RotorPixel Gimbal Technical Discussion

[JustJames]

I am timing flights to see if I can extract some trends but currently my concern is autolanding when under 45% battery due to current drain, this clearly means bringing her in close way too early in a flight for my taste.

Power use is horrendous, and this is not helped by the later stages of your flight being carried out under autolanding as the battery is alarming (even though percentage is good). It also appears that the drop off is not linear.

This is an issue for me as well. Ive had it auto land twice. Both times ended without incident but could have if the timing was different. It seems to be brought on by aggressive flying (?) and or the craft having to compensate for high winds etc. Basically any time it is using the battery at a high rate and is nearing 40% like sea horse stated. I've seen auto land at as high as 38%. But I have had a low battery warning at 45%! Once I calmed down on the throttle it went away. I guess it's just something to be aware of and work around. Don't love it but it is what it is.

~James~

 

[jake0429]

Hey guys- not sure if i'm in the right topic, but I can't figure out how to create a new one. After a crash I lost the screw that attaches my camera to the gimbal. After testing the gimbal still works fine as does the camera. I tried using a regular screw but it doesn't let the camera rotate up and down. I don't want to spend $400+ to replace the gimbal when it's working and all i need is a screw. Anyone know where I can get one?

Thanks!!

Also, if i'm in the wrong place posting this let me know where to post. I'm new to the forum.

- Jake

 

[gpauk]

If you use an external higher power repeater you don't need to mod anything -- no need to add connectors to your stock repeater, and you have the advantage of not using directional antennas - no need to point accurately. I have mine on a lightweight folding tripod, and I can set it down pointed in the general direction of flight and the wander up where I like with the rc transmitter.

Hi Gpauk,

Sounds interesting. Can you post some pics from your setup ?

Geert.

Sure.... I'll snap some photos later, when i get home!

 

[gpauk]

If you use an external higher power repeater you don't need to mod anything -- no need to add connectors to your stock repeater, and you have the advantage of not using directional antennas - no need to point accurately. I have mine on a lightweight folding tripod, and I can set it down pointed in the general direction of flight and the wander up where I like with the rc transmitter.

Hi Gpauk,

Sounds interesting. Can you post some pics from your setup ?

Geert.

So -- here's the repeater on a compact tripod with high gain vertical, LHCP skew planar and LHCP panel.. Gives good coverage pretty well wherever you go!
Also -- modified RC tx with modified sunhans 1W amp and vertical antenna -- great range without worrying about aim....

This is not my max range setup but is my relaxed flying and as far as you need to go setup!! Tested to well over 3000 feet and still rock solid.

 

[John10Yes]

I just received my gimbal today and installed it tonight. Went through all the steps including watching Pullups videos. When I turned it on the camera dropped and then looks like it can't pull itself back up. It comes up part way and then drops back down. I have the dji filter adapter installed and when I take off the filter itself but leave the adapter on it works correctly. It is almost like it is too much weight. I haven't done pullups balancing yet but I am not sure that will fix this if it really is a weight issue that the motors can't lift. In his video his worked fine out of the box with the filter adapter on. Any thoughts?

 

[gfredrone]

Balance it and the dropping should stop. I had the same.

 

[John10Yes]

Thanks, I emailed Rotorpixel and they said the same and it seemed to do the trick.

 

[Pull_Up]

Definitely worth balancing any gimbal that isn't designed for just one camera irrespective of any issues (as opposed to something like the Zenmuse H3 range - they only fit a GoPro so are made balanced for that). The motors will need to do less work and therefore it will use less power so squeeze out a few more seconds of flight time - as well as helping with any vibration/jello in your setup, obviously.

 

[John10Yes]

In retrospect I agree. I was just concerned it was a motor problem or something.

 

[Pull_Up]

Oh sure, it wasn't a criticism... I had to go look up what balancing a gimbal actually meant as, lets face it, Rotorpixel are busy building gimbals and not putting "how to" stuff on their website, which is a whole other issue!

The good things is though Keri told me quite a while ago that they deliberately put beefy motors on this thing to allow it to carry a range of cameras - he's had the motors stabilise an RX100 without problem so there's plenty of grunt available for when the other mounts come available.

 

[John10Yes]

Thank you for the feedback. I also wanted to say what a help your videos were. Of course yours working out of the box with the filter on is what made me think there was something wrong with mine! :O)

 

[John10Yes]

Gimbal camera not working

I hooked up my new gimbal last night. Got it balanced and was all excited so took it out this afternoon and found out the camera part of the app would not work ie the icon was gray. I then realized the little green light on the back of the camera was not lit up. Yes I should have noticed that earlier. As far as I know everything is hooked up correctly but I have attached a photo if that works. I have also emailed Rotorpixel but anyone here have any thoughts?

 

[EricT]

Voltages are fine, I'll discharge the pair this weekend, seeing as it looks like another wet weekend... :evil:

Modified my log to include a warning @ multiples of 20, blank the rest of the time... :ugeek:

How do you do a deep drain of the P2V battery? TIA.

 

[drjay32]

Got in a very brief flight test today... winds started to pick up (we're expecting 30mph gusts by later today).

First impressions
As others mentioned, I had to use full throttle and wait a few seconds for it to take off. Definitely a heavier bird.
Control seemed less responsive
I'm sure fighting the winds didn't help matters, but it started to come down and I manually caught it out of the air. I wasn't convinced I could land it safely with the conditions I had.
Video looked MUCH better:
http://youtu.be/491TGCsE8ys

 

[Seahorse]

How do you do a deep drain of the P2V battery? TIA.

Fly until battery warning, @ 15% she will try & autoland. Throttle up to maintain hover until 8% then land and switch off. Deep drain complete. :idea:

 

[drjay32]

Thanks, Geert.

If you look at the trees in the video, you can see the crazy gusts through the neighborhood. Spring in Colorado!

 

[FSJ Guy]

I finally got to fly my Rotorpixel for the first time this morning.

X2 on what others were saying RE the weight. It is really noticeable. Controls are more sluggish and the craft definitely has more inertia and flies as such. I don't have an estimate on flight times yet, as this was a short test flight.

To address the lower camera height, I cut two short 1"x2" pieces of wood and placed them under the skids for takeoff. For landing, I did a hand catch.

As others have mentioned, turning the Phantom around in the Tradecraft case allows the camera to fit.

I'm wondering if the sluggishness of the controls also has to do with my altitude. I'm at 5,000 feet above sea level. I wonder if folks down lower notice less of a problem when adding the gimbal.

Regardless, I'm excited about not having to level the horizon on all my photos now!

 

[drjay32]

Test flight #2 today was in relatively calm (for Colorado) conditions:
Winds were fairly calm (5mph gusts)
Temperature 40°F/4.4°C

Everything worked fine, as near as I can tell. Took Hobbes up twice on the same battery charge.

My only issue thus far is during descent; when I bring it down under 30', it does not do a good job maintaining altitude. In fact, I had to use up throttle to hold it steady. I chose a manual retrieval to avoid landing issues.

I'm still looking for a good option to add length to the landing skids; for now I'm using my hard case as a helipad for takeoffs.

Video is here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SWhAekQcwk[/youtube]

 

[Pull_Up]

(anyone want to explain why I can't get YouTube videos to embed?)

You have to use the full youtube URL from the video page ("http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SWhAekQcwk"), not the shortened "share" link, and don't start it with httpS if it's there - dump the s and use the full link and all is good.

 

[drjay32]

THANKS SIMON! It was the https that got me hung up.