DucktileMedia
Drone Enthusiast
Is your dead cat horizontal or vertical?
Hoverfly Hoverfly Gimbal Controller?
- Thread starter RotorFilms
- Start date
RancherPete
Member
My dead cat is strapped vertically to the bottom of my AV200 gimbal providing just enough dihedral effect to stabilize my camera very nicely. What else was I to do?
Hi,
right now there is no Gimbal Stabilisation (3-Axis) that works like we want it to. Not for the price you can get the HF. I understand people not wanting to be beta-testers. BUT just google or read all forums about Gimbal Stabilisation. It is not as easy as most of us would suggest.
I purchased HFGimbal and thought it might be the one i would need. There is no ready-to-fly right now. So I´ll do my best to help all developers to find solutions for all problems coming along. So yes, i´am kind of a beta-tester.
You cant blame one single thing to be responsible for the issues we have. It might be a mixture of more.
Right now, thanks to a lot of people, it is firmware,mounting position, EMI to create different problems. But we are getting to it.
I changed position (works much better for me now), and i´ll try to use a case like Pete. The next firmware update will hopefully finish the job.
Just my 2cents
Thanks
right now there is no Gimbal Stabilisation (3-Axis) that works like we want it to. Not for the price you can get the HF. I understand people not wanting to be beta-testers. BUT just google or read all forums about Gimbal Stabilisation. It is not as easy as most of us would suggest.
I purchased HFGimbal and thought it might be the one i would need. There is no ready-to-fly right now. So I´ll do my best to help all developers to find solutions for all problems coming along. So yes, i´am kind of a beta-tester.
You cant blame one single thing to be responsible for the issues we have. It might be a mixture of more.
Right now, thanks to a lot of people, it is firmware,mounting position, EMI to create different problems. But we are getting to it.
I changed position (works much better for me now), and i´ll try to use a case like Pete. The next firmware update will hopefully finish the job.
Just my 2cents
Thanks
S11D336B
George - Hoverfly
Hello,
The portion which refers to magnetic interference relates only to the yaw auto compensation feature and does not affect tilt/roll. I can appreciate your situation, and understand your frustration. I can't change the past, but I can be here right now if you're still willing to work with us. If you're interested, I'd be more than willing to talk to you on the phone to better understand what is happening.
Thanks,
George
The portion which refers to magnetic interference relates only to the yaw auto compensation feature and does not affect tilt/roll. I can appreciate your situation, and understand your frustration. I can't change the past, but I can be here right now if you're still willing to work with us. If you're interested, I'd be more than willing to talk to you on the phone to better understand what is happening.
Thanks,
George
This yaw roll coupling is not an isolated problem. Mine does the exact same way and mines edge mounted.
After "upgradeing" to the HFG from the WKM controller (so as to add tilt) I am very dissapointed in this product.
I've pulled it and re set it up to no avail. Next is to change the orientation to see if that helps.
BTW a magnet is not the same as EMI as EMI has frequency and a magnet does not.
LGU
After "upgradeing" to the HFG from the WKM controller (so as to add tilt) I am very dissapointed in this product.
I've pulled it and re set it up to no avail. Next is to change the orientation to see if that helps.
BTW a magnet is not the same as EMI as EMI has frequency and a magnet does not.
LGU
DucktileMedia
Drone Enthusiast
I guess the reason my gimbal controller works so well is that I have the yaw servo going straight into the rx and not through the HFG. I still dont see why you need this so much. Seems when you have a 360 gimbal, you have a camera operator. Panning and tilting is more or less manual, although tilt is gyro stabilized as well as roll only it is controllable. Yaw is straight to the sticks. has always worked for me.
RancherPete
Member
LGU: This is exactly what mine was doing. I put it in the shielded box and the problem went away. They can claim that EMI or RFI has no bearing on this symptom but my experiences have suggested otherwise. Just yesterday I removed the shielded box from the equation and it went right back to the crooked horizon almost immediately. When I added the shielded box once again the horizon was fine even after flying sideways and yawing at a very high rate in both directions. I also have a two axis setup so my yaw is my pan. Even with all of this panning (yawing actually) I could not trip it up. If you do not see the same positive results you will at the very least have created a protective box for your HFG as it should have been delivered to you to begin with. Good luck.
Photronix
Pilot
When Ben mentioned that you had good results with a plastic box I didn't realize that it had a metalized coating on the inside. I would like to arrange to get one of your boxes for testing. Can you PM me your contact info. Also, how did you ground the metalized coating to the common of the electronics? Do you happen to know the make up of the coating. Nickel would be very bad.
"" 2. When I turn on my rig, the gimbal will learn the current postion of my tilt lever, so if I have the tilt lever full down, then it learns that as center, and I can not get my full range. Right now I try to remember to put the lever back to center before powering up. ""
This is really an inconvenience
This is really an inconvenience
S11D336B
George - Hoverfly
Sorry to hear about this. The HoverflyGIMBAL does this to prevent drift when in angle velocity mode. If we didn't do this and you hadn't put your tilt level back to center, your camera would smash into the ground when you turned on your camera mount anyway. The best thing to do is simply get in the habit of centering your tilt lever before plugging in your camera mount.
"" 2. When I turn on my rig, the gimbal will learn the current postion of my tilt lever, so if I have the tilt lever full down, then it learns that as center, and I can not get my full range. Right now I try to remember to put the lever back to center before powering up. ""
This is really an inconvenience
Hi everybody!
Any tests with the new (1.8) firmware? Is the drifting horizon & yaw axis coupling problem fixed?
I would like to buy the HFG (currently using WKM for gimbal stabilization), but the roll drift always kept me from it...
Your feedback will be much appreciated,
Regards,
Jim.
Any tests with the new (1.8) firmware? Is the drifting horizon & yaw axis coupling problem fixed?
I would like to buy the HFG (currently using WKM for gimbal stabilization), but the roll drift always kept me from it...
Your feedback will be much appreciated,
Regards,
Jim.
RancherPete
Member
Jim: Read the post above regarding the shielded box. This is what solved the issues for me that you are now referring to. With that said; if you have not bought one of these Hoverfly Gimbal stabilizers yet I would suggest that you save your money. The customer service in my experience was nonexistent and this product still has issues. It was not until I went public with this sentiment that they suddenly wanted to help. This after nearly 3 months of begging. At best this stabilizer is mediocre. I have tried the Radian and it is amazing. It cost more but then there is a reason why better products cost more money. You get what you pay... when you're lucky. If you value your time and you want to cut to the chase and get something that simply works as advertised spend a bit more money (which will actually save you money in the end) and buy the Radian. That's just my opinion but its based upon my personal experience and I don't sell these things or 'have my hand out' in any way. I am a photographer who wants to 'get the shot' and I don't want to screw around with substandard or unpredictable equipment. If however you will be using this for hobby purposes and don't mind tinkering around with something in an effort to make it work better this might be fine for you. Good luck.
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the feedback RancherPete. Seems like many HFG owners went the Radian way at the end...
RancherPete
Member
I'm happy to share my experience. I just hate to see someone go through the same aggravation that I have been through. I hope that the Radians will work out for you.
Happy Holidays.
Photronix
Pilot
I find it odd that you have this opinion yet I replied to your thread and also sent you a PM.
As far as EMI/RFI shielding this is not a problem we have found in the HFG. The circuit is almost pure digital. In addition, the EMI/RFI coating on many of the plastic enclosures contains nickel which shields magnetic fields (see mu metal). Shielding the Earths magnetic field from the magnetometer on the HFG is not a recommended approach and can cause more problems. I believe using the box in your case changed the vibratory spectrum seen by the HFG and resulted in different performance.
I believe the latest firmware will match the Radians, at a third of the cost and complexity.
Sorry if we lost you as a customer...we do try our best to satisfy everyone.
As far as EMI/RFI shielding this is not a problem we have found in the HFG. The circuit is almost pure digital. In addition, the EMI/RFI coating on many of the plastic enclosures contains nickel which shields magnetic fields (see mu metal). Shielding the Earths magnetic field from the magnetometer on the HFG is not a recommended approach and can cause more problems. I believe using the box in your case changed the vibratory spectrum seen by the HFG and resulted in different performance.
I believe the latest firmware will match the Radians, at a third of the cost and complexity.
Sorry if we lost you as a customer...we do try our best to satisfy everyone.
RancherPete
Member
"..we do try our best to satisfy everyone". If what I experienced was your best efforts with regard to customer service then you guys might want to crack a book open on how to communicate with people in this century. Yes, you replied to the thread and sent a PM months after the fact and only after I made my grievances known on this thread. This after weeks of my politely asking for assistance at regular intervals and receiving nothing in return. While I appreciate your efforts at this late date it is just too late to 'make nice' after all of this unnecessary aggravation. Its also a little bit too predictable for my taste. I hope you guys get it figured out.
Dear Photronix,
Is the drifting horizon & yaw axis coupling problem fixed? I am really interested in buying your controller, but the said problem (as stated by many users in this and other forums) has kept me from it. Could you please confirm that it has been resolved with the new firmware release? Also, some new test videos (with the new firmware) would clear things up and make it easier for potential buyers (like myself) to decide ...
Thanking you in advance,
Jim.
Is the drifting horizon & yaw axis coupling problem fixed? I am really interested in buying your controller, but the said problem (as stated by many users in this and other forums) has kept me from it. Could you please confirm that it has been resolved with the new firmware release? Also, some new test videos (with the new firmware) would clear things up and make it easier for potential buyers (like myself) to decide ...
Thanking you in advance,
Jim.
Photronix
Pilot
I'll ask Dan, the lead engineer on this, to comment. I am fairly confident that it has been resolved. GGoodman was having some major issues with his gimbal but as I understand he is now very happy with the performance. He sent us one of his gimbals to test with and Dan demonstrated it to me. Very nice gimbal and the performance with the HFG is very good.
I would like to buy a Radian to test with but.....sheesh they are kind of expensive. The design of the Radian with separate sensors for each axis takes the load off the software development. The downside is it works great with the Cinestar gimbal but it will be difficult to mount it to all gimbal models. I feel that is a major advantage of the HFG. It was designed to work with any gimbal design but that makes our (I mean Dan's) job a great deal harder on the software side. He has done a phenomenal job on this product.
I would like to buy a Radian to test with but.....sheesh they are kind of expensive. The design of the Radian with separate sensors for each axis takes the load off the software development. The downside is it works great with the Cinestar gimbal but it will be difficult to mount it to all gimbal models. I feel that is a major advantage of the HFG. It was designed to work with any gimbal design but that makes our (I mean Dan's) job a great deal harder on the software side. He has done a phenomenal job on this product.