Pilotfly H2 Microjitters - any advice?

[Anees]

Hi Guys,

Hope you are well?

I recently purchased a pilotfly H2 gimbal to increase the production value of my recordings and to get some cool new shots. I went for the H2 after watching Dave Dugdale's review and to be honest I now kinda regret it.

I keep getting microjitters with it which means the footage is not really usable at all. I have contacted Pilotfly support and they sent me a link to a google drive share with PID settings for various camera and lens combo's. I have tried the suggested PID settings for my intended setup (A6300 + 10-18mm f4 lens) and its still the same. I am pretty sure the gimbal is balanced correctly - watched the videos for the H1+ so followed the same procedure.

On youtube this helpful person put his PID settings up:

I copied them and then then gimbal went mad and was unusable!

I have upgraded to the latest version of the SimpleBGC software and firmware but am a little stuck now on what else to try.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.  I now wish I had just bought the Came-Tv Single which seems to be more a turn-on and use solution. I went for the H2 simply because it can support a much higher weight - potentially 2200lbs vs 1200lbs on the Came-TV.

Thanks
Anees

 

[ntblowz]

Lower your PID values if it vibrates P to 15 or somthing, D 25 or something, powerband to 120, microjitter usually means the motor setting is too strong

no gimbal is turn on and use solution unless it's DJI OSMO (which I use now paired with X5), since every camera is different. I used nebula, pilotfly, Came TV, they are all the same for setting up and testing PID settings, DJI Ronins have auto-tune which works quite well, just balancing the camera still take some time when you setup on location.

OSMO is the only gimbal that I can call gun and run beside gopro gimbals, just gopro suck so bad at night.

[tellure]

I'd suggest joining the facebook group if you haven't already, the support from Pilotfly and other users there is pretty good: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1115581045135398/

[Davey]

On 6/21/2016 at 2:27 PM, Anees said:

Hi Guys,

Hope you are well?

I recently purchased a pilotfly H2 gimbal to increase the production value of my recordings and to get some cool new shots. I went for the H2 after watching Dave Dugdale's review and to be honest I now kinda regret it.

I keep getting microjitters with it which means the footage is not really usable at all. I have contacted Pilotfly support and they sent me a link to a google drive share with PID settings for various camera and lens combo's. I have tried the suggested PID settings for my intended setup (A6300 + 10-18mm f4 lens) and its still the same. I am pretty sure the gimbal is balanced correctly - watched the videos for the H1+ so followed the same procedure.

On youtube this helpful person put his PID settings up:

I copied them and then then gimbal went mad and was unusable!

I have upgraded to the latest version of the SimpleBGC software and firmware but am a little stuck now on what else to try.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.  I now wish I had just bought the Came-Tv Single which seems to be more a turn-on and use solution. I went for the H2 simply because it can support a much higher weight - potentially 2200lbs vs 1200lbs on the Came-TV.

Thanks
Anees

 

The grass is not always greener - there are plenty of Came users who are tearing their hair out online. I have the Beholder DS-1 and can only dream of getting footage like that above. It still will not stop turning to the left (like countless other users have experienced) as soon as it is switched on. Nobody from the company wants to know and the seller hasn't the first clue about gimbals - they sell all kinds of camera related gear. 

I've put it down to experience and will never purchase another 3 axis gimbal until a reputable company with GENUINE support for their products joins the market. 

[Michael Ma]

Can you put up some footage with the microjitters?  If we can recognize the type of jitter, maybe it'll be easier to suggest things to try.  From my personal experience, every month in, you feel more comfortable with the SimbleBCG software, and you're able to tweak my gimble just a little bit more efficiently.  So don't give up.  It looks like rocket science as first, and then all those numbers start making sense.

First and foremost, you have to make sure your gimbal is properly balanced.  A good test is when you have it turned on and everything is level, and then you switch off the power, it should mostly stay put.  Even if you pick i up and walk with it, it should mostly stay free floating rather than topple to one side.  That's the sign that it's properly balanced.  I mention this because even though my gimbal provided stable footage when I got it, I walked around with the pitch axis unbalanced which I though was normal.

Second, you should make sure your ACC and Gyro is calibrated.  Pilotfly has a video showing you how to calibrate it by holding the plate down on a desk while it's powered on when the calibration is triggered.  I also mention this because I was calibrating my gimbal wrong the first two months.

I values are very sensitive.  You need to get it within one/one-hundredth of precision.  All my values are between 0.05 and 0.01.  The youtube video....those I values look a bit odd to me, but maybe it's fine for the H2.

D values are very sensitive as well.  One number off and it vibrates/resonates if you push it at a weird angle.  If it's off in another direction, you have jitters.  You should be raising those numbers to the highest as possible, but without it vibrating when you tilt the handle sideways or more.  My guess is this is most likely the source of your jitter.

Increasing the POWER can also help with the jitters.  Unlike the PID values, the POWER value too high won't make your footage more shaky, but it'll drain your batteries.  If your motor burning hot, it'll damage your motors.  A well balanced gimbal's motor should be luke warm when sitting powered on on a desk because it shouldn't need to do any kind of work.  The youtube video, those POWER number seem insanely high but I run a much lighter lens so who knows.  Your POWER values should be just enough to power your motors in any circumstance, but not too high where it's making your motor hot unnecessarily.  The POWER numbers in that youtube video seems crazy high to me.