My H3-3D is Sick :-(

[BostonPhotog]

I've been very busy for the last few weeks and haven't had a chance to power up my P2.
I'd ordered some 3M VHB tape to attach some counterweights to the gimbal to balance out an ND filter on the GoPro, and the tape arrived, so tonight I figured I'd get that done.

Weeks ago I had balanced the camera filter by taping some small washers to two places on the gimbal to balance out the additional weight, so tonight I just replaced the crappy duct tape with the 3M VHB tape. After doing my tinkering, I powered up the P2 and one of the H3's motors (the one controlling pitch) is making a horrible noise in a repeating pattern (approximately 1 second on, 1 second off) and, interestingly, only updating its position during the horrible-noise part of the pattern.

I recorded a video of the behavior, and I'm going to try to post it here. The noise from the motor will be very audible in the video, and you'll see that the gimbal isn't updating the pitch of the camera in real-time as I move the camera-pitch lever on the back of the RC, but instead it is waiting until the horrible-noise part of the cycle to move the motor. It is able to move the motor just fine if it wants to (I've manually moved the camera's pitch around, and the gimbal always brings the pitch right back to center), but there is definitely some sort of glitch going on.

[vimeo]106243031[/vimeo]

Has anyone ever seen this before?

I'm thinking I may need to flash the gimbal's firmware (which I've never done), or maybe check all the internal electrical connections.

Ideas? Any help would be much appreciated. :-(

 

[OI Photography]

I moved this over to the H3-3D section for you

Before you start trying to reset firmware or look at wiring connections, get the gimbal back to it's default intended state first. Take off the ND filter and the counterbalancing you've added, and see if the gimbal behaves then.

 

[BostonPhotog]

I moved this over to the H3-3D section for you

Oops. Thanks OI. Still getting a feel for the structure of the forum.

Before you start trying to reset firmware or look at wiring connections, get the gimbal back to it's default intended state first. Take off the ND filter and the counterbalancing you've added, and see if the gimbal behaves then.

Yeah, I figured that'd be my next step. I don't imagine the weight is the issue (because I used it fine previously with the same weights in the same places), but that definitely does make sense from a troubleshooting perspective.

I'll update...

 

[BostonPhotog]

So... weird, random, bizarre thing I just discovered about the H3-3D gimbal.

As OI suggested above (thanks OI… you continue to be probably the single most helpful forum poster I've ever encountered), to trouble shoot the issue above I stripped off the filter and counterweights to get the H3-3D to it's original, intended state. It then worked flawlessly.

This confused me, because I had used the P2 & H3-3D with the exact same filter and counterweights just fine in the past.

So with the gimbal in its virgin state and working fine, I started adding things back on one at a time. Everything worked just fine until I got to the last, tiny, itty-bitty small washer. This tiny little washer was attached to the pitch motor housing (right on top of a far bigger, heavier washer that the gimbal didn't mind in the slightest) and added truly negligible weight.

When I added this tiny, negligible weight, the gimbal went from working flawlessly to FREAKING. THE. HELL. OUT. and behaving in the manner shown in the video in the original post. Seriously, the weight I added that caused the gimbal to go from "fine" to "freaking out" could be measured in milligrams.

So I just learned something about the gimbal.

 

[FlyingHigh]

I've had issues trying to balance it as well. I can add coins or whatever and it seems balanced before I turn it on, but then it goes nuts. Yet if I take off all the counter balance and just leave the filter on, clearly now unbalanced, it does not complain. Weird

 

[OI Photography]

I've had issues trying to balance it as well. I can add coins or whatever and it seems balanced before I turn it on, but then it goes nuts. Yet if I take off all the counter balance and just leave the filter on, clearly now unbalanced, it does not complain. Weird

Does it sit level when you power it on with just the filter on?

 

[FlyingHigh]

Nope, not all. Definitely unbalanced. But it complains a hell of a lot less than when I was sticking coins on the back. Maybe I should try another method of counter weight

 

[FlyingHigh]

Oh you mean Is it level when I tried to balance it? Yes, I had it to what I thought was perfect. But it really hated it when I turned it on.

 

[OI Photography]

I haven't needed to balance mine (even with the ND filter attached), but I have doubts about the method of trying to estimate true "balance" when the gimbal is powered off. Mine behaves fine when powered on regardless of how it hangs with the power off.

I would think you need to apply counterbalance based on what you see when it's turned on, not how it sits while turned off.

Also, have you done a full IMU calibration on the Phantom recently?