Gimbal Alignment

radforas · May 9, 2017

Gimbal alignment is right of perfectly straight. Anyone had this issue? No problems recording or with the live view and it seems horizontally straight. I'm pretty OCD though and that tweek to the right is driving me crazy. Thanks in advance for any help.

RichWest · May 9, 2017

Just an opinion and an observation with multiple gimbals. Seems common enough that people question it, but in actual flight it's a non issue. Some people actually have considered it as by design, clearing the left leg further from the lens angle. At least this is the answer we give people with OCD....

The gimbal motors have two modes, low torque when not armed and high torque when armed and in flight. This should correct in flight, but you could expect a 1 degree offset. Even a tilt will typically level out once in flight, in either case if the gimbal install is without issues.

I think many times and in more extreme cases, it's a user install issue. Yours appears normal in its current state. I believe it will correct as you fly more, a break-in period if you will.

Maxheadspace · May 10, 2017

radforas said:
Gimbal alignment is right of perfectly straight. Anyone had this issue? No problems recording or with the live view and it seems horizontally straight. I'm pretty OCD though and that tweek to the right is driving me crazy. Thanks in advance for any help.

Yes, it's evident on all of my Solos. As stated above, I believe it is an intentional correction to keep the left leg from popping into the camera's view when making right yaw moves. I still have the left front leg showing up in my video when flying aggressively. I suspect by angling slightly to the right it cuts down on this leg appearance.

hackbard23 · May 10, 2017

as for the left leg problem: 3D Relish sells sliders for the front legs, with this there is no left leg in footage anymore

radforas · May 10, 2017

Thank you gentlemen for your quick replies. It eases my mind about it. I just recently purchased the solo for aerial photography
and general cool factor. I'll post a link to a recent video from behind my local church. A little jittery because I have the Hero 4 Silver
and was shooting in 2.7K (only 30 fps) but otherwise I'm very happy with it so far. I did do the mrobotics gps board upgrade along with
the V2 shield and routinely get 20 plus satellites and 0.5 HDOP. Thanks again!

RichWest · May 10, 2017

Nice vid. 30fps is difficult with that level of light. Nice smooth flying though, look forward to seeing more.

Could I recommend one more purchased upgrade. A recent patch cable has been offered here by a member for the gimbal data cable. My opinion at this point, as it has only been out for a couple of weeks, but I think it has improved the gimbal's performance to a notable level. For me it was the last piece of the gimbal/camera puzzle regarding stability.

Gimbal data cable extension

NightStorm · May 10, 2017

RichWest said:
Nice vid. 30fps is difficult with that level of light. Nice smooth flying though, look forward to seeing more.

Could I recommend one more purchased upgrade. A recent patch cable has been offered here by a member for the gimbal data cable. My opinion at this point, as it has only been out for a couple of weeks, but I think it has improved the gimbal's performance to a notable level. For me it was the last piece of the gimbal/camera puzzle regarding stability.

Gimbal data cable extension

I second that: I got one of these cables and it is a great upgrade.

Maxheadspace · May 10, 2017

hackbard23 said:
as for the left leg problem: 3D Relish sells sliders for the front legs, with this there is no left leg in footage anymore

True. I opted to change the lens in my GoPro to a 3.87 rectilinear lens. Gives narrower field of view, eliminates fish eye, and no leg showing up.

radforas · May 10, 2017

NightStorm said:
I second that: I got one of these cables and it is a great upgrade.

Do you guys recommend the ribbon cable in conjunction with the data cable or is it not necessary? I did route the hdmi cable behind the main board support but that is the extent of what I have done. I've heard of the moon gel, ear plug mods, etc but I'm not sure if these
will add any value. Thoughts.....opinions? Thanks again.

RichWest · May 10, 2017

Personally I don't agree with the hdmi cable behind the support. It puts stress on the gimbal's hdmi connector and restricts the gimbal's ability to move freely. That pan stutter you experienced could be remedied by freeing up the gimbal. IMHO

If you can clear the hdmi cable out from gimbal contact it works fine as is. I linked to my gimbal mods in the patch cable thread, I'm getting exceptional performance now with the patch cable. It just takes a slight effort to tune it all in.

radforas · May 10, 2017

RichWest said:
Personally I don't agree with the hdmi cable behind the support. It puts stress on the gimbal's hdmi connector and restricts the gimbal's ability to move freely. That pan stutter you experienced could be remedied by freeing up the gimbal. IMHO

If you can clear the hdmi cable out from gimbal contact it works fine as is. I linked to my gimbal mods in the patch cable thread, I'm getting exceptional performance now with the patch cable. It just takes a slight effort to tune it all in.

Excellent, thanks. So if I get the data patch cable and reroute the hdmi I should be in business. I'll go back through your
thread and see what else I'm comfortable doing also. Thanks again.

NightStorm · May 10, 2017

radforas said:
Do you guys recommend the ribbon cable in conjunction with the data cable or is it not necessary? I did route the hdmi cable behind the main board support but that is the extent of what I have done. I've heard of the moon gel, ear plug mods, etc but I'm not sure if these
will add any value. Thoughts.....opinions? Thanks again.

Are you referring to the HDMI ribbon cable offered by Relish3D? I tried that in one of the Solos. It is nice but frankly I did not see any difference (and sometimes think it is even worse). The back end on the plug extends enough that where it plugs into the gimbal it comes very close to the frame. I've often wondered if it is hitting the Solo frame and limiting some of the vibration absorption.

radforas · May 10, 2017

NightStorm said:
Are you referring to the HDMI ribbon cable offered by Relish3D? I tried that in one of the Solos. It is nice but frankly I did not see any difference (and sometimes think it is even worse). The back end on the plug extends enough that where it plugs into the gimbal it comes very close to the frame. I've often wondered if it is hitting the Solo frame and limiting some of the vibration absorption.

Thanks for that info, I think I'm just gonna do the data patch cable if possible and leave it at that.

Cuzman · May 10, 2017

hackbard23 said:
as for the left leg problem: 3D Relish sells sliders for the front legs, with this there is no left leg in footage anymore

Do you have a link to these sliders? Thanks!

hackbard23 · May 11, 2017

Cuzman said:
Do you have a link to these sliders? Thanks!

here you go:

Solo Sliders

they fit very well and are brilliant constructed

Ralph E. Johnson · May 13, 2017

radforas said:
Thank you gentlemen for your quick replies. It eases my mind about it. I just recently purchased the solo for aerial photography
and general cool factor. I'll post a link to a recent video from behind my local church. A little jittery because I have the Hero 4 Silver
and was shooting in 2.7K (only 30 fps) but otherwise I'm very happy with it so far. I did do the mrobotics gps board upgrade along with
the V2 shield and routinely get 20 plus satellites and 0.5 HDOP. Thanks again!

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That was a really good video. The GoPro camera is the best. The little ducks were not as afraid as I thought they might be

One question for the photographers out there though?? why the stuttering when you turn?? Mine does that also but not quite as bad so I turn real slow. any ideas?? great video and loved the music and light conditions were fantastic

Ed Beck · May 13, 2017

RichWest said:
At least this is the answer we give people with OCD....

radforas · May 13, 2017

Ralph E. Johnson said:
That was a really good video. The GoPro camera is the best. The little ducks were not as afraid as I thought they might be
One question for the photographers out there though?? why the stuttering when you turn?? Mine does that also but not quite as bad so I turn real slow. any ideas?? great video and loved the music and light conditions were fantastic

Thank you. I shot that in 2.7K and the hero 4 silver can only shoot that in 30fps. I believe that may contribute to the stutter and I turned too quickly also. I shot this same place again another day in 1080p 60 fps and it turned out with less stutter. I will try to post that video when I get home. Thanks again.

robotics · May 14, 2017

Thanks for the interesting dialogue above guys. About 3 months ago I bought 2 X complete with rucksack and Gimbal 3DR Solo's for imagery purposes since I have seen the drone flying at a friend and they were on a crazy special. Thankfully I bought 2 since that has allowed me to do a lot of trial and error fault finding achieving success through a process of elimination.

Firstly, the Gimbal to the right offset is a factory calibration error and is not normal. I tried to fix this with re-calibrating controller sticks etc. etc. but have not found anything that I can do myself (or online) to solve for this. I have been sent 2 replacement Gimbals that were also not straight, but having a straight one on the other drone realised this is not normal. The 3rd replacement Gimbal is now true to center/straight. If you are doing imagery, your pictures will be offset/squif no matter which way the camera faces (90/0) unless it is straight to begin with. Send the Gimbal back and get a replacement (maybe 3X over!).

I also had an issue with one of the controllers, which simply seemed to get stuck on the Gimbal dashboard screen, and although it launched and worked fine otherwise from a flight perspective, I was not able to see the flying dashboard (battery levels/distance etc.). The controller would also not control the Gimbal properly - doing intermittently weird things and then not connecting at all sometimes. Thankfully again I paired my second controller and all worked fine, so it was definitely that controller and not the Drone or Gimbal. They replaced it and all is now good.

I have no issues with cables or stuttering or vibration on either drone, and have flown the drone in a howling wind on the edge of a cliff with serious updraft only to get a fantastically stable video image throughout. It really is amazingly stable. Just make sure the cable is tucked away out of the way of the any of the Gimbals inner moving bits, and keep the performance sliders at half-tilt or below if you don't want rapid turns and drone flight jitters upsetting your imagery. Take note though, I have had some near misses in getting the drone down from 100m elevation in time before the battery runs out when it is set on 'slow performance' - leave enough in the tank (>15%)! If you want the legs out of the image just keep the GoPro settings on 'medium' field instead of 'wide-angle'.

I am interested in the "mrobotics gps board upgrade along with the V2 shield" - missed out on this? Has anyone got any info for me on why to upgrade and maybe a link?

Lastly, I have to say that I think these drones are the way forward wrt being versatile and 'upgradeable' or open to modification unlike some of the other makes/models, and once working they really are amazing. It has however been a serious exercise in patience to get both drones to be 100% fully functional with all 3 bits (Drone/Gimbal/Controller) talking to each other and performing as they should! If I didn't have 2 drones to fault find with I think I might have given up and just asked for a refund. This really should not be the case with a new purchase, and I think 3DR has suffered as a result and should sort out their QC to avoid the customer needing to fault find and possibly rather pack it in and buy a competitor drone.

radforas · May 14, 2017

robotics said:
Thanks for the interesting dialogue above guys. About 3 months ago I bought 2 X complete with rucksack and Gimbal 3DR Solo's for imagery purposes since I have seen the drone flying at a friend and they were on a crazy special. Thankfully I bought 2 since that has allowed me to do a lot of trial and error fault finding achieving success through a process of elimination.

Firstly, the Gimbal to the right offset is a factory calibration error and is not normal. I tried to fix this with re-calibrating controller sticks etc. etc. but have not found anything that I can do myself (or online) to solve for this. I have been sent 2 replacement Gimbals that were also not straight, but having a straight one on the other drone realised this is not normal. The 3rd replacement Gimbal is now true to center/straight. If you are doing imagery, your pictures will be offset/squif no matter which way the camera faces (90/0) unless it is straight to begin with. Send the Gimbal back and get a replacement (maybe 3X over!).

I also had an issue with one of the controllers, which simply seemed to get stuck on the Gimbal dashboard screen, and although it launched and worked fine otherwise from a flight perspective, I was not able to see the flying dashboard (battery levels/distance etc.). The controller would also not control the Gimbal properly - doing intermittently weird things and then not connecting at all sometimes. Thankfully again I paired my second controller and all worked fine, so it was definitely that controller and not the Drone or Gimbal. They replaced it and all is now good.

I have no issues with cables or stuttering or vibration on either drone, and have flown the drone in a howling wind on the edge of a cliff with serious updraft only to get a fantastically stable video image throughout. It really is amazingly stable. Just make sure the cable is tucked away out of the way of the any of the Gimbals inner moving bits, and keep the performance sliders at half-tilt or below if you don't want rapid turns and drone flight jitters upsetting your imagery. Take note though, I have had some near misses in getting the drone down from 100m elevation in time before the battery runs out when it is set on 'slow performance' - leave enough in the tank (>15%)! If you want the legs out of the image just keep the GoPro settings on 'medium' field instead of 'wide-angle'.

I am interested in the "mrobotics gps board upgrade along with the V2 shield" - missed out on this? Has anyone got any info for me on why to upgrade and maybe a link?

Lastly, I have to say that I think these drones are the way forward wrt being versatile and 'upgradeable' or open to modification unlike some of the other makes/models, and once working they really are amazing. It has however been a serious exercise in patience to get both drones to be 100% fully functional with all 3 bits (Drone/Gimbal/Controller) talking to each other and performing as they should! If I didn't have 2 drones to fault find with I think I might have given up and just asked for a refund. This really should not be the case with a new purchase, and I think 3DR has suffered as a result and should sort out their QC to avoid the customer needing to fault find and possibly rather pack it in and buy a competitor drone.

mRo GPS u-Blox Neo-M8N / 3DR SOLO Upgrade

Solo GPS Shield V2 - 3DR
Thanks for the excellent info. The gimbals are cheap enough that I may invest in another to see if that
one works out better. I added the links for the gps board upgrade and 3DR V2 shield. The shield is like
half price right now so you may want to snag that right away. Thanks again!