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Gimbal stopped working in flight

Discussion in '2 Axis Gimbal' started by Ben Altenes, Aug 22, 2013.

  1. Ben Altenes

    Ben Altenes New Member

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    I've been flying all week with no problems, and this last flight the gimbal stopped working in flight. No wrecks or adverse weather. Any thoughts on what might have happened? I will be hooking it up the mktools in a few to see if I notice anything. I have also powered down and ran thru the power up procedures throttle up and to the left to activate the gimbal and still nothing. Everything is still connected properly!
     
  2. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Sorry to hear about this, Ben. If it shut down entirely, it sounds like it's something central. It could be anything from the BEC, or the Receiver itself failing. I wish there was more I could suggest but, absent any data, it's impossible to know quite where to start -- other than something critical to all three axes.

    Andy.
     
  3. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Please share your setup. 2-axis? 3-axis? Radians? 1- or 2-operators? What radios? How about some photos of your setup?
     
  4. Ben Altenes

    Ben Altenes New Member

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    I am running a CS6 with a freefly 2 axis gimbal (no radians). 1 Operator, DX8 Transmitter and Mk FC.

    Everything looked fine in MKtools. The scope showed all signals are good.
     

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  5. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hi Ben:
    Just to confirm, using MK Tools, you see all channels responding as they should, especially those you use for controlling the gimbal, right?

    I presume you did NOT lose flight control, just gimbal control? If so, that exonerates the receiver on the copter and narrows things down to just the gimbal. You mention an MK FC -- are you using that to stabilize the gimbal?

    I also presume (a) you've never seen this problem before and (b) you cannot reproduce the problem on the ground. Is this correct?

    Andy.
     
  6. Ben Altenes

    Ben Altenes New Member

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    Yes you are correct
     
  7. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hmm. I'm not quite sure where to start on this -- there's not much evidence to go on so I'm just speculating, but perhaps there is some electrical noise (servos are notoriously noisy) that is causing the issue.

    Or, as one of my software developers said many years ago, after spending a week investigating a software problem, "Something, somewhere, is screwed."

    I know that's a singularly unhelpful comment, but the problem is that just from the word picture you've created, there's not much to go on, so let me ask a few questions and see if your answers suggest a line of diagnostic reasoning:

    Are you driving the gimbal from a separate LiPo or a BEC from the main flight LiPo?
    How is the MK FC that you're using for gimbal control getting it's power? (Is it a separate MK FC from the main flight controller, or the same?)
    If you have a MK Navi Ctrl board, do you have a GPX file for the flight where you saw the failure?

    Andy.
     
  8. Adam Paugh

    Adam Paugh Distributor

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    Hello Ben,

    First thing to check is the DC/DC converter aka "Recom". It is labelled "6" in the attached image. This converter provides +5v out to the servos. If you have a multimeter you can check to see if you are getting this voltage out. Here is the part in our store:\
    http://www.quadrocopter.com/DCDC-Converter-for-Flight-Controller-ME_p_59.html
    Greetings,
    Adam
     

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