HD-3D Gimbal acting up

[Tristan1234]

OK...Bare with me on this lengthy explanation. I bought my DJI and HD-3D 3 weeks ago. Wanted to fly it a bunch before a strapped my $350 gopro on it. Got fluent enough that I hooked up!. First couple of flights no Issue. Took some great video from way up. I was pumped! I went to fly it Tuesday and out of the blue the Gimbal camera is not level. Typically when I power the Phantom it runs through the checks on the unit and the gimbal.It still does but the gimbal comes to rest un-level. Now this is where it gets tricky....I have been messing with it all week and started noticing that the gimbal tilt switch on the RC was not reacting great. Not tilting at full range up and down...Now I am thinking I have a gimbal issue. To verify, I ran a calibration on the remote and the Controller..Both showed that the switch was not reacting correctly...moving it sometimes showed results in the assistant but no movement on the gimbal itself....Finally I remembered that there may be a software update for the the HD-3D. There was and I installed it. Now the gimbal Pitch switch does not do anything and does not register movement in either calibration assistant of on the phantom/gimbal. In addition when I move the turn left/turn right on the RC the gimbal actually starts to move in those directions (which I never notice before).

To re cap, my issues are below and may not all be related:

Gimbal is not Level (not in FPV mode)
Gimbal pitch switch does nothing (it used to)
RC turn sticks are movingGimbal in those directions

 

[EdmontonPhotog]

I've got a similar issue since the latest update. Prior to the update everything worked well. Now the X1 control (which controls the camera angle) doesn't react fluidly. It is either pointing straight down or horizontal - I can no longer stop anywhere between the two extreme positions. I've calibrated the X1 control in the RC software probably a dozen times and the values jump instantly from -1000 to 1000with no intermediate values during the lever's travel from side to side. I've done full calibration in the P2 assistant several times as well.

While I am not experiencing the non-level issue like you, Tristan1234, the latest update has certainly caused problems with my H3-3D gimbal's performance. It's unusable for photography in this state.

 

[JDN]

My H3-3D has the same problem currently (straight down or horizontal - no in-between with the X1 control). I noticed this right after I updated to V3.04 (not 3.06). I haven't had time to try the recalibration routines several times with the RC and Assistant software. I've read some posts that doing the calibration routine several times in one session with the controller and phantom will eventually cause it to work properly again. I agree it's a problem, though. I have a photo fly session coming up in September, where it must work or it's useless to me!

 

[EdmontonPhotog]

Update on my X1 problem after SW update to v3.06:
Prior to this update's release, I had done all calibration in both PT2 and RC controllers using a mac. Everything was fine. When v3.06 was first released, it was windows only (it took a couple days for the mac version to appear on DJI's website) so I did the update using a windows machine instead of the mac. That's when the X1 problems popped up. Tonight I went back to the mac and re-calibrated the controller using RC assistant on the mac, and the X1 sprang back to normal function. After finishing the controller calibration on the mac, I plugged the pahntom into the PC and re-calibrated using the latest PT2 assistant. All Gimbal functionality has returned to normal. It appears that in my case the problem only occurred when I calibrated the controller on the windows machine.

For those of you with similar gimbal tilt control issues using windows, try it using the mac version if you can borrow a mac to load the RC assistant software on. Good luck!

 

[hrosee]

I see people list this problem all the time.

The fix is to calibrate everything in the RC assistant first including the switches and the gimbal control. I know on the screen it says you do the gimbal in the assistant software but trust me, if you do it in the RC assistant and then in the Phantom assistant it will all work fine. At least that is what I did to correct the same issue a couple of times.

 

[Tristan1234]

I see people list this problem all the time.

The fix is to calibrate everything in the RC assistant first including the switches and the gimbal control. I know on the screen it says you do the gimbal in the assistant software but trust me, if you do it in the RC assistant and then in the Phantom assistant it will all work fine. At least that is what I did to correct the same issue a couple of times.

Bravo....That fixed the non-communication part of my problem. My gimbal is still not level. When the PT is on, it is cocked off center, vertically. Is there any calibration that fixes that? My other issue (or it may not be an issue at all). When I turn right or left on the RC the gimbal also slightly turns. This may be normal and I have just never noticed. Can anyone comment.

 

[Fyod]

The gimbal turning horizontally (left, right) is normal. That is the new third axis and it stabilizes the camera when you yaw (spin left/right viewing the copter from the top). It works even when the motors aren't spinning.
Regarding the tilt, have a look in PT2, there's a setting for gimbal tilt speed and angle. Mine is set to 0, this keeps it perfectly straight looking forward and down, but I have played around and it can even look "up" as far as to see the two front rotor arms. You may need to play with that setting.
If you do play around with it and you have FPV, I recommend turning on the propellers and just idiling to keep some airflow under the copter to cool the video transmitter as they tend to get very hot in home conditions with no airflow, especially in the summer. Or point a fan at it.

 

[Tristan1234]

The gimbal turning horizontally (left, right) is normal. That is the new third axis and it stabilizes the camera when you yaw (spin left/right viewing the copter from the top). It works even when the motors aren't spinning.
Regarding the tilt, have a look in PT2, there's a setting for gimbal tilt speed and angle. Mine is set to 0, this keeps it perfectly straight looking forward and down, but I have played around and it can even look "up" as far as to see the two front rotor arms. You may need to play with that setting.
If you do play around with it and you have FPV, I recommend turning on the propellers and just idiling to keep some airflow under the copter to cool the video transmitter as they tend to get very hot in home conditions with no airflow, especially in the summer. Or point a fan at it.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply....Yes I did mess around with it...No luck. When the PT is off, it hangs "limp" correctly...When I fire it up it does the system check and the comes to rest at about 5-7 degrees off. So my photos all look tilted "cocked"...Really weird...Well you answered my other question so that gets me closer to 100%...Thanks

 

[EMCSQUAR]

You can fine tune H3 position in assistant under advanced

 

[Fyod]

Oh, so you probably mean horizontally tilted, looking at the monitor or finished video/photo.
Are you starting up on a level surface?

 

[Tristan1234]

Oh, so you probably mean horizontally tilted, looking at the monitor or finished video/photo.
Are you starting up on a level surface?

Yes Exactly what my issue is....The Vert/Horiz limits only controls the camera angle - tilt in the most up and down position from the Gimbal switch. Doesn't seem to have any effect on the camera hanging straight

 

[Daver]

I had a similar issue with the camera not being level with the horizon - turned out that I had not completely pushed one of the vibration absorbers into the mounting bracket. It was just enough to keep the camera from flying level. Hopefully for you it's that simple.

 

[TodayTrader]

Did you have a crash? Reason I ask is because I did and it bent the vertical piece. I sent it to the local shot and the guys had seen this many times and bent it back (ever so gently) for me and now it's level again. They said there is no firmware adjustment for the horizon.

 

[Tristan1234]

Did you have a crash? Reason I ask is because I did and it bent the vertical piece. I sent it to the local shot and the guys had seen this many times and bent it back (ever so gently) for me and now it's level again. They said there is no firmware adjustment for the horizon.

I did...It was a really small crash...Like form 3 feet...Maybe that did it...Will give it a shot....

 

[JDN]

Doesn't seem to have any effect on the camera hanging straight

If by this statement you mean the horizon in your videos/photos is not level, you might try recalibrating the IMU in the P2 Assistant software. But before doing so, please insure your P2 is sitting perfectly level in the X & Y axis. I had noticed my horizon was off in my videos by 2-3 degrees after I had crashed my P2 and after updating to V3.04. So, I performed the IMU calibration at the suggestion of a poster, and it fixed my 'level' issue. I made sure the P2 was on a level surface before doing the update, by using a carpenter's level to level up my table the P2 was sitting on. My table was not level the first time I performed the IMU recalibration, and I think that may have caused my 2-3 degree problem. After recalibrating the IMU a second time on my level table, my horizons have been perfectly level.

 

[WPSPETE]

I flew my 15th flight today. All went well. Came home to update the firmware for the p2 and I checked the controller too. All went well. I recalibrated the p2 as we'll. after I was done I noticed the gimbal would only face down. It did the start up check just fine. Then pointed down. I tried to recal x1 and it would come perfectly up then slowly tilt down. Driving me nuts. Wish I would have just left it.

 

[SkyPhotoz]

You can fine tune H3 position in assistant under advanced

I'm having the same problem, but now it started shaking.. I don't see a "Gimble" tab on my software.
Does anyone have any advice?

I didn't crash in over a month and have been using it several times per week with no problems. Turned it on today and the camera is tilted horizontally. Got home from work and turned it on again and still tilted but then it started to shake.

Please help, have a photos shoot in one week

 

[Tristan1234]

You can fine tune H3 position in assistant under advanced

I'm having the same problem, but now it started shaking.. I don't see a "Gimble" tab on my software.
Does anyone have any advice? Gimbal

I didn't crash in over a month and have been using it several times per week with no problems. Turned it on today and the camera is tilted horizontally. Got home from work and turned it on again and still tilted but then it started to shake.

Please help, have a photos shoot in one week

Some other posts helped me with this. I assume you updated the Gimbal software. That is what started my problems.

Normally you would calibrate the PT first. Don't... update the RC first. Then the PT. I did it back and forth and it finally took and now it works fine. The Gimbal setting is in the PT software under the Advanced Tab. on the top left you can toggle between the Battery, Gimbal and limits. Hope this helps

 

[Tristan1234]

Ok...This problem is not going away. Now I calibrate and there is no repeatability. Sometimes it comes right in and then eventually tilts down. It will be pointing straight ahead and then after a second or two (without touching the RC) or after going through the limits of the X1 it will come to rest tilting down. Here is a new issue that is related to this (I think). The X1 has no "in between" meaning I can't stop the camera in between straight on horizontal and vertical when I move X1 it goes to one extreme or the other. Really weird....Anyone seeing this?

 

[JDN]

I'm seeing some of your same issues, Tristan1234. I have re-calibrated X1 several times now and it does not operate the same, as it did "out of the box'". I attribute this to the fact that I upgraded firmware to V3.04 (along with the other associated upgrades to the various firmwares on the Phantom.) That's when I started having problems with my H3-3D not 'stopping' in-between the UP and DOWN positions of the switch. It worked much better before the upgrade, but I can still stop it in-between if I move the X1 lever VERY slowly. However, it seems to have a very narrow range now between fully UP or fully DOWN...like maybe a 1/4 of the travel distance of the X1 lever and it goes either fully UP or fully DOWN, leaving the other 3/4 of the travel distance of the X1 lever absolutely useless. I've re-calibrated X1 several times and can not get it to change to use the entire travel distance of the X1 lever.