Hey guys, I fly the ALTA mostly with the RED Epic Dragon, Canon 16-35mm, M15 and a connex. Around 27.5 All up. My question is: How stable should the horizon be while flying? If I'm going at a nice speed (perfect weather light to no wind), the horizon tends to sway (roll) a little sometimes.. If I'm loosing altitude at a nice speed, the horizon tends to sway (roll). I watch videos of PERFECTLY stable footage from Freefly going FULL SPEED or near it, and the horizon is LOCKED. Is this what I should be getting? Should it be perfectly locked flying a decent speeds, and dropping altitude at decent speeds? ALSO - 1 more thing.. Just HOVERING in Position Hold mode sometimes produces vibrations that give me the JELLO effect. Any settings that can help this from not happening? Thank you!
Can you post screenshots of your MōVI settings? I suspect something isn't right. Personally, I found that my horizon tracking improved when I added the new GPS antenna to my M5. But I also updated the firmware around the same time, so maybe that was it. There is a setting for "Heading Assist" in the newest firmware, and I do have that enabled. HEADING ASSISTSelections available are OFF, Fixed Mount, GPS, and Compass. OFF is default and is no change from how the MōVI performed previous to this update. Fixed Mount is available for use on in stationary type setup such as on a tripod. Using this setting, the MōVI references only motor position during pan moves, thus eliminating drift. When set to GPS this will allow for increased performance during higher accelerations common when used with a multi-rotor platform. Set to Compass for increased handheld performance. A Declination value should be set when in Compass.
Hey Steve, so I will work on getting you screenshots, can you tell me if you have no problems now Steve? I will work on getting you. Screenshots. So just to answer my question, if you're going near full speed, you don't have any issues now with your horizon? Also Steve, are you flying a very light payload? Do you think that could have anything to do with your better performance?
I am flying with the M5 and a GH4, so yes, a much lighter payload than you. But the M15 has more powerful motors (I think) and I've also seen very good results with high-speed maneuvers using the same system you're using. So I suspect there's a tuning/balance issue. Are you certain that your camera's perfectly balanced in all 3 axes (especially pan)? The pan balance is tricky to get right. And how did you tune it? Auto-tune or manually?
We fly our FS7 with our M15 under a Cinestar X8 and don't have horizon issues - likely same weight as your rig. This isn't an Alta issue. What settings are you using on the Movi? As Steve says, screenshots would be terrific help.
Hi, as Steve wrote, in the configuration menu of the Movi, in the " Heading" section, click on " increment" till you get GPS ( value will be OFF by default). Then, write the config to the controller and things should get much better at higher speeds than 20 / 25 Km/H. In a very simplified way,this acceleration drift you encounter is due to the fact that the accelerometers of the Movi stabilisation system IMU can mix up horizontal acceleration and gravity. Enabling the GPS will allow to correct the drift by giving the speed estimation and calculate the drift correction. You should get much better results with the GPS Heading assistance enabled
They might be the same motors, but they'd better have more oomph somehow if they're swinging 15lbs around vs. the M5's 5lb payload.
I might be mistaken, but from what I 'heard' on this and other forums is that the payload capability of different Movi models comes from their mechanical construction. The motors are the same. You can see how that works for M10 vs M15. M10 after full cage upgrade has payload capability of 12lbs. You can see how upgrading the pan to dual tube and the back to much sturdier aluminum could increase the payload even more, given that this is the weakest point in the M10 construction. I haven't had a change to ever play with the M5, but I guess it's made of lower quality components (I think I have seen plastic instead of carbon fiber on some photos) and the construction can't handle that much payload. Plus it's smaller so it's impossible to fit and balance heavier payloads on it. Maybe someone from Freefly could chime in and clear that for us. EDIT: And remember that most of the work on gimbal is done by inertia of the payload. The motors only help stabilizing the system. That's why the M10 and M15 work much better with heavier payloads - heavier payloads have more inertia. Also, if you take away the camera off of your Movi and turn it on, it will shake itself to death, even though there's no payload!
Sorry for WAYYYYY Late response!! Hope you guys had a great turkey day!! Here are current settings for EPIC/Canon 16-35mm/M15 Autotune Percentage,40 Aux Port Function,0 Data Logging,0 Declination,0 Gimbal Application,0 Gyro Filter,5 Heading Assist,2 Logging Rate,0 Map Remote Mode,5 Map Remote Pan,-2 Map Remote Pan Rate,3 Map Remote Roll Trim,8 Map Remote Shutter,0 Map Remote Tilt,-1 Map Remote Tilt Rate,6 Max Tilt Angle,20 Mimic Mode,0 Min Tilt Angle,-95 Motion Booting,0 Output Filter,5 Pan Hold Strength,8 Pan Joystick Expo,10 Pan Joystick Smoothing,5 Pan Joystick Window,8 Pan Smoothing,10 Pan Stiffness,190 Pan Trim,0.0 Pan Window,4 Pan/Tilt Remote Speed Adjustment,1 Power Supply,1 Radio Type,5 Remote Rate Scale,100 Roll Hold Strength,8 Roll Stiffness,76 Roll Trim,0.0 Setdown Sleep,1 Shaky-cam Pan,0 Shaky-cam Tilt,0 Shutter Type,0 Tilt Control Mode,0 Tilt Hold Strength,8 Tilt Joystick Expo,10 Tilt Joystick Smoothing,5 Tilt Joystick Window,8 Tilt Mode,1 Tilt Smoothing,12 Tilt Stiffness,73 Tilt Window,4
Justin, Don't know if you've solved this problem. I was having horizon drift issues as well, and pretty much solved them by moving the Movi's GPS antenna. It was almost always in a big carbon fiber shadow, so I moved it to the end of one of the leg booms and that pretty much solved the problem.
Rolf. You bet. Look at this thread... http://forum.freeflysystems.com/index.php?threads/horizon-drift-issue.3236/page-2#post-66187 and there are some pics in there. If this link doesn't work, I'll post them again here. Hope that helps, I know how frustrating the issue is.
oh - thank you! actually this is the place where i put my spektrum receiver for the same reason after doing that i never had any dropouts even when i am far away
I put my reciever at the bottom of the rear leg using the same scotch heavy duty velcro clone. Then i cam quickly repositkkn if i need to go handleld, or im just packing it into its case. The connex antenna are also velcro'd on the 3nes of the rocker arms. This all wored great until sunday when we started getting horrible dropouts fromthe connex. Still trying to solve that one...