Photohigher skyline rsgs

Hi Dominic,

Please contact the distributor who you purchased your gimbal from and we will ship them free replacement gears for you. This applies to anyone who has damaged the gears on this fault.

Photo Higher
 
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I used the AV130 today with the skyline on my 1200 octocopter. This was to do a paid job (filming the Olympic Sailing village)
I used a gopro because as mentioned previously on this thread I have had difficulty stabilising a canon 550d. I have been waiting to do this job for a couple of weeks because the weather has been pathetic but I have been grateful for the delay.
Anyway these are my findings. With the gopro the unit gives good stabilisation and smooth video. I am able to use gain settings for tilt and roll as high as 40% which gives good speed and recovery.
It would be nice to have stabilized pan control. I am controlling my pan direct from the rx and it is very tender. In order to prevent it creeping and also glitching tilt and roll I have set the tx rates/expo to just 2%/100%. This means a very big movement on the stick gives a very slow response on the pan. It is the only way I can make it manageable. I use 2 transmitters and receivers, one of them dedicated to the gimbal and controlled by a camera man using fpv.
I am very grateful that staff at PH are monitoring this. I am sure the rsgs will soon be very good piece of kit. If there is any blame to be apportioned on this I would say it is 50 50. 50% on us the customers for pestering PH to release before they were fully ready!
I think I should have bought the av200 for the larger camera, I would like to know how av200 users are getting on with the skyline.
 

ZAxis

Member
Thank you Photo Higher for putting your head above the trench and into the direct line of fire. We have been waiting some little while for the RSGS to make it to market, intending to be one of the first users but have been truly taken aback by the user experiences posted here and elsewhere. A new product line in a new field away from your usual engineering background was a brave move to take and I hope it all works out well soon.
In the meantime we will hold off from buying a Skyline. I think you have to realise that a product and its software that is rushed out prematurely is doomed to disaster. Kim's earlier post about solid power supplies, camera electrical isolation and RF interference susceptibility was particularly worrying. The system is being put to work in an RF intense situation so it should have been a real priority to minimise any RF induced problems.
Get it right and we'll be back.

andy
 

Hi Adarsh,

Please install 1.1.3 firmware. You will get the error "Failed to Execute Command" if the gimbal is "Powered On" when you press "Save Setting". Please untick "Power On" and then press "Save Settings". The next release of software (and firmware) will have this fixed.

Currently the only available tabs in the software are Servo Centre Tune, Gains and Firmware Update.

Once you have "Centred" your roll servos, they should stay at that level every time you power it up.
 

swisser

Member
Photo Higher OM,

From the various forum posts on this topic we've been able to ascertain that:

a) we should use firmware 1.1.3
b) we should power the skyline directly from a BEC, at 5 or 6V
c) we can't use pan and that there are only limited functions in the software at the moment.

Could you possibly address a few points for the benefit of lots of frustrated people? A pretty common arrangement is likely to be:

1) A BEC providing 6V, which should be connected to what? The pan input? Presumably then we can leave the pan servo disconnected?
2) A transmitter channel for the tilt which is connected to the tilt input.
3) Leave the roll input unconnected? (Anybody using a DJI WKM flight controller with an 8 channel tx/rx is unlikely to have a spare channel available to connect to the roll input. Is it okay to just leave that input unconnected? Presumably one should NOT connect it to the DJI WKM flight controller's gimbal roll output?)

How does one use the levelling procedure? Does one type in values and use the Set Level button to apply them? Or does one set the thing level by hand when powered off, then use the Set Level button to record that position?

Is there anything that can be done to stop:

(a) When switching from Power On (green light) to Power Off (blue light) the thing rotating through more than 180 degrees, such that when you then power it back it doesn't take the shortest route, resulting in having rotated at least 360 degrees?

(b) The slow continuous tilting that we seem to get after Power On.

Thanks in advance.
 

Hi Swisser,

Firstly, please have the camera try level every time you start the gimbal. While the LED is flashing orange, it is sampling which way gravity is and the accelerometer uses this to keep itself level. When it activates several seconds later, it will use the sample it gathered while calibrating. If the gimbal was moved while it was calibrating, it will have a slow drift.

To answer the rest:

1. You can connect the BEC into the Pan Input lead on the Skyline. OR you can connect the BEC to your receiver and then the receiver will power the Skyline.
2. Please connect the "Tilt Input" to you receiver. Elevator or any other channel that can be controlled with a slider or stick on your mechanism (and returns to neutral) should do.
3. The roll is stabilised by the Skyline. Once set, it does not need any input and can be left unconnected. The roll input will be re-enabled on the next firmware.

To use the Set Level feature, do this:

I. Adjust the slider gains so that the gimbal doesn't oscillate.
II. Press the "Power On" button.
III. Using the up & down arrow, adjust the Roll Centre Tune value until the tray is flat.
IV. Press "Set Level" button.
V. Untick the "Power On" button (the servos will deactivate and probably roll if the weight is unbalanced).
VI. Press "Save Settings"
VII. Disconnect the battery and USB cord.

The level should now be set. If done correctly, it should hold its value and when you power it up. For slow creeps, check your radio to make sure it is trimmed.
 

Dominic

Member
Hi
I am sorry for the rant yesterday not normally like that! We have been waiting a long time for this bit of kit!! Thanks PhotoHigher.

yours Dominic
 

Dominic

Member
Hi Again

Hi PH

Am I right in saying the skyline does not work with the av130 and a 550d?? And if it does how do we get rid of the tilt shakes & how do we work out the end points


cheers Dominic
 


I am not saying it does not work with the 550D, just that you need to set the gains so low for that camera to eliminate oscillation (because of the weight) that the response of the gyro is not sufficiently quick to adequately stabilise the camera and you get wobbly video. Using a lighter camera like the gopro, the gains can be set much higher before the oscillation starts, and the unit performs brilliantly (IMHO)
 

Hi,

I have started a newsletter for my customers to keep them in the loop of the news about the Skyline.
I will collect as many informations as I can and centralize it in this newsletter. If you want to join, please send me an email or a PM ([infos 1001copters.com], please fill the blank with @)
 

DennyR

Active Member
I am not saying it does not work with the 550D, just that you need to set the gains so low for that camera to eliminate oscillation (because of the weight) that the response of the gyro is not sufficiently quick to adequately stabilise the camera and you get wobbly video. Using a lighter camera like the gopro, the gains can be set much higher before the oscillation starts, and the unit performs brilliantly (IMHO)

This is quite often the problem when you mount the IMU on the gimbal, much higher gains and sensitivity can come from having it mounted on the airframe. A feedback pid loop is always going to be inferior when you have inertia involved in the feedback measurement. You can only do it this way as an inner axis that moves a small amount only. One that has already been ball parked with outer axis movements.
 
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swisser

Member
Thanks for the reply - I do really appreciate it and I think there is a lot of useful stuff in your post that will help others. HOWEVER! When I power up the board now I don't get an orange LED - I get all the LEDs (blue, red and orange?) all on at once. No matter what I do, these stay on constantly. The PC won't talk to it, it doesn't output to the servos, nothing, just those LEDs. What now?

Firstly, please have the camera try level every time you start the gimbal. While the LED is flashing orange, it is sampling which way gravity is and the accelerometer uses this to keep itself level. When it activates several seconds later, it will use the sample it gathered while calibrating. If the gimbal was moved while it was calibrating, it will have a slow drift.
 

Thanks for the reply - I do really appreciate it and I think there is a lot of useful stuff in your post that will help others. HOWEVER! When I power up the board now I don't get an orange LED - I get all the LEDs (blue, red and orange?) all on at once. No matter what I do, these stay on constantly. The PC won't talk to it, it doesn't output to the servos, nothing, just those LEDs. What now?

Did you powered it correctly ?
Mine has done the same thing when I fried it with a 2S LiPo...
 

MultiHexa

Member
Hi,

I installed the skyline into a AV130 and everything wired. The LED lights up red, yellow and then green. There is no servo moves. It stands still. When my friend of mine has the same problem. I've tried it with the firmware 1.1.3 and also with the version 1.1.4. In my case does not move a servo. Does anyone know the problem?

Tilt Servo to Skyline Tilt Servo
Tilt Poti to Skyline Tilt Pot
Roll Servo to Skyline Roll Servo
Roll Poti to Skyline Roll Pot
Pan Servo to Skyline Pan Servo

Input Tilt Servo to Receiver (Receivers with 5.00-volt)

So I connected it.

View attachment 4828
 

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andrewrob

Member
This is quite often the problem when you mount the IMU on the gimbal, much higher gains and sensitivity can come from having it mounted on the airframe. A feedback pid loop is always going to be inferior when you have inertia involved in the feedback measurement. You can only do it this way as an inner axis that moves a small amount only. One that has already been ball parked with outer axis movements.

You still get the judder with no stabilisation when you move the tray quickly with the 550d in it, its just that as you say above its then amplified even more by the RSGS picking up the juddering and trying to counteract it. I don't have the issue with the DJI gimbal stabilisation but thats only because it doesn't move fast enough (making it fairly poor for tilt stabilisation) for it to occur.

It seems that although the AV130 is meant to be able to work with a 550d, it can't at any speed fast enough to adequately stabilise it.
Hope I've explained that well enough because reading it back doesn't make sense to me!
 




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