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Radian Freak Out

Discussion in 'Radian' started by Chris Newman, Jun 2, 2013.

  1. Chris Newman

    Chris Newman Member

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    Has anyone ever had issues with the radians acting weird for your camer op?

    Mine occasionally will at random sometimes after take-off:

    -pan right on it's own
    -look up down and all round on it's own.
    -when on the ground and radian modes are not turned on. The gimbal shudders and acts weird and sometimes wont react to the gimbal initialization.
    -When on the ground and no radian modes are turned on the pan axis will not rotate freely.

    Sometimes a temporary fix is to have my camera op turn off the stabilization mode and back on again while in flight. Others is to land and reconnect the gimbal battery. Sometimes the issue is lower gimbal battery is low but most of the time the battery is fine.

    Is there a way to test if my lipo is not performing up to snuff even though the voltage reads fine?

    Anyone else experience these symtoms? And any ideas?
     
  2. Tim Joy

    Tim Joy Active Member

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    One time it happened to mine with similar symptoms as you describe, but I'm pretty sure it was due to movement at boot up.

    It does sound like it could be power related. Maybe try swapping the bec.
     
  3. TROU BAYLISS

    TROU BAYLISS Member

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    Quanum make a great battery telemetry watzaflingle.. at H,K,
     
  4. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hi Chris:
    My camera op occasionally sees a gimbal lock-up (fails to respond to transmitter commands). It seems to be when the battery is getting close to low. The workaround is to change Mode to Off, and then go back to Stabilized Slew.

    I'm still pondering whether this might be a problem of the servos kicking out a lot of noise and confusing the Radians.

    I *might* try providing a separate clean power source for the Radians and a separate BEC for the servos -- sharing a common ground, of course, and see if that eliminates the problem.

    Andy.
     
  5. Mark Melville

    Mark Melville Member

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    I had this issue yesterday where it started panning on it's own. I swapped the bat out and the problem ended
     
  6. Josh Lambeth

    Josh Lambeth Well-Known Member

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    We have had this. If your camera op has their controls anywhere other than centered on the channels that send inputs to the copter when it's mode is switched to stabilized it will freak out. If you center your sticks then reset the gimbal (mode off then back to stabilized slew) it will work fine. Took us a while to figure it out but we can repeat the issue over and over.

    Josh
     
  7. Mark Melville

    Mark Melville Member

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    Josh I had this happen the other day. The sticks were centered when I switched modes. It started freaking out in mid flight. I switched batts and all was well. I'll tell you the truth I'm not overly thrilled with the Radians. They were expensive and overall way too much work to get them to work decently. I'm still tweaking these things and I've had them for more than 6 months. Tilt and pan seen to work well but roll sucks.
     
  8. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    @Josh: Interesting observation. I've emailed JohnC with what you said and asked if he has a moment to read this thread.

    @Mark: Sorry to hear about your frustrations with the roll Radian. Just out of curiosity (and I'm not suggesting this is the problem), but what do you have the roll gain set to please?

    Thanks
    Andy.
     
  9. Chris Newman

    Chris Newman Member

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    Cool, glad i'm not the only one. I switched out my BEC just incase. I will make sure tell my camera op to keep the sticks centered when turning on the stabilization.
     
  10. John Cunningham

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    Josh,

    Yes - the Radians do resample the stick null-position when mode goes from 'off' to 'on'.

    The reason is that gimbals are often powered up in the 'off' mode (especially pan). If the stick was sampled as soon as the radio was turned on and the stick was not centred, you wouldn't find out until you took off - then the only way to reset it would be to land again and repower.

    It's a particular problem for Spektrum : the data from the satellite does not go valid until quite a few seconds after the radio is turned on. Many camera op's are waggling sticks by then to see if the gimbal is responding.

    JohnC
     
  11. Mark Melville

    Mark Melville Member

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    Andy I have mine set at 75 now and seems to be acceptable but as you know Radians are pretty much obsolete now that everyone's is converting their 3 Axis to direct drive motors. I'll be doing the mod on mine in a couple of weeks. Just wish I had that $1000 back that I gave Tabb. Oh well.
     
  12. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    @Mark: That seems quite low for roll. Are you finding that you get roll twitches or is it slow to respond?
    Can you also confirm that what you see happening in the roll axis that you don't like stops if you switch the Radians to Mode OFF? That would confirm whether or not it's the roll Radian actively doing something...

    Thanks
    Andy.
     
  13. Mark Melville

    Mark Melville Member

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    Andy I've played with the gain setting and for this camera (very light) is about the best it will do. Anything higher I get oscillation. Yes I wish it would respond faster but I guess it's a compromise. A heavier camera I think would help the cause. Coming soon incidentally. And yes the roll access turns of when I switch it off.
     
  14. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hmm. So even at low gains the roll Radian is causing issues.....I would be tempted to try swapping the roll Radian sensor with, say, the Pan sensor and see what happens. It may be "call your dealer" time if you have problems in roll after you have done this, I'm afraid.

    Andy.
     
  15. Mark Melville

    Mark Melville Member

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    Andy let me voice one last thing. I currently have roll locked out so it just stabilizes but is not usable through my radio. My feeling is that it's rare that someone will ask you for a shot with the camera dutched over. We're all looking for stable horizon's. However a while back I had the mode turned on and when you moved the stick it was quite rough and slow to respond. Where as tilt and pan were very smooth which leads me to think either the servo has issues or it was the Radian. I'm inclined to be believe maybe the servo on the roll has problems being mechanical. I think Radians being basically a computer board either work or they don't. Let me try swapping out the servo to see if that makes a difference.
     
  16. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hi Mark:
    You might try "hand flying" the copter by picking it up with two booms and seeing what happens when you roll the gimbal. Even the noise of the servo might suggest what's going on.....

    Andy.
     
  17. Tucker Lamberton

    Tucker Lamberton New Member

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    I thought the rule on this forum was you had to use your full name ;)

    Interesting topic. I held off buying the radians because it was more $ than my income justified. Will the radians be updated now that movi is out or will there be a new horizon leveling update from MK? I payed a premium once for freefly's new technology and then saw expensive updates to fix their design flaws. Freefly is amazing but without a waist allowance I have learned to not buy their very expensive, new technology, because I would rather wait and pay the same price or less for a better version. So, is a better radian coming out or is that platform already headed for the bone-yard in favor of the movi platform?

    Thanks, Tucker



     
  18. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    You mean you don't know who JohnC is? :)
    He's always been JohnC since he designed the Radians.
    The rumor in Cyberspace is that he doesn't have a last name. It was removed at birth. :)

    Andy.
     
  19. Josh Lambeth

    Josh Lambeth Well-Known Member

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    I have a feeling Radians are done. There won't be any other updates for them and I highly doubt any new version will be coming out. FF is focused on MoVI and will be for some time... :/ (Thats me along with others wishing they would release the Synapse FC soon!)

    Josh
     
  20. John Cunningham

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    Hey Tucker, duh - you are quite right. I hope this is better.

    Josh - CARVEC (who designed the Radian) don't work through Freefly any longer - but don't bet your house on that last statement. You never know, something quite unexpected might happen very soon ... ;)
     

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