I am new to the forum but trying to research the movie 5. Can anyone tell me what the purpose of the GPS unit is? What would be the purpose of it??
I believe the purpose would be to log the data so that you would know the position of the camera, possibly to help with special effects. Currently the software, at least for the PC doesn't allow this.
I don't see how the GPS can be used to maintain horizon, GPS doesn't give you any attitude information, it's purely position. Horizon will be maintained using gyros & accelerometers. And GPS isn't accurate enough to assist the accelerometers either. So I can only imagine it's there for some sort of geo-tagging purpose. Has anyone managed to extract GPS information from their M5? If it's logging GPS data it would be really useful if we could download it for geo-tagging photographs.
GPS gives acceleration. The acceleration is used to remove acceleration from the ACCs, and then they can more reliably track the earth's gravity force, and figure out which way is down. You need to have GPS data into the IMU, otherwise there is no way to have accurate attitude estimation.
I disagree. The acceleration data available from GPS is several orders of magnitude less accurate than the data available from accelerometers, so I don't see how it can possibly be of any use. Also, other gimbal stabilisers such as the PicLoc seem to manage well enough without GPS data, and the stabilisers used on flybarless R/C helicopters also work perfectly well without using GPS. A stabiliser with a 3D accelerometer and a 3D gyro should be able to work out which way is "down" without needing GPS.
When you move sideways fast and keep panning, you will see that Picloc will fail holding the horizon. This is a very common issue. Another note from a user who is known as expert in this field: Check out this discussion: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/drones-discuss/LlTqypI6-08/oCJqfU1G220J
Fair enough, I stand corrected. I'm surprised GPS gives sufficient accuracy to supply the required compensation, but I guess it's all that's available.