Hi Guys

I hope you can help, i may be wrong as i am new to flight but after some flying with the fc40 i realised quickly that i needed a gimbal for smoother flight footage.

I ordered a chinese bangood jobbie that many of you are using and its working well, apart from 2 small irritations:

Firstly, the pitch control on the back of the tx, i kind of thought that different angles would make the gimbal move and stop corresponding with the levers position, what mine actially does is full tilt up and down and the potentiometer on the back of the tx merely controls speed, so basically if i move it slightly it will move to full down or up slowly, if i move the pot further it merely increases speed. I thought it would center the gimbal at level position on the lever and then move and stop as far as i push the lever, not just fast and slow. have i got this right?

Secondly, when the motor hits the the plug on severe tilt it freaks out and starts knocking around until the quad is level again, perhaps i am putting it to the extremes as i havent flown with it yet, this is only workshop testing.

Please help me gimbal guru's!!

Thanks

Mike

The pitch control is not position based, but gain (speed) based. For the second part, you might want to check out the Gimbal Tab of the Assistant software.

Thanks Rodimus that explains the pitch issue. So how do you guys know where level is when flying? Also, if the gimbal is pointing up or down are the motors straining until you put the lever back at centre?

RevoMikey Posted at 2015-1-13 00:15
Thanks Rodimus that explains the pitch issue. So how do you guys know where level is when flying? Al ...

See whether the vertical and horizontal limits can be configured for your Phantom.

Rodimus Prime Posted at 2015-1-13 18:34
See whether the vertical and horizontal limits can be configured for your Phantom.

just had same sort of problems with the chinese gimbal. I got it to work perfect on my bench then took it out for a flight and it worked fine once. next time it would do its own thing. I ama saving my pennies and could go for the zenmuse

Well after much tinkering i have it working great, on my desk anyway. I have set full up for straight forward and full down for 90 degrees facing downwards. This works well so my lever now controls the speed between these 2 points. As soon as the wind eases off I will test it properly. Fingers crossed.

Well the first flight was a success, i had some jello but i was expecting that when using a gimbal with the stock fc40 cam cable tied into it.  i am waiting for the sj4000 to arrive to beef up the quality and as the weight is greater with the sj i can work on jello when i get it.

Flight times though, wow, i didn't expect it to be reduced that much, i was scraping 6 minutes on a stock battery from full voltage to first flash of the red led.  is that what you guys get? presumably it will only get worse when i add the sj4000 to the gimbal.

So my questions are how do you guys find a happy medium, do you guys alternate between gimbal and none depending on whether you want to record or not?

Also, do you guys run until she lands herself? i am a little scared of that, after those 6 minutes my lipos were down to 3.8v, i know i can go lower but what voltage do you guys stop on?


Thanks for all your help fellas. us newbs need it

Additional info, a couple of my props are a touch scuffed, would that make a difference to flight time?

Well my sj4000 arrived. It's an amazing little camera. I tested flight times today. With gimbal and camera I was flashing low voltage at 4 minutes under heavy upwards acceleration, perhaps this is the load on the battery causing the warning. She self landed after 5 minutes.

I recharged the same pack and took the gimbal off, mounted the camera on the normal fixed adapter and she self landed at 10 minutes. Wow. Huge difference.

So really I find me asking myself if the gimbal is worth it. I guess not as I don't take pro shots or landscapes. I just like to film my flights. Screw the smooth footage I think.

RevoMikey, I had the same experience when I installed a gimbal, very short flights. The gimbal must draw a lot of current. Anyone else have a hint on how to extend the flight time / reduce the current draw of the gimbal?