As most of you know, I have been on a years-long quest searching for the elusive gimbal calibration software. The desire to use this software has taken me to some really bad places and some really good places. I finally received some news that I hoped I would never hear but expected.
Over the last several months I have talked with several former and current Yuneec employees. All of whom worked as engineers for the Q500 and many Typhoon H projects. The current employee is the head of the engineering department and I want to give him credit for his help with my quest. He explained why the software was not released to the public, why Yuneec dropped support of the CGO projects, and why Yuneec pulled out of its private customer base. He lives in China and he and I have become quite good friends. So all is not lost in my quest for the software I dreamed about. I made good friends along the way.
Why was the software not released to the public?
The answer is simple. Yuneec jumped into a market controlled by DJI too quickly. They put together a combination of drone, camera, and gimbal that worked nicely for the beginner and at a price people could afford. The problem they ran into was as everyone knows, support. The software we need to calibrate gimbals was thrown together by a team of software engineers who left Yuneec abruptly. So Yuneec didn't know what worked with what or how to use it. The software was also changed so much from gimbal to gimbal. It isn't as simple as one piece of software to calibrate one model of gimbal. Where one gimbal may work with Y/GroundControl another may not, due to firmware changes, protocols, and hardware differences. The software management was not managed well during the engineering of the gimbal. Yuneec didn't feel this would be an issue so the attention was not given to this area. The former gimbal engineer said the protocols change so much during the development and each change needed software developed but wasn't. They were given a set amount of time to get things working and bypassed some important areas of support. He admitted that even Yuneec couldn't calibrate some gimbals that were returned and just sent out replacements.
I asked him why some claim to have the software and use it. He said Yuneec only sent certain versions of the software to verified service centers and that is why they found it difficult to calibrate many of the gimbals. Even if someone has one version, it is not enough to get the results you need for the gimbal to work properly.
In other words, there were so many hands in the development of these gimbals that it is impossible to know which CGO3+ you may have and what software will work with it.
Lastly,
Yuneec doesn't keep their files in an organized manner and some software or firmware files may not exist today. One former employee said Yuneec didn't provide most of the equipment and when they left Yuneec, they took their files, computers, and notes with them. He said if he does find anything he thinks we may be able to use he will share it with me and I can share it also. BTW- The software is NOT copyrighted nor controlled by Yuneec. So anyone who says they can't share a version they may have is not being honest. He said that some former service centers may have copies they CAN share. If anyone has any friends at Best Buy or other former service centers, they may ask them to look.
I am sad but also happy this is over for me.
Over the last several months I have talked with several former and current Yuneec employees. All of whom worked as engineers for the Q500 and many Typhoon H projects. The current employee is the head of the engineering department and I want to give him credit for his help with my quest. He explained why the software was not released to the public, why Yuneec dropped support of the CGO projects, and why Yuneec pulled out of its private customer base. He lives in China and he and I have become quite good friends. So all is not lost in my quest for the software I dreamed about. I made good friends along the way.
Why was the software not released to the public?
The answer is simple. Yuneec jumped into a market controlled by DJI too quickly. They put together a combination of drone, camera, and gimbal that worked nicely for the beginner and at a price people could afford. The problem they ran into was as everyone knows, support. The software we need to calibrate gimbals was thrown together by a team of software engineers who left Yuneec abruptly. So Yuneec didn't know what worked with what or how to use it. The software was also changed so much from gimbal to gimbal. It isn't as simple as one piece of software to calibrate one model of gimbal. Where one gimbal may work with Y/GroundControl another may not, due to firmware changes, protocols, and hardware differences. The software management was not managed well during the engineering of the gimbal. Yuneec didn't feel this would be an issue so the attention was not given to this area. The former gimbal engineer said the protocols change so much during the development and each change needed software developed but wasn't. They were given a set amount of time to get things working and bypassed some important areas of support. He admitted that even Yuneec couldn't calibrate some gimbals that were returned and just sent out replacements.
I asked him why some claim to have the software and use it. He said Yuneec only sent certain versions of the software to verified service centers and that is why they found it difficult to calibrate many of the gimbals. Even if someone has one version, it is not enough to get the results you need for the gimbal to work properly.
In other words, there were so many hands in the development of these gimbals that it is impossible to know which CGO3+ you may have and what software will work with it.
Lastly,
Yuneec doesn't keep their files in an organized manner and some software or firmware files may not exist today. One former employee said Yuneec didn't provide most of the equipment and when they left Yuneec, they took their files, computers, and notes with them. He said if he does find anything he thinks we may be able to use he will share it with me and I can share it also. BTW- The software is NOT copyrighted nor controlled by Yuneec. So anyone who says they can't share a version they may have is not being honest. He said that some former service centers may have copies they CAN share. If anyone has any friends at Best Buy or other former service centers, they may ask them to look.
I am sad but also happy this is over for me.
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