticks they are in the middle but left one always reads 5% to the left. After i calibrate it will read 0%. Anyone have a fix for this?

My next thing is no matter how many adjustments i do my horizon is alwaus tilted slighty and its getting me nuts also. Ive googled tons of things and tried every recomendation i found and nothing seems to work. Can there be something off on my gimbal? Can i take apart and put back together? If anyone has any input i would appreciate it. Thanks

 

[solentlife]

Sticks ... cannot help there ... but horizon tilt ... thats under the Camera section once all is turned on and via main settings.

But Youtube is full of videos on this subject ... such as :

Nigel

 

[mikep2323]

Ive tried them all but in the air. Ill have to try that out. Thanks

 

[ffuzzybearninja]

Try calibrating IMUI, that was causing my machine to do similar thing.

 

[mikep2323]

Try calibrating IMUI, that was causing my machine to do similar thing.

Thanks but that isnt working either. Ive tried that multiple times with a gimbal calibration directly after.

 

[120CCPM]

I am clearly missing something. Before trying strange things, like a gimbal calibration in the air - whose effectiveness I do not question, to be clear - why not use the "Adjust Gimbal Roll" setting?
DJI put it there for us to use, it's clearly labeled and it works as expected.
In my opinion, the procedure to correct horizon tilt is pretty straightforward: IMU Calibration => Gimbal Calibration => Adjust Gimbal Roll. Problem solved.

Think about it: gimbal calibration relies on values provided by position sensors (likely simple potentiometers mounted on the 3 axis). If the roll position sensor is not perfectly aligned with the actual camera image sensor, then photos/videos will show a tilted horizon. You can do the calibration a hundred times and even offer sacrifices to the DJI Gods, but you will always have a tilted horizon. The Adjust Gimbal Roll setting reconciles detected vs actual roll position.

One last thing: optical perspective can play tricks, so when you correct for a tilted horizon, don't use a single photo as a reference, but rather watch an entire video: horizon might not stay perfectly flat, but if it tilts equally left or right, then your camera is likely level. If you notice a clear bias, then... yes, you got it: Adjust Gimbal Roll.

 

[120CCPM]

On a similar subject, if someone can tell me what the "Centering Camera" option is supposed to do (Gimbal Settings), I'd be grateful. It makes the camera point straight down, but nothing seems to happen after that.

 

[JazzAir]

Same issue. Have done all the calibrations .....ND filter or not. Soft scrub in video but not the issue. Please watch the video and give guidance.

 

[120CCPM]

It seems that the filter is hitting the ground during initialization... I would start by removing it, doing a gimbal calibration, and see how things go...
And even if your problem turns out not being related to that, I would not let that happen anyways.

 

[JazzAir]

It seems that the filter is hitting the ground during initialization... I would start by removing it, doing a gimbal calibration, and see how things go...
And even if your problem turns out not being related to that, I would not let that happen anyways.

No change CPM. Thanks. It still persists.

 

[120CCPM]

If you are sure you did a proper IMU > Gimbal calibration with the AC perfectly level (without the ND filter), then the next step is to check (and fix) for mechanical misalignment, like in this video:

I've never done it, but it seems pretty straightforward. You can then fine-tune the camera roll from the DJI GO app (Adjust Camera Roll).

By the way, is yaw OK? Seems a bit off, too...

 

[JazzAir]

Ok CPM. You are the first to actually help. I'll do another one this afternoon. Never found this vid. Thanks and standby.

 

[JazzAir]

What would cause this misalignment? Yes yaw is slightly off also.

 

[JazzAir]

CPM. That did it! I pulled the back plate off and it was definitely misaligned. I straightened it back out as in the video did a gimbal calibration and I was only two off from level. Adjusted roll in DJI app. Thank you a bunch man. I hope this helps others.

 

[120CCPM]

Glad it helped. For yaw, there's a grub screw on the gimbal arm, you might want to try to loosen and re-tighten it, although I believe the motor shaft has a flat spot, so I'm not sure there's much you can adjust. Mine has always been a tiny bit off (nothing you notice unless you really pay attention), so I asked DJI to add an "Adjust Gimbal Yaw" feature in the app, but I doubt they ever will.

 

[JazzAir]

I'll look for that adjustment also although a 2 degree yaw is nothing I can't deal with. Can you say left stick? Hahaha