I just got my Phantom 3 in the mail today. I love everything but how rough the tilt for the gimbal is. Changing the speed and expo isnt enough. I want the speed to ramp so its smooth. There is a gain setting for the P2 in the PC app but no such luck with my new P3. So... I opened up the remote and came up with an electronic work-around which gives me smoothing on the rudder/YAW and gimbal tilt. By adding a few simple components I was able to achieve this. I drilled a DPDT switch into the face of the remote which could toggle the smoothing feature on and off. I posted a video of how I did it.
If anybody has an easier way to get the same results, let me know!

That's ace dude.. Great hack.

Should have be built in IMO..

sploodge Posted at 2015-7-22 15:14
That's ace dude.. Great hack.

Should have be built in IMO..

I was pretty let down to find out it wasnt built in.. but thanks man

NIce. I imagine the can still remedy this in the gimbal firmware sometime in the future?

chris@leckieins Posted at 2015-7-22 15:31
I was pretty let down to find out it wasnt built in.. but thanks man

What a great modification.  Thanks for sharing your work.  Such a nice improvement for you.  I would liked to have seen that as a user configurable setting.  The flying and filming is still like rubbing my head and patting my belly to me.  

Great modification ? There are in fact 3 settings you can change in the app :
- Gimbal wheel speed (in the RC menu)
- Camera tilt speed with 3 personal configurations where you can put your own values. The lowest value makes the tilt very very slow.
- The speed of the gimbal to go back to its center position after a turn.

Don't understand the need to change anything inside the quad or the camera.

Ulysse Posted at 2015-7-22 19:25
Great modification ? There are in fact 3 settings you can change in the app :
- Gimbal wheel speed ( ...

Good work around. Have you ever adjustment the controller tension. It appears they are set by the tension of the springs as I look at your video. There should be a setting similar to the gimbal setting but there is not. The tension needs to be adjusted for a smooth movement. If anyone knows a work around please let me know.

Thanks

Ulysse Posted at 2015-7-22 19:25
Great modification ? There are in fact 3 settings you can change in the app :
- Gimbal wheel speed ( ...

There are only 2 settings.. speed and expo. No smoothing. thanks for your input.

After much testing. I have yet to see smoother pans and tilts from a drone on all of the internets. Adding this circuit to the YAW is key!

wow that was so cool! What if you tried to smooth it out with your circut? would there be a delay from the scroll wheal to the camera?

Ulysse Posted at 2015-7-22 19:25
Great modification ? There are in fact 3 settings you can change in the app :
- Gimbal wheel speed ( ...

Yes - I see it as a great modification.  This changes the gimbal transit from instant stop, to a glide stop.  Desirable from my POV, as I am a novice videographer/pilot and would like to opt for a "glide assist". I would like to have this on my P3P, native, not work around.

Great mod, thanks for sharing!

Chris, nice little RC TC mod but you do know the camera gimbal wheel already has an inertial action?
That is, slow push to the right or left and it ramps at whatever speed you want dependent upon the intertia of the action. The camera gimbal tilt is under full inertia slow action ramping control.

Claire  

Ive taken it a few steps further to get a few more features. Dont mind the mess, its a work in progress. Ill have this cleaned up like it was OEM once I finalize the wiring. I like to have the left stick to pan and tilt the camera because Im so use to controlling the ronin that way so I wired my P3 remote up to swap channels and turn on smoothing on command with a single toggle. It doesnt effect the CSC as I still fly in regular mode when taking off. Just when i need to get really smooth precise movies I can flip the switch and make some magic! Took it out this morning half mangled but it works and works really well. cant wait to get it all done! Keep ya posted

Spare Wheel Posted at 2015-7-23 18:48
Chris, nice little RC TC mod but you do know the camera gimbal wheel already has an inertial action? ...

I have researched the living daylights out of this and I have not seen what youre telling me anywhere including on my own P3 which is up to date. How do you turn on the feature?  

chris@leckieins Posted at 2015-7-23 20:43
I have researched the living daylights out of this and I have not seen what youre telling me anywh ...

Chris,

I updated to the current FW and it's there. Having said that I didn't know it wasn't there in previous FW.

In the updated software, you can move the camera gimbal on its vertical axis smoothly and at different rates dependent upon the lateral force exerted upon the wheel - it's inertial. It looks like it's there by default. Move the wheel slowly and the gimbal moves slowly and ramps to a stop on your ramped stop command.

As to turning on this "feature" haven't any idea. All I know is that the RC left-side rotary controlling camera vertical axis gimbal is reponsive to inertial action. I haven't found a "magic" switch in RC app.

I thought you wanted a fast shift to stop with a resultant ramp, which the RC TC will give you. But it's pointless when the variable pot gives an inertial response as default.

Sorry, can't help further. It works for me. Perhaps we are talking about two distinct and separate functions?

Claire

Drop me a PM if you need more...

Thanks,

Leon

Hello,

Just made your "dumper" circuit and insalled into rc. Seems to work just fine, but I have found that rc now starts (power on) with error (beepeing and flashing red light) and after 3 beeps it works ok. Might be that rc detects capacity while it expects a resitor, sounds alarm and thetn returns to normal operation when the circuit gets charged? Do you experience the same behaviour?

sns Posted at 2015-8-27 19:36
Hello,

Just made your "dumper" circuit and insalled into rc. Seems to work just fine, but I have fo ...

I experienced the same. It beeps as long as the capacitor isnt fully charged. I can live with it.

reinhardfreh@ya Posted at 2015-8-28 05:09
I experienced the same. It beeps as long as the capacitor isnt fully charged. I can live with it.

Thanks! Just want to make sure that my assumption regarding cap charging is right and I did assemble it back properly and everything is connected.

This is not good man ! i just spend 3k on a beautiful drone that fly really nice and transmit live HD video but can not do the simplest and basic job of giving us as smooth tilt?
I do not want to open my Radio because i do not know anything about electronic, is there any other way ?

Lgpproducciones Posted at 2015-9-14 09:58
This is not good man ! i just spend 3k on a beautiful drone that fly really nice and transmit live H ...

smooth tilt is now available as an option in the DJI GO app (android version only at this point).  If you are on IOS, you can set it using the android app and it will remember the setting even if you fly with the IOS GO App (or no app or 3rd party app)

it does a really good job of smooth start/stop the gimbal tilt...

tomtnt.gmail Posted at 2015-9-15 01:51
smooth tilt is now available as an option in the DJI GO app (android version only at this point).  ...

Great news my friend !!!! i will try that then !! Thanks a lot !!

Anyways, i do use ipad Mini, why they do android only? my God !

tomtnt.gmail Posted at 2015-9-15 01:51
smooth tilt is now available as an option in the DJI GO app (android version only at this point).  ...

Are you serious or is a joke?

Lgpproducciones Posted at 2015-9-14 11:46
Are you serious or is a joke?

of course it is not a joke..  you need the android app though to make the setting change but once you do, the gimbal will behave the same with the ios app..  you can set it to different amount of dampening depending on how much smoothness you want on start/stop

Genius !! Thanks

tomtnt.gmail Posted at 2015-9-15 04:46
of course it is not a joke..  you need the android app though to make the setting change but once  ...

Excuse me my stupid question Tomtnt but i can not find the smooth tilt option on the App, where is it?

Lgpproducciones Posted at 2015-9-16 07:22
Excuse me my stupid question Tomtnt but i can not find the smooth tilt option on the App, where is ...

camera gimbal tab. advanced settings

axidify Posted at 2015-9-16 06:25
camera gimbal tab. advanced settings

For Inspire 1 smooth option is not. Topic-starter make very good hardware smoother. It's a shame for Dji, because this option have  ALL other brushless gimbal system.
And YAW smoother very good too, because PAN of Phantom and Inspire gimbal crazy sharp.

keep it up !  love to see the flying result

tomtnt.gmail Posted at 2015-9-14 15:46
of course it is not a joke..  you need the android app though to make the setting change but once  ...

I am confused, I have a iPad two so how do I use a android app on a iPad? I don't understand something. Thanks.

Spare Wheel Posted at 2015-7-24 21:48
Chris,

I updated to the current FW and it's there. Having said that I didn't know it wasn't there  ...

Beautiful. I hadn't realized it was dynamic like that. Just did a test and love it. Thanks.

That's a pretty impressive solution. For anyone looking for a software only solution, there are a few apps out there that will get you super cinematic movements with very minimal waypointing or focus triggering; I am a huge fan of repeatability, so while I have a lot of respect for people who can pull of movements manually, and repeatedly, I will never get to that level and need software to execute my moves.

lido_bmt Posted at 2016-2-29 11:39
That's a pretty impressive solution. For anyone looking for a software only solution, there are a fe ...

Could you offer some suggestions on good, controllable software solutions? I too like repeatability - something that's foolproof over my fumbling fingers.

I take it that you are an Electronic Tech.

chris@leckieins Posted at 2015-7-22 13:24
After much testing. I have yet to see smoother pans and tilts from a drone on all of the internets.  ...

Great job on the schematic.

videojim Posted at 2016-2-29 20:04
Could you offer some suggestions on good, controllable software solutions? I too like repeatabilit ...

After trying a bunch, Autoflight Autopilot is far ahead of the pack. It has a slight learning curve but it's designed to be completely replicable for any type of mission it can fly, including waypoints and camera movements. You can also edit them both on the fly and before or after the fact.  It works around so many of the limitations of the DJI Go app (moving operators, altitude changes during any follow modes, the fact that ALL the modes like zip line and orbits and waypoints can move in realtime with you) that I never use the DJI app.

It's literally taken my videos to a whole different level. The hack in this thread is great though for anyone who's got the talent to do fully manual movements.

lido_bmt Posted at 2016-3-1 04:37
After trying a bunch, Autoflight Autopilot is far ahead of the pack. It has a slight learning curv ...

Thanks lido for the recommendation. I've looking at AutoPilot. Looks like I'll have to invest some time to learning it but I really like the idea that it's replicable. That's what I was hoping for. I appreciate the tip.

chris@leckieins Posted at 2015-7-23 04:39
Ive taken it a few steps further to get a few more features. Dont mind the mess, its a work in progress. Ill have this cleaned up like it was OEM once I finalize the wiring. I like to have the left stick to pan and tilt the camera because Im so use to controlling the ronin that way so I wired my P3 remote up to swap channels and turn on smoothing on command with a single toggle. It doesnt effect the CSC as I still fly in regular mode when taking off. Just when i need to get really smooth precise movies I can flip the switch and make some magic! Took it out this morning half mangled but it works and works really well. cant wait to get it all done! Keep ya posted
https://vimeo.com/134279885[view_image]

Bonjour Chris,
Bravo pour vos réalisations très instructives.
Je vois que vous connaissez très bien la RC du Phantom.
J'ai une question, après plusieurs manipulations par le jeu de boutons sur la télécommande j'ai fait un apairage par les bouton, parce que la RC relié en filaire USB ne réponds plus ?
Le drone vole, tout est ok pour le retour des informations, il manque le retour vidéo ?
Ma question, sur la télécommande, la led "Etat" à côté des led batterie, elle clignote vert ?
Comment manipuler la télécommande pour avoir led verte fixe et retrouver la communication USB avec DJI Go ?
Merci d'avance au spécialiste
Didier