Mavic 2 PRO: Gimbal not at center-forward position during mission
I flew this mission: https://app.dronelink.com/2672/roamer105/plan/Ff1gWZ6eq6ebG2f7mqjZ/aHzAB2calWGpeCBT2rtu
After reviewing the video I noticed that upon coming off the Volcano and panning towards the reservoir, the quad's heading was no longer the same as the gimbal heading. In fact the gimbal was turned to the right by about 10 degrees and as a consequence the subject was left-of-center and the right front prop was visible in the video.
This still makes me wonder about Gimbal roll commands being issued instead or along with drone yaw command. There should be NO gimbal roll commands ever on the M2.
The one thing I really like about the M2P is that as long as the gimbal is center-forward, the props are not visible under any circumstances.
Comments
13 comments
Roamer,
I sure don't understand what it is that causes your issues.
Out of curiosity why do you prefer to use manually entered drone headings rather than POIs to set your framing?
The whole idea behind this particular mission was to use a simulated drone to establish views and derive the flight path from them. I simply followed your example tutorial doing exactly that.
Yes, normally I would create POIs and adjust those to produce the desired framing. But doing it that way is sort of "the long way around". However if you know that using POIs will create better results - great. Let me know.
The gimbal did get moved off center causing props to become visible. Flying FPV or using Litchi missions, I've never seen the gimbal move off center. That ONLY happens when I use full head tracking with the DJI goggles - a completely useless feature by-the-way which also exacerbates the pan-jerk issue to the extreme. So I suspect the problem I see here has to be related to how the flight controller manages the camera heading (which should ONLY be drone yaw); If the flight controller only controls drone yaw (not gimbal roll) why and how did the gimbal get off center?
Roamer,
I am just a Beta tester like you. I have used four or five other mission programs/apps over the years and have typically used POIs or cable cams to set framing. While it may be be "the long way round" it has always resulted in the framing being is good as the app or craft were capable of.
So what you are trying to do is new to me also. I personally have not tried it so don't know what the issues are. If this ultimately works out, it may be a new of doing things.
I will keep following this to see to see how it goes. The M2s jerkiness in waypoint missions is still my biggest problem; wish there was a work around for that.
How was the footage obtained as far as the jerkiness in panning the M2 usually produces?
The app currently does not send any gimbal yaw commands when the gimbal is in yaw follow mode (only the Inspire supports free gimbal mode). I have noticed some strange behavior like you described and I am wondering if we need to send constant "0 degrees" yaw commands, where it means 0 degrees from the heading of the drone itself. Just to be clear, we are talking about missions where the gimbal seems to drift significantly over the course of several minutes.
Would this result in the camera pointing in the direction of travel?
No, zero degrees off the drone heading, not the drone course.
Interesting idea to send a zero degree roll with every yaw command. Certainly worth trying!
Pardon me being pedantic, but...
Because these 'copters can fly in any direction, it is inadvisable to refer to the direction the camera is pointing as "heading". A better term would be "facing", or perhaps "orientation".
"Heading" (direction of applied flight thrust) plus movement of the air will result in your Track (path over the ground) -- or your waypointed path, plan, or mission if preferred.
If I'm mistaken, I'll happily be corrected. If correct, then I humbly recommend we take note of the correct terminology and use it in the interests of avoiding future confusion.
Blue Skies!
Stand corrected.
thanks!
Open to alternatives, but it seems pretty standard for heading to refer to the direction something is pointed, and course to refer to the direction something is moving:
http://www.chrobotics.com/library/heading-course-and-crab-angle
I haven't seen that Dronelink uses the term "Course." Reference to Path" is used in both drone heading and gimbal heading.
Will setting a gimbal heading yaw a Mavic2 to one of the selected references over-riding the heading reference, yaw the gimbal or be ignored?
I hid the course option from the reference drop down awhile back in favor of path as course truly means, the actual direction of flight of the drone, whereas path is more like the intended direction of flight. If we allowed selecting path you would see the heading constantly changing as the drone was making slight course corrections to stay on the desired path.
Roamer- why do you keep saying zero degree roll? Just to be clear, the app already sends zero degree roll commands, but in this case what we are talking about is yaw. I will be able to test the zero degree yaw commands in a couple of days.
Beat- see the latest posts here:
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360034749773-Seeming-to-have-a-Heading-error-
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