DJI Zenmuse GH3 gimbal - new firmware wanted!

[alpine-aerials]

Hi rotorvista.

As you are panning pretty fast it´s hard to see but this looks better than mine. Hmm, maybe my unit is broken or the production quality varies very much.

Does your gimbal also make a lot of noise from the motors? My old NEX-7 Zenmuse is silent but the now one makes some noise.

Thanks!

 

[rotorvista]

I tried to show you fast and slow, I have it set so the more i turn the pot the faster it goes. I didn't set the camera up as I was in a rush sorry for the quality. Mine had the hard start and stop before adding the curves. Yes the GH3 Zen is noisier than the Nex Zen, I sent mine back because of the noise and the other functions not working but the new one is exactly the same. DJI have released this gimbal before it is ready.

 

[alpine-aerials]

I definitely think there is something broken on my unit. In comparison to my old Z15 NEX the Z15 GH3 controls terrible and linear accelerations are not possible as it makes several jumps in speed while panning or tilting.

As my dealer is not answering my mails I contacted DJI Europe over this and some other issues like the s800 EVO first batch damper upgrade. I hope they react to my questions.

I think it´s sad that such a huge company has minor to no client support.

 

[MombasaFlash]

... DJI have released this gimbal before it is ready.

... as with everything else they have sold.

... I think it´s sad that such a huge company has minor to no client support.

... my word you are being polite. More accurate terminology would be ***king criminal.

 

[alpine-aerials]

I´ve sent my gimbal in for repair and got informed that something was wrong with the gains on mine which resulted in the jumpy motion. According to the very friendly and fast guys at DJI Germany this was easy to fix. Great news.

Hope to get the gimbal back soon.

 

[Geoff Tompkinson]

Hello,

I have the new GH3 Zenmuse and it stabilizes to perfection. Nevertheless there is an "issue" with it´s firmware which keeps the gimbal operator from soft starts and stops. The average RC servo channel delivers output signals from -100 to +100 (in easy words).

The GH3 Zenmuse will start moving around +5 and -5. So the deadband is around that region. That´s not an issue as deadband is nothing bad but the problem is that the gimbal will nor start moving slowly when you reach +5 or -5. I will directly jump to speed and not start smoothly which is ugly. Also another speed jump will follow around 10 and -10. This seems to be some kind of firmware issue.

DJI please work on this.

Also I would like to see some more user interface options in software. Features like adjustable deadband and adjustable operator input smoothing would be great.

Greetings

I have exactly the same problem. the unit will pan smoothly once it is in operation but the start is always a jerk. I also find that to increase speed of pan during a pan is also a jerky transition instead of a smooth ramp. I have tried various curve settings on the trx but it doesn't stop the problem

 

[alpine-aerials]

I hope they fix that in the firmware. The deadband got even wider in the new firmware. Too bad. The head is stabilizing brutally god but what helps when you cannot start a pan without ruining the shot. ...

 

[alpine-aerials]

Thanks for the explanation. This should help everyone, even the software programmers who have no idea about filming needs, to figure out the problem.

Greetings,

Robert

 

[Geoff Tompkinson]

Interesting that you used trim settings to prove the stepping in speed in the increase and the smooth adjustment in the decrease. I had already done the same thing with exactly the same results. I just hope DJI are looking at this and will fix it soon. This is a great gimbal it's just been released before it was properly tested which, alas, seems to be the norm nowadays. I am currently limiting myself to constant or decreasing speed pans which means tracking something on the ground is impossible. Fingers crossed for another firmware upgrade

 

[Geoff Tompkinson]

Hi, my first experience about zenmuse and GH3:

1. I have the firmware v1.4 on IMU and v0.12 on GCU.
I met the same problem as you. It is impossible to achieve smooth acceleration of the camera. There are unacceptable jumps between the speed of steps.

On the other hand when you decrease the speed of the gimbal, then it works so perfect like alexmos does. Is there really solution only in one direction?

2. The stick deadband is also annoying. It would be great to have possibility to adjust it in the assistant software.

3. The GH3 has a lot of moire effects on roofs for example.

Apart from the above mentioned things it has amazing quality and perfect also in very fast flight. As I know you can do nothing against the moire effects without quality loss, but if there was any solution for smooth camera acceleration then it would work like cineflex or wescam.

An 50p sample of my first test are downloadable on the link below (148Mb). You can also see what my problem is.

www.editusart.hu/gh3test50p.mp4

This is a great video to show the problem. I hope you don't mind but I have sent the link to DJI to try to make sure they are fully aware of this issue.

 

[Geoff Tompkinson]

no smooth ramping

I sent my unit back to DJI in germany supposedly to have them adjust the gains on the unit to fix this problem. When it came back it was exactly the same. Seems we are stuck with jerky starts and jerky speed changes when doing pan and tilt with this gimbal. No smooth ramping apart from when decreasing speed of movement - then it works fine. Shame as the unit isolates the camera from all aircraft movement unbelievably well and then it is marred by this inability to make smooth camera movement adjustments.

 

[hifidiaries]

Jumping in here late, but wanted to add my 2 cents. We have the exact same problem, and it is infuriating. There is no smooth transition no matter how slow my operator moved the stick. I am very experienced at cam op, and jumped in there ,and can't get it to smooth start stop either. Looking forward to hearing anyones updates on a fix. Has anyone tried going back in firmware?

We have tried multiple TX. I thought for sure if i added the DX8 with Speed ramping options, it would help, nope it didn't. It just slows the time before it jerks into motion.

 

[MombasaFlash]

I have to say that the only thing I like about the Z15-GH3 over the modified GH2 version is the easier access to the camera controls. The way that the 3 works is entirely different. The aggressive and bouncy Return To Home and 90° tilt movements are really shabby compared to the smooth movements of the 2. But on the other hand, I have not noticed the occasional little Roll and Tilt axis twitches that the 2 is prone to.

After the initial problems with the 3, that were pretty much sorted with the firmware upgrade, I am not experiencing any of these 'jerky start' issues ... yet!

You cannot leave all the transmitter settings on 100%. End Points, Dual rates and Expo's all have to be juggled to get a smooth response out of the 3. Of course, all this important stuff should be adjustable within the Assistant software, along with a whole raft of other important settings. The Assistant is woefully basic.

I will not be getting rid of the first GH2 version for a while yet.

 

[hifidiaries]

I have to say that the only thing I like about the Z15-GH3 over the modified GH2 version is the easier access to the camera controls. The way that the 3 works is entirely different. The aggressive and bouncy Return To Home and 90° tilt movements are really shabby compared to the smooth movements of the 2. But on the other hand, I have not noticed the occasional little Roll and Tilt axis twitches that the 2 is prone to.

After the initial problems with the 3, that were pretty much sorted with the firmware upgrade, I am not experiencing any of these 'jerky start' issues ... yet!

You cannot leave all the transmitter settings on 100%. End Points, Dual rates and Expo's all have to be juggled to get a smooth response out of the 3. Of course, all this important stuff should be adjustable within the Assistant software, along with a whole raft of other important settings. The Assistant is woefully basic.

I will not be getting rid of the first GH2 version for a while yet.

Agreed, but this problem can't be fixed with settings on any controller. It's within our GH3 zenmuse. We've fiddled with every setting you could imagine on all Tx's with the en, and then with the Movi, and it's 100% the zenmuse. You are lucky your GH3 Z works! This is my 3rd one.

As for the gh2 Z, I wish mine would balance, but it's constant vibrations with our GH3 on there. We have it perfectly balanced, but maybe the motors on this particular model had issues? With the Zenmuse of any model, its a 50 / 50 chance you're getting a lemon.

 

[MombasaFlash]

..... with DJI gear of any model, its a 50 / 50 chance you're getting a lemon. I have not heard much from Zen-5D owners. Does that one function in the same way as the Z-GH3, with the noisy motors and bouncy moves ... and jerks?

With regard to the Z-GH2 mounting, I was immediately unimpressed with the design that has gimbal 'hanging' from the silicone balls, instead of 'sitting' on them, and which allowed high frequency vibes to get through to the camera. I installed the Secraft isolation kit (THIS plus THIS) pretty early on and would certainly recommend it. Similar to the Cinestar design with silicone rings under compression it does an excellent job of isolating the gimbal.

So far the Zen-GH3 with its silicone balls under compression mounting is very smooth. However, it has been mounted on a different and far superior airframe to the DJI plastic rubbish. If it gets moved to an S800 or EVO I will almost certainly add the Secraft isolation kit.

 

[Quinton]

I have not heard much from Zen-5D owners.

I have just been playing around with my 5D Zenmuse using the trims, and it is actually perfectly smooth, there is not any jerking up at all, seems to be ramping smoothly. (This is on the table not in the air)
What I have noticed though (and this is really peeping) is that if you pan clockwise and let go of the sticks it creeps back anti-clockwise slightly.
If you pan anti-clockwise and let go, it continues very slightly anti clockwise, so the motors always seem to be trying to push anti-clocwise.
You can check this out by putting on your magnifier on camera if you have one and look at the screen carefully while panning.

Also the deadband seemed to start moving around 40 and not 220 like in that video posted above.

Still big problems with mine though, as I can only reset in pan, the tilt/roll does not reset, also the switch for forward/tilt does not work.
Find it really strange having roll on the same stick as tilt as it would be very easy to knock off the roll.

 

[Flubbs]

only slightly worried here, ive just bought a z15gh3 and on the table it all looks perfectly fine, nice and smooth, yes the pan motor is noisy but the moves seem smooth and jerk free, does that mean mine wasnt made at 16:00 on a friday??? or should i be worried, will fly later today to see how it performs..

 

[Geoff Tompkinson]

Jumping in here late, but wanted to add my 2 cents. We have the exact same problem, and it is infuriating. There is no smooth transition no matter how slow my operator moved the stick. I am very experienced at cam op, and jumped in there ,and can't get it to smooth start stop either. Looking forward to hearing anyones updates on a fix. Has anyone tried going back in firmware?

We have tried multiple TX. I thought for sure if i added the DX8 with Speed ramping options, it would help, nope it didn't. It just slows the time before it jerks into motion.

I had my unit sent back to DJI in Germany and it was returned with the same symptoms. They say that China is aware of the problem and is working on a firmware fix. I have managed to get myself onto their firmware beta testers list so hopefully will be able to report if anything changes for the better.

Bench testing and moving the gimbal using trim settings displys the same behaviour as experienced with the sticks. Starting and speeding up proceeds in a step like manner with no smooth ramping between speed changes - whereas slowing down is much better and the ramping is workable. I will be producing a graph to illustrate this later and sending it to the guys in China.

 

[cbuk]

I had my unit sent back to DJI in Germany and it was returned with the same symptoms. They say that China is aware of the problem and is working on a firmware fix. I have managed to get myself onto their firmware beta testers list so hopefully will be able to report if anything changes for the better.

Bench testing and moving the gimbal using trim settings displys the same behaviour as experienced with the sticks. Starting and speeding up proceeds in a step like manner with no smooth ramping between speed changes - whereas slowing down is much better and the ramping is workable. I will be producing a graph to illustrate this later and sending it to the guys in China.

Interesting stuff Geoff and good to hear confirmation that DJI are working on a firmware update. Its a shame about the jerkiness because the actual raw stabilisation is mind numbingly good. I would be very interested to see the graph you produce; any chance you can post it up onto this thread?

 

[MombasaFlash]

... Starting and speeding up proceeds in a step like manner with no smooth ramping between speed changes ...

Yes, I forgot to mention that. Although I can get reasonably smooth starts the speed change steps are quite obvious.