EN CN
Gimbal shakes when first turned on until corrected by joystick-then it's stable
  • Shutter
    So, I have a dslr gimbal(eagle eye) with a canon sl1(mini dslr) and 18-55 lens. Everything is balanced well, but when the gimbal it's first turned on, it shakes/rolls to the right(clockwise) and the camera wants to pitch down. I have a joystick, and I can "force" it back to level(usually I turn the gimbal on with the bottom plate on the ground to keep it level, and then use the joystick to correct the roll and pitch-after a few seconds of "correcting" it, the gimbal is stable and works pretty much as it should.

    What causes it to shake at first, and then work as it should once I correct it? It makes it very difficult to try and use it during a wedding because I have to spend 10-15 seconds making it stable.

    From what I understand, the joystick "tells" the gimbal what is level, and then the gimbal tries to stay there. Ie, rolling the gimbal 90 degrees makes the gyro think that 90 degrees rotated is level, so anything that deviates from that is given proper direction to make it 90 degrees.

    Why does the gimbal freak out at first?
  • Garug
    I would only use the joystick to tell the direction and speed the gimbal should move in handheld work (Speed mode)

    How is your start-up procedure? you could try to skip gyro calibration at startup and start the gimbal handheld, camera about in level.
  • Shutter
    Start up procedure for me is to grab the gimbal, and place the bottom edge of it on the ground and turn it on. This keeps the camera in a stable position when turning on. After it calibrates, it starts trying to make the camera point down and roll right.

    I don't know why I never thought about turning off calibration at startup, as that seems to make sense. Then it would hold whatever position it's in when turned in, until I perfected its level with the joystick, right?
  • Garug
    No, without the gyro calibration it just starts immediately. It will level ok. I think it is better start the gimbal on air, but gyro can not be calibrated when handheld so I disable the gyro calibration at startup.

    Are you using speed mode with the joystick?
  • Shutter
    Under rc control, roll, pitch and yaw have a blue mark in each spot...is this speed mode?
  • Garug
    Yes, if the blue dot are under SPEED MODE ;-).

    In speed mode you are not controlling the camera position directly, bud the direction of movement and how fast it moves, this is good for handheld gimbal.

    Did you try disabling the gyro calibration at start and starting the gimbal on air?

    Also have you performed the RC sub-trim AUTO calibration under advanced tab?
  • Shutter
    I will try disabling "gyro calibration at start" and report back

    I did perform rc sub trim, but I did it manually. Took me a while to figure out at first, since I was getting horizon drift pretty bad in the beginning.

    However, I have not used the "auto" setting so ill give that a try as well. Any reason to do auto over manual?
  • Garug
    Auto works great, no reason to do it manually.
  • Shutter
    Okay, update...
    I have rechecked wiring and balance, but I still have this issue.
    I have turned off "gyro calibration at start", but when the gimbal is turned on, it tries very hard to roll clockwise...If I keep the joystick pointed to the right(to "roll" the camera level" for about 10-20 seconds the camera finally levels out and stops shaking.
    From that point on, the gimbal works perfectly.

    Ideas?
  • Garug
    When the gyro calibration at startup is disabled, it is good to assign the gyro calibration to the button. The gyro calibration needs to be performed occasionally. The gyro can also be calibrated in GUI, but having it on button is really useful.

    The important thing is that when the gyro is calibrated the sensors must be totally stationary, it does not need to be levelled, but it must be stationary. I just leave the gimbal at floor for the time of the calibration, about 5 seconds.

    On what mode you start the gimbal? dry starting the gimbal without any follow mode. Set the follow mode to the button and activate it after the startup if needed.

    Perform follow offset auto on follow tab. for this the gimbal handle needs to be levelled.

    Also make sure that the gimbal basic setup is performed correctly. IMU axis set correctly, motors auto performed, poles corrected etc. Surprisingly the gimbal can work quite good even if there is some mistakes on these, but if the basic setup is not correctly performed, there will always be some problems.

    What firmware are you using? on the newest 32 bit there is Sensor reset. If you have that try it and recalibrate the sensors.
  • Shutter
    Just don't know at this point. I've gone though every setting, ensured balance, double checked settings and done the gimbal dance...but I still get 10-30 seconds on shake in the beginning when turned on.

    Only thing I've found is that the faster I make the joystick control the roll, the sooner I can make the shaking stop. But this doesnt help too much, since if I make the joystick move the roll faster to stop the shaking, it effects the speed AFTER the shaking stops. So everything is level, and I try to roll left or right 3 degrees, and it rotates 20 because of the speed.

    Gyro calibration at startup doesnt help either, as it just delays the shaking.

    I would say that something mechanically is broken, but once it turns on and is stable, it works exactly as its supposed to. But the getting stable part sucks haha.
Add a Comment