Picloc 3x setting experience etc.

K

Knilch

Member
Okay now I have modified and reassembled my gimbal, loaded the current firmware, reset everything to factory defaults and adjusted everything from scratch.

Now it's better than before, roll drifting degraded to only a minor problem with wild maneuvers, very fast flights and it recenters when standing still. Still not perfect but acceptable atm.

Another thing that appeared now is a wandering tilt stab. When stationary on the ground I have no jitter at all, the servos don't do anything, like it's supposed to be. But when in the air hovering, the tilt axis constantly pitches back and forth a few degrees. I tried several filter settings and played around with gyro deadband but to no avail. Where's the problem, any ideas? The roll axis also seems a bit rough but the direct drive with a servo might be the problem, I will test it without PL and if it still doesn't run smooth then I will have to look for another servo yet again.

Another thing I remarked after a normal flight are the accelerometer values which will have shifted from around 0 to around -10. Is that normal?
 

K

Knilch

Member
After some more tests today I can rule out the servo for being the cause of the, well, stepped performance of my roll servo. I have connected it directly to the receiver and from there it performs absolutely smoothly. I can't point my finger at it but atm it looks like the Picloc correctly controls the roll servo for some short time after initialization but it gets rough pretty soon to the point of uselessness. I will try to figure out if it is some strange feedback from the gimbal or vibrations passing through.

The fact of the pitching nick stab remains. It actually is already visible and audible before liftoff, it looks like some kind of strange loop the nick stab is going through with the platform tilting back and forth ever so slightly periodically. When in the air matters get worse.

I would be a happy man if someone could point me in the right direction here, please!
 
Last edited by a moderator:





K

Knilch

Member
Nevermind my posts earlier, looks like I have some other problems than my Picloc. I won't delete them for everyone to see that you first have to check that it really is like you say :). Twitching on tilt and jagged roll caused by a combination of servo/poti/contructive problems. Now I need to have a brilliant idea to overcome these.

Couldn't remove the tilting roll problem fully, though. And that definitely is a PL problem :p.
 



K

Knilch

Member
Don't use 3S directly, I have read a post of someone frying his PL when he accidently connected the wrong battery pack.
 


S

ssjheli

Member
Hi george
I have send my picloc back for repair. I tryed to contact you by mail a few times with out luck, please let me know that you reciewed the picloc and a estimated return time.
regards Søren
rotorcam.
 

snurre

snurre

Member
GeorgeM said:
OK... seeing why this is happening...and fix it.

Going to release new firmware very very soon now.... has some nice new goodies :)
Click to expand...

Hi George and all,
The quote is from 18 of June.
Has the new firmware been released yet?
If yes, please provide link to repository.

Saludos /Tomas
 


K

Knilch

Member
Is it possible to mount the Picloc onto or beneath the camera tray to eliminate the need for a potentiometer? At the moment Picloc is sensing its position (like a tilt to one side or another) and sending a signal to the servos to go to a certain position which is accomplished via the potentiometer.

To work the other way Picloc would need to change its behavior to try to stay level. It would then send increasing or decreasing signals to the servo to keep itself and the camera tray vertically and horizontally centered. I can't imagine that being too hard to implement if it isn't there already somewhere. Anyone tried it? In pan direction Picloc is already doing it that way, why not the other axes, too?
 


K

Knilch

Member
Any experience on how reliably it works? I have kind of given up on my Picloc to give me satisfying results. Test flying yesterday it worked for the first few seconds but regardless of gyro deadband settings it started to oscillate around neutral after some time and the horizon again was tilted after flying maneuvers. I have yet to try some extreme vibration isolation, maybe that will help.
 



H

Highviz

Member
Hi Guys, I could do with some help on setting up my Picloc 3X Std. I have had it since they first came out, but to be honest, gave up on it after many fruitless hours spent struggling with hardware (poor solder joints) and firmware bugs in the earlier versions.

After seeing what looked like some good firmware updates, I thought it was time to try again. I built a new 3 axis camera mount (AV200 style) and have installed the latest picloctoolz

v0.56 and 56.76 firmware. Roll and tilt have feedback pots. Pan is a 360 servo.

I have the picloc mounted with tilt in arrow direction. (And set that way in options tab)
I have aux 1 set up to give me e-stop/home/run - a bit quirky on how you have to toggle the switch, but can live with that.
I have aux 2 set up to switch pan between stabilise pan and manual pan.

I found I had to reverse the roll and pitch inputs in the radio set up tab to get it to work correctly, plus the roll and tilt in the slew tab work the wrong way round,- but now responds well to stabilisation in these two axis, and has smooth stick control on tilt in slew mode.

Issues remaining are:-

1)If pan is set in non slew mode, it stabilises well, but I have only a few degrees of movement in response to stick inputs. Adjusting atv's in servo tab, functions tab or stick authority in functions tab do not seem to make any difference. If I switch to manual mode, I have good smooth 360 deg control of pan via the sticks.
2)If pan is set to slew mode, I can adjust atv's to give reasonable control travel via the stick in stabilise mode (but not as smooth as in manual above). However, if I then switch aux 2 to manual pan, I get uncontrolled rotation of the mount that full stick deflection will not stop. Have played with centering controls etc but cannot find a way round this yet.
3) With the best set up I have achieved so far, the pan trims are not stable. I can have it set to be perfectly centred in manual mode, switch the mount off and back on again, and it will be rotating. However, if I lift the mount by the pan gear and toggle the aux 2 switch a few times between manual and stable modes, it will settle down again. If starting in stabilised pan mode, you have to have the mount suspended, let it find it's home position, then switch to manual and it is ok (ish).
4) When trying to use the spare servo output channels (S4 and S5) to control a camera stop / start (or servo), they do not appear to work. However, if you unplug and plug the leads back in with the system already powered up, they then work correctly. If you switch off and back on again, they fail to work again. - A pain having to constantly unplug and connect these channels to get them to work each time.

If anyone has some advice, it would be gratefully received. - I would really like to be able to get pan to work in slew mode, but retain the ability to have a manual override.

Thanks

Malcolm
 
Last edited by a moderator:

You must log in or register to reply here.
Top