Phobotic Centerpiece Brushless Gimbal Controller
- Thread starter SamurAchzar
- Start date
jfro
Aerial Fun
I'm flying with no protection on IMU and Centerpeice Hope I don't crash before I get them protected. Have IMU on top of camera cage bar, so it will take a nasty crash for that to get banged up. Centerpiece is a little more exposed and it doesn't look like it will take much of a hit with all the surface mount stuff on it. I'm impatient, so time to fly.
Got a 1st quick 6 minute test flight in after putting the beta software on. Had set up the pitch, but decided to disconnect for 1st flight as I was clueless as to what settings were doing what. They could use a better manual or some setup videos.
1st footage at 60p w/ IS on, was great. Wouldn't need any post stabilization. Just flying around in back yard, 1 1/2 acres, and trying to get in the wind a bit with some quick acceleration.
Did some quick sideways shots and forward & backward with quick acceleration on my 3520 avroto/15" props x8. Didn't weight it, but guessing around 18.5 - 19lb with 3rd axis. Follow mode worked good, although my landing legs got in a few shots as I'm not set up with retracts or a revolving landing gear yet.
I have the rest of the day and weather is perfect for testing 10 mph or so wind sun and clouds. Going to do some work on the pitch and yaw. When testing on bench, got some loud vibrations at 45 degree. Everything is tight and balanced, so think it was gimbal goings on. After changing some settings, got vibrations to subside, but didn't have control over where it was pointing and without my tx sending the video, sort of want that till I put the TX and HDMI converter back on.
All in all, I'm happy so far, but have a long way to go. Hopefully, will learn a few things.
Got a 1st quick 6 minute test flight in after putting the beta software on. Had set up the pitch, but decided to disconnect for 1st flight as I was clueless as to what settings were doing what. They could use a better manual or some setup videos.
1st footage at 60p w/ IS on, was great. Wouldn't need any post stabilization. Just flying around in back yard, 1 1/2 acres, and trying to get in the wind a bit with some quick acceleration.
Did some quick sideways shots and forward & backward with quick acceleration on my 3520 avroto/15" props x8. Didn't weight it, but guessing around 18.5 - 19lb with 3rd axis. Follow mode worked good, although my landing legs got in a few shots as I'm not set up with retracts or a revolving landing gear yet.
I have the rest of the day and weather is perfect for testing 10 mph or so wind sun and clouds. Going to do some work on the pitch and yaw. When testing on bench, got some loud vibrations at 45 degree. Everything is tight and balanced, so think it was gimbal goings on. After changing some settings, got vibrations to subside, but didn't have control over where it was pointing and without my tx sending the video, sort of want that till I put the TX and HDMI converter back on.
All in all, I'm happy so far, but have a long way to go. Hopefully, will learn a few things.
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
Jfro,
which axis caused the vibrations? I believe you should be able to aim/point direction for yaw and pitch when the controller is in high performance mode (blue light at top). Then aim it and the orange light should go on. When it pops back to blue it should be pointed correctly and ready to go. Roll doesn't have this option.
which axis caused the vibrations? I believe you should be able to aim/point direction for yaw and pitch when the controller is in high performance mode (blue light at top). Then aim it and the orange light should go on. When it pops back to blue it should be pointed correctly and ready to go. Roll doesn't have this option.
jfro
Aerial Fun
The pitch is causing the vibration when I get around 35-35 degrees pointed down. Hooked it back up and will play with that.
Just did a 2nd flight of which I read instructions backwards so will try to fix my follow mode a little better. I went the other way. Flight does seem to be stable. Wind is picking up a bit and she's holding nice.
My i7 laptop sometimes will stutter on it's own on the decompression during playback, esp on lateral moves. So far, every time I've seen a shudder and check it by going back and replaying it, it's been ok...
After figuring out how to control my yaw on follow and get the end points/ smoothness to how I want on the pitch, it will be time to learn to fine tune, set up the yaw channel, and then start trying other cameras. Not enough time in the day....
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
Looks like you're doing well though. Check 'em off the list. You'll be posting up how-to's before you know it 
jfro
Aerial Fun
Looks like you're doing well though. Check 'em off the list. You'll be posting up how-to's before you know it
Fun day. Wish there was more documentation, but hopefully that will come. Did a fair amount of trial and error and could see the results. Would have been faster if I'd taken it off the MR and ran it as hand held. But, I wanted some air time. Got my yaw where I'm happy with and part way there on the pitch control to one of my levers. Still need to figure out what does what...... so I can set it up for what I want to do.
10 mph winds which layed down around dinner time. I'd say out of the 7-8 4-6 minutes flights I took, I'd be able to use all the footage (except when my legs got in the way) in regards to jitter or vibrations. Very impressed. I jerked around, didn't worry about smooth start stops so much and it handled it.
Boring back yard stuff so won't be posting, but all in all, I'm ready to take it out and grab some footage that is a little more demanding.
Need to figure out the the software and settings, but hopefully, I can get some guidance instead of the trial & error slow poke method.
All in all, I'm impressed.... with the hardware, a little underwhelmed at the documentation, but it will come.... Being an early adoptee always comes with frustrations that are forgotten if the dang thing works as promised.
Av8Chuck
Member
I have the cases from TpPacks, I haven't installed any of it yet but they are very nice. I'll post pictures after I have it all installed and working.
Congratulations on getting this far. Although it can be a bit frustrating being one of the first to try anything isn't it nice just knowing that it might actually work as well as you expected. I've been using the Alexmos, granted the first 8-bit version with very mixed results for the past year. Now that's frustrating.
Continued success...
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
Jfro. You're inbox is full up
Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
there are other forums?!?!
we're on it, full product review for the Centerpiece to come and I may have another "feature" related to it in the coming week.
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
jfro
Aerial Fun
Jfro. You're inbox is full up
It's empty now. Like the empty folder button. Said you can have 100 messages, but I had 72.
Raining here so I'm on hold with testing.
Got a 2 quickie tests in before rain. 1st I was no good. 2nd was better, but pretty similar to my last settings from yesterday. I'm working on keeping my front legs out of the shot when turning or yawing. Right now focus on the yaw. Might end up moving the mount a little more forward, but then messing with a pretty balanced MR, so not really wanting to do that.
Yaw Settings
Not sure where to go next, but thinking maybe the move up the max accel to 55- 60.
I'm basically doing trial and error a this point. The higher number on Rigidity seem to be the big help. However, when I ran both the accelerations up, it was very slow to follow the frame. That being said, my last flight I didn't do a torture test with the yaw, but tried flying like I would normally which is drifting, small accelerations, and and slow yaws with slow turns. Last 4 minutes no legs in the shot.
This certainly won't work for fast flying, so much work to be done.
Any suggestions on settings to work the pitch on my Furtaba slide lever? When flying by myself (which is always right now), I like to have a slow pitch movement. I'd like to set the slider so when it's up (forward) it's pointing straight forward, and when it's down, it's pointing 90 degrees down. In the middle, 45 degrees. They are going to add it in near future update, but for now, any ideas how to get close to this?
Attachments
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
You should be able to adjust the throw and speed from the Tx (at least temporarily) by manipulating end points and adding expo (fairly dramatic I would imagine to really slow it down).
I may get a second flight in tonight if the weather holds and I get out of work early enough. The wind is whipping here at the moment - but just before sunset it usually dies down.
Thanks for the pics.
I may get a second flight in tonight if the weather holds and I get out of work early enough. The wind is whipping here at the moment - but just before sunset it usually dies down.
Thanks for the pics.
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
Sorry. I'm not in from of the GUI. Is the "max speed at limiter" putting it to the upper most value? Or is there an actual limiter setting?
jfro
Aerial Fun
Right now I'm flying a gh3. I use it instead of the gh4 for testing. Also plan on trying it with a BMPC, but contemplating trying to test with a smaller gimbal. Took a pretty good hit on flight time with the 3rd axis's added weight and a 2nd battery for the gimbal. Might have to go up to 16" props.
They don't want us using anything more than 3s for right now. Went out and bought a 3s for a phantom. Cheapest I could find on short notice.
So far, it seems to be working. Haven't flown long and hard, but my testing it seems to be pretty good.
Just checked the specs on the roll and yaw motors. GM60 80T. Say max voltage 11v... Most of my experience is with the iPower motors, but so far the GM60's seem to work. Was going to use the 5108 iPower that I have been using on my 2 axis with gh3/gh4, but thought I'd like a little more holding power on the yaw, which seemed to be a wise choice. There's talk that this controller has more holding power, so when the snow starts flying around here, I'll probably convert my 2 axis to a 3 and use the 5108 handheld and see if it holds.
Motopreserve..... I set the Max speed where it says max speed, the other is max accelerator. Got 1 flight in with lowering the rigidity down and speed up. Liked upping the speed, but didn't get the yaw to hold as much, so will work rigidity back up. I'm starting to think that under this firmware, in my situation with fixed legs, I'll have to watch how I turn and yaw, which in filming I do most of the time anyway as I haven't chased anything yet.
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SamurAchzar
Member
Max speed and max accels are limiters, not factors. This means that if your rigidity is very low (like 10), max speed and accel won't change anything. But if you're operating on high rigidity, you can use both to tailor the follow behavior to your liking. Max accel will limit the rate the speed changes, while max speed will limit the maximal speed of the axis. Anyway, they are both dependent on the rigidity being high enough to actually bump into the limiters.
jfro
Aerial Fun
One thing I'm learning so far (and this is by trial and error of which I could be making mistakes), is that there is a period of time when the controller warms up, initiates, etc and does it's thing and that takes a while. If you disturb it bad things happen. I had a couple flights today when I thought it was done initializing and I turned the started the recording on the camera trying (and failing) to keep camera still. Both of them had bad horizon.
On the 2nd one I was paying attention and landing after a minute or so. Left MR plugged in, but unplugged and replugged gimbal battery. left it go through it's paces and it was fine.
So far, I'm suspecting the little glitches I've seen in the gimbal are from me not letting it sit still long enough. IMO, this setup is going to take longer to get our gimbals in the air by another minute or two or three. No big deal, but just takes more time. Besides a little extra time, me thinks this is one of those times where "patience is key".
I'm still trying to figure out the lights and controller modes, so maybe that will help out. I've noticed that once ready to go, the first 3 and 5th led lights are active, but #4 led goes dark..
Onward and upward. Hoping more peeps get these going so we can figure out the optimal way of using and setting it up. The fun of being first with new products is not always so much fun. However, I have a feeling this one is going to be worth it. Lot of potential so far and liking what I'm seeing once in the air.... Just need more controls and features now.
On the 2nd one I was paying attention and landing after a minute or so. Left MR plugged in, but unplugged and replugged gimbal battery. left it go through it's paces and it was fine.
So far, I'm suspecting the little glitches I've seen in the gimbal are from me not letting it sit still long enough. IMO, this setup is going to take longer to get our gimbals in the air by another minute or two or three. No big deal, but just takes more time. Besides a little extra time, me thinks this is one of those times where "patience is key".
I'm still trying to figure out the lights and controller modes, so maybe that will help out. I've noticed that once ready to go, the first 3 and 5th led lights are active, but #4 led goes dark..
Onward and upward. Hoping more peeps get these going so we can figure out the optimal way of using and setting it up. The fun of being first with new products is not always so much fun. However, I have a feeling this one is going to be worth it. Lot of potential so far and liking what I'm seeing once in the air.... Just need more controls and features now.
SamurAchzar
Member
Thanks jfro. You got the LEDs about right (it's also detailed pretty well in the manual). After startup is done, LEDs 1-3 show the battery status, LED 4 is off and LED 5 shows High Performance (blue) or Recovery/Initialization (Orange).
You will hear a couple of beeps when the controller enters operation mode.
From version 1328 onwards, we have made it so that after the first powerup, turning the gimbal on/off with the button (Button 1, next to the USB) is a matter of 10 seconds. A long press on the same button performs a complete startup routine with calibration, which takes much longer. So just power it up once, then shut it down with the button (short press) between flights. It would start right up.
I'm very happy to see that you like it. It's only the beginning.
You will hear a couple of beeps when the controller enters operation mode.
From version 1328 onwards, we have made it so that after the first powerup, turning the gimbal on/off with the button (Button 1, next to the USB) is a matter of 10 seconds. A long press on the same button performs a complete startup routine with calibration, which takes much longer. So just power it up once, then shut it down with the button (short press) between flights. It would start right up.
I'm very happy to see that you like it. It's only the beginning.
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
I agree, the wait (patience) is the key.
The main LED to watch is the "top" one (furthest from the USB). It should be showing orange at first - and this is when you do not want to touch it - and then it goes to blue. When it's solid blue, this is the main stab mode. At this point, you can adjust the direction/aim of the camera - which will pop that top LED to orange again. Let go, and the camera will stay, and the controller will "think" for a second. Do not move during this time. Once it's back to blue - good to go.
The main LED to watch is the "top" one (furthest from the USB). It should be showing orange at first - and this is when you do not want to touch it - and then it goes to blue. When it's solid blue, this is the main stab mode. At this point, you can adjust the direction/aim of the camera - which will pop that top LED to orange again. Let go, and the camera will stay, and the controller will "think" for a second. Do not move during this time. Once it's back to blue - good to go.