DYS 3 Axis Gopro Gimbal

[mikim]

DYS 3 Axis gimbal with Alexmos controller.


Hi,
I have not managed to find a full detailed experience thread on here for this gimbal so please feel free to add your questions thoughts and I will try to answer help.


I purchased from eBay from a local stockist based in Worcestershire. I paid a £30 premium for local collection. Figured this was worth the extra rather than wait 3weeks for delivery from China etc.

Pleased to see the gimbal comes built rather than in bits like the tarot. I think this presents some level of quality (maybe)?

First impressions are of very similar build and appearance to the tarot t2d, maybe slightly better. The controller certainly looks more substantial in size and complexity.

Few possible negatives would be the control cables are run down the centre of the 3rd axis motor in a tube. This I doubt will be an issue if used in follow stabilisation but if you would be using the full 360 rotational feature then this will wear quite quickly in time I would imagine.
Also the gyro on the back of the gopro holder is a naked circuit board rather than enclosed like on the tarot. Probably not a problem.




Unwrapping and pics to follow....

[Jimbodiddly]

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it.

[mikim]

This is what you get out of the box -

[mikim]

Was hoping to write a bit more of an update but I';m up against it getting this gimbal to fit the quad at the moment. The Y connectors are much smaller than the tarot and don';t fit (or even closely fit) the areoxcraft landing bars.

Just waiting for the areoxcraft gimbal holder and then hopefully I will be able to mount the gimbal fire it up and give some opinions/first impressions etc.

If anybody knows I';d be interested to know exactly what craft the dys is designed to fit onto??

[bunnygirl80]

Hi Mik,

I';m interested to see how you get on. I purchased one for my tbs, but found it to be a little too heavy and went for the DJI H3-3D instead. Now I';ve used both, I can say for sure the DYS is far far more configurable and nicer to use! The problem with the H33D is that you cant tilt/pitch slowly and it';s very jerky, whilst the DYS does it beutifully. I wish I could have the weight of the H33D but the controller of the DYS.

Good luck and keep us posted with the videos.

[QuadBod]

 Mine was delivered to the office a week ago, but I haven';t been in. Hope to pick it up next week, and will report back. Good to hear you were happy with the performance even if not the weight.

Matt.

[mikim]

Ah, good to hear that the DYS is rated in the same league as the Zenmuse :-)

Gimbal mount turned up today and the gimbal is now on the quad.  Powered it up briefly. Action seemed very smooth. Certainly smoother than the tarot I';d say. The forward & and horizon are set wrong so tomorrow I will delve into the software to get it bang on.

Pics to follow ASAP.

[redford]

Interested to see what this turns out like!

I';ve got a DYS 3 axis getting delivered next week.



Complete with AlexMOS controller!

I';ll include my findings in a build thread.

[mikim]

Stuck in with the software now.

I will post a couple of links to a good guide and also the USB drivers as they are not on the website. Took a while to get that working correctly.

Upgraded the firmware successfully; this is simple and pain free.

Now sat on a bit of a learning curve.

The sensors all need full calibration as well as entering all the power and PID settings. Think I am getting there slowly :-)

I will post all links and a guide when I';m straight with it myself.

Seems far more sophisticated than the 2D Tarot, although that wasn';t the simplest thing either to get to grips with initially.

[mikim]

Finally got the gimbal up and running. I can't lie, I borrowed some settings from a youtube vid I found online. Never a bad thing I feel if somebody has felt the pain already. Hopefully somebody may even use this thread as a rough guide???

One thing the chap mentioned is that the latest 2.40b7 firmware is not yet ready for flight use  (but OK with handheld gimbals, he recommended using 2.35 which I then promptly downgraded to as soon as I saw the clip.

You tube guide: DYS 3 Axis GoPro Gimbal Setup and Calibration

This really has got most of the settings bang on with regards to motor noise and movement.

I still had to run a full calibration of the IMU sensor (the sensor on the back of the camera housing).
The guides here mention a number of options depending on where you look as this control board is used on a number of different gimbal chassis.
Main thing to remember is that the first calibration is taken with the sensor in the position it will be in your flight mode, so in my case camera forwards and level. Some guides were saying have the sensor flat ... this doesn't work.
So ran the cal using a small box and spirit level, then ran the Gyro calibration. This is just one measurement in the normal forwards and level position.

Entered the PID and power settings suggested from the youtube clip above.

I kept finding that the gimbal was now perfectly level and responsive but the YAW (3rd axis) was defaulting to about 30degrees to the left if looking outwards from the camera. By changing the YAW sub trim I was able to get this back to dead centre.

[mikim]

Impressions are initially very good. There was always a slight 'hum or buzz' upon touch with the Tarot, not enough to make a noise or cause camera issues but you could feel it.

This gimbal is absolutely still and quiet.

Camera shots are now still and there is no fish tail on motion... lovely to use. It was dusk last night so my filming was a bit grainy, but the idea was there at least to demo the gimbal action.

Only slight issue to work on... when PANing/turning the quad about its axis, the YAW rate is a tiny bit jerky and this shows on film. I'm guessing it is a damping setting change needed on the YAW channel to smooth out the yaw correction vs the follow rate.

As soon as I can get my iMovie to work (issue there at the mo) I will post a couple of vids. 

[ashutchy]

Hi Mikim. I';m almost ready to take the plunge and order one of these for future use and this thread of yours is taking me even closer.

A couple of questions if you don';t mind. Are the motors supplied with yours ';hollow shaft'; type? These apparently allow full 360 degree use of the gimbal with no cable jam.

Also, is it an Alexmos control board? I';ve read of issues with other controllers but the Alexmos seem to come out the best.

Thanks,

Andy.

[mikim]

Hi Andy,

Yes it';s an Alexmos board. This was appealing to me as it is constantly upgraded firmware and it is also used in many higher grade gimbal systems (apparently).

See http://www.basecamelectronics.com/company/ for more info on the company that produce the software etc.

The pitch and roll motors are basically the same as the tarot T2D motors as far as I can tell. The YAW motor is a hollow type so you can setup 360 RC control if you wish. The wires run down the centre but not on a slip ring (guess this would double the price and probably add weight anyway) so if you kept going around and around the wired would eventually twist up too much and wear very quickly. Guessing per flight though this would not be a problem as you would unwind after a normal flight.
But in answer to your question yes it can do 360 without a problem :-)

Great value for money IMO. 

Mik

[ashutchy]

It looks really good value for money. Especially when compared to the price of other comparables out there right now. I impulse bought the Tarot T2D full kit when I ordered my 680 but really I should have looked into it a little more first. Hopefully I can shift the T2D on without losing too much and put it towards this one.

Thanks for the advice Mik, very much appreciated. 

[mikim]

I kept finding that the gimbal was now perfectly level and responsive but the YAW (3rd axis) was defaulting to about 30degrees to the left if looking outwards from the camera. By changing the YAW sub trim I was able to get this back to dead centre.

In addition to this earlier post I made a mistake re the yaw setting. This is not the YAW sub rate.. but the YAW offset in the ';Follow mode'; TAB. 

[powerlord]

Dys is good stuff.  It was the same mini boards that I based my stubilizer pro on.  Note that they will also sell direct.  Good savings can be had if you can get 4 or 5 of you to buy minimum order direct.  They are official partner with Alex,  so firmware fully supported (though there won';t be any further work on the 8 bit controllers anyway).

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[mikim]

Update: finally had some time to get flying again and try to dial in this gimble. Still getting a few problems if I';m honest.
Gimble settings are 100% when sat on the bench and if I wave the quad all over the place! solid and smooth!
In the air though there is much jello in the sunlight, didn';t get this at all with the tarot t2d. Also on turning there is a judder possibly caused by the yaw catchup (follow) setting.
All this must be vibration related but hard to pin down. Some suggestions online are pointing at softer rubber mounts, may try that. The tarot mounts were certainly much softer than the dys.

Or alternatively I might just build a big stable hex

[mikim]

Ok. I';m done.
This gimbal is just not worth spending any more time on. Hours of surfing the forums trying one setting to the next, thinking it';s locked in then getting strange results on flight test. I simply don';t have the spare time for this.

I bought this equipment for the enjoyment of photography and flying, not spending hours on a bit of software written by a bunch of amateur code junkies.
The tarot took a few goes to get right and I';m cool with that, not hours of frustration. Forum to forum seem to have a number of mixed results with this I';d say the failure rate is a reason for the price.

I';m going to buy a decent 3 axis. If anybody wants mine it';s going on the for sale forum section for £50.

Final thoughts: Junk! Avoid at all cost unless you want to waste your life away.

[QuadBod]

Oh dear - I haven';t had a chance to take min out of the box yet!

[QuadBod]

Finally unboxed this yesterday. Seems to work reasonably well with the stock settings (after calibration). The main things I changed were inverted yaw and -Y, and turning on the low battery alarm.

The two issues I have right now is that it seems to buzz or hum, whereas the Tarot is silent. I';m not talking about FET frequency squeal, but a lower frequency that you can hear and feel as a vibration.

I don';t have a working multi to put it on at the moment, so can';t say how well it works in the air. It does have a bit of a spasm if you tilt it too far, but I think that';s fixed in later firmware (the version everyone says not to use yet...)

@mikim, did you get any help from Stef (@bunnygirl) since? The one thing I wondered given that yours was locked in on the ground but dodgy in the air was whether you';d checked your props / hubs / motors for balancing? From what I';ve read this seems to be quite sensitive to airframe vibrations.

[mikim]

Hi there,

Got it totally silent and buzz free on the bench by adjusting the PID.
The spasm can be eliminated too by the power and PID adjustment.

I have read the same re the vibrations. I have perfectly balanced graupners and good dji motors. They didn';t  work so I swapped out for very good tbs 750 motors and t-motor carbon props. This is possibly worse.

I have also got the vibration dampening extra component from AreoXcraft that isolates some of the vibration from the frame to skids.

Mik

[QuadBod]

Help us @bunnygirl, you';re our only hope!

(What settings did you end up with @mikim? I';ll try them here for comparison.)