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Losing Gimbal control when reconnecting to E90 camera

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Sep 24, 2019
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Hello All,
I am having a problem with the pan and tilt control of my e90 camera. The aircraft and camera will reconnect after I shut the drone down to change batteries or some other reason, but when the camera image comes up and I get a live feed, I have no control of the pan/tilt of the gimbal. (Pan/tilt switches in the correct positions.)

I have tried turning the aircraft off/on several times but this never makes a difference. If I restart the ST16S that will sometimes fix it, until the next time when turning the aircraft off/on (whilst keeping the ST16S on).

I have tried two different H520s and two different ST16S controllers, but only the one e90 camera.

When I get this problem, I have noticed that after the live camera feed starts, I don't get that "Awaiting connection to Vehicle" message or the bar along the top of the screen.

Anyone seen this before, or have any ideas?
 
You may have a problem with the slipring cable on that camera the image transmission is done wirelessly and doesn't have anything to do with the gimbal.
The best way to find out if is the cable you need to check the continuity with a multimeter but that requires to disassemble the back of the camera.
If you can't do that you can send it to me.
 
Try cleaning the gold contacts with a soft eraser or a plastic safe contact cleaner applied to a cotten swab. Do the same on the contacts of both aircraft also checking that they have tension on the springs. You should be able to compress them and they spring back up. If that fails to help follow the advice of @georgero above.
 
Try cleaning the gold contacts with a soft eraser or a plastic safe contact cleaner applied to a cotten swab. Do the same on the contacts of both aircraft also checking that they have tension on the springs. You should be able to compress them and they spring back up. If that fails to help follow the advice of @georgero above.

I was jumping to that conclusion because he said he already tried with different machines and he had the same results. But your suggestion is the first thing to do.
 
Thanks, that makes sense. I'll try taking it apart and replacing the swivel cable unit.
 
So, I changed the slip ring and haven't seen the problem for the last 20 or so restarts! Thanks for the advice!

However, during mid-flight about half the time the gimbal would roll about 20° for no apparent reason, and then that would be the new horizontal datum. The only way I could find to sort it out was to land and recalibrate the gimbal, and try again. (Taking a spirit level in the maintenance bag is now on the checklist! It was really hard to level the aircraft on a sloping field with no level reference points.)

Is there a roll/horizon correction control in Datapilot? DJI have it in their GO app (or is that another thing the H+ has, but not the H520!)
 
There is a horizontal camera calibration in DataPilot. However, your description doesn't seem to fit a calibration problem. It sounds more like a mechanical issue. Perhaps @WTFDproject can make a suggestion. He is the Forum expert on these cameras.
 
Hard to diagnose without the camera in hand. But there is one possibility to check that does not involve sending the camera for repair.
You changed the slip ring. That tasks involves disconnecting the short Roll Encoder ribbon from the gimbal board as one of the many things necessary to get access to the slip ring. The connectors on the roll encoder are very small, difficult to align, and easily damaged. My first thought is to remove the WiFi board again, and take a very close look at the roll encoder connection on the gimbal board. It may not be securely connected. And worse, the part that is soldered to the gimbal board may have cracked solder.
 

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