Photohigher skyline rsgs

Hi,

two news today :)
- First, I have translated the user manual in french (ok, I don't think I will have so much success there :D)
- Second, I have set in place a google doc shared document for users to share their parameters for Skyline.

This google doc include your configuration (gimbal, modifications, servo, camera weight, machine weight) and all the parameters available for the skyline.

It's available here

I Hope this google doc will be usefull to the community ;)

Thanks for doing this 1001, I will enter my stuff tomorrow when I get to work. Yes I keep my toys at work, they aren't allowed in the house says SWMBO.
 

Thanks :)

By the way, I have offered some nylon tie and some velcro pads with the skyline to thanks my customers for their patience and confidence ;)

Best regards,
Cédric
 


i have entered my settings. Not for the pan yet as I am controlling thepan independent of the skyline. I dont think it has been implemented yet. Unless anyone knows diffrent.
I have done a first flight and it was not brilliant as the gimbal had some play. I have fixed that now but it is too windy to fly now. I discovered that the 2 centre track rollers are adjustable. I tightened them up against the track and that cured my play. The video is here:
 
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WayneMann

Member
Hey guys,

A lot of you should be getting your Photo Higher Skyline Gyro any day now. Mine showed up this morning. I am using Futaba S9255 servos modified for external pots. I have not been able to get the gyro to activate the servos. It boots up just like it is suppose to according to the light on the gyro, but the servos never move. It is a Futaba 18MZ, but it is operating a Futaba 14 channel receiver in FASST Multi mode.


Wayne Mann
 
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WayneMann

Member
Hi guys,

Small update, if I unplug the pot wire from the servo the servos will now take off moving once the unit light goes green to indicate that the unit is booted up and ready. If I plug in a standard unmodified servo the system will also drive that. So, there is a wiring issue with the pot wire. It seems funny to me that the Savox servos that Photo Higher are using have three wires coming out of the servo for the pot connection, but the pot leads coming from the wiring harness only have two wires, a black wire and a white wire. The black harness wire is in line with the black pot wire from the servo, but the white wire, which I assume is the signal wire is in line with the red wire from the pot. Since the modified Savox servos have three wires coming from the servo for the pot connection this seems strange.

There is a video on another forum with a guy going through the Skyline installation and plugging up the wiring harness. He mentions that there are nine wires coming from the wiring harness. More specifically he mentions that there are three pot wires, one for the roll servo, one for the tilt servo and one for the pan servo. My wiring harness does NOT have a pot wire for the pan servo.

If someone has this unit plugged into a Savox servo I would like to know what wires line up with what wires when the pot lead from the servo is plugged up to the pot wire from the harness. If it is like my Futaba servos it will be black to black and white (pot harness) to red servo pot lead.

Hopefully I will have more to report later today.


Wayne Mann
 

andrewrob

Member
Is anyone having trouble setting limits? I'm using an AV130 and I can put in any limit value on roll and it doesn't make any difference to limit of travel.

Thanks
 

andrewrob

Member
In answer to Wayne my wiring to the pots is like this (from the skyline end) Black to Black, White to Red
My pan servo (for 360) doesn't have a pot but the Roll and tilt servos do.

Hope this helps, let me know if you need any more info
 

WayneMann

Member
Hi Guys,

I got to fly the unit quite a bit today and here are some ofmy thoughts and findings.

To get the unit to drive Futaba servos you have to reversethe pot wires. The black Harness potwire goes to the white Futaba pot wire and the white Harness pot wire goes tothe red Futaba pot wire.

Someone else mentioned that the limit adjusters in the setupsoftware do not work and that is correct, no matter where you set the limitadjustment it has no effect.

I have the Skyline Gyro on a special built two axis mountwith the roll axis being the parent. Both axis have a gear ratio of 7.8:1. Both axis are belt driven. Allfour gains are on the tenth hash markfrom the left side for my Canon 5D Mark ll with the 24-105 lens. With the Panasonic HPX170 the two tilt axisgains have to be turned down to the second hash mark and the roll axis gainshave to be turned down to the fourth hash mark.

I have two big problems with the unit at this time. The first and biggest is that the roll axisservo is very nervous and randomly causes the servo to glitch. I have not seen any of this behavior from thetilt servo. I tried different servos andsomeone from Photo Higher told someone on one of the forums to supply power tothe unit with a separate power source through the pan input wire. When power is applied to my pan input wirethe unit does not get any power. If Iapply power to the pan servo lead the unit powers up fine. I tried many different ways to power the unitand this method was the best for reducing the nervous roll servo. I just pulled the red wire out of the servoinput connector that plugs into the receiver thus eliminating any power fromthe receiver side getting to the Skyline. If anyone has a solution for this issue I would love to hear it.

My second issue is the lack of slew control for the rollaxis. I have not worked for a produceryet that wants to see the horizon stay flat and level when the helicopter ismaking a banked turn. It just looks badand wrong. Photo Higher please activateslew control on roll axis.

When I do pirouettes with the helicopter or make a slowbanked turn the horizon actually rolls into the turn slightly or a littlebit. It is not bad, but it is there and if the horizon is goingto roll off in either direction this is the direction that it should go as itlooks more natural. This could also be atuning issue. It may get better or worsethe more I tune on the unit.

The gyro stabilizes very well when looking straight down, atleast with a camera mount that is designed with the roll axis being theparent. Example: when looking straight down with this type ofmount if the helicopter rocks from side to side on roll axis then the Skylinewill correct for the movement exactly as it should. Now if you have a mount with the tilt axisbeing the parent and you are looking straight down when the helicopter rocksfrom side to side the camera mount and the Skyline will NOT correct for thisand the camera will sling from side to side with the helicopter. What will happen is the camera will just spinin the same horizontal plane as the pan axis. NOTE: I have not tried theSkyline in this type of mount and it may do crazy things when put in that orientation(looking straight down). I am veryhesitant to try this gyro in my primary 5D mount as it is a tilt axis parentmount and since the limit adjusters are not working on the Skyline at this timeit may get ugly.

The Skyline Gyro has a ton of potential once the bugs are worked out and some properinstructions are written that actually explain how to set the unit up and howto tune it.

More later.


Wayne Mann

 

andrewrob

Member
Thanks for the update Wayne. Glad to know its not just me that can't set limits then. Its causing me some big headaches and has stripped down my roll servo gear to the point I don't want to use the skyline in the field until its fixed.
If anyone knows where I can get a replacement gear it would be much appreciated!

I am getting jitter on the tilt axis on mine, the roll is fine. What is slew mode? I've got it switched on by default on the tilt axis but don't know what it is, could that be causing the jittering?

Thanks
 



I notice 1.1.4 is now on the PH site with the folloing fixes:Fixed bug in roll
Cut-off when servos go the wrong way or if there is somthing wrong such as pot input is unpluged.
Switch between normal and slew transmitter control - for both roll and tilt.
 


I notice 1.1.4 is now on the PH site with the folloing fixes:Fixed bug in roll
Cut-off when servos go the wrong way or if there is somthing wrong such as pot input is unpluged.
Switch between normal and slew transmitter control - for both roll and tilt.

Great to see they've pushed out an update quickly. Hopefully they keep coming and I get a chance to look 1.1.4 before then end of the week.

Cheers
Jesse
 

One of my customer reports a problem with the PAN:
when he pan the gimbal (even by hand) it affect the roll and the tilt stronger and stronger and finally the skyline cuts itself.

Did you see the same problem ?
 

B

Bengit

Guest
Re: AV130.... Now there is no requirement for the Roll/Tilt pots, are people removing them from their gimbals. Specifically the Roll Pot, as the pot gear is in constant contact with the drive gear.
 

You should have a look at my video about how to mount the skyline on an AV200 :)
I'm saying that we don't need anymore potentiometer.
The skyline emulate the potentiometer signal :)

you take the potentiometers and => on the shelves ( for later use ^^)
 

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