I had my roll at 80 and pitch at 20 and it seemed to be pretty good - too bad I wasn't able to try it with a camera mounted (but then again, guess I would be out one camera as well)! From what you present, It almost seems like the alignment isn't taking. You may want to try a number of times, trying different angles and see if it takes. Are you getting the confirmation screen each time you set roll and pitch setting? It is a bit of a pain not having exact directions with good visuals though Zero does have some videos. I might have a video of alignment I can put up on youtube just to be sure you are doing it the same way. Let me know how you make out. Jim
Zero UAV UAV Zero Steadi470
- Thread starter johnno
- Start date
On the parameters side, if I go past about +20 on the Roll sensitivity, then the gimbal goes out of vertical and hangs to the right. Much more than that sees the gimbal all the way to the right, hard up against the frame.
Strangely if I tilt the whole frame by 90 degrees (i.e. leg arms horizontal as they show in the Zero UAV video of the steadicam calibration) then I need to set the Roll to about -15 to get it level and pitch to about +20. If I do this with the frame int he normal alignment then the negative setting on the Roll drives the gimbal completely crazy and it starts crashing back and forwards into the frame. This inconsistency is very odd indeed.
When I do go through the process of setting Pitch and Roll extents I do get a confirmation pop-up each time I press the extents button.
The trouble is that I cannot get the Roll sensitivity up enough to be effective.
A couple of things. Can you video your process so I can see what is going on? Or you can send Peter (at Zero) an email and he might be able to work you through the issues (support_zerouav@yeah.net). What I have found is usually these things are something simple but not intuitive - partly lack of good documentation.
johnno
Member
Just to be sure, you are setting "mode" to 6 and sending it to FC before aligning gimbal? Once you have aligned gimbal you are changing it back to 2 and sending it? Then power down everything and restart?
Just came back from my test flight. All was going sort of okay until the quad just fell out of the sky!!!! Not sure if the super cold was the cause or something else. I will put up the video later.....hard to see as I was filming with a gopro on my head. I believe there is a file somewhere that logs the data - anyone know how to access it? I sure would like to know what caused the failure. Pretty much totalled quad
Hi Jim, so sorry to hear that, du you recall what mode you were in was it a total power failure. Nick was talking about flight data recovery, that is such a shame after all that work, and money.
might pay you to notify Uavzero.......John.
As promised, here is the video of my crash. Sorry about the GoPro, but the only thing I have to follow the quad. Kind of hard to see but.....
http://youtu.be/5opn5zh4GDE
http://youtu.be/5opn5zh4GDE
johnno
Member
Hi Jim such a shame and it took off very nicely so steady, what mode were you in on take off? and after you got it home and having a closer look what is the Verdict?....John.
I sent the log file to Peter at Zero and he confirmed what went wrong - Pilot Error!!! The quad was pretty far away and I didn't have a good orientation on it. It appeared that it wasn't responding to my down stick input so I switched from Manual ATTI to Manual - BAD MOVE. Since I was attempting to bring the quad lower at the time my stick must have been below 7 and the motors shut off. That would pretty much account for the fall from the sky! I actually remember reading something about that but didn't think about it in the moment. Expensive lesson for me.
I took off on Auto Hover mode which I guess is GPS mode. I did have some issues with limited control while in this mode and that is why I brought it back and switched to Manual ATTI (while on the ground!). I also tested RTH but the quad started flying too close to the trees and I had to take over control - not sure why that happened. Perhaps my compass needs to be recalibrated? Though I thought the rth was primarily a gps issue??
The gimbal seemed to be working pretty well - best I could see, it held vertical and kept up with swings of the quad. For me, the jury is still out though on overall performance of the quad. I need to do a lot more testing and get a camera on it. I am also a bit concerned about some of the idiosyncracies that might cause a a crash (like what happened to me). I think next time I better keep the quad very close and make all moves very slowly until I am sure I have confidence in my own ability to understand all the ins and outs of the FC.
johnno
Member
So you can rebuild how much have you got to replace, was any of the electronics written off, I am just trying to judge what it will cost to repair....John.
Hi John,
Don't really know what it will cost to repair. I pretty much have to replace the entire bare bones frame and gimbal. It didn't handle the crash well at all. I have an Xaircraft and DJI frame that I have had similiar crashes with (without gimbal mounted) and only had to repair an arm or two and some props. This crash really did a number of the frame. Broke the gimbal off at the pivot point (broke the plastic horn that goes into the bearing), broke all the rubber gromets between the two square frames, most of the fiber carbon parts of the frame with the exception of the landing gear. Most of the gimbal survived, 3 arms survived, but just too much damage to only replace the broken parts. Electronics appear to be okay though I won't know for sure until I hook them up and fly. I might download the basic YS-X6 firmware and mount the FC on a test quad I have. Nothing fancy but it handles crashes really well! Should be a good test platform for the FC. Not sure though, if the ESCs are compatible with this FC or not. Guess I can try hooking everything up and see if it flies or not!? In the meantime, I sent an email to sales at zero to see if they could sell me a bare bones frame. No telling how much it might be. If it is too much $, I might try out the Foxtech Glyder 600 - very similar and reasonably priced. Though, I don't know too much about it other than a few videos I have seen.
Don't really know what it will cost to repair. I pretty much have to replace the entire bare bones frame and gimbal. It didn't handle the crash well at all. I have an Xaircraft and DJI frame that I have had similiar crashes with (without gimbal mounted) and only had to repair an arm or two and some props. This crash really did a number of the frame. Broke the gimbal off at the pivot point (broke the plastic horn that goes into the bearing), broke all the rubber gromets between the two square frames, most of the fiber carbon parts of the frame with the exception of the landing gear. Most of the gimbal survived, 3 arms survived, but just too much damage to only replace the broken parts. Electronics appear to be okay though I won't know for sure until I hook them up and fly. I might download the basic YS-X6 firmware and mount the FC on a test quad I have. Nothing fancy but it handles crashes really well! Should be a good test platform for the FC. Not sure though, if the ESCs are compatible with this FC or not. Guess I can try hooking everything up and see if it flies or not!? In the meantime, I sent an email to sales at zero to see if they could sell me a bare bones frame. No telling how much it might be. If it is too much $, I might try out the Foxtech Glyder 600 - very similar and reasonably priced. Though, I don't know too much about it other than a few videos I have seen.
Hi Jim
Sorry to hear about your crash. The cutting of motors is supposed to be a safety feature, but I think it has caused a few problems when people have switched back into manual mode 1. When I do switch over, when flying my YS-X6 and YS-X4, I have got into the habit of checking that my throttle is at least at 50%. I now mostly fly in Auto Hover mode (GPS mode) and hardly ever switch to manual mode.
I am sure that sales will work something out for you, and I just wish I had some experience with the Steadi470 to be able to offer some advice to others on how get the Gimbal working well. As you recommended earlier, one should try and involve ZeroUAV support (Peter) to help, as he has probably the most experience.
Cheers
Rob
Sorry to hear about your crash. The cutting of motors is supposed to be a safety feature, but I think it has caused a few problems when people have switched back into manual mode 1. When I do switch over, when flying my YS-X6 and YS-X4, I have got into the habit of checking that my throttle is at least at 50%. I now mostly fly in Auto Hover mode (GPS mode) and hardly ever switch to manual mode.
I am sure that sales will work something out for you, and I just wish I had some experience with the Steadi470 to be able to offer some advice to others on how get the Gimbal working well. As you recommended earlier, one should try and involve ZeroUAV support (Peter) to help, as he has probably the most experience.
Cheers
Rob
johnno
Member
Hi Rob, it's a shame about jims disaster after putting all that work hope zero comes to the party, you flying the x4 now how do you find it compared with the x6....John.
Hi Rob,
So far, I haven't been able to work anything out with Zero other than purchasing a complete kit with electronics! That would be far too expensive for me. I wrote them back to let them know most manufacturers do sell spare parts in case of mishaps. Hopefully, they will get back to me and offer to at least provide the parts I need to rebuild - though it might be pretty expensive to do it that way. If they do not come up with some way to repair the quad, it would be difficult to recommend this quad to anyone - even if it has the best video stabilization Would just be too expensive to buy a new quad every time you crash!!! I am hopeful that they will come up with a replacement parts policy - perhaps they just didn't think of it???
This is a very good point. I intend using my Stedi470 for aerial photography in remote places and would also like the backup of a full flight frame (excl. electronics) in case of crashes. Hopefully Zero UAV will come to the party on this pretty soon.
johnno
Member
Hi Jim, how much of the frame do you have to replace? Are the electronics ok? I dare say the servos are probably stripped, I haven't seen anyone with spares yet might be a bit early ...John.
The damage is pretty extensive. Surprisingly, most of the actual gimbal survived but the supporting frame (were the one servo is mounted) is bent. All the arm supports broke which is surprising - they should probably do what they did on the landing gear supports and double them up. The landing gear actually made it through without any damage. I think two of the 4 arms need replacing as do all the motor mounts. Basically, the parts that took it the worst were the square frames that support the gimbal and frame, all the carbon fiber parts except associated with landing gear and most of the actual gimbal. The servos did not strip as best I can tell. I will need to test the servos, motors and FC to be sure everything is okay before seriously usning them. I intend on mounting the flight controller on my test quad to see if it checks out. I will check out the rest of the electronics as soon as I build my next quad - hopefully another Steadi470 - but I don't think I am going to hold my breath for Zero to decide quickly if they will help me out here or not. I am really surprised that they don't offer some sort of replacement part service.
Zero steady 470 with a DIY pan/Tilt gimbal
Hi, I completed my steady a few days ago and was wondering if adding an extra pan/tilt gimbal to the existing gimbal would affect it's behaviour. So, I have made a DIY pan/tilt to test, It seems to work to a certain extent. There is of course noticeable increments when the camera is moving, but I think that this can be remedied with Futaba sbus servos (Which are programmable). Here is a video of the test flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HR9Xo-Egqc
Oh by the way, Socratic, sorry to hear about your crash!!
Hi, I completed my steady a few days ago and was wondering if adding an extra pan/tilt gimbal to the existing gimbal would affect it's behaviour. So, I have made a DIY pan/tilt to test, It seems to work to a certain extent. There is of course noticeable increments when the camera is moving, but I think that this can be remedied with Futaba sbus servos (Which are programmable). Here is a video of the test flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HR9Xo-Egqc
Oh by the way, Socratic, sorry to hear about your crash!!
johnno
Member
hi mark, I had a feeling that it would be fixed, what I want to do ultimately is to have two aircraft both with 900 MHz data links and I was trying to get around buying 2 pairs......john
I took a look at your video - the picture looked pretty good but the frame looked like it was all over the place. From your description, I wasn't sure what you did - add a second gimbal(?) or a 3rd servo? I know that there was some discussion regarding the 3rd servo throwing off the balance of the quad making the quad/gimbal unsteady. Does your modification keep the camera in balance with the quad? As I mentioned, it appeared the gimbal was really moving around trying to keep itself steadied - working all the stabilization pretty hard?