Hi,
I tried to improve my "target hunting" skills and shoot a video of cyclist driving through the field. Everything seemed ok, I got about 9 sattelites, there was just very light wind, about 0°C and winter sun. I was flying with sun behind my back (see cyclist shadow). Battery was full.


http://youtu.be/hAl24teFHBM is quite strange. It floats or wiggles somehow (play it on 1080 fullscreen and look on green parts/field).
It does not seem normal to me. Is it someting common? Can I prevent this effect somehow? Or is my unit defective?

I tried to inspect gimbal at home but it seems to operate properly. Two hours before flight I made FW upgrade to latest FW (controller and Phantom), controller stick callibration, and complete IMU callibration. Just before start I made Phantom compass calibration.


Thanks for any help.


vtmarvin

Which Phantom are you flying?  The non-Vision models have some shake issues; commonly referred to as jello which can be solved with the addition of some 'shock absorbers' but I don't think I've seen this in the Vision+.

kenargo Posted at 2015-1-20 03:46
Which Phantom are you flying?  The non-Vision models have some shake issues; commonly referred to as ...

Phantom 2 Vision Plus ... it says v3 on the sticker on the bottom of the aircraft.

Hmm, I don't think I've seen this shimmy when I fly; perhaps a check of the props to verify they are in good condition (no nicks/dings, chips, etc.) and check their balance; these 2 things are a recipe for shakes and things.

kenargo Posted at 2015-1-20 04:08
Hmm, I don't think I've seen this shimmy when I fly; perhaps a check of the props to verify they are ...

Hi,
Phantom seems to be stable, no shaking at all. It was my second flight! I had no crash or hard landing ... I can say that props are shining brand new.

Slight imbalance of props can result in an almost unperceivable shake which the Phantom will brush off but the slight vibration, if at the correct frequency could cause some camera shake; you would likely not be able to see it visually as it is very slight.  You could also check the rubber shock absorbers between the camera mount and Phantom body; be sure they are inserted and one hasn't come out of socket and that at least 2 of them have holding pins or tie wraps.

kenargo Posted at 2015-1-20 05:01
Slight imbalance of props can result in an almost unperceivable shake which the Phantom will brush o ...

Thank you, I will check the shock absorbers.
Is there any way how to check for propeller inbalance - touch flying drone?
If inbalanced propellers are the cause of the problem what is the solution? I do not feel like buying new ones is the prefered solution for me. Current ones have been used just once and paying $15 for one flight is not what I imagined about drone flying ;)

This sounds like a problem with the video camera and/or sensor. Also try another memory chip. You may have a chip that is too slow for video or is  flawed.

videoguy Posted at 2015-1-20 05:19
This sounds like a problem with the video camera and/or sensor. Also try another memory chip. You ma ...

SSD card is the one I got with the drone. It's Class 4 Sandisk 4GB. I can swap it for my spare Class 4 Kingston 8GB. My first video was ok so I think that card is fast enough.

vtmarvin Posted at 2015-1-20 05:09
Thank you, I will check the shock absorbers.
Is there any way how to check for propeller inbalance ...

You can rig a balance tester by sitting them on a nail/screw; they should sit relatively level.  The better setup is a balancer (yes, there is such a thing).  Balancing them is easy; I use electric tape on the under side, near the end of the blade.  The props for the V3 I have found to be really close most of the time, needing no balancing or the smallest of tape.

Honestly, I don't think this is your issue given what I've seen with the props being really well balanced but it is something that can cause this issue so I wanted to mention it for completeness.

kenargo Posted at 2015-1-20 06:26
You can rig a balance tester by sitting them on a nail/screw; they should sit relatively level.  T ...

I hope that one of my coleagues has balancer for his aeroplane. Maybe it is usable for drone propellers too. I will report the result here after weekend testing. I have ballancer for RC car wheels but I do not think it is usable for this purpose.
Today I also bought new SD card SanDisk Class 10. If it will not improve recorded picture stablity at least it has much bigger capacity.

Thank you for your valuable advice!

vtmarvin

Try to mount the spare props instead that came with it.

BWJ Posted at 2015-1-21 04:43
Try to mount the spare props instead that came with it.

Thanks, this is a good idea. I will try to replace them all and then only one at the time to identify problematic propeller.

vtmarvin