I just received a 3-Axis gimbal with a Storm32 controller. I loaded the GUI and find that the board has version 090 firmware. The board is V 1.3.
I can read and write to the board with the GUI. I put a camera on the cradle and attached a 4S battery.
All that happens is that the motors - more or less "lock in place". They obviously have some current because they "cog". When I remove the battery, the cogging goes away.
I was going to update firmware using a USB <->RS-232(TTL) board, but I have no idea which pins on the interface to connect to. My board has only one pin labeled - GND.
I also do not know which pins I need to connect to change the pitch/roll/yaw.
Will someone please help? Attached is a screenshot of the first page of the GUI.
Replies
I see the area where the problem lies. When I use the DATA DISPLAY, the accelerometer outputs look normal, but when I use the CONFIGURATION TOOL, the first item - "Determining Z axis" fails. It sits there and times out and then says I need to cancel the operation. I even tried another accelerometer and got the same result.
This gimbal was supposed to run "out of the box". I knew I was going to have to change some parameters, but I expected it to do SOMETHING.
I'm familiar with gimbal setup. I have 7 Alexmos boards and 3 Tarot 3D's. All of them at least TRIED to work as soon as I applied power. I bought the Alexmos as bare boards and built my own gimbals with my 3D printer. Even before calibration, and setting up the accelerometer X/Y/Z parameters, they tried to move the motors (sometimes violently!)
And I'm totally familiar with PID control. I write uC code (mostly for Microchip PICs) that includes writing servo loops. But I think you are telling me that the STORM doesn't even try to run the motors until it is completely calibrated.
I'll try that and see what happens.
I just didn't want to go further if it wasn't going to work.
Thanks for responding!
Charles Linquist
Well, you have some reading to do! Gimbals don't just work you need to calibrate the accelerometers, physicaly balance the gimbal mechanism, tune the PID settings,and do an auto detect to get all the motors going the right way. And about the connections, I really couldn't tell what's what. But fortunately for us the developer put up a very detailed set of instructions. I have two Storm gimbals and they work good, but it takes time to set up. DON'T reflash the software. Its a pain and if the onboard version doesn't match the GUI version you cant even connect. It won't move because all the PID and motor power parameters are all defaulted to zero. You should start at the beginning, but here is the PID tuning procedure.
http://www.olliw.eu/storm32bgc-wiki/Tuning_Recipe