Taco gimbal - app controls wrong servo

ProfessorStein · Jul 21, 2016

After a bit of frustration, I finally have a Taco 3D Power gimbal working on my P2V. Except the app control isn't quite right.

I guess I have a newer rev of the gimbal, the control pins don't match any of the photos or docs on Taco's site (they show a pin block with 9 or 12 pins... mine only has 6). I've tested all the pins hooked up to the yellow pin of the Phantom's cable (being sure to power down before moving to the next), and the only pin that shows any activity at all is pin 2.

The problem is the app is controlling the gimbals ROLL rather than PITCH.

The gimbal is rock-solid otherwise... so the main control leads have to be in the right place. It's just the external pin for app control that seems to be confused.

Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks!
-C

J Dot · Jul 21, 2016

Hello
Can you please post pics of the gimbal, plugs, pins, and how you hooked to naza, this will better help me,, to provide assistance to You.
Most likely a jumbled wire somewhere. But I would be glad to help. Almost sounds like pitch, and roll motors connected backwards, on BGC.( brushless gimbal controller ), Or gimbal main board as most call it.
Let us know!

J Dot

ProfessorStein · Jul 21, 2016

I will try, thanks Jerry. I'll take pics and try to trace the routes when I get home.

It does seem like, if the motors were connected backwards, you'd be able to see it in the actual gimbal motion though. Wouldn't you? Like I said, if I test the gimbal, waving the Phantom around randomly, it's absolutely rock-solid. Picture doesn't move. If it thought the pitch was the roll and the roll was the pitch, wouldn't you see it in the gimbal motion?

Anyway... I'll work on pics shortly. Thanks for the help!

ProfessorStein · Jul 22, 2016

Some pics.

Motor connections.
Tilt is connected to the front pins, roll to the rear. I did switch them just for fun, and as I thought, the gimbal flitted about like a rabid animal. So it would take a lot to convince me that the connections are wrong.

Control lead
From the pin of the header marked here in red, to the bottom pin of F2 on the NAZA block (same pin that the yellow wire from the original P2V gimbal was connected to). I've tried all the other pins on the header of the gimbal control board, and the marked pin is the only one that moved anything.

ProfessorStein · Jul 25, 2016

J Dot said:
Hello
Can you please post pics of the gimbal, plugs, pins, and how you hooked to naza, this will better help me,, to provide assistance to You.
Most likely a jumbled wire somewhere. But I would be glad to help. Almost sounds like pitch, and roll motors connected backwards, on BGC.( brushless gimbal controller ), Or gimbal main board as most call it.
Let us know!

Any more ideas, guys?
I've tried everything I can think of short of disassembling the motors.
Closest I can get is roll control.

crash1sttime · Jul 25, 2016

Post edited as I got my facts wrong

Is this any use

Installation of 3D Power Brushless Gimbal for DJI Phantom Vision

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

ProfessorStein · Jul 25, 2016

crash1sttime said:
Is this any use

Installation of 3D Power Brushless Gimbal for DJI Phantom Vision

Not really. I've been following that, but, as I said above, "the control pins don't match any of the photos or docs on Taco's site". If you look at the pics on that page, it shows a header with what looks like 12 pins. The board in my gimbal only has 6. I don't know if that means it's older than the pics or newer... either way, it's different ;-)

J Dot · Jul 25, 2016

The only other pin would be bottom right in pic 2, one SHOULD be PITCH, other SHOULD be ROLL. If bottom left is controlling ROLL, than no other choice BUT bottom RIGHT!
If that don't work, than there is a wiring issue, or a bad gimbal board?

Let us know
J Dot

ProfessorStein · Jul 30, 2016

So here's an odd thing... I finally started noticing the marking on the PCB board itself...
Is the label that says "PITCH" for the grouping of traces on the left (that have no header in them)??

J Dot · Jul 30, 2016

That is possible, or it could be the label for the 3 left pins, and roll is the 3 right pins? Each board is different, take the PITCH PIN OUT OF THE CONNECTOR, and touch it to pitch port ( pitch pin pitch port ) most likely TOP PIN HOLE IN PICTURE, to test, and if works, buYa header and solder it in, ( or steal a roll header as they are not needed ) you only need the pitch pin ( Pos and negative ) are not needed, if you have it powered directly. Let us know?

J Dot

ProfessorStein · Jul 31, 2016

I soldered up a header on that block. I'm feeling pretty certain that this was a large part of the issue... because now it looks exactly like the photos on Taco's page.

BUT... I fired up SimpleBGC, as outlined in this post, loaded up and burned the Taco Supreme V3 profile, and now I'm not even getting the errant ROLL manual control anymore (the gimbal still works nicely on auto). So I'm thinking it's not the board at all, but the profile.

Is there a setting in SimpleBGC that I should be looking for/checking to activate channel 7 control?

ProfessorStein · Aug 9, 2016

Alright! After some help from Taco, and some resetting and reloading, I now have pitch control!

But I still think I have some issues with limits. When pitching all the way forward (down), the gimbal stutters until I back it off (as if it wants to keep going, but is physically unable to).
I'm unclear whether I want to adjust the limits in the Phantom Assistant, SimpleBGC, or if there's something else I need to be looking at.

Any input?

crash1sttime · Aug 11, 2016

Check no wires are going right and restricting the movement. Phantom assistant make sure that auto pitch roll setting is at 0 for both
Simple BGC, I like that you can load the settings from the board and then save them to a file, any changes that cause issues you can load the saved file to revert.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app