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Gimbal gone wild.

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Apr 17, 2018
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For you guys with a lot of experience with the 920+, are you familiar with this problem and what to do about it. I got almost 4 minutes of good footage, then it did what the video shows. I believe this was after I started using the knob to rotate the camera, rather than yaw. You can see where I switched the camera back to following the craft. The gimbal was shaking violently when I landed. I restarted the drone and it worked fine.

 
This appears to be a problem with the IMU of the gimbal. Notice the tilt of the horizon as you rotated left, then as you went to the right it leveled as you passed the center then tilted the other at as you continued right.

You said it worked fine after a reboot of the aircraft and camera. Did using the camera pan work properly?

Another point to check is the connectors for the gimbal. Look for pins that are not fully seated in the connector body. Clean the connectors with plastic safe electrical contact cleaner. There are serial communications that control the gimbal and a glitchy connection can cause odd behavior.
 
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For you guys with a lot of experience with the 920+, are you familiar with this problem and what to do about it. I got almost 4 minutes of good footage, then it did what the video shows. I believe this was after I started using the knob to rotate the camera, rather than yaw. You can see where I switched the camera back to following the craft. The gimbal was shaking violently when I landed. I restarted the drone and it worked fine.

The behavior is similar to horizon roll seen on CGo3 and CGo3+ cameras. On those cameras, the horizon is level at two opposite points of the compass, is maximum left at 90 degrees left of one level, maximum right is at 90 degrees right. The two "level" points are generally near a north/south line, but about 10 to 20 degrees right of north. There is also no gimbal vibration associated with the CGo3 series cameras. The good news is the phenomena tends to disappear by itself. Unfortunately, not always.
With all that said, the CGo3 series cameras can generally be cured by an IMU calibration. Not the built-in calibration, unfortunately. They have to be sent to a service center for calibration using software that was not made available to the public. I've seen the same behavior on C23/E90, but it was not necessary to send for calibration.

By the way, I have no clue as to why the phenomena seems locked to the compass points. But the affected cameras will often have the same "level line" and the same max left/right points on each flight, regardless of the actual heading of the drone.
 
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First of all, check the connector to see if there is any loose wire or terminal it is very possible for one or more terminals to not seat right on the pins and because the vibrations to lose contact.
Try to do a gimbal calibration on a flat surface and then do a test flight. If that problem persists then you can request a repair service for the gimbal.
 
I couldn't really check it out well after the flight yesterday, just rebooted it, put it about 20 feet in the air, and yawed it a while. I ran the IMU and gimbal calibration again this morning (done it several times) and was going to try the drone after I finish up a job this afternoon (it takes unbelievable panoramas and I'll be in a new place). I also detected a little jello in some of the video yesterday. I would like to replace the rubber isolators, since they seem like they are getting stretched out. I couldn't find the OEM replacement and was going to try some other type. Does anyone have a source and has anyone tried to put more than 4 isolators (the manual showed only 4 but there are 12 holes).
 
I couldn't really check it out well after the flight yesterday, just rebooted it, put it about 20 feet in the air, and yawed it a while. I ran the IMU and gimbal calibration again this morning (done it several times) and was going to try the drone after I finish up a job this afternoon (it takes unbelievable panoramas and I'll be in a new place). I also detected a little jello in some of the video yesterday. I would like to replace the rubber isolators, since they seem like they are getting stretched out. I couldn't find the OEM replacement and was going to try some other type. Does anyone have a source and has anyone tried to put more than 4 isolators (the manual showed only 4 but there are 12 holes).
Are you sure it was jello? I saw you propellers in some parts of the video and it does look a little like jello effect but it certainly is not.
 
I flew it today, the gimbal didn't act up and actually kept the horizon better than I've seen it. I rotated through several 360 degree videos. What I didn't do though, was rotate the gimbal with the knob. I also didn't do a lot of running around so it didn't have to do any wild corrections. I checked the connection at the plug and couldn't find a loose or misplaced pin and I don't see anything obvious going into the top of the gimbal. I need to play with it more, but it did what I needed it to do today. Next time, I'll try the knob again. I have a few jobs first though, so I won't be able to do any testing until later in the week. Thanks for all your help. I still think I need to replace these isolators. I believe, due to their elasticity, that they may be past their useful life. Rubber gets that way.
 
I still think I need to replace these isolators. I believe, due to their elasticity, that they may be past their useful life. Rubber gets that way.
The part number is YUNCGO4002. (The part name seems to vary by country/language).
Either way, the only ones that showed up on a Google search are in Europe. At least they show up as "In Stock".
 
There can be also two other issues:

1. Check if these thin coloured wires that come from connector to slipring are ok (insulation problems, abrasions etc.) - I've had numerous cameras with this problem in workshop,
2. It may be also roll encoder - but less likely, cause with it are often connected some strange moves or even "dancing" of the camera :)

Problems with IMU are most frequently signalled by beep sounds (4 long and 3 short).
 
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Thank you all for the recommendations. I looked at both ends of the cable and couldn't find anything.
A physical encoder problem would make sense, but I haven't tried to open it up without a diagram.

It went unstable again after the snow last week.

I tried it on the manual gimbal holder and the first time, I tilted it probably too much and it went to an extreme. I rebooted it again, and it ran perfectly. I did notice that it made less noise, the longer I used it. I just got in from testing it over my house again and I couldn't repeat the problem, yawing with the gimbal and with the craft and rocking back and forwards quickly.

The two times it went unstable were a little windier and very humid (probably a few light flurries still coming down). Is it possible that it went past some limit, due to the wind or possibly humidity?
Could it just have been stiff and needed to be exercised more? Is there anywhere to pump in contact cleaner, like the controller sticks (away from bearings, of course)?

By the way, I still haven't located any new rubber isolators for this unit. Most of them have the wrong diameter. I've ordered some CG03 ones and am hoping they fit. This gimbal/camera bounces around a whole lot.
 
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Just an update. I bought a set of CG03 isolators on Ebay. I left the originals on there and added those (there are 3 holes for isolators in each corner of the connecting piece). They appear to fit just fine. The camera appears to be a lot more stable and I haven't seen the "jello" that I saw previously. I haven't been able to reproduce the gimbal tilt problem.
 
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You can always look for tutorials in WTFD project - please look at attached file. You'll find photo tutorials how to fix your gimball there :)
 

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  • WTFDproject Rev87 .pdf
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