Solution for the 'camera tilting down' syndrome

[tsoban]

As many of new P2V owners I was struggling a bit with a tilt control and tilting down problem,
Tilt level settings were nicely covered and explained already, but let me share my observations and solutions for the second issue.
CameraTilting Down problem was discussed already in this topic:
http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4792&start=20&hilit=tilt+down
In my opinion the best explanation of the phenomena was done by Klaus:

(...) when yo set the new value it look like it adjust the center point of the camera, but after that try to tilt the Vision up and down, then it don't go back to that value. It goes down pointing lower than the center you just have set. It seems like it is adjusting the center point relative to the scale on the mobile instead. Try to after you have tilted up and down, tap on the scale on the mobile, just once and you can see it have moved down on the scale, and then you can move it up again to the center, which is not always the same. For me it looks like the gimbal or camera have it's own idea of what is the center point. (...)

I did several trials and the most probable reason for such behavior is that:
Once your camera tilt setting is very close to one of the servo limits (doesn't matter - or +) than during the flight phantom tilting angle from gyro is send to camera servo to adjust the camera tilt, and software 'assuming' that servo moved by this angle. In reality if tilt correction is towards camera position limit, servo cannot physically change position anymore but this information is not taken into account by servo controlling algorithm. As the consequence once phantom tilt returns to neutral position, servo algorithm is adjusting angle accordingly, this time servo can move and camera is is tilting down/up (depending no which servo limit + or - was reached) by the angle which was above servo tilt limit before (in worst case it should be around 35°-assuming that camera was in one of the extreme servo positions and phantom was tilted in the same direction by his max allowed angle of 35°.)
Now how it can be solved,
1. As already described in this forum you have to change tilt limits to reflect properly max range of the servo, it might differs, something around 900 to -900 should be fine.
2. step 1 will increase probability that servo movement is in working range but will not solve your problem if you will set your camera close to the limit. For that you have to skip camera 'stabilisation' and set gain to 0, then signal from phantom gyro will not affect the servo control.
Sorry for a bit long post, but I hope its usefull.

 

[jimdenburg]

Thanks! I will give that a try (just posted about this issue with mine today!).