This is another test of the Radian system. This is after making a small modification to the vibration isolators on the copter to make them stiffer. It has eliminated our odd bounce that we were getting in our footage. There were two flights done. The first had a lower Roll Gain setting (120). It was not reacting fast enough so I adjusted it to a higher gain setting of 145. It smoothed things out a lot better. You will probably be able to see the difference in the video between the two flights. ALL FOOTAGE SHOWN IS RAW AND HAS NOT BEEN STABILIZED IN POST! This also is the first video I have shot as a single operator. Our copter is now configured to run as either a dual operator if both controllers are on (one for the pilot, one for the cam op) or as a single operator if the cam op controller is turned off. Still need practice but not bad we don't think. Would love to know your thoughts... especially YOU JEFF since your the master at this stuff! P.S. This was using a monitor sitting on the ground. I was mostly flying this by guessing where the camera was aiming... I am looking into getting a set of goggles where I can see the copter in one eye and the downlink in the other. Josh
Nice work, Josh. Out of curiosity, what do you have the tilt gain set to and are you using Expo on tilt and pan? The tilt was very smooth although clearly ramping would make it smoother. What was the camera? Thanks Andy
Nope... no expo on the tilt... I need to try and add it. I have it set on the CTRL 7 on the MX20. Pan was just me yawing the copter. I used 2 velcro straps to strap the back part of the gimbal to boom 5 so it stayed in one place then unplugged the pan servo. Tilt gain I think is around 130ish? Don't remember off the top of my head. Camera was 5DMKII with 20mm lens.
Holler if you have problems adding it on the MX-20. Aha. Perhaps that makes for smoother operation than on one of the sticks -- I'll see if the shooters I work with would prefer a rotary control. Yeah, the "cost reduced" method of converting a 3-Axis gimbal back to a 2-Axis, eh? It is the easier way of getting ramping on a pan.... Thanks. That tells me that you really were flying smoothly.... Awesome! Andy.
Do Graupner controllers control separate onboard receivers? Or are you just fixing the gimbal to be a two axis system and yawing the a/c to pan the camera while using the available aux ports on the the primary controller through the available outputs through the MK flight controller, to do tilt?
You can bind multiple receivers to the MX20. Yes I secured the gimbal to make it a 2 axis gimbal. My system is setup so if the camera ops controller is turned off the Radian system gives the tilt control to me. As soon as the camera ops controller is back on it gives everything back to the camera ops controller. Josh
Marc: Have you used these PirateEye? I have seen them advertised but wondered whether they really work well -- and also where I would go to get the corrective lens inserts. Andy.
A few thoughts... Definite improvement in video quality. I have yet to get my gains that high but I think I'm on the right track. I'd be interested to see what you get with the radians off also. It seems there is still just a bit of hard type jolts but that is definitely usable video. Good edit... And I'm gunna guess you have red LEDs on the front boom? 1:50 in that vid
Yup... I need to get a lens hood for our lenses when I fly in lower light... The lighter footage (when the sun was still up) I had the Roll gain set at 120. As you can see in the footage it wasn't reacting quick enough to remove the side to side roll of the copter. After that flight I bumped the gains to 145 and it helped a lot. I think I can get even higher since I don't have any of the jitter. Ill be doing more testing soon. Josh
I enjoyed that! For my leds I removed the strip under the front boom and instead put a strip on the left and right side of the same boom. If I'm shooting after the sun goes down I'll put a strip of white vinyl tape over them to tone them down. Was that the superstitious mtns in the background? Cheers, Jeff
What camera are you using? We are able to get similar quality with a light weight camera, but with the 7D its all over the place (in a manor of speaking). Nice images though!! Good Work
Hey Josh, Nice job on the solo flight! I'm getting ready to bind my mx20 to the two receivers and would like to set it up like you did. I'd like to control the tilt unless camera operator turns on transmitter. Do you mind sharing the procedure you used to set it up that way? Thanks in advance
I figured out how to bind the mx20 to multiple receivers. Had to move some channels around to get the gimbal tilt on the rotary control but it works like a charm now. Still haven't figured out how to make my mx12 take over the gimbal for dual operator when a turned on without re-binding it.