Camera pointing slightly right....

[LeafPeeper]

Hi folks -
Just joined the group as I took advantage of the June promotion that Autel and BB were running and got the EVO rugged bundle, explorer pack, memory card and $100 BB card for the price of the rugged bundle. If anyone is on the fence, it seems like a pretty darn good deal....got 5 batteries out of it. At any rate, I flew it for the first time yesterday and all went well. Video looks GREAT. I have two Mavics and a Spark, so I've been doing this for a while. That said, I have a question.

It looks like my camera points very slightly to the right when at rest. While the horizon is generally straight (only going off sometimes for unknown reasons and slow to relevel), it does go out when I raise or lower the gimbal. After the motion stops, it seems to relevel. I recreated the motion using my camera on a tripod, and it looks like it's mostly caused by the camera not pointing straight forward. Here's a short video so you can see what I mean. Follow the bottom line in the test pattern and the top of the monitor. Keep in mind that the Evo was pointed DIRECTLY at the screen, in the center. You can see by the top line of the monitor that the camera is not pointing straight at it.

Is this normal? I think it probably wouldn't be noticeable in flight, but I can't do more testing for several days because of the weather - so if it's a problem, I want to get it back to BB asap. I also noticed from another thread that I have the older version Evo cam, which bugs me given that I just bought it and it had to be shipped because stock was low. Are we sure there weren't improvements in the newer cam maybe for this and the horizon tilt? I got burned on my Mavic Pro by getting an earlier version, so I'm uber sensitive.

For the record, I have recalibrated the gimbal several times on a level surface and am running the latest firmware (not the new beta). Would the beta version address this? I saw something about an updated gimbal control algo.

Thanks for your help!
LP

 

[LeafPeeper]

Ok so nobody has replied to this today - but in case anyone is interested, after some good discussions on FB, I decided to contact Autel. Here are the essential bits of the conversation:

From Autel Support:

Thank you for reaching out! It is a bit tricky to tell in the pictures, but I can see what you're talking about in the video. If you would like to exchange it to Best Buy for peace of mind you can certainly do that! Alternatively, this is probably something we would ask to bring in for repair. I apologize for this inconvenience, this isn't something I've seen before, but I'm happy to help in any way.

Me:

I've now talked to two other owners (via forum) who say that their cam is angled slightly right as well. They told me it is necessary since the cam isn't centered on the body and angling it avoids getting the left leg and prop in shots. Can you confirm that this very slight angle right (rather than straight ahead) is normal? If so, it explains what I see in my video and would say my Evo is fine.


Autel Support:

Thanks for reaching out! Pardon my ignorance on this one - it's not something that's been brought to my attention. My repair manager and lead engineer looked over this, and don't believe there is an issue! The aircraft does stabilize in the air, so this is normal. Powering up an EVO here in the office and it does look the same. Please let me know if you have any other questions and have a wonderful weekend!

I'm calling it resolved...
LP

 

[Madhungarian]

Question is can you notice it when your flying? The video looks like its zoomed in.

 

[LeafPeeper]

Yeah weather has been bad so I haven't been able to check, but I'm guessing it won't be an issue when flying. I wasn't zoomed in in the video. I was just 4 feet away from the screen...and the Evo probably wasn't designed to do close up videos. My theory is that since the gimbal pitch motor is fixed pointing straight forward and doesn't yaw with the gimbal yaw motor, adjusting the pitch when the camera has some native yaw will result in what you see in my video - since objects on the right side of the image are further away than objects in the left side of the image. I was able to crudely reproduce the effect with my M50 on a tripod and rotated slightly right. I think once it is up in the air and everything including the horizon is much further away, this affect will be much less noticeable. Incidentally, I think this is where the Mavics might have an advantage. They have a more narrow FOV, so they can probably afford to point directly forward without getting visual interference from the legs or props.

My thoughts anyway. Would still be interested to see others try it and let me know what they see.
LP

 

[Madhungarian]

Yeah weather has been bad so I haven't been able to check, but I'm guessing it won't be an issue when flying. I wasn't zoomed in in the video. I was just 4 feet away from the screen...and the Evo probably wasn't designed to do close up videos. My theory is that since the gimbal pitch motor is fixed pointing straight forward and doesn't yaw with the gimbal yaw motor, adjusting the pitch when the camera has some native yaw will result in what you see in my video - since objects on the right side of the image are further away than objects in the left side of the image. I was able to crudely reproduce the effect with my M50 on a tripod and rotated slightly right. I think once it is up in the air and everything including the horizon is much further away, this affect will be much less noticeable. Incidentally, I think this is where the Mavics might have an advantage. They have a more narrow FOV, so they can probably afford to point directly forward without getting visual interference from the legs or props.

My thoughts anyway. Would still be interested to see others try it and let me know what they see.
LP

The gimbal motor that controls yaw will also move when your in some intelligent mode. I have seen video of the camera picking up one of the Evo's legs.

 

[LeafPeeper]

Oh yes - that's clear. It's the one that controls pitch that doesn't appear to move left or right with yaw - so if the camera is yawed at all when you adjust the pitch, you get the effect I was talking about. I've seen other gimbals that have the yaw motor at the top so that when the cam yaws, the pitch motor rotates with it so that when you adjust the pitch, the camera can stay level - like Yuneec, xDynamics, etc.

Hard to describe in words I think.