Gimbal Woes

kneel23 · Oct 4, 2015

Gimbal working great for me, most all problems I am reading online are user-install errors or user errors in general.

I had a user-understanding error as well yesterday, and was quite disappointed:

If your GoPro battery is dead, the Solo will not be enough to power it. It just kept turning off.
Solution is to always ensure your GoPro has some charge in it, but I thought the Solo would have powered it at least for a short 5-10 min flight

Oh well. First world problems.

Deleted member 2044 · Oct 5, 2015

Jubalr said:
Same here, but have never done a stick cal since I received the Solo in June. But I did balance the gimbal since I usually fly with a filter. Haven't noticed if I have ever took off facing south, but have to assume I have.

@David Weston, is your gimbal pretty well balanced with the GP installed and no power?

How did you balance out a filter on the gopro? I've been thinking about buying some filters from BB. Or using the lens you get with the gopro frame mount. I hate flying around with my camera lens directly exposed to the elements.

Deleted member 2044 · Oct 5, 2015

Sorry this might be an amateur question, but how is everyone doing the stick calibrations? Is that the "factory reset" for the controller that is mentioned in the operators manual? Which so explicitly implies that if you do that, it will practically be the end of the world, AKA "can cause irreparable damage to Solo". So you have to do that in concurrence with 3DR.

Earldgrayjr · Oct 5, 2015

I have two working gimbals, but was curious about this myself. I also use filters, and though they work, wondered if they are taxing the gimbal. I decided to balance one of them to see what happened. Before balancing, with the power off, the camera would fall forward and to one side like this.

I added the large weights that came with the gimbal to the back left of the camera housing with double sided tape (as a temporary test)

And added the small weights to the left side of the gimbal arm

These weights in these places just "happened" to be right for my particular GoPro, hood, and filter setup. It would be different for someone else, with something else.

The bottom line though is that the gimbal and camera now stay straight and level with the power off like this:

I flew it today, and it worked great. I really tossed it around, and it held up well. Like I said, I didn't have problems before, but I am going to leave this on for a while and compare operation between the two.

Jubalr · Oct 5, 2015

Chemtrail Pilot said:
How did you balance out a filter on the gopro? I've been thinking about buying some filters from BB. Or using the lens you get with the gopro frame mount. I hate flying around with my camera lens directly exposed to the elements.

Similar to what Earl shows above, you want to balance the gimbal so that it hangs level when powered off with your GoPro and any filters installed. Fo me I used a quarter on the flat spot on the left (looking from the front) and a nickel on the back. I have never had a gimbal problem and it works well for me.

David Weston · Oct 5, 2015

I had a link to this video a little earlier but maybe some missed it. This is my replacement gimbal. 1st flight out of the box was very, very good. 2nd flight immediately following, this started and persists. Gimbal at rest, Power OFF, centered perfectly. Watch when power comes ON, how it cocks to the right. And at the end just before the red light goes off, that is where power goes OFF it centers perfectly again.

Now, one support rep emailed me FRIDAY that the update due out today will fix this. Then, yesterday, got another email from a different rep saying that the cause is an overcurrent issue and software glitch and an update due out IN ABOUT A WEEK will fix this. Now, a lot of you know me as a HUGE 3DR/SOLO supporter, still am. But I have to say that I am now a month now since my gimbal and motor pod was shipped off and this is where I am. It may be the problem, the fix (most likely) will be out TODAY or IN ABOUT A WEEK. Is my frustration starting to show?

Jubalr · Oct 5, 2015

That's very strange indeed Dave. With most 3rd party gimbals that is an easy fix, as the tools included with the Gimbals allow you to adjust for that. I hope someone releases gimbal tools for the Solo soon, but I am sure they are keeping it out of the hands of the general public as it would be very easy to get it way off in the settings.

See what it does by holding it level with your hand while it initializes. You could also try lifting the Solo slightly to one side by putting a couple quarters under the leg to see if that makes a difference to see if it is relying on the Solo.

rrmccabe · Oct 5, 2015

Well the good news David is you live in Florida so your flying season continues on and even gets better. Where I live I have about 3 or 4 more weeks and I am done. That said the Solo never made it to fruition for me this year.

Hoping they get it resolved for you soon. I don't know about you but it is/was more the frustration of being told one thing by one person and something totally different by the next.

But you have told me you like stray cats and the 3DR Solo is definitely the stray cat

I am sure they will resolve all this eventually. Unfortunately my opinion is it won't be today or in 10 days. Be a little longer than that.

Del · Oct 5, 2015

Chemtrail Pilot said:
Sorry this might be an amateur question, but how is everyone doing the stick calibrations? Is that the "factory reset" for the controller that is mentioned in the operators manual? Which so explicitly implies that if you do that, it will practically be the end of the world, AKA "can cause irreparable damage to Solo". So you have to do that in concurrence with 3DR.

Hers a link of a thread for stick calibration ..
I hope this link helps..
Recalibrate Sticks (How-To) | 3D Robotics Drone Forum

Earldgrayjr · Oct 5, 2015

Jubalr said:
That's very strange indeed Dave. With most 3rd party gimbals that is an easy fix, as the tools included with the Gimbals allow you to adjust for that. I hope someone releases gimbal tools for the Solo soon, but I am sure they are keeping it out of the hands of the general public as it would be very easy to get it way off in the settings.

See what it does by holding it level with your hand while it initializes. You could also try lifting the Solo slightly to one side by putting a couple quarters under the leg to see if that makes a difference to see if it is relying on the Solo.

Level calibration?

Jubalr · Oct 5, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
Level calibration?

That was my first thought, but I think he posted earlier that he has done every calibration including a factory reset.

@David Weston ; Take off the battery tray and see if the Gimbal control board is level and not slightly cocked. It would take very little as that is where the gimbal IMU is that is measuring level for the gimbal. This is what I was referring to when I mentioned earlier about tilting the Solo slightly. You could do the same thing with the gimbal board.