Gimbal tilt problem

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I recently encountered a problem with a "new" gimbal I purchased from ebay. When I turn on the solo and the camera, everything appears to be working fine. When I tilt down (pre flight) the gimbal won't tilt all the way down. By watching my controller, I'm guessing it stops at about 25degrees. When I'm flying the drone, the gimbal goes limp when it hits this 25 degree angle. I cannot regain control of the gimbal after it goes limp. The gimbal seems to work fine right up to the point it is tilted down to this angle. Any ideas whats going on and how to fix it?
 
While Solo is off, can you manipulate the gimbal tilting by hand through its full rotation? You should expect about 120 degrees of rotation with very little resistance. Do you feel any resistance or catch while rotating? Don't force if you feel it hang up....

FWIW, the gimbal is in low torque mode when Solo is on but not armed. When the flight motors are armed (spinning), the gimbal motors are now in high torque mode. The gimbal protects itself if it sees a high current load on any of its motors, basically falling limp. It typically recovers and re-levels, high wind loading as an example will do this. In your case it maybe hung up and causing the fault.

Edit: I can't spell...
 
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While Solo is off, can you manipulate the gimbal tilting by hand threw its full rotation? You should expect about 120 degrees of rotation with very little resistance. Do you feel any resistance or catch while rotating? Don't force if you feel it hang up....

FWIW, the gimbal is in low torque mode when Solo is on but not armed. When the flight motors are armed (spinning), the gimbal motors are now in high torque mode. The gimbal protects itself if it sees a high current load on any of its motors, basically falling limp. It typically recovers and re-levels, high wind loading as an example will do this. In your case it maybe hung up and causing the fault.

I'm wondering if his cable (hdmi) is causing problems with the camera? That gimbal is a "Work-of-Art!" from what I've seen on mine!
No wonder it was so expensive and I lucked out on getting mine off of Ebay! ;)
 
I'm wondering if his cable (hdmi) is causing problems with the camera? That gimbal is a "Work-of-Art!" from what I've seen on mine!
Just dealing with the obvious first, which could be either of the two ribbons within the tilt motor housing getting hung up. A known issue...for a few gimbals.

How would the hdmi cable interfere with the camera's tilt? If just a gimbal fault, then sure the hdmi cable would be a suspect.

No doubt it's a complex machine... I've been impressed by how much abuse it can take. Being V1, it's fairly impressive.
 
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Just dealing with the obvious first, which could be either of the two ribbons within the tilt motor housing getting hung up. A known issue...for a few gimbals.

How would the hdmi cable interfere with the camera's tilt? If just a gimbal fault, then sure the hdmi cable would be a suspect.

No doubt it's a complex machine... I've been impressed by how much abuse it can take. Being V1, it's fairly impressive.

If the cable is on the inside connection which is routed inside the Solo is restricted might cause problems? I have made sure that
there is no obstruction on the inside of the Solo. This I believe this is listed in the gimbal installation manual. The ribbon cable
is suppose to prevent that but again if it connects to a obstruction on the inside of the Solo that would be a problem. Like you
said it's a "complex machine!" I feel bad for getting a good one off of Ebay (at the right time) for $70.00! He He, that person
that procrastinates, looses out!:p Most of them didn't check the price structure on the Solo when it was new.

On Abuse, I wouldn't think of running it at 50+ mph with the gimbal nor any stupid maneuvers which cause it to correct
the attitude of the camera. The camera is cheap compared to the price of a new gimbal, if you are lucky to find one!
 
If the cable is on the inside connection which is routed inside the Solo is restricted might cause problems? I have made sure that
there is no obstruction on the inside of the Solo. This I believe this is listed in the gimbal installation manual. The ribbon cable
is suppose to prevent that but again if it connects to a obstruction on the inside of the Solo that would be a problem
I believe you're thinking of the 3rd party hdmi ribbon from 3D Relish. Not what ribbon I'm suggesting. But sure, either hdmi cable solutions requires proper installation, but it mainly pertains to gimbal orientation and/or vibe free video. But anything is possible...we will see.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I have inspected the gimbal and there appears to be no interference with the ribbon cables in the gimbal or the hdmi cable. I tried to change the gimbal parameters with Mission Planner, but that didn't work either. I noticed when I turned the gimbal downward, it would stop about 20 degrees from pointing straight down, but the gimbal angle indicator on the controller would show it facing straight down. After about a second, the gimbal would tilt up a little, and the angle indicator would also change. It really seems like some kind of calibration issue. Is there a way to re calibrate the gimbal so the angle indicator on the controller and the actual gimbal angle are the same. I do have a crashed gimbal. I may try combining parts from the two to make one fully functioning gimbal.
 

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