Picloc 3x setting experience etc.

achta

Member
Yes Yes Dimitri,
but only for a Small Camera at the moment :)
and yes may be in 1/2 Year DJI will come out with a bigger version, but we have to work now .....
so we have to life with the toys that are on the market ;-)
and when i have one of this Z15 in my hand i will test it sure...
but for the moment ......
 

mitmit

Member
Yes Yes Dimitri,
but only for a Small Camera at the moment :)
and yes may be in 1/2 Year DJI will come out with a bigger version, but we have to work now .....
so we have to life with the toys that are on the market ;-)
and when i have one of this Z15 in my hand i will test it sure...
but for the moment ......

I agree with you Michael ;)

this and others videos are awesome!!!
what is the difference on it?
the main difference is price i suppose)
 
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rene.m

Member
the main difference is price i suppose)

well, no, i don't think so.
the price makes not something better. they don't make a better product only with a higher price.
if george increases his prices, picloc becomes better? no. only, if they use better materials. or are they better?
maybe george has not enough manpower to work out everything. but then boom, the price will climb.
george is doing it part-time. more time = earlier results = more manpower = higher price.

george: keep hard working to make it as good as the other stabilizations and everyone is satisfied and happy... and will buy more.
 

I Think that picloc is on par if not better than these other systems. Because it has to be adaptable to 10's of different gimbal types.
The signal coming from picloc is spot on, but the problem comes when translating the signal to precise mechanical output.
The mechaical side of the gimbal is where i feel most systems fall down. Get that slop free and solid frame and picloc will reward you!

It is easy for DJI to develope a controller specifcally for their gimbal (zenmuse). much less variables to deal with.

Bravo picloc, cant wait for the revised units.
 

mitmit

Member
this and others videos are awesome!!!what is the difference on it?
well, no, i don't think so. the price makes not something better. they don't make a better product only with a higher price. if george increases his prices, picloc becomes better? no. only, if they use better materials. or are they better?
Rene, I probably got you wrong. I thought you askin whats the difference between chinese thing and picloc, so until nobody yet have zen in hands the only difference we all know is price) I absolutely did not want to belittle George's achievements, picloc still the king definitely. cheers dimitri
 

atomkind

Member
I am getting crazy here,

I cannot use my picloc anymore and i am not able to get it into bootloader mode.

I´ve tried everything and the picloc just frustrates me. My picloc finally always ends in blue blinking when i start it with poking something in the hole near the arrow.

Am i right by: disconnecting everything, poking something into the hole, adding usb cable. Usually picloc should have only the red light on?!?! Mine is only blinging blue. I´ve also tried to apply extra power after the usb, but not working either?

Also when i connect to tools v. 0.56 i only get one brown line after i press connect.

I have the usb driver installed and it worked before with an older tools version

Anyone an idea?

Thanks
 

GeorgeM

Member
Hi>. if Picloc is not entering bootloder, try spraying a little drop of WD-40 spray ( or similar ) on the little switch. Theses switches seem to dry up for some reason...but after this operation, they stay working well for a long time. TO do this, take the top cover off, and put just one drop on the switch, and work it a little bit. Then it should work.

Also check that you are connecting to the proper comport. When you press connect on Toolz, your Picloc White LED should light up and remain lit.
Otherwise, it will switch off after 10 seconds of connecting the USB if the comport is not connected.... or the right one is indeed selected, ( USB sleep ).
 

atomkind

Member
Hi George,

Thanks for your quick help.

I got it working and updated the picloc successfully. Now i also got the new picloc tools running and everything seems to work nice so far!

The x3 version is great and i can get my pan servo working without starting to oscillate too fast.

Is the picloc working with the spectrum dx7s already? I need to switch to another transmitter for the gimbal, because two hott receivers make huge problems on one copter.

Greetings
 

andrkolom

Member
Today I'm trying to setup my Picloc 3X Pro with CineStar 3 axis gimbal and got continuously rotating servo on Pan axis. I can't stopped it with any parameters I used. Also I got overcompensation even with very small gains for servo. The same thing with FlightCtrl 2.1 - continuously rotating servo on Pan axis. May be somebody can share proved and working parameters? Thank you!
Andrei (multicopter.ru, russocopter.ru)
 

atomkind

Member
Did you try lifting the cinestar mount on the copter itself? Usually it stops rotating then. Also try to change servo directions! (reversed mode)
 


DKTek

Member
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hey George,

I think you are doing a great job here considering you're a one man producer. You mentioned earlier about your next version wizz kid black box. I'd like to offer a suggestion as an operator/tech of full size aerial systems since 1994. I'll send you a PM here if you're interested. It'll be short and sweet as I know your schedule is full. If you decide you want more input, I'll include my personal info in the PM. I'll title it, Idea 101.



[/FONT]
[/FONT]
 


Fredasss

Member
hello
I read this post from many weeks, I had a lot of problems with my picloc using it on the top of my AV200,
now I've put it just under the APN (360 servo mode no more pot.):
here's the result:


it was late and the night was arriving but it let see the results. not so bad.
But and that's why I'm asking fot george, it still on the roll a litle shaking that is not good.
if I reduce the P the gimbal reacts slower and stab is less good. if I push it more the gimbal goes crazy shacking and shacking.
so how to keep this stab with reducing the jittering ???
the picloc is 3xPro servo is MKS 787

gyro deadband is on 15db
and bandwith is about 42

thanks
 
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MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
... and got continuously rotating servo on Pan axis...

The following will be plainly clear to many but may just be enlightening for some. It is addressed to the latter - with apologies to the former for stating the bleeding obvious!

I get the feeling that there may be something that some perhaps do not understand about setting up stabilisation on a 360° pan axis. Let's take a standard 360° AV200 as an example, with a Picloc mounted on a small 'L' bracket in the middle of the front arch, i.e. directly above the camera lens. This is how many mount the PL and to be honest there are not many other obvious places without getting really inventive. The PL mounted in this position will be rotating with the arch.

It is important to appreciate this last fact. The Picloc remains stationary relative to the Roll and Tilt axes, but it rotates with the pan. The Roll and Tilt axes both have feedback potentiometers that tell PL where they are, but with the Pan axis PL has to sense and correct its own movement without reference to feedback pots. This is what the 360° box is for in the SERVOS tab of Toolz. It tells PL there is no feedback pot for the axes with the box ticked.

So having understood all that, if the MR yaws (rotates) the PL will sense this 'uncommanded' rotation and instruct the pan servo to rotate the arch to which PL is attached in the opposite direction to compensate, thus keeping the PL - and the camera lens - pointing in the original direction. This is the basic principle of gimbal stabilisation.

OK. If we now go back to the setup stage, with the MR/AV200 sitting on a table. When the pan starts rotating the MR airframe (hub and booms) will rotate but the camera mount (which doubles as the skids) will be stationary on the table. This means that the PL will also be stationary and will have no idea that the airframe above it is rotating and will consequently do nothing to stop it. But, if you lift the airframe, the AV200 below will then start to rotate instead. The PL will sense this and issue a compensating command to the pan servo to stop the rotation - once it is all set up properly. There is not that much to set up. The first, most basic is to adjust the servo centre with the first big slider in the SERVOS tab of Toolz. Do not tighten up the top nut on the 360 plate until the Pan servo centre has been set. This will allow the servo to turn without turning the top plate of the mount and will save lots of fingers, tangled USB cables and broken USB connectors.

So, back to the plot .... before you think that the PL is broken, when the top of your AV200 starts rotating and won't stop, try lifting it up (holding the top part), therefore allowing the bottom part to rotate instead, and see if the rotation behaviour changes. Sometimes, just switching it to manual and back is sufficient to stop the rotation.

Another way to check all this is to set it all on the table and switch everything on. If you give a pan command the airframe on top will start to turn and will not stop until you give an opposite direction pan command. But then the airframe will rotate in the other direction and again will not stop. This is because when the pan command is given, the PL expects to be rotated. When it senses it has not moved it either continues to tell the servo to keep turning or it doesn't tell it to stop. If you pick the MR up and the mount then starts to turn, the PL will feel this movement and will tell the pan servo to stop.
 


Munch

Member
I've still some troubles with the latest beta release software and an AV200 360 gimbal. Picloc3XPro is mounted on a holder above the cam, using a Graupner GR12 receiver and a Jeti BEC (6V). Settings are the default AV200 ones, with some minor tweaks.

Sometimes the gimbal homeposition just moves away on roll during flight, camera is than hanging sideways and you have to hold the roll stick to keep it in horizontal level. You can't do anything, go to home does nothing, and you have to come down and turn Picloc off and on, to get the original horizontal home position back. Annoying.

But what's really weird is that sometimes the whole gimbal starts to shake very hard on every axis. I had a 2,5kg cam on the gimbal today, and when it started to shake around you see the copter struggling with it (SkyJib8). Had to activate emergency stop immidiately, but it was hard to see since I was 160m high at this time.
Had this behaviour three times until now, two times on the working bench immediately after startup, and once in the air today. I'm a lillte bit worried about this, since the cam is not a cheap one (medium format).

And the pan servo ist still jittering at some given speeds, not as much as with the latest official february release, but still a little.

Any suggestions?
 
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GeorgeM

Member
Munch... If the mount is getting into oscillations:

1) reduce Acceleration from the D slider in the Gains Tab.
2) This is a question.... Do you have a very soft vibe isolator ??
 

GeorgeM

Member
@Fredass... Now that you're using Picloc 'On Axis' stabilization , and NoPot... then the Gyro sample rate has to be highest... ie 188 or 256Hz.
This is because the unit is self stabilizing now ! .. someone called it.. reactive mode.

If you were balancing on a rope ( like circus ), you want to know immediately which way you're going to fall, so that you correct for it straight away.... so it's important to have least filtering by using top sample rate, and the fastest system possible.
Also, in this way of operation, the Gyro Deadband may need to be closed fully, and the Deadband compensation switched off.
Make sure that the I-gain has least amount that is fine.. Too much and you will see slow oscillations side to side.
 

Munch

Member
Munch... If the mount is getting into oscillations:

1) reduce Acceleration from the D slider in the Gains Tab.
2) This is a question.... Do you have a very soft vibe isolator ??

Okay, will try it. No, cam was hard mounted on the AV200 today, Picloc is aswell mounted just with adhesive doublesided tape, no foam or gel.
 

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