Gimbal tilt range

[happydogs]

Well, it's been very interesting with my new P2 and zenmuse gimbal. All is well, mostly.
What I'm seeing is that the gimbal moves quickly from horizontal to straight down...doesn't seem to want to be somewhere in between, regardless of the gain setting I use. So what are the suggested ranges to set up in the P2 assistant...range, gain, etc.?

Thank you

 

[Veedleschnapper]

Did you manage to work out the settings for the zenmuse gimbal? I am having similar problems in that I cannot stop the gimbal from pointing upwards towards the props. Nobody wants to see those so I just want to be able to limit the angle of tilt - anyone got a solution?

 

[happydogs]

No solution yet and there seems to b a paucity of clearly defined responses to this particular issue. Must be a developing topic. I think yur problem may b related to calibration of x1. And then related to the range settings n the assistant. Working in tht myself

 

[jondrew]

How timely. I've had my P2 Zen for a few weeks but just mounted the gimbal on this morning and went for my first flight. I immediately noticed that the camera will only point ahead or straight down. I went through a cal procedure on X1 and its clear that the transition between one extreme and another is a step function with no adjustment in between. I took my transmitter apart and the adjustment lever for X1 is just a philips head screw that presses against the X1 pot on the main circuit board. I tried manually adjusting the pot with the back off with no success. I assumed my transmitter was defective (bad pot).

I'll send a note to DJI support and post the results, probably sometime in 2015

 

[jondrew]

Well, I answered my own question. Not sure if that makes me a genius or dummy.

I was looking for an answer to why the gimbal only looks up or down and was not finding anything. Out on Helifreak.com I found the answer. I saw this when I first got my P2 + Zen a few weeks ago, but since I was not installing the gimbal right away I did not to the entire firmware update.

Firmware

Optimized user experience when using the PHANTOM 2 remote controller for Zenmuse H3-2D pitch control.

Important notes for PHANTOM 2 users:
For users of the PHANTOM 2 with Zenmuse H3-2D, one must adhere to following steps to upgrade the remote controller firmware.

1)Use the PHANTOM RC Assistant software to upgrade the remote controller firmware to V1.0.1.11.
2)Calibrate the sticks and X1 channel of the remote controller using the PHANTOM RC Assistant software.
3)Use the PHANTOM 2 Assistant software to upgrade the Gimbal IMU firmware to V1.8 via Upgrade page.
4)After the upgrade is completed, calibrate the X1 channel of the main controller using the PHANTOM 2 Assistant software to ensure compatibility of PHANTOM 2 and the Zenmuse H3-2D.

Please click here for more information.

Turns out you have to calibrate your transmitter using the Phantom RC assistant on the transmitter (separate program from the Phantom Assistant you use to update the quad's firmware. Once I went through this procedure a few minutes ago, the gimbal control lever on the back of my transmitter (X1) now allows me to tilt my gimbal camera throughout smoothly thorough the entire gimbal range.

By the way, if you do not have the RC assistant installed on your computer here are a few tips.

Windows: Install the Windows Driver (either the regular windows driver or the Win 8 driver on the support page) first.
http://www.dji.com/download/phantom-2-downloads/
Then install the the RC Assistant, connect the Transmitter and do the calibration. You can then run the Phantom Assistant program and calibrate the sticks and gimbal lever. My gimbal worked correctly right after I did this.

By the way, if you have a Mac like I do, there is no RC Assistant to update and calibrate your Transmitter ported to Mac. You have to find a windows computer (or run windows on Parallels/VM Ware whatever).

Hope this helps.

 

[happydogs]

ok, finally, all is well...i kept redoing the 4 steps below until step #2 "took". now the gimbal is just fine. wow...crazy...same thing over and over until, bingo.

but, it works. many thanks to everyone.


Firmware

Optimized user experience when using the PHANTOM 2 remote controller for Zenmuse H3-2D pitch control.

Important notes for PHANTOM 2 users:
For users of the PHANTOM 2 with Zenmuse H3-2D, one must adhere to following steps to upgrade the remote controller firmware.

1)Use the PHANTOM RC Assistant software to upgrade the remote controller firmware to V1.0.1.11.
2)Calibrate the sticks and X1 channel of the remote controller using the PHANTOM RC Assistant software.
3)Use the PHANTOM 2 Assistant software to upgrade the Gimbal IMU firmware to V1.8 via Upgrade page.
4)After the upgrade is completed, calibrate the X1 channel of the main controller using the PHANTOM 2 Assistant software to ensure compatibility of PHANTOM 2 and the Zenmuse H3-2D.

Please click here for more information.

 

[FangsCPO]

Great info...it also worked for non-DJI radios.

 

[kenny0008]

Whew! I've been trying for a full day to put the pieces together. Finally got X1 to work and calibrate. Thanks for the suggestions here.
My symptoms were similar... Initially, no apparent output from X1, then EXTREMELY touchy control, to the point that I could barely bump the lever to level the camera. The advice above helped immensely.

For further info that helped me:
- In the RC Assistant, it definitely took a few tries. Best results finally achieved by centering the X1 pot and then going into calibration. Turned the pot only slightly in each direction (<1/8 turn). After doing that a couple of times, the transmitter "learned" what full throw will be on the lever will only be a few degrees of turn.
- in the NAZA Assistant, was then able to get a decent amount of control on the lever. A few tries on the calibration finally gave me full throw on the lever to adjust from full up to full down.

Now, if we could only get programmable limits on max and min tilt...