Zenmuse Z15 5D MARK III

Tuukkuli

Tuukkuli

Member
Using S-bus yes. Not sure about the 2 secs. Maybe thats what I did not remember to do. This can be my fault. Can´t check it now as don't have an IMU but will check once the V2 arrives.

Are you still having the same horizon issues too? I presume you have also eliminated the usual. i.e. propellers, acclimatization etc as possible causes?
 
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Q

Quinton

Active Member
Tuukkuli said:
Using S-bus yes. Not sure about the 2 secs. Maybe thats what I did not remember to do. But this can be my fault. Can´t check it now as don't have an IMU but will check once the V2 arrives.

Are you still having the same horizon issues too? I presume you have also eliminated the usual. i.e. propellers, acclimatization etc as possible causes?
Click to expand...

I'm quite new to this but no idea what he was on about regarding propellers/acclimatisation etc, that would have nothing at all to do with horizon problems.
TBH its only recently that its been good enough to fly again here in the UK, and have not had much chance to get out lately as busy with getting another rig in the air.
I will check that this week.
I have had an email from DJI stating that all the problems are are known and they will fix the firmware issue, but they can not say when it will be fixed.
 

M

MagicStudios

Member
Joepapa said:
Carbon Core Octo 1000
Avroto 3515 400 KV
6s 15,000 and 20,000 mah packs
DJI A2
T-MOTOTR 15" Carbon fiber v2 props
OSD Mark II

We have been flying a gimbal with Alexmos controller and after 2 months of tweaking and tuning, its been a very reliable and useable platform. We love using it handheld as well. We got the parts from BrushlessGimbals, but have really wanted the refinement and performance that only comes from the Zenmuse. Its a dream come true to finally own one, and its a huge relief that it works with the Canon 5D Mark III because all the producers really like the footage from that cam. The rest want footage from the Red Epic, and will get that from the AlexMos gimbal which will be upgraded to handle that in the near future. We built the Octo to fly the Red, and with the 5D, the motors and ESCs don't even change temp.
Click to expand...

Was your landing gear retractable?
 

S

sk8brd

Member
check the horizon loss on a pan with the motor's off in 2nd op mode. if there still is loss pretty sure props are not the issue. :nevreness:
 
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J

Joepapa

Member
Yes, retractable landing gear. I don't like the Cinestar style crab legs because when the gimbal is initialized, the IMU gets no motion data from the 3rd axis and tries to move it. The result is the copter turns instead when its on the ground. Retracts solve that. There's also less air resistance and load on the pan axis.

Yes, if the horizon won't hold when the copter is off, thats an issue. Id start by checking/replacing the can bus cable. They are pretty fragile.
 
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Tuukkuli

Tuukkuli

Member
As I told before, I think the horizon stays better level when the copter hovers on one geographical spot. Once the copter starts to move - even very slowly - the loss of horizon gets much worse.
 

J

Joepapa

Member
Tuukkuli said:
As I told before, I think the horizon stays better level when the copter hovers on one geographical spot. Once the copter starts to move - even very slowly - the loss of horizon gets much worse.
Click to expand...


Is there any possibility that the IMU of your flight controller isn't pointed perfectly straight and in line with your Zenmuse mount? At this point we've covered a lot of possible causes and solutions. I am curious to to know what the actual problem ends up being (or combination of issues). Every item DJI has come out with has had firmware improvements, but its hard to understand why there is such a big difference between yours and mine. I wonder if yours needs calibration or something similar.
 

Tuukkuli

Tuukkuli

Member
No there is not a possibility of IMU not pointed directly towards the nose of the craft. I have Cinestar-8 with Octo-Rotor I configuration so it is fairly easy to mount the IMU directly towards the nose. And the copter flies very well and completely straight. And there is no toilet bowl effect.

Also Zenmuse mount is perfectly aligned with the copter nose and IMU because I use the Quadrocopter Cinestar-8 to Zenmuse adapters and they are designed so that it is not possible to mount the landing gear/Zenmuse mount other than directly at nose/rear direction.

After the IMU V2 arrives I will test fly the craft again. If the problem still persists, I have no other than to return my gimbal. We all know that the quality control of DJI leaves a lot of room for improvements. I´m on my second gimbal and so is Quinton.

Just to make sure: The Wookong and Zen have the newest available firmwares. The props are carefully balanced. The copter is equally carefully balanced. The copter flies smoothly. The gimbal is perfectly balanced with the aid of a little tin weight on roll. The gimbal has had a lot of time to acclimatize to flying temperature. I am an experienced pilot. My cameraman is an experienced cameraman. We also have Movi M10 that on the exact same copter behaved perfectly.

And finally: I don't have any desire to badmouth DJI nor I am biased in any way. The Wookong and Naza versions 1 and 2 I own work well and I am happy with them. But the Z5D does not work well. And I think it is all too expensive device not to work as promised.
 
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J

Joepapa

Member
Well Tuukkuli, unfortunately, based on your response, I'd say you've covered all your bases in eliminating outside factors from being the cause of your issue. While I am not experiencing this, and many people are very happy with the ones they have, you certainly sound like you got one of the few that may be defective. One concern that I have is that you mentioned it the second gimbal. If both are behaving the same way, and the behavior is pretty extreme from your description, it leads me to suspect that it may in fact not be the gimbal at all. The "odds" of you getting two defective with exactly the same issue is pretty low. I would seriously consider the flight controller since the IMU of the WKM determines and is greatly tied to the gimbal performance. The IMU V2 may certainly make a difference, and if it does, I would certainly like to know. Its very possible that DJI optimized this gimbal for the A2, but that is speculation. It is however a major difference between your setup and mine. When I had my WKM, the upgrade to the IMU V2 was subtle, but the switch from GPS to atti still included a change in prop speed, and a drop in altitude. While the WKM claims you can freely connect devices to Canbus ports, the A2 is extremely specific in what can be connected where. The main controller of the A2 clearly is more capable, as the issues I experienced with the WKM are gone. I don't know where you are currently located, but would be willing to pair your gimbal with my A2 for a real world test if you want. Im in CT. If thats not an option, I would encourage you to submit a video of the copter/ gimbal exhibiting the behavior, show them that its way beyond "firmware" and escalate support through your dealer and DJI.

Joe
 

S

sk8brd

Member
just a heads up-i read on rc groups from dji staff member there is an update planned for off horizon on the gh3 that will come out. i know this doesn't apply to you guys with the 5d mk3 gimbals that are having issue but maybe it's a clue..the issue with the gh3 gimbals that i have learned from various accounts is the horizon was off slightly all the time. slightly off no matter what mode and fpv reset did not work as a possible solution as some others have said does work in regards to fixing the slightly off horizon described as around 2 degrees..maybe something may be in the works for 5d gimbals that exhibit the issue if there is an update from dji for the gh3's.

There are more then two people with problems. With the email from dji to people that owned the gimbal that i personally saw one of them they know there are a problem on some of them.
 
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F

Flycoso

New Member
hi to all

i've buyed z15 5d and i've a lot of problem.

orizzontal drifting ecc ecc but first, I can not connect the Zen to the receiver futaba sbus and my t14sg. in the sense that the aux2 is connect the output on the receiver, the radio is Binded with receiver (green led) but in assistant nothing moves. Where am I wrong? what 's must do to recognize the sbus to Zen?
Thanks

i've tested with all cable connected to graupner receiver and something worked, but not knowing well the Graupner, i was not able to set all controls well, and that's why I wanted to plug it in with the futaba sbus that I know perfectly
 

Tuukkuli

Tuukkuli

Member
Joepapa said:
Well Tuukkuli, unfortunately, based on your response, I'd say you've covered all your bases in eliminating outside factors from being the cause of your issue. While I am not experiencing this, and many people are very happy with the ones they have, you certainly sound like you got one of the few that may be defective. One concern that I have is that you mentioned it the second gimbal. If both are behaving the same way, and the behavior is pretty extreme from your description, it leads me to suspect that it may in fact not be the gimbal at all. The "odds" of you getting two defective with exactly the same issue is pretty low. I would seriously consider the flight controller since the IMU of the WKM determines and is greatly tied to the gimbal performance. The IMU V2 may certainly make a difference, and if it does, I would certainly like to know. Its very possible that DJI optimized this gimbal for the A2, but that is speculation. It is however a major difference between your setup and mine. When I had my WKM, the upgrade to the IMU V2 was subtle, but the switch from GPS to atti still included a change in prop speed, and a drop in altitude. While the WKM claims you can freely connect devices to Canbus ports, the A2 is extremely specific in what can be connected where. The main controller of the A2 clearly is more capable, as the issues I experienced with the WKM are gone. I don't know where you are currently located, but would be willing to pair your gimbal with my A2 for a real world test if you want. Im in CT. If thats not an option, I would encourage you to submit a video of the copter/ gimbal exhibiting the behavior, show them that its way beyond "firmware" and escalate support through your dealer and DJI.

Joe
Click to expand...

Well, first of all, my first Z15-5D had a broken tilt motor as demonstrated in post #84 of this thread. So the issue was not the same the first time.

Secondly I think it was not "one of the few" defective ones as I was told by my reseller that at least 30% of the gimbals he ordered had the same tilt motor problem.

Zenmuse 5D is marketed as being compatible with Wookong-M so it should perform as well with it as with A2.

I have made a video a week ago that is also in this thread and linked it to DJI Europe support asking for reply/explanation. I sent another mail two days back but DJI does not bother to answer me. It is quite funny they say on their pages:

"If you have trouble getting in touch with a dealer, or aren’t receiving adequate support, please contact us at support.europe@dji.comand we will ensure you are taken care of."

Oh, and thanks for your kind offer Joe, but I live in Finland, Europe.


 
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Tuukkuli

Tuukkuli

Member
sk8brd said:
the m5 is shipping Tuukkuli- let me know how it goes if you grab one or anyone on here
Click to expand...

Yes that is an interesting option. And a real competitor to Zen 5D regardless of the 2K price difference. Because you will get a gimbal that should work as advertised plus you get to use a camera/lens of your choice.
In the mean time I am waiting for my Wookong IMU V2 to arrive so I could test if it helps any. Will let you know.
 


Tuukkuli

Tuukkuli

Member
An update: I received the IMU V2 for my Wookong-M and flew the copter with it. The copter still flew fine, but the Zenmuse 5D horizontal drift was just as bad as before.
After many emails I finally got an answer from DJI Europe and I sent the gimbal - for the second time at my own expense - to them.

At the same time I asked my reseller if they would be willing to take the Zen 5D back and sell me a Movi M5 instead. To my delightement, they agreed to do that. So I happily asked DJI Europe to send my Zenmuse back to my reseller and now I am waiting for the Movi M5. In the mean time I am flying my Movi M10 that works great. So happy.
 



Q

Quinton

Active Member
IrisAerial said:
I dont know if this was asked already but will the Canon 7d work in the 5D Zenmuse?
Click to expand...

Funny thing is I was just looking up to see if the 70D would fit into it this morning, as it has dual pixel AF built in, which would be perfect.
Glad you got sorted Tuukkuli
Did you actually physically try the camera in it for size?

70D
5.5 x 4.1 x 3.1 inches.
139.0 x 104.3 x 78.5 millimeters.

7d
5.8 x 4.4 x 2.9 inches
(148.2 x 110.7 x 73.5mm)

5d mk3

6.0 x 4.6 x 3.0 inches.
152 x 116 x 76 millimeters.
 
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Tuukkuli

Tuukkuli

Member
I did not but the fit is very tight. Maybe it would be possible by making alterations to the gimbal but it can be difficult and frustrating. The Zen 5D is designed for Canon 5d Mark II and III only.
So much easier way is Movi M5. Plus you get a gimbal that probably works. Zen 5 does not. At least the two I had did not.
 

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