Advice on DIY vs sending in to Yuneec

[adtuck]

I still struggle with the jello affect in my videos and am going crazy with my failed attempts at correcting it. My attempts have made a huge impact in that the waviness has decreased a ton, but it's still not enough.

I already called Yuneec to have it serviced, but have not sent it in because I don't want to be without the bird for so long - and I assume it will not be covered under any warrantee since it was *probably* my fault.

Here's my history. I had a fairly bad crash a couple of months ago that necessitated my replacing an arm, a leg, and the gimbal mount. I want to fix it by myself or with the guidance of a local expert. I have already balanced the propellers, installed new grommets, re-calibrated everything I can and basically did everything I could find that the interwebs told me to do.

Does anyone know of private companies in the North Seattle area that might be able to look at my TH and recommend what my next steps could be?

Thanks

Aaron

 

[Steve Carr]

I still struggle with the jello affect in my videos and am going crazy with my failed attempts at correcting it. My attempts have made a huge impact in that the waviness has decreased a ton, but it's still not enough.
I already called Yuneec to have it serviced, but have not sent it in because I don't want to be without the bird for so long - and I assume it will not be covered under any warrantee since it was *probably* my fault.
Here's my history. I had a fairly bad crash a couple of months ago that necessitated my replacing an arm, a leg, and the gimbal mount. I want to fix it by myself or with the guidance of a local expert. I have already balanced the propellers, installed new grommets, re-calibrated everything I can and basically did everything I could find that the interwebs told me to do.
Does anyone know of private companies in the North Seattle area that might be able to look at my TH and recommend what my next steps could be?
Thanks
Aaron

Don't give up quite yet.

There are two types of jello. One caused by vibration, the other caused by electrical interference. You need to narrow down the cause.

Take the H up in an area sheltered from the wind and let it hover with the props about eye level. Carefully observe each prop and motor arm. Look for any shake or vibration. Watch the camera closely and see if you can see any vibration.

If it all looks good then enlist some help from a friend. Boot up the H outside with no props. Start recording. Have your friend pick up the H and hold it steady. Then start the motors but let them just idle for a minute or so. Start and stop the motors a few times. Stop the recording, remove the card and examine the video on the computer. Do you see jello when the motors start? If so, it may be electrical interference.

Let us know what you find.

 

[adtuck]

I'm so sorry for the delayed reply.

Thank you. I will try the steps you mention.

To add another detail - when the TH is on and resting on a table with no motors, I can hear (and feel) the camera vibrating. It will stop vibrating for as long as I hold it steady with my hand, but then vibrates again when I let go. It's as if it's constantly trying to correct its position. When I look at video captures caught while sitting on a table, there is no jello in the video - so I'm not sure it contributes.

 

[adtuck]

I may have found it.

I don't know the names of parts well enough to describe what I think I found - but it may have to do with the size (height?) of my replacement dampeners. Dampeners are supposed to maintain a certain distance between the upper and lower part of the gimbal (the upper part being where contact is made with the TH and the lower part being where the gimbal hangs), right?. I noticed today that they actually hold the upper and lower parts together so snug, that the TH vibration is very possibly being transferred to the camera.

Do dampeners come in different sizes? The dampeners in the pictures on CarolinaDronz have ribs that run horizontally and look taller than mine. My newer ones do not have any ribs and appear "squattier." I tossed the originals when I repaired my H and cannot compare them.

Could it be that the replacement dampeners are too short and are holding my gimbal up against the mounting plate too tight?

Thank you

 

[Dr Delta]

I may have found it.

I don't know the names of parts well enough to describe what I think I found - but it may have to do with the size (height?) of my replacement dampeners. Dampeners are supposed to maintain a certain distance between the upper and lower part of the gimbal (the upper part being where contact is made with the TH and the lower part being where the gimbal hangs), right?. I noticed today that they actually hold the upper and lower parts together so snug, that the TH vibration is very possibly being transferred to the camera.

Do dampeners come in different sizes? The dampeners in the pictures on CarolinaDronz have ribs that run horizontally and look taller than mine. My newer ones do not have any ribs and appear "squattier." I tossed the originals when I repaired my H and cannot compare them.

Could it be that the replacement dampeners are too short and are holding my gimbal up against the mounting plate too tight?

Thank you

I think I remember a thread where GraigCam mentioned the existence of different dampeners.


Cheers...

 

[CraigCam]

I think I remember a thread where GraigCam mentioned the existence of different dampeners.


Cheers...

Ok. Yes there are two styles of dampening and two different mounting plates. The short dampers are the OEM ones that should work with your original mounting plate if that survived your crash. If you've replaced that and it's a mount without the lowered arms for the dampeners, the small OEM dampeners will not attach at all without grinding the gimbal pan shaft against the top and should be impossible to get all four dampeners properly seated.

The ribbed ones are longer and use a flatter mounting plate and my second H I purchased locally from a fellow pilot who quit had those Carolina Dronz mounts. The H had a lanyard on the box from them so I worried that perhaps this one had crashed! These are the mounts they sell online as replacement parts for the CGO3. If you buy from YUNEEC website, I believe you get the proper short ones.

My point here is that the OEM set up is better. I was getting a lot of jello especially upon descent where the gimbal has to correct the most. I have spare OEM camera mounts as those plastic rails are going to break on any hard landing or camera strike.

When I assembled the mount with the proper dampeners, I had the two extra pins that came with the CD mount. I put them in the open corners thinking that two more pins couldn't hurt. So I was still seeing some jello. I brought it down to eye level and sure enough, those extra two pins being too long were just buzzing away inside the dampeners from the prop wash. I removed them immediately upon landing. Problem solved.

In my opinion, the long dampeners are not proper for the TH. I also do not store my camera mounted so it does not stress the mount and sag the dampeners with it being yanked on in and out of the foam box. I almost always calibrate compass before any mission so starting flight prep with camera unmounted speeds up my launch.

One last thing is if a gimbal motor took a hit on the crash it will always fight you. A bent shaft can be the culprit also. With the H off, roll all your gimbal axis around and see if the rotations are straight. You can sight where the pan motor cover top edge gaps from the mount and as it pans, that edge should stay level when rotating. If the shaft is bent, you will see a dip on that edge which means the pan shaft is constantly making it horizontally correct for vertical shaft deflection. It's over correcting when this happens and it will never not show some jello in this scenario.

I ageee with Steve on elimination of electric interference first.

 

[adtuck]

Thank you. I have tested for electrical interference and did not find anything conclusive. I get jello at almost all times.

@CraigCam, I did have to replace the original mounting plate. However, it was not difficult to install the four "round" dampeners that came with my replacement parts. There certainly is contact between the two pieces indicated in the attached image. Look at the piece indicated with the pink arrow and at the plate indicated with the pink circle. You can clearly see friction scratches on the plate.

You can also see the type of dampeners that I have installed.

Any new ideas/thoughts?

 

[adtuck]

I finally found the root cause. After months of looking for answers (and initiating three different threads on this forum seeking answers) I finally found what was causing all my video to jello.

I suspected there was something wrong with my dampeners last week when I started this thread.

I had an email dialogue with <name withheld> (a wonderful help at a SoutheasternDroneSupplyRetailer) this week where we shared pictures back and forth of what the dampeners should look like. The dampeners were similar to each other in name only. Check out the picture below to see the difference. <name withheld> mentioned that a previous batch of CG02 dampeners were mislabeled as CG03 dampeners. She also mentioned that the issue has since been corrected.

The good news – I installed the correct dampeners this evening and my video looks crisp and clean in my first test run.

Moral of the story, check the size (length) of the dampeners you receive to ensure they are right for your bird.

I withheld her name to avoid problems, but I was so grateful for the help.

Fly safe my friends.