banggood gimbal

@MikeyNick neat idea on the JST. Valuable seconds wasted on the gimbal depending on how long it takes for the GPS to acquire fully.

@MikeyNick My power lead comes with the jst plug. I usually unplug it when I calibrate. I have that voltage alarm on one of those legs. What voltage do you set it at?

@sportykev You need the camera on it.. there's nothing wrong.

@sportykev Put your camera on it & try again. It's calibrated to anticipate the weight & that may be all that's missing. you may not have any problem at all.

@ruouttaurmind Apparently, I needed to increase the "motor power". I'm still struggling with getting the gimbal+GoPro to level, and actually getting the pitch lever to work. Should be for an interesting evening. Bonus material: I was dumb and decided to test the drone indoors to see how much more throttle I'd need to get the drone to take off with the extra weight. Totally forgot I had a half finished 550pc puzzle on the table. So..... all the pieces went flying. Guess my wife will have to start all over :(

@sportykev I'm sure your wife is LOVING this new hobby of yours. LOL! Have you tried the reset button on the front of the controller board? It's just to the left of the pins where you connect the pitch cable. With your camera mounted, power up the gimbal and level the camera manually, then press and hold the reset button. This will cause the gimbal to calibrate the IMU's and should keep the level position once it's finished (it only takes a second to finish)

@ruouttaurmind yeah... P1 aka puzzle destroyer. I got impatient and took her out for a spin, and I just nearly bit it. P1 wanted to return home just as I was going full throttle, it started turning and headed for the biggest tree it could find. I pulled back just enough to save it. Video shows it all.

@sportykev Oh heck, WAY to close to that tree for comfort! LOL! While watching that I was on the edge of my seat... light pole, woah, rooftop, dang, trees! Too many trees! AAAHHH! Tree, watch the tree, telephone pole... oh dang. LMAO! That was "speed enhanced" video, right?

@ruouttaurmind real-time! for that split second everything happened in slow motion. I was expecting the P1 to tumble back to earth after grazing that tree. Lots of power lines as well. I'll learn one day

@sportykev what gopro are you running? Here was my initial problem when I added an fpv cable:

@garyhgaryh GoPro3. Did you try turning up the motor power in BCG controller? default is 40-50, but I put to 100 and it seems to hold up a lot better, though I'm still tweaking.

@sportykev upping the power did not help me. I think I'm set at 80-90. I tried 120-255. Your gopro3 is lighter than my gopro hd so I'm a bit surprised you are running into issues.

@garyhgaryh I'm waiting for my GoPro to fully charge then I'll go for another test drive. I think i miscalibrated the first time around. Documentation sucks for these gimbals.

@sportykev Here's another video of my solution to my gimbal issue. Might apply to you when you put on your av cable.

@garyhgaryh I'm not using FPV. Though, curious as to which kit that you are running with? I haven't had the best opportunity to test but I have rigged it up so that the gimbal is powered w/ the P1. I just can't get the pitch control to work though. Are you using it? (don't see the pins being utilized infront of the gimbal).

@sportykev Yeah your gimble is looking good! I'm using a boscam kit (600mw) with a 30 dollar lcd monitor. Yes, I'm using the pitch control.. The right front is hooked up. In order for you to use it, you have to turn on the gimbal option in the naza menu. I really like the gimbal that we got - it's an awesome one for the price. I'm now looking for a 3-axis gimbal.

@sportykev 1:36 in the video is where you can see the wires. The wires from our kit is short so I simply drilled a hole in the body to pass it through. I took off the connector first than fed the wires though and then put the connector back. Works great.

@garyhgaryh
I found the cable to be too stiff, i cut all the insinuation off and it works great.
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@sportykev WIth gopro only I was getting about 9-13 mins. With gimbal and gopro I was down to 8-9 mins.. add the video transmitter and now I'm running 6-7 minutes... Going with the 9443 props will give me back two minutes.

@sportykev @garyhgaryh I'm getting around the same with camera and gimbal. Yesterday's hilltop flight was 7:44 between takeoff and landing, with a 2 minute compass calibration and GPS acquisition on the front end (not flying, but powered up). I haven't tried my VTX yet but I'm hoping since it's much lower power than @garyhgaryh's maybe it won't hit the battery so hard. As a point of comparison, my last Tali flight was a hair under 27 min with camera, gimbal, telemetry and FPV.

@garyhgaryh I see a bunch of 9443 props from China on eBay, but they state for P2 and 3. Is there really a difference in props that you can use depending on Phantom model?

@sportykev You want to buy the p2 props - 9443. The 9450 are for aggresive flying. The 9443 will give you about two more mins of flight time.

@garyhgaryh I've read some threads on the RC boards that suggest the 9450's ("thrust boosted" rotors) might be a good fit for heavier payloads. For example a dual battery setup or a heavier camera/gimbal.

@ruouttaurmind I should try the 9450. I've been told the 9443 are the way to go and 9450 won't give you as much flight time (but more than the stock p111 props), but it's all about sacrafices. I might buy one and compare, but the comparison's on the internet shows the 9443 is the one to get for longer flight times, but it's a slug compared to the 9450. I don't have the 9450 so I can't comment on my personal experience.

Also, photo 2 shows the power tap. I haven't soldered in years though, it feels good to clean this up. The JST connector from Banggood was flimsy and the wiring snapped right off after shoving it into the battery compartment a couple of times.

@sportykev Dude, here's all you need to know. We got the same gimble - the signal wire from F2 Naza (bottom) goes to the top right pin on the gimbal controller. It's right under the battery door right? I hooked up ground as well (F2 top to right bottom on the gimble controller). If you want a picture let me know.

@sportykev Hey kevin, I looked at your picture (gimbal3). You hooked it up wrong. The red goes all the way to the right. The black goes under that at the VERY bottom. Middle in is vcc and is not needed (you can, but you're powered off the same battery). You're almost there. I hate that they didn't turn the board around..

@garyhgaryh I suppse we can try to rotate the board. I don't know if it'll mess with the IMU's, but perhaps that can be corrected with the BGC software.

@garyhgaryh you are my hero. Using the 'right-most' top and bottom pins on the gimbal did the trick. See, I would've never known that. Most of the documentation and YouTube videos show gimbals with 6 total pins. I am in your debt.

@ruouttaurmind If I rotate the controller, my pitch wires are too short :(. I'll have to worry about that.. I think rotating it should be ok, but I don't know how the IMUs work.

@sportykev No problem! We're all here to help. I spent about a week trying to figure it out myself. If I can help someone, all the better! :)

@garyhgaryh I saw a checklist somewhere on the interweb, on the 6-point IMU calibration. You'd have to launch the BCG software and tilt the IMU in all sorts of different positions. But yea, I don't know what's up or down or left or right.

@sportykev Mine does this a bit too... I thought it was me.. but when you're in the air, you can't tell.

@garyhgaryh problem is, I fine tuned it so that pitch lever to one side looks straight down, but since it canters off a bit it's catching the leg of the drone. I guess I can't complain too much with something that cost me 43 bux

@sportykev How did you get the gimbal for $43? I paid $54.

@garyhgaryh I lied, I paid 50.99.

@sportykev when you power it up is the quad level?

@nltownsend843 It is, but then I quickly move it about, then get the GPS calibrated. Is that my problem? I'm quick to do too many things? I'm trying to hustle to get the most battery time.

@sportykev
Could very well be, you need to let it sit still the gimbal has to lock in too.
set it where you plan to take off from and let it sit still until gps locks (fast flash of green light). Sitting there without the motors going isnt using enough battery to matter.

@nltownsend843 hmm, I'll try the patience route... LOL will report back when patience arrives

@sportykev If the battery is connected and the motors are not running, you don't have to worry about losing two minutes if you wait two minutes. The current draw is very small - gimbal and vtx are the major draws. I plug in my battery, calibrate, and wait for gps lock, which can take about 2-3 minutes.

Speaking of calibrating, I only calibrate once if I fry in the same area. What is everyone's take on this?

@sportykev I haven't even tried to upgrade the firmware. My 160g gimbal hasn't seen the light of day in months. LOL!

@ruouttaurmind 6 hours ago i wanted to work things out between me and the BGC, but since then I've decided to move on. BGC I'M LEAVING YOU.

@sportykev