Tuning the RCtimer type Gimbal board

[sausageroll]

Hi Everyone,

So i have the RC timer board here, and im having trouble getting it to talk to the GUI to tune it, but I have a theory. I was hoping that anyone out there that had one of these boards on a gimbal in a working state could help me.

My theory is that when you press connect on the GUI, it runs the gimbal through a little calibration sequence, where it moves the motors and detects the motion with the IMU. I can see it doing this on my test setup but I only have one motor connected, so the system cannot calibrate the second motor. the GUI gets stuck in the TC Reading values phase, and goes no further.

So I was hoping, if someone who had this system working, would you mind unplugging a motor and seeing if the GUI will talk to the board.

Im gonna leave the board alone now until I have the gimbal built to test it on.


Pete.

[powerlord]

ok will give  it  a  try tomorrow pete.

you do have the IMU connected, etc ?

I certainly don';t think it worked for me until i had that plugged in,etc.

can';t you also plug the other motor in too ?

[sausageroll]

Hi Mr Lord,

I can plug the second motor in, but it wont get me anywhere, as I dont have a gimbal to mount it on, when it moves the second motor (in free air) the IMU wont detect any changes and nothing will happen. It needs a gimbal frame with both the motors and the IMU on to understand what its doing I think....

[powerlord]

hi pete - tried disconnect 1 and then 2 motors - GUI still connects, reads in values and I can then adjust.

p.s. save saves until restart. save to flash, saves into flash.

I had to adjust the defaults, to 12 poles as that';s what my motors have.

it still over compensates a bit so PIDs need adjusting but not done that yet - however it is all working apart from that.

very very sensitive to balance. slightly out of balance and it will flip all over the shop.

I';d suggest for you - reupload _48 from arduino, then try connecting. Are you using the exe GUI or the tcl one ? I';ve been using the exe.

Sometimes I get the red calibration failed - and just reconnect, and it reads in values and is fine.

stu

[powerlord]

here';s first flight:

First flight with brushless gimbal in 15-20mph wind

nothing too exciting.

15-20mph gusting wind, so actually pretty amazing how stable video is - much better than my servo gimbal.

It is very tricky to turn on though when windy - as it need to be totally still to calibrate - and even sheltering it with my body it took many connections to actually get it to calibrate properly as the wind just needs to move it a tiny bit and it will stop trying.

stu

[rickp]

Sounds like that';ll be an issue for me on a boat... Hmm...

[powerlord]

Yup. Even on a table in the house, connecting the GUI requires it to calibrate. And I found even the vibration from my arms resting on the table stopped it calibrating.

Stu

[powerlord]

Yup. Even on a table in the house, connecting the GUI requires it to calibrate. And I found even the vibration from my arms resting on the table stopped it calibrating.

Stu

Right boys and girls: programmed the rctimer board last night. Here';s the trick:

- its the FTDI drivers. Either use a mac (thats what I did), or uninstall the latest windows drivers and install 2.08.24 from here:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

then just select the Pro 328 on the list and upload. voila! no more timeout messages.

So nothing wrong with bootloader.

stu

[Gaza07]

How is the rctimer control board is it worth buying as Im looking at getting one with their ali gimbal 

[powerlord]

Same as any other one really. Imu all wired up so no soldering required. Gimbal is quite a heavy thing compared to the carbon one, but a lot of that is the more meaty motors I think. Swinging it about it seems to be less susceptible to being dragged out of balance than the carbon one.

It still exhibits the same Martinez ';feature'; though of over compensating tilt and roll and then taking a while to settle. I';ll need to see if anyone has managed to sort that anywhere as I';m buggered if I can.

One thing worth pointing out with all of these is its not that obvious if you have motor wired backwards - it still works, but sort of differently - moving into tilt then properly levelling. So make sure you do it both ways to get it right - it';s not obvious like a normal gimbal.

And tune it with the voltage you are going to use - if you tune it all on a 2s, then wire it into a 4s flight pack for example like I did - you need to start all over again tuning it.

[Gaza07]

Ive ordered one 

[powerlord]

Wahee. Have fun. I';m gonna set mine up this weekend.


Also flew the carbon one a lot last weekend with paramotors - stay tuned for edited video :-)

[mrplay]

Well I am having a few problems....

I can not seem to get the GUI programme to work or connect to the board, anyone help on this?
I am running windows 7

Plus can anyone tell me what the correct programmer choice is in Arduino? under the tools menu

Thanks in advance

[mrplay]

Sorted the Arduino out now...

Still can not connect to the GUI.... Please help...

[powerlord]

See my other post - drivers are the issue

[mrplay]

Thanks for that... I have updated the drivers, but still can not get it to do anything in the GUI

Any other thoughts?

[mrplay]

Sorted it now....

I had to load older version of the FTDI drivers to get the GUI to work

[mrplay]

All working now, very happy with the results from a quick hover in the back garden this evening.

The Rctimer gimbal I stiffened the dampers at the top, there is way too much movement in it, so I used some cable ties for now, but it seems to have worked well.

Shame it took a long time to get the GUI working, I could have got more flying done today, in between the showers.

I will try to post some video soon, upload speed here not good, so it will take a while

[Gaza07]

Have you got a link to the driver you used Ive got one now and all it does is twitch 
did you upload the sketch with arduino ? or just stick with whats on it ?

All working now, very happy with the results from a quick hover in the back garden this evening.

The Rctimer gimbal I stiffened the dampers at the top, there is way too much movement in it, so I used some cable ties for now, but it seems to have worked well.

Shame it took a long time to get the GUI working, I could have got more flying done today, in between the showers.

I will try to post some video soon, upload speed here not good, so it will take a while

[Tango21Delta]

I was having the same issue with the gimbal dampers,

Rctimer gimbal I stiffened the dampers at the top, there is way too much movement in it, so I used some cable ties for now, but it seems to have worked well.

I found that the soft orange earplugs from B&Q also work very well if you compress them then insert them into each of the hollow rubber dampers, once they reassert themselves they fill the hollow void in the damper and stiffen it up quite nicely.

[mrplay]

Gaz, I will have to look for the driver, when I get back home at the weekend. If I can find it on laptop I will post it, sorry I can remember it right now.