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SimpleBGC 32bit 3-Axis Software User Manual

1. In few words on the Plant only response graph you can see the response of motors and mechanics and check for potential mechanical resonances On the Controller Plant response graph you can find the gain margin 0 minus amplitude at frequency where phase crosses 180 degree and the phase margin 180 minus phase at frequency where amplitude crosses OdB The basic principle of stability phase margin should be greater than 30 degrees Gain margin should be kept in the range 3 6 dB The bigger negative values means a more stable system but less accurate tracking of errors If the gain or phase margin is close to zero the system is unstable and tends toward self excitation at those frequencies where zero margins are detected On the Overall system response graph you can find how effectively a system tracks its input signal on different frequencies You can estimate working frequencies where gain is close to OdB and phase is close to zero Bumps on the gain plot can show potential resonances On the Controller only response graph you can see how the PID controller affects amplitude and phase of the input signal and see the contribution of digital filters 47 15 User written scripts 15 User written scripts With a special scripting language user can create a program to control a gimbal The program is loaded into the controller and is executed by a command from the RC or menu button Language reference can be
2. settings to setup digital filters for PID controller e Adj vars you can change many system parameters on the fly by remote controller or joystick e Analyze system analysis tool e Scripting you can write user scenarios load to EEPROM and execute by remote command 2 Connection COM port selection and connection status Profile Profile selection loading re naming and saving 4 Control Panel graphic visualization of gimbal orientation angles in three axes e Black arrows are displaying the angles blue arrows are a 10x time magnification to provide higher precision Red marks show target angles that gimbal should keep e Thin blue lines shows the maximum peak deflection from the central neutral point e Blue digits show peak deflection amplitude Using these numbers stabilization quality can be estimated e Vertical red bars to the right of the scales show actual power level from O to 100 e Gray arrows shows the angle of a stator of each motor if known 5 READ WRITE buttons are used to transfer setting from to board 6 MOTORS ON OFF button is used to toggle motors state 7 At the bottom of the screen tips status or error messages in red color are displayed Overall cycle time and 12C error count is also displayed 8 Battery voltage indicator with warning sector Board menu This menu encapsulates options to Read Write settings duplicating READ WRITE buttons to calibrate sensors to reset param
3. FC_PITCH is used to mark any of PWM inputs to be a signal from the external flight controller See External FC gain section for details e Mix channels you can mix 2 inputs together before applying to any of ROLL PITCH or YAW axis It provides control of the camera from the 2 sources joystick and RC for example You can adjust the proportion of the mix from 0 to 100 e ANGLE MODE FC stick will control the camera angle directly The full RC range will cause a camera to go from min to max angles as specified above If RC stick doesn t move camera stands still The speed of rotation depends on the SPEED setting and the acceleration limiter setting e SPEED MODE RC stick will control the rotation speed If stick is centered camera stands still if stick is deflected camera starts to rotate but does not exceed min max range Speed of rotation is proportional to stick angle and the SPEED setting RC control inversion is allowed in both of control modes e INVERSE Set this checkbox to reverse direction of rotation relative to stick movement e MIN ANGLE MAX ANGLE range of the angles controlled from RC or in the Follow mode For example if you want to configure a camera to go only from a leveled position to down position set min 0 max 90 To disable constraints set min max 0 For ROLL and PITCH axis angles are absolute i e relative to ground for both Lock and Follow modes For YAW axis limits are not
4. It s extremely important to choose the correct motor rotation direction before tuning other parameters To determine the correct direction set the POWER value big enough to rotate the camera Level the camera tray horizontally and click the AUTO button in the Motor configuration settings The gimbal will make small movement to determine correct motor rotation direction Wait for the calibration procedure to complete Then re set your PID values and tune your POWER values e NUM POLES Number of motor poles This value needs to be equal to the number of magnets in your motor s bell During the auto calibration process described above this value is automatically detected However this value is sometimes not correctly determined during the auto calibration process and will need to be verified and possibly corrected manually Count your motor magnets and enter this value if the value is not correct in the GUI 14 Basic Settings Main IMU sensor Note Before tuning your controller install the camera into the gimbal firmly and ensure your gimbal is balanced i e each motor s axis passes through the center of gravity of its load Specify your IMU sensor board s orientation and position on the gimbal For a standard IMU sensor installation Look at the gimbal from behind just like the camera will view out from the gimbal Viewing the gimbal in this way the UP and Right direction will match the Z and X axis You can place the
5. SimpleBGC_GUI jar To run the Basecam GUI for LINUX e run run sh 1 Overview Connection to computer The controller has either a Mini or Micro USB depending on the version To connect the board to the computer you will need to install a driver to first establish a connection If the driver is not installed automatically you can download it for all operating systems follow the link http www silabs com products mcu pages usbtouartbridgevcpdrivers aspx NOTE For the Tiny version the driver for Windows can be downloaded here http www st com web en catalog tools PF257938 This is latest official driver from ST company But it was reported that it does not work under Windows 8 In this case try previous version that should work http www basecamelectronics com files drivers VCP_Setup zi After you have installed the driver and connected the controller with USB you will see a new virtual COM port in the GUI in the Connection dropbox Its name should appear upon connection You can connect the controller to a computer and supply power from a battery simultaneously Again be careful and observe polarity of battery terminals because when a USB connection is established the in built reverse polarity protection is off some versions are not equipped with such protection Wireless connection To connect you can also use a wireless connection through a Bluetooth to Serial converter on the board side and USB Bluetooth adapt
6. will be slowed down Running the application 1 Attach USB cable or if connection over Bluetooth pair the devices Default password is 1234 or 0000 generally 2 Run GUI select COM port from the list in the left corner dropbox of the main window and press Connect 3 When the connection to the board is established all profiles will be read and downloaded and the GUI will display the current profile settings You can read the board settings again any time by pressing the READ button 1 Overview 4 Make sure to have installed the latest version of firmware To check open Upgrade tab and press Check update Update if a new version is available Note that after updating the firmware you will need to re download the corresponding version of the GUI and revisit this connection scenario See section Firmware Update for more detailed information 5 After you have finished editing parameters press WRITE to save them to the persistent memory of the controller EEPROM Only the current selected profile will be saved To restore the factory settings go to Board Reset to defaults All the parameters of the current profile will be set to defaults except for general settings and calibration data In order to erase the settings of ALL profiles general settings and calibration data go to menu Board Erase EEPROM 6 To switch over to the settings of another profile choose the desired profile from the list in the up
7. Both IMU sensors are calibrated simultaneously Temperature Calibrating Assistant During temperature calibration it is important to ensure the slowest possible variation of sensor Basecamelectronics 2013 2015 17 Basic Settings temperature so that all its parts have the same temperature In order to ensure this condition the sensor can be protected by a heat insulating shell cut out of a piece of plastic foam EPP foam or something similar is best its common in high quality packaging you will likely recognize it from the picture It is better to realize it in the form of a parallelepiped and align the sensor in accordance to its sides this will make accelerometer calibration considerably easier Thermal insulation of the sensor Temperature accelerometer calibrating Calibration assignments are made for three values of temperature starting with the lowest The 6 position calibration is performed for each of 3 temperature s The process is the same as for 6 point calibration but you need to press the temperature calibration button instead of the usual calibration button The steps should not be less than 10 degrees Celsius For example if the first six calibrations were carried out at 10 C the next calibration series should be realized at a temperature not lower than 0 C Temperature accelerometer calibration procedure 1 Connect to GUI run calibration wizard 2 Select a sensor on the camera or on the fram
8. IF JUMPER IS CLOSED If pressed you need to repeat all steps from the beginning 5 Choose firmware file hex or bin format 6 Select board version e v 3 x 32bit through Virtual COM Port for a regular 32 bit board v 3 x 32bit through USB in DFU mode for a Tiny type 32 bit version You need to update DFU device driver before proceeding to the next step see instructions below 7 Press FLASH button and wait for process to finish 8 Open remove FLASH jumper If board is alive you can connect to the GUI you can upload firmware in manual mode without setting FLASH jumper 1 Connect to board in the normal way 40 13 Firmware update 2 Choose firmware file 3 Press FLASH button and wait for process to finish Upgrading under Mac OS and Linux Starting from 2 42b7 its possible to upgrade firmware from the GUI under Mac OS and Linux and virtually any other OS The open source tool stm32ld https github com jsnyder stm32Id is used to upload firmware to the board NOTE If the tool failed to run under your OS you can compile it from source located in the SimpleBGC_GUI bin stm32Id src folder Place the result in the SimpleBGC_GUI bin folder renaming it to stm32ld_mac for Mac OS stm32Id_linux for Linux family and stm32Id for any other OS Installing DFU device driver This driver is required only for Tiny version of the board when connected by USB The open sour
9. MD H gt API_VIRT_CH32 Q eat Low b Analog inputs Ext FC signal p gt pp ADCI1 2 FC_ROLL ty apc2 T FC_PITCH gt O Oo ADC3 ADJ VARS 2013 2015 Basecamelectronics 54
10. applied in the Lock mode and are applied relative to frame in the Follow mode For example if you set min 30 max 30 for YAW in the Follow mode you will be limited by the range 30 degrees relative to frame when controlling camera from RC sticks or joystick and not limited when controlling camera by the rotation of frame e LPF Signal low pass filtering The higher the value is the smoother the reaction is to stick commands This filter cuts fast stick movements but adds some delay as a consequence e INITLANGLE if RC control is not configured for any axis or there is no signal on the source the system will keep initial angle specified in this field e RC Sub Trim correction for transmitter inaccuracy o ROLL PITCH YAW trim central point trimming Central point here is PWM 1500 It s better to trim it in the transmitter But in case of it is not possible when using joystick for example you can use AUTO function in the GUI Just place stick in neutral position and press AUTO button 23 6 RC Settings Actual data becomes new center point Press WRITE button to apply settings o Dead band adjusts dead band around the neutral point There s no control while RC signal is inside this range It helps to achieve better control by eliminating jitters from unintended movement of the stick around neutral point This feature works differently in SPEED and ANGLE modes in the SPEED mode dead band is cre
11. auto detected after several incoming commands e For each control target you can choose appropriate hardware input from the drop down list o RC ROLL RC_PITCH RC_YAW FC_ROLL FC_PITCH are the hardware inputs on the board that accept a signal in the PWM Pulse Width Modulation format excepting RC_ROLL see above 22 6 RC Settings Most RC receivers output this signal type o ADC1 ADC2 ADC3 dedicated analog inputs marked on the board as A1 A2 A3 and accepts analog signals in the range from 0 to 3 3 volts For example joystick variable resistor provides such a signal Connect A1 A3 to the center contact of variable resistor 3 5V and GND to side contacts See Connection Diagram for more info o VIRT_CH_XX In case of RC_ROLL pin mode is set to multi channel signal format you can chose one of the virtual channels o API VIRT_CH KA Additional channels that may be set by Serial API command e Control targets o ROLL PITCH YAW controls the position of the camera o CMD allows you to execute some actions You can configure a 2 or 3 position switch on your RC transmitter for a specified channel and assign it to the CMD channel Its range is split into 3 sections LOW MID HIGH When changing the position of your RC switch signal jumps from one section to another and the assigned command is executed The full list of available commands is described in the section MENU BUTTON of this manual o FC_ROLL
12. because DC gain in the output data can be effectively removed But in real word camera can t make infinite rotation because of physical limits The solution is to run system in the closed loop mode and to mix the closed loop feedback signal with the stimulus signal But near low frequencies closed loop system generally operates very well that means that the output of the system closely matches its input and the stimulus signal is effectively removed That is the reason why the closed loop mode is not perfect for analysis near low frequency 44 14 System Analysis Tool Starting test In the Analyze tab press Run test button and configure the test Run system test F N kh TEH Axis to analize ROLL Stimulus White noise Stimulus gain 400 Subsystem to analize Controller Plant open loop Save resultto file mpjeBGCUavaGUNSimpleBGC_GUlItest_dath test csv Browse CANCEL 1 Select the axis to test 2 Select stimulus to feed to the input of a system o White noise this signal contains the full set of frequencies distributed uniformly o Sine sweep signal with constant amplitude and frequency that goes from 1Hz to 500Hz o Sine sweep exponential gain the same as above but gain exponentially grows from value set in Gain field at the lowest frequency to the maximum at the highest frequency This type of signal may help to increase the quality of analysis in the high frequency ar
13. by digital filters see below o The I value changes the speed at which the gimbal moves to incoming RC commands and to move the gimbal back to neutral Low values result in a slow and smooth reaction to RC commands and to getting back to neutral Increase this value to speed up the movement e POWER maximum voltage supplied to the motors 0 255 where 255 means full battery voltage Choose this parameter according to your motor characteristics Basic tuning o Motors should not get too hot Motor temperatures of over 80C will cause permanent damage to motor magnets o A Power value that is too Low will not provide enough force for the motor to move the gimbal and stabilize the camera adequately A low power value will be most noticeable in windy conditions when the gimbal is not well balanced or if the gimbal suffers from mechanical friction Slowly lower the Power parameter to find its optimal value Find the lowest value that still provides good stabilization and adequate holding torque o Raising the power equals raising the P and D value of PID settings If you raise the POWER value you should re tune your PID values as well e Additional power that will be add to the main power in case of big error caused by missed steps It helps to return camera to the normal position If main power additional power is greater than 255 the result is limited to 255 e INVERT reverse motor rotation direction
14. connection scheme GUI installation First you need to download the latest version of the GUI application from our web site http www basecamelectronics com downloads 32bit Unpack it in any folder To start the application you need to have the Java Runtime Environment managed by Oracle Inc installed in your system To obtain the product for your system see hittp www java com For each of the systems in the unpack directory To run the Basecam GUI for Windows e run SimpleBGC_GUI exe To run the Basecam GUI for MAC OS e run SimpleBGC_GUI jar ATTENTION The Basecam GUI uses a virtual COM port To get that to work on MacOS a lock file will need to be created it uses the lock file to control flow back and forth through the virtual COM port Due to security constraints you need to create the lock file yourself Start terminal Terminal is an application in the Utilities directory Into terminal type with great care if you are less experienced Make folder var lock by command 1 sudo mkdir var lock Change permissions by command 2 sudo chmod 777 var lock Either allow your system to run non signed applications by setting this in System Preferences gt Security amp Privacy gt General gt Allow Applications downloaded from Anywhere Or you can allow just this one app to run by answering Open when prompted by the system dialog In this case as in the other navigate to the unpack directory and 3 double click to run
15. contains settings to configure digital filters that can help to improve the quality of PID controller operation Notch filters a m Magnitude Response dB 0 T T T T T T T T g nm 0 0 1 0 2 03 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 09 gt Normalized Frequency x rad sample 5 These filters can reject narrow bandwidth resonance They can help in cases when the system has a pronounced mechanical resonance Raising the extant feedback gain oscillations will appear first on the mechanical resonance frequencies and does not depend on variations of P 1 D settings In this case using one or more notch filters can help to increase feedback gain and get more accurate and stable work of the PID regulator But this filter will be useless if oscillations appear in the broad frequency range In this case it is better to use a low pass filter With the parameter Gain you can control the effect of the notch filter Set it equal to 100 to get maximum effect set it lt 50 to compensate only light resonances The image below shows different values of the gain parameter in the Bode plot build for the PID controller with a single notch filter at 60Hz 35 Db 30 25 20 30 100 Different values of Gain parameter for single notch filter 33 11 Digital Filters Example gimbal behavior is stable but when camera tilts downward 60 degrees a strong vibration occurs and this effectively prevents an increase gain of PID which might o
16. downloaded by the Link http Avww basecamelectronics com files v3 SimpleBGC Scripting Lanquage_eng pdf There is a simple text editor in the Scripting tab with syntax checking Its main functions are Saving and loading of files Scripts are stored in text files You can use any text editor to edit them Syntax checking After loading a file application checks the syntax Errors found are highlighted in red and a short message explaining the reason is provided Also the syntax will be checked by clicking VALIDATE button and when uploading the script to the controller Uploading scripts to the controller There are 5 slots allocated that can hold up to 5 scenarios the overall size after compilation of 27 kilobytes Script size is displayed near the slot number Empty slots are marked as lt empty gt To delete a script delete all the text in text editor and write it into the slot you want to clear Restore script from the board You can download the script from the board for editing But at the same time as a result of decompilation you will lose all comments and original formatting Therefore it is recommended to store scripts in text files Running scripts RUN button will start the script located in the selected slot If the text in the script editor window corresponds to the contents of the slot the current line of the program is highlighted in the process of execution This is useful for monitoring and debugging You can stop the
17. from both is used by the controller board simultaneously for more precise system stabilization To improve system performance optional rotary position sensor encoder may be installed on each motor More info about advantages and requirements of using encoders you can find on the page http www basecamelectronics com encoders The controller itself is compact 17 grams but directs 1 6 Amps at 20V to each axis which gives it the power to drive large gimbal motors 30mm to 110mm is quite reasonable when amperage and voltage levels are observed This translates to a maximum payload of about 25lbs the weight of a Redi m Cinema camera and prime Lens if properly mounted and balanced and depending upon the rate of correction expected and other operational factors Correction rates that result are increased by novel and demanding applications such as mounting to moving or flying vehicles Many factors must be taken into consideration when determining fitness for a proposed use but in particular the payload weight balance gimbal quality g forces that will likely be encountered and the magnitude of wind speed and turbulence all contribute Overview Introduction The system controller board and software are designed and licensed by Basecam Electronics You can purchase our controller directly from us at our web store http www basecamelectronics ru store or you may purchase one manufactured under contract by one of our partners The list
18. functioning properly 5 As soon as the maximum temperature is reached calibration is automatically finished and the board is restarted so that new parameters can be applied The checkbox Gyroscope temperature compensation switches on 6 Calibration results check gyroscope reading when totally immobile equals to zero within the whole temperature range applied during calibration drifting of axis arrows is absent or very low NOTE During normal calibration of gyroscope the temperature compensation is switched off but its data is stored in memory It can be switched on through the GUI in the calibration assistant If gyroscope calibration at system start is ON it has a priority over the temperature compensation 19 5 PID auto tuning 5 PID auto tuning This feature will be helpful for beginners who often experience difficulties with PID tuning Before you start automatic tuning its very important to properly configure the hardware of your system motor outputs Power Inverse and Number of poles latest 2 settings may be detected automatically as described in the user manual Also main IMU position should be configured and accelerometer and gyroscope should be calibrated Plug in a battery connect board to the GUI and press the Auto button in the PID parameters section You will see a dialog window where you can setup the auto tuning process PID auto tune configuration kh A s Better stabil
19. main in parallel BASECAM Vata Sensors should have different 2C address Main IMU 0x68 Frame IMU 0x69 4 Raa On the Basecam IMU address 0x69 may be set by cutting the ADDR bridge located J E E on the back side of the sensor Mounting the Frame IMU There are two options where to place the second IMU below YAW motor and above it In case of 2 axis stabilization there is only one option above ROLL motor 15 4 Basic Settings Frame IMU above YAW gt m YAW MOTOR below YAW SL c above ROLL ROUL PITCH MOTOR MOTOR Camera IMU If the sensor is placed above YAW motor it helps to stabilize ROLL PITCH and YAW motors But the system becomes less stable during long work because the frame heading estimated from the second IMU may drift with time and auto correction may not work in all cases If the sensor is placed below YAW motor it does not help YAW axis stabilization but its operation is more reliable There is a particular option you can choose for this position from Below YAW PID source It means that if Frame IMU is mounted below YAW motor it can be used as a data source for the PID controller In some cases this can give better result than the main IMU because mechanical system s IMU Motor becomes more stiff when its length is shorter and its closed loop operation becomes more stable Like the main camer
20. of our official partners is available on our web site http www basecamelectronics ru wheretobuy Different manufacturers may alter the controller slightly for example by adding an integrated Bluetooth component or by changing its size etc In either case note the board version and relevant data published on the corresponding manufacturer s web site Some of our partners make just the boards available and others make finished gimbal products with pre installed controllers http Awww basecamelectronics com readytouse Gimbals are also available both with and without motors but without electronic stabilization system In these case you will need to purchase a controller from us as noted above or from one of our partners providing just the boards and install it yourself If you decide to assemble a stabilization system yourself please visit our forum where you can find the necessary information http forum basecamelectronics com We describe in this manual both the controller board itself as well as the multi platform software application for its adjustment We call the software application the Basecam GUI As noted it may be downloaded from our website and also as noted above it is necessary to get the version of it that is associated with the firmware version that is installed on the board the versions should match The Basecam GUI software uses the Java runtime environment and a virtual COM port to aid in portability to other
21. port number is greater than 99 Go to the Windows device configuration utility 42 13 Firmware update open Serial ports settings and rename port giving it number below 100 43 14 System Analysis Tool 14 System Analysis Tool This tool lets you grab information about system response and displays it in a form of Bode plot amplitude and phase response versus frequency System for analysis purposes may be considered any system that has input and output and unknown transfer function between them From Bode plot we can make an assumption about system stability find problematic areas in frequency domain and with the help of advanced tools like Matlab find a way to increase the performance of the controller This tool is quite complicated to use and is intended for use only by qualified personnel with an engineering degree in systems analysis control theory Collecting data The main concept is to provide a stimulus signal to the input of the system and then observe a signal on the output Input and output data is measured with a fixed sampling rate and stored in the CSV file Then signals are converted to the frequency domain and a transfer function in the form of the cross power spectral density CPSD is computed For all frequencies that are present in the input signal we can build amplitude and phase response plots When displayed in logarithmic scales its called a Bode plot Choosing
22. spin smoothly while rolling the sensor A little jitter is normal due to magnetic force between rotor and stator cogging effect Pay great attention to sensor installation Its axes must be parallel with motor axes Pay attention to mechanical links They must be a VERY RIGID and backlash free The sensor provides feedback data for stabilization and even any little freedom or flexibility will cause delays and low frequency resonances This can complicate setting of PID and cause unstable work in real conditions frame vibrations wind etc 2 Calibrating the sensor The Gyro is calibrated every time you turn the controller on and it takes about 4 seconds to complete Try to immobilize the camera sensor as hard as you can in first seconds after powering on while signal LED is blinking After powering on you have 1 seconds to freeze the gimbal before calibration starts If you activated option Skip gyro calibration at startup then the gyro is not calibrated each time and the controller begins operating immediately after powering up Be careful and recalibrate the gyro manually if you notice anything wrong with IMU angles Calibrating Accelerometer You must perform ACC calibration only once but it s recommended to recalibrate it from time to time or when the temperature significantly changes Alternatively you can make a temperature calibration through a full range of possible working temperatures see Temperature Sensor Calibra
23. time is enough to collect data for good averaging But you can finish test at any time by pressing CANCEL If something goes wrong during a test for example stimulus is too low and you see that the system s response is too weak or on the contrary stimulus is too big and the system goes outside limits looses sync you can stop the test correct start conditions and repeat the test again When the test is finished go to processing of the data collected In the time domain graphs check that the 46 14 System Analysis Tool output of the system is not too low otherwise test result will be overly noisy and unreliable Processing test results When test is finished it is displayed in the GUI in a form of Bode plot r Run test Add from file Clear _ Auto scale Smooth Gain response Phase response Phase margin at freq 13 43Hz 2 800 10 m Gain margin at freq at 0 75 db 30 100 gain bode_test_log01 W phase bode_test_log01 But you can analyze grabbed data by more powerful tools like Matlab or similar programs Therein are wide sets of utilities from system identification to system tuning but high engineering skills are required to make clear use of them Reading and understanding the test results You need to understand the basics of system analysis before reading a Bode plot There are many tutorials and papers related to this area for example http support motioneng com utilities bode bode_16 html
24. B EMC OCCT S arisen ssasesenan adege nani na sebi ga anengen anehe senada ageage seins 48 17 Possible problems and solutions 000000000000000000000ne 49 16 oo eee a aaa ane een sosna ss aAdn Ne a a nn 50 Overview 1 Overview This manual provides directions on how to connect adjust and calibrate the SimpleBGC 32bit 3 Axis controller board by Basecam Electronics To begin using the board the following are the components that are necessary to assemble The controller board and additionally either one or two IMU units A USB connection to the board or an optional Bluetooth converter a standard TTL interface Bluetooth module readily available in the market A computer to make and write settings to the controller via Basecam s software And the Basecam software which runs on Windows MacOS and Linux The software is downloaded from the Basecam website Note that the GUI software version should match or be greater than the firmware version deployed on the board Also necessary is a suitable physical apparatus to mount and orient the sensors for use during calibration not a gimbal itself but rather a small cube of any material cardboard foam wood etc that has true square sides which can be turned from side to side during calibration further described later Also needed ultimately is a gimbal with 2 or 3 brushless motors that is well balanced in each dimension about its center point The objective for gimbal design is that
25. IMU sensor in any direction keeping its sides always parallel to the motor axis be very accurate here it is very important to precisely align the sensor and mount it firmly Configure your IMU orientation in the GUI by specifying axes direction in the Top and Right dropboxes or using AUTO button to find proper direction automatically in 3 simple steps The correct configuration should result in the following Camera pitches forward the PITCH arrow spins clockwise in the GUI Camera rolls right ROLL arrow spins clockwise in the GUI Camera yaws clockwise YAW arrow spins clockwise o Skip Gyro calibration at startup With this option the board starts working immediately after powering it on using the saved calibration data from last gyroscope calibration call However stored calibration data may become inaccurate over time or during temperature changes We recommend that you re calibrate your gyro from time to time to ensure the best performance As an alternative you can perform a temperature calibration see Temperature Sensor Calibrating Second IMU sensor There is an option to install the second IMU sensor on the gimbal s frame The advantage is more precise stabilization you may use lower PID s to get the same quality and knowing frame tilting greatly helps 3 axis systems to extend the range of working angles The second IMU should be connected to the same 12C bus as
26. PO_RATE Degree of exponential curve depth for the RC signal FOLLOW_MODE Follow mode by the PITCH ROLL angles 0 off 1 follow the flight controller 2 follow the gimbal s frame 38 12 Adjustable Variables RC_FOLLOW_YAW Follow mode by the YAW angles 0 off 1 2 follow the gimbal s frame FOLLOW_DEADBAND The deadband for the deflection angle of the frame in the Follow mode unit of measurement 0 1 degree FOLLOW _EXPO_RATE Degree of the exponential curve depth for the Follow mode FOLLOW_ROLL_MIX_START The starting point of the zone transition to the Follow mode degrees FOLLOW_ROLL_MIX_RANGE The length of the zone transition to the Follow mode degrees GYRO_TRUST Trust to gyroscope compared to accelerometer 39 13 Firmware update 13 Firmware update To check if a firmware upgrade is available connect the board and press CHECK button You will receive information about all available versions of firmware and can choose version for upgrade When selecting a version in the drop down list its full description is displayed in the text area below To upload the selected version to the board press the UPGRADE button The uploading process will be started Generally it takes about 10 30 seconds to finish WARNING Do not disconnect USB cable or break wireless connection while firmware is uploading PLEASE NOTE e For non windows operating system additio
27. Serial API from another device API_VIRT_CH1 E 36 12 Adjustable Variables API_VIRT_CH32 TIP This type of input allows independent developers to create an external control panel with any set of buttons switches and potentiometers serviced by a simple microprocessor for example based on the Arduino software which reads and transmits the state of control devices data over the wired or wireless serial interface Since the tuning of control functions is performed through SimpleBGC_GUI software for such control panel can be extremely simple Documentation of protocol SimpleBGC Serial API specification is available for download on our website http www basecamelectronics com Setting control of the Trigger type e Select a slot for tuning Slots where the signal source is already defined are marked with symbol e Select the signal source One and the same source can be used for several slots simultaneously but please make sure that the commands executed for individual slots do not interfere with each other e Assign actions to each sector Possible actions are described in the section Menu Button You can leave any sector unused by specifying no action After activating parameters by pressing button Write you will see the current RC signal level on the selected slot for convenience the whole range is divided into sectors as well as the last activated action You can check in real time whether actions a
28. TG ASECAM ELECTRONICS SimpleBGC 32bit 3 Axis Software User Manual Board v 3 x Firmware v 2 50 GUI v 2 50 Basecam Electronics 2013 2015 1 OVErVICW cccccccccccccscccccccccccccccscscscccscceccccesececccssscsscccccccees 3 2 Step by step setup SEQUENCE scceecccscecsseccscseccscsseceees 9 3 The Basecam GUI OVErView ssscscsccsssssessesssssesseesees 12 4 BASIC SQCCINGS wise vss ssescsacswcassassisiasecsstdsauccdeseinicsdaasaeccsastsneacies 14 5 PlDauto tuning s5 sssese50seserearene noenten anan sustosvonsvaseivensscntenns 20 GRE Settings is sicscasecdescess tonccestasseecea uses sestobaceebeesttasea sosstersessicde 22 7 Follow Mode SettingG ccsssccssscsccssssssscscssescsceseeees 25 8 Advanced Settings o0000000000000000ene0ae ene nne anna nane neenannannene 28 9 Service Settings 0o0000000000e0 anane nanne nee a nan anenanae nane nnenanne 30 10 System Monitoring 000000000000 00en0enenae nee e0na nee a naa nene 32 11 Digital FIltGrSi 55ssaa5ak angan anga an negen a aaa irase imoissa 33 12 Adjustable Variables o000o0000000000e00e0e0 0000 ne0 anae nnenenneneo 36 13 Firmware update 00000000000000000 0000000000 nenen eea aennenannenee 40 14 System Analysis Tool 000e000000 0000000000 0en ae nne anae anenenneneo 43 15 User written SCHIP ES isis sscesenscssicisiduasessssscessssasiasieeanseacsnsaasers 47 D
29. There is a dedicated socket on the board marked Spektrum that matches the standard connector Starting from firmware ver 2 43b7 you can bind a satellite remote receiver connected to the spektrum port directly from the SimpleBGC board It will be bound as the stand alone master unit To start binding assign action Bind RC receiver to the hardware menu button and execute this action or execute the same action from the Board Execute command menu in the GUI You can select any of 4 different modes prior to start binding in the RC Other settings tab DSM2 11ms DSM2 22ms DSMX 11ms a DSMX 22ms Choose a mode that a combination of your transmitter and receiver supports 10 or 11 bit modification does not matter at this moment Switch to Auto detection mode after binding is done If channels are read incorrectly select 10bit or 11bit modification manually o SBGC Serial API 2 UART in this mode RC_ROLL input can handle Serial API commands It lets us expand the board functionality by connecting external devices implementing SBGC Serial API protocol If RC_YAW pin is not occupied it acts as TX pin of this UART allowing to use bi directional communication If RC_YAW pin is occupied only RX functionality is possible in other words external device can send commands to the board but can t read answers Port settings 115200 baud 8N1 or 8E1 1 stop bit 8 data bits parity none or even
30. WER parameter During fast YAW rotating camera deflects by ROLL and then slowly gets to horizon Bad accelerometer calibration Sensor is not in parallel with motor axes Make advanced ACC calibration by 6 positions Align sensor with motor axes During fast motion with acceleration camera deflects and then slowly gets to horizon This is normal effect of accelerations Try to increase Gyro Trust in Advanced tab YAW arrow slowly spins in the GUI Slow drift is normal less than 1 degree minute It s because of gyro drift over time Note sensor Immobility during gyro calibration Re calibrate gyro Camera slowly drifts by any or all axes just after power on Bad gyro calibration Re calibrate gyro Clicks and crunch are heard during work LED is synchronously blinking 12C errors present Errors are possible if sensor wires are too long or motors outputs affect sensor by capacitive linkage signal and power wires are run close to one another and there is capacitive linking Shorten sensor wires Lower pullup resistors values on the sensor board Install a spike LC filter on motor outs make 2 3 turns of motor cable through ferrite coil Install spike LC filter on sensor wires same as motor filter High frequency oscillations Feedback self excitation as a result of high D parameter Check the graphs to understand on what axis the problem is and lowe
31. a IMU the frame IMU may be mounted in any orientation keeping its axis parallel with the motor s axis Configuring the frame IMU To configure the frame IMU first of all set its location in the Advanced tab Sensor area Write settings to the board and go to the Basic tab Press the button Frame IMU Sensor Configure Camera IMU Frame IMU AxisTOP 7 RIGHT y AUTO Fj Skip Gyro calibration at startup IMU Calibration Helper If the second IMU is connected properly this button becomes active After pressing on it all IMU settings now affect the frame IMU You may notice the right panels with arrows are displaying now angles not for the main but rather for the frame IMU Also in the Monitoring tab accelerometer s and gyroscope s data are for the frame IMU Bas CS 16 Change sensor orientation axis TOP RIGHT and write setting to the board if necessary board will be restarted After restart calibrate the accelerometer and gyroscope like you did for the main IMU For the accelerometer you can do simple calibration or extended 6 point calibration If the gimbal will be used in a wide temperature range it is necessary to perform what is called a temperature calibration of the accelerometer and gyroscope We suggest you do this procedure once properly for at least the temperature range you will be using the gimbal at This will eliminate the need to repeat calibration due to each change of ambien
32. alibrate Offset setting see below Like with the Follow mode its not recommended to use this option in flight it is dedicated for hand held systems only NOTE This option is ignored if you connect second IMU mounted on the frame or use encoders because the data from these sources is more precise than from motors e Follow Flight Controller camera is controlled from RC together with the mixed signal from an external flight controller FC Almost every FC has servo outputs to drive a gimbal It feeds the information about the aircraft s angles to these outputs in the PWM format that servos use SimpleBGC can get this information and use it to control a camera such way that it tracks the tilting of aircraft It is necessary to connect and calibrate the external flight controller see EXT FC GAIN settings After calibration you can setup the percentage values for ROLL and PITCH in which the camera will follow frame inclinations e Follow PITCH ROLL this mode is dedicated to hand held systems FC connection is not required In this mode the position of the outer frame by PITCH and ROLL is estimated from the motor s magnetic field This means that if motor skips steps position will be estimated incorrectly and operator should correct camera by hands returning it to proper position WARNING you should use this mode carefully for FPV flying because if the camera misses its initial direction there is no chance to return it back automatic
33. ally But if encoders are used this is not a problem o Follow ROLL start deg Set the angle in ROLL axis mode degrees of the camera PITCH ing up or down where the ROLL axis enters follow mode Below this angle ROLL is in lock mode E locked to the ground v F soft transition o Follow ROLL mix deg Set the range in angle opine camer d ee ME degrees of the camera PITCH ing where the on PTO ROLL axis is gradually switched from the lock mode to Follow mode see picture HINT To completely disable follow for ROLL set these values to 90 0 To permanently enable follow for ROLL regardless of the camera PITCH ing set values to 0 0 e Follow YAW the same as above except it can be enabled only for YAW axis For example you can lock camera by ROLL and PITCH axis by selecting Disabled option but still control camera by YAW by enabling Follow YAW option There are additional settings to tune follow mode 25 7 Follow Mode Settings e Dead band degrees you can set a range where the rotation of an outer frame does not affect the camera It helps to skip small jerks when you operate gimbal by hands e Expo curve when the expo curvature parameter is greater than zero a small or medium declination of an outer frame from neutral allows makes only very fine control But the strength of control exponentially grows when angles of declination become greater up to 45 degrees This featur
34. angle determination accuracy o Gyro trust A higher value gives more trust to the gyro data compared with the accelerometer data when estimating angles It can reduce errors caused by accelerations during movement but also decreases gyro drift compensation resulting in horizon drift over time For smooth flying it is recommended to set lower values 40 80 which will give a more stable horizon longer For aggressive flying it s better to set higher values 100 150 o Accelerations compensation enable use of a physical model of a multi rotor to compensate for accelerations during flight This option works only when external flight controller FC is connected and calibrated so the controller knows the aircraft s tilting angles e Serial port speed changes baud rate used for serial communication Decrease it when using over the air serial adapters that can t use the maximum speed The GUI can auto detect the baud rate configured in the board e PWM Frequency sets the PWM frequency used to drive the gimbal motors Two basic modes are available Low Frequency in audible range and High Frequency 22kHz outside audible range Recommended mode is High There is also third option present Ultra high 30kHz e Motor outputs you can randomly assign hardware motor outs for any stabilization axis or disable output that is not used for 2 axis stabilizers Options are o ROLL out PITCH out YAW out motor ports on the main control
35. arrow as possible Too broad bandwidth can result in decreased PID efficiency 5 Having closed one resonance continue to increase gain of PID responsible for gain are the parameters P D Second resonance occurs on frequency 140 Hz when we tilt the camera upward Fill in values for the second notch filter for PITCH axis to cancel this band too the same way as above In this example we have not needed to set filters for the other axes But it can happen that resonance occurs on more than one axis Then you will need to set filters on both axes possibly at the same frequency Low pass filter 2 1334 27 0903 52 0473 wD g 77 0042 8 2 oS 5 101 9611 3 oo a a 2 g S 2 amp 8 9 o N tn 69 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0 9 Normalized Frequency xx rad sample 34 11 Digital Filters It may be necessary to apply this filter low pass filter for large gimbals heavy cameras with high moment of inertia or for gimbals with reduction gear The working frequency range for them are Lower than of the lightweight gimbals But factor D of PID also increases feedback at higher frequency At high frequencies the response of the mechanical system is typically not sufficiently precise because of many reasons high frequency resonances propagation delay of mechanical impact nonlinearity due to the backlash and friction and so on Due to this the system tends to self excitation when gain increases A l
36. ated around neutral point in the ANGLE mode dead band tracks stick position and small jitter in this position is eliminated o Expo curve adjusts the curvature of an exponential function Applying more expo means that movements around the center are slower more precise but movements of larger values are much greater with the two extremes transitioning from one to another exponentially This gives precise control from RC in the range of the small values but rough and strong control near endpoints Works only in SPEED mode Limit Accelerations this option limits angular accelerations in case of hard RC or Follow control useful to prevents jerks or skipped steps smoother camera control less impact on the multirotor s frame The lesser the value is the smoother the camera rotation under control is PWM Output a mapping that allows you to pass any virtual channel decoded from serial input signal to special pins that can output PWM signal This signal can be used to drive a hobby servo or IR remote camera trigger for example On the SimpleBGC 3 0 boards these pins share PWM output function with other functions Servo1 FC_ROLL Servo2 FC_PITCH Servo3 RC_PITCH Servo4 AUX1 To enable servo output on any of these pins make sure that its not specified as RC input in the GUI This feature may be useful if you connect RC receiver by single wire and want to decode signal to the separate PWM channels to connect other RC con
37. ave problems with re connection to bluetooth under Mac OS you can try to upgrade in the manual mode using FLASH jumper as described above Q am using an external bluetooth module and it works fine with the GUI Can upgrade firmware through it A Yes if you configure module to Even parity To work with GUI it may be either Even or No parity but to upgrade firmware it needs to be configured with Even parity only Look for instruction for your module how to configure it Q Is it required to disconnect battery when upgrading firmware A No it does not matter if the board is powered from battery or from USB only Q After upgrade my GUI can t connect to the board What to do A Its important that firmware and GUI both have matched versions Changes in the firmware usually require changes in the GUI so old GUI will not work with the new firmware You can download the matched GUI from our website A hyper link to a version matched GUI is generally provided in the description of the firmware Q I got an error during uploading CreateProcess error 14001 A Some required libraries are missing on your system You need to install Microsoft Visual C 2008 x86 redistributable http www microsoft com en us download details aspx id 5582 Q I got an error Flash tool execution failed and string Cannot open the com port the port may be used by another application in the details A It may be because COM
38. ce utility dfu util http dfu util gnumonks org is used to write firmware to this board This driver should be used instead of default driver installed by Windows Windows 1 Download Zadig from the page http zadig akeo ie example 2 Run Zadig In the Device menu select Load preset device example 3 Select file SimpleBGC_GUI conf SimpleBGC 32bit board cfg 4 Install driver WinUSB example a dij WORK To check that driver is installed properly E 1 Close set FLASH jumper on the board and connect it by USB to PC preserving this order exactly F 2 Windows will find a new device SimpleBGC 32bit board 4 Universal Serial Bus devices 3 Open remove jumper re connect USB and run GUI to Li SimpleBGC 32bit board upgrade firmware 2 Linux Most Linux distributions ship dfu util in binary packages for those who do not want to compile dfu util from source On Debian Ubuntu Fedora and Gentoo you can install it through the normal software package tools For other distributions namely OpenSuSe Mandriva and CentOS Holger Freyther was kind enough to provide binary packages through the Open Build Service e Copy dfu util to SimpleBGC_GUI bin dfu util linux to enable the GUI to find and execute it MAC OS Mac OS X users can also get dfu util from Homebrew with brew install dfu util or from MacPorts e Install MacPorts from http Avww macports org install php e Find and install dfu util
39. channels back and saves roll position in static memory e Swap RC YAW ROLL like the previous point e Set tilt angles by hand motors will be turned off after that you can take the camera in hands and fix it in the new position for a few seconds Controller will save and hold the new position This function may be useful to correct camera position before flight if there is no RC control connected e Motors toggle Motors ON Motors OFF commands to change the state of the motors e Reset controller e Frame upside down configures system to work in upside down position New configuration is stored to EEPROM and applied after restart To switch back to the normal position execute this command again e Look down points camera 90 degree down or maximum allowed limit under 90 as configured by the MAX ANGLE parameter in the RC tab e Home position returns camera to the initial position that is configured by the N TANGLE parameter in the RC tab e Bind RC receiver start bind procedure This is applicable only for Spektrum satellite receiver as described in the RC section e Menu button press this is emulation of menu button single press Example of use case assign toggle switch without fixation on your RC receiver to CMD channel assign this action to High or Low state of CMD channel depending on toggle switch s active state Now you can execute up to 5 actions by pressing switch remotely as you do it be pressing th
40. digital inputs including one that supports most popular serial protocols and 3 analog inputs It can also output an RC signal in pass through mode or by Serial API commands The full RC routing diagram can be found in the Appendix C of this manual e RC Input Mapping here you can assign hardware RC inputs to target control channels There are 5 hardware digital inputs provided on the board for RC Radio control connections and 3 analog inputs for connecting a joystick Each input can be assigned to control any of three channels one for each axes and one command channel If control for an axis is not needed leave the option at no input e RC_ROLL pin mode Assigns format for the incoming signal on RC_ROLL pin o Normal incoming signal is in the PWM format which most RC receivers generally output o Sum PPM some receivers have this signal output format option It is a PWM format modification in which every channel transmits sequentially through one cable In this case you do not need to connect other channels read your receiver s user manual to check if it has SumPPM out how to configure it to do this and which output channel it uses o Futaba s bus receivers made by Futaba may transmit data in a special digital format up to 16 channels by one wire Connect it to RC_ROLL pin o Spektrum another digital multi channel protocol that is used to communicate Spektrum s satellite modules with the main module and in its clones
41. e 3 Reset the previous calibration by pressing RESET and let it restart 4 Cool the sensor to necessary temperature for example by placing it in a freezer connect to GUI again run calibration wizard and select the sensor Check the current temperature indication of the sensor 5 Calibrate in each of the six positions in a random order Insignificant temperature variation is allowed during position switching up to 5 degrees total but it is desirable to realize the series as quickly as possible Thermal insulation will help to slow down the sensor heating 6 Make sure that each calibration series done is indicated by a new thermometer icon in a corresponding slot If the difference to the previous calibration temperature value is less than 10 degrees the new value will not be accepted and error will be indicated by the system with a flashing LED indicator 7 Repeat steps 4 5 and 6 for each of the higher temperature values so that the whole sensor working temperature range is covered 8 Calibration results check Accelerometer maximum values in each of the 6 directions are equal to Basecamelectronics 2013 2015 18 4 Basic Settings 1G throughout the whole temperature range When the calibration assistant shows 18 thermometer icons the checkbox for Accelerometer temperature compensation will switch on NOTE Simple calibration by Z axis or by 6 points switches the temperature calibration off but its data is stor
42. e a little to keep gimbal stable Now you have found a maximum for all PID values for selected axis Repeat from step 1 for other axes 5 When all axes are tuned in static try to move gimbal s frame emulating a real working environment You may notice that cross influence of axes may make gimbal unstable In this case decrease a little PID values from their maximum for axes that are animating Good tuning results in stabilization error of less than 1 degree when you slightly rock the gimbal s frame Further steps to improve the precision of stabilization e Connect and calibrate external flight controller see Advanced Settings External FC Gain e Connect setup and calibrate second frame IMU see Second IMU sensor 5 Connecting and configuring RC e Connect one of the free receiver s channels to the input labeled as RC_PITCH observing the correct polarity In the RC Settings tab e Assign RC_PITCH PWM input to PITCH axis e Leave all other axes s and CMD s as no input e For PITCH axis set MIN ANGLE 90 MAX ANGLE 90 ANGLE MODE checked LPF 5 SPEED 50 e Connect the battery to the main controller and receiver and check that RC_PITCH input receives data in the Monitoring tab slider should be blue filled and reflects stick movement Now you can control the camera from your RC transmitter from 90 to 90 degrees If you are not satisfied with the speed of movement adjust the SPEED setting If s
43. e gives considerable freedom in camera operation from fine and smooth control to very fast movements e OFFSET this is a setting that allows you to properly configure the exact initial position of the gimbal For YAW axis it allows fine adjustment of the camera heading relative to a frame heading For PITCH and ROLL axis there is an option to calibrate offset automatically To do this power on the system hold frame leveled and press AUTO button Don t forget to write setting when finished If the camera after power on is not leveled you need to adjust the offset setting e SPEED adjust the speed of the camera rotation Don t set big values that motors can not handle if motor does not produce enough torque to move the camera it will skip steps and synchronization will be broken In this case an acceleration limiter may help to have high speed but not to miss steps IMPORTANT NOTE For high SPEED values above 50 100 its strongly recommended to set LPF parameter greater than 2 3 Expo curve parameter greater than 50 and Deadband parameter greater than 3 5 degrees Otherwise wrong system operation is possible like vibrations and jerks under follow control and overshoot of target e LPF adjust the low pass filter applied to the speed control in the Follow mode If this value is set high fast movements of the handle will be smoothed But it requires careful operation anda little training to prevent unwanted oscillation
44. e menu button e Run script from slot 1 4 execute your scenario from any slot See User written scripts section WARNING There is a special action if you press menu button 10 times in series full erase of all settings Use this option for recovery only if board is not accessible from the GUI Battery Monitoring On all 32 bit boards there is a voltage sensor installed to monitor the main battery voltage It is used to 30 9 Service Settings apply voltage drop compensation to ensure PID s remain stable during the full battery life cycle and to provide power for low voltage alarms and perform motor cut off when the battery becomes discharged e Calibrate adjusts the rate of the internal multiplier to make measured voltage more precise You need a multimeter to measure the real voltage then enter this value in the calibration dialog e Low voltage alarm set the threshold at which to issue alarms e Low voltage stop motors set the threshold at which to stop motors e Compensate voltage drop set this option to automatically increase the POWER parameter which controls the output power to the motors which is applied when the battery looses voltage due to the normal discharge process This becomes unnecessary if the gimbal is fed from a voltage regulated power source Set defaults for select the battery type to fill the fields above with the default settings for selected type Buzzer On some boards there is an
45. eBGC 3 0 32bit bluetooth connection Settings Baud rate 115200 Parity Even or None Data bits 8 Stop bits 1 BLUETOOTH To upgrade firmware via Bluetooth only Even parity will work Starting from firmware ver 2 41 None parity is supported too Note that by default most modules configured with None parity 2013 2015 Basecamelectronics 53 SimpleBGC 32bit RC signal routing diagram firmware ver 2 43 Digital inputs MODE Serial decoders Mapping PWM out t RC_ROLL SumPPM VIRT_CH1 J Servo1 gt RC_PITCH S bus Seat O Servo2 gt gt RC_YAW Spektrum VIRT_CHx s Servo3 a FC_ROLL Q O Servo4 gt wi FC PITCH PWM decoders Mix Angle control gt ROLL gt gt PITCH gt b gt YAW gt Serial API Mapping API VIRT_CH1 gt A a Command Tn CMD
46. ea because system gain significantly drops there 3 Select the gain of the test signal Chose this value experimentally to keep the system inside its linear range during the whole test and at the same time have non zero output 4 If white noise is selected as stimulus select cut off frequency Frequencies above this will be removed before passing to the test system Note that the bode plot for the high frequency area in this case will be useless 14 System Analysis Tool 5 Select system to test o Controller plant input is passed to the PID controller output is read from the gyro sensor Controller Plant 3 ro Controller only input and output obtained from PID controller In this test motors are disabled and test is not visible Don t set a big gain to prevent clipping inside controller O Controller ws ofr Plant only input is passed to motor output is read from gyroscope sensor Again be careful with the gain parameter O Plant Motor Mechanics o Overall system response input is passed as RC input and system tracks it as in normal operation mode Output should track input signal gain is close to O dB phase is close to 0 in well tuned system Controller Plant Po 6 Place gimbal on a steady support power motors ON and begin test Its important to not disturb the gimbal during the test especially for open loop modes Full test will take about 40 seconds This
47. ed in memory You can switch it back on through the calibration assistant Temperature gyroscope calibration The gyroscope is calibrated under continuous temperature increase the sensors of the frame and the camera are calibrated simultaneously Choose the calibration temperature range so that the intended working temperature range for the gimbal is covered Temperature gyroscope calibration procedure 1 Cool the sensors down to the required temperature below zero for example by placing them into a freezer then put them in a place with high temperature above zero and secure Provide total immobility hold them perfectly still and good thermal insulation It is necessary to ensure slow uniform sensor heating to accomplish a sufficient amount of measurement 2 Connect the controller to GUI and run the calibration helper Check current temperature indication of the sensor 3 Press the TEMP CALIB button in the Gyroscope group You can also start temperature calibration by pressing a hard button in menu or through the menu item Board gt Sensor gt Calibrate Gyroscope temp compensation 4 During calibration the green LED indicator is flashing uniformly Calibration continues as long as temperature increases If LED indicator starts flashing quickly it means that the gyroscope is detecting some movement Ensure total immobility of the sensors If LED indicator is continuously flashing quickly it means that the sensor is not
48. ensor data stream logical RC input levels and some debug information e ACCX Y Z accelerometer data e GYRO_X Y Z gyroscope data Helps to determine the quality of P and D settings for example by disturbing the gimbal by hand and observing the trace If it looks like a sine wave the D setting is too low and the gimbal tends toward low frequency oscillations If some noise is always present even without any disturbance the D setting is too high and the gimbal tends toward high frequency self excitation e ERR_ROLL ERR_PITCH ERR_YAW the stabilization error graph This is the same as the peak value indicators on the control panel and shows maximum deflection angle NOTE Each graph can be turned on or off and scale can be adjusted for the Y axis You can pause the data transmission at any time You can receive extended debug information from the board by selecting the checkbox Receive extended debug info Useful information you can get from the board lt RMS_ERR_R RMS_ERR_P RMS_ERR_Y RMS amplitude of gyro sensor data In case of oscillations it helps to clarify which axis is unstable It may be not so clear from raw gyro data because oscillations may have high frequency far above a frame rate that GUI can receive and display e FREQ_R FREQ P FREQ Y the main frequency of oscillation If RMS_ERR is too small this parameter s usefulness is limited 32 11 Digital Filters 11 Digital Filters This tab
49. er from the PC side your PC may of course have built in Bluetooth On the board side working converters are for example HC 05 HC 06 Sparkfun BlueSMiRF and other Bluetooth 2 1 compatible modules The converter should have at least 4 outputs Gnd 5V Rx Tx and it attaches to the controller at the corresponding slot located near the USB port marked with UART or Serial Regardless of the boards labeling the board s pins are TTL logic not RS232 Bluetooth module connection is described in Appendix B NOTE Bluetooth module should be set for baud 115200 and parity None or Even Under None the board can be connected to the GUI with parity set to either However to update the board firmware through the Bluetooth connection parity on the device must be set to Even To change Bluetooth module settings see its manual For some devices it may be necessary to run serial connection software on a machine and connect it to that machine through an adapter As noted refer to the device s manual But be aware it should hardly be necessary as updating firmware is likely better done through a wired connection the USB cable anyway It is likely worthwhile to select a Bluetooth module that already has its baud rate set to 115200 as default as that will be required for a normal connection Working with different baud rates is possible just change parameter Advanced gt Serial Port Speed to match module s baud rate but some operations like realtime data monitoring
50. eters to their default values or to completely reset board by erasing EEPROM Language menu The GUI starts in the English version of the user interface To change the interface language choose the one desired in the language menu and restart the program View menu You can change a visual theme from the View menu For example when using GUI outdoor better to switch to one of the high contrast themes Further in this manual each tab is described in details At the end of this manual you can find additional step by step tuning recommendations 13 4 Basic Settings 4 Basic Settings PID and Motor settings e PJ D PID regulation parameters for all axes o P describes the power of disturbance response Higher values means a stronger response reaction to external disturbance Raise this value until the stabilization quality of fast disturbances will be adequate If the P value is too high oscillations of the axis will start to be present These oscillations will get worse if there are vibrations that reach the IMU sensor board If oscillations occur raise the D parameter by 1 or 2 units and then try to raise the P value again o D The D value reduces the reaction speed This value helps to remove low frequency oscillations A D value that is too high can cause high frequency oscillations particularly when the IMU sensor is exposed to vibrations In special cases it may be filtered out
51. from there e Copy dfu util to SimpleBGC_GUI bin dfu util mac to enable the GUI to find and execute it FAQ and Troubleshooting Q Firmware uploading process was interrupted and board is not working now not responding to GUI Is it fatal 41 13 Firmware update A No its not permanently fatal for your board its impossible to damage the board in such way You just need to upload special recovery firmware You can find it in the firmware folder named simplebgc_recovery_32bit or download it from our site Refer to instructions on how to upload firmware in the manual mode above Then you can connect to the board and upgrade to any version as usual Q I know from somebody that there is new firmware version but don t see it when checking for updates Why A There may be beta versions that are available for beta testers only or maybe different versions for different boards You will receive only stable versions issued for your board by observing the specified version for automatic update Q Can I upgrade firmware from Mac or Linux A Yes starting from GUI 2 42b7 But check the note above Q My board has no USB connector but has bluetooth Can upgrade firmware A Yes you can upgrade via Bluetooth the same way as USB If your board has an integrated Bluetooth module it is already configured properly to work for upgrade External Bluetooth modules need to be configured to 115200 baud even parity If you h
52. gs During the process you should firmly hold the gimbal in your hands You can place it on a support but check that it provides strong hold not less than your hands After about a minute of work you can see that PID values have grown big enough and camera is stabilized Now you can slightly tilt handles in all directions to emulate real usage conditions At this point try to find a point where self excitation occurs at some particular orientation of the gimbal motions tend to cause self excitation and continue tuning system in this point starting with the worse case position 015 20 5 PID auto tuning It is normal that the gimbal starts to vibrate when PID values come close to their maximum If any motor looses sync due to strong oscillations you can help to restore it by hand without interrupting the process In some cases you can get a better result i e higher PID gains if you remove high frequency resonances before starting automatic tuning See section Digital filters for more details The boards LED is flashing during the tuning process When the process finishes its job the LED will light ON and new PID settings will be transferred to the GUI There is also a corresponding menu command that can start PID auto tuning without connection to the PC Adaptive control of PID gains This settings group lets to adaptively decrease PID gains when the system becomes unstable due to high PID gains For example the s
53. ity Better precision Adjust awis Mi ROLL Mj PITCH Ty YAW Initial values Start from zero 2 Start from current values Send progress to GUI _ Log to file START STOP CANCEL The slider at the top defines the target of tuning If its close to Better precision it will try to achieve maximum gain and keep it If close to better stability it will find maximum gain and then decrease it by 30 50 to make the system more stable You may chose which axis to tune Best results may be reached only if you tune each axis separately But for the first run you can tune all axis at the same time If you want to use your Current settings as start point select Start from current values Otherwise values will be set to zero in the beginning Select Send progress to GUI checkbox to see how PID values change in real time during tuning process Select Log to file to write PID values together with some debug variables to the file auto_pid_log csv It may be analyzed later to better understand system behavior There are a number of tools to plot data from log files for example http kst plot kde or How does it work The tuning process does a simple job it gradually increases Pl D values until system enters in self excitation state Self excitation means maximum possible gains are reached Then it rolls back values a bit and repeats the same iteration 2 times Averaged good values are stored as PID settin
54. ler o S BGC32_12C_Drv 1 4 external motor drivers integrated directly into motors and controlled by the 12C bus More info http www basecamelectronics com sbgc32_i2c_drv e Sensor o Gyro dead band helps to cut off gyro noise around zero that may be audible as white noise in heavy setups and to make system more immune to self excitation o Gyro high sensitivity Increases gyro sensitivity twice Use this option for big sized DSLR cameras in case your PID settings are close to their upper limits but stabilization is still not good Increasing gyro sensitivity equals to multiplying P and D values by 2 o 12C high speed use 2x faster communication over I2C bus It may give positive effect by reducing delay between gyro reading and correction or in case if there are many devices are connected to 12C bus But it will increase a chance to get the 12C errors so use this option with care o Frame IMU set the location of the frame IMU See Second IMU sensor section of this manual o Frame upside down auto detection if enabled the controller detects startup in the upside down mode if you switch gimbal ON when frame is turned over but camera is not system enters upside down mode automatically If option is disabled you have to enter this mode manually by the menu command o Swap frame and main sensors swap the roles of IMU sensors e External FC Gain Gain value for matching the gimbal data from your flight c
55. n between them o Push AUTO button again to complete calibration Calibration will stop automatically after some time too New gains will be written into EEPROM and shown in the GUI e Outer PI controller this group of settings affects outer Pl controller that control camera angle The bigger values the faster camera returns to normal position after big declination Normally there is no reason to change these values Default value is 100 for all fields 29 9 Service Settings 9 Service Settings Menu Button If you ve connected the menu button to BTN connector on the controller you can assign different actions to it Action is activated by pressing button several times sequentially 1 to 5 clicks and by pressing and holding long press Available actions e Use profile 1 5 loads selected profile e Calibrate ACC Calibrate ACC temp compensation the accelerometer calibration works the same way as the button selection in the GUI Runs regular calibration or temperature calibration e Calibrate Gyro Calibrate Gyro temp compensation gyroscope calibration Runs regular calibration or temperature calibration e Swap RC PITCH ROLL temporarily swap RC inputs from PITCH to ROLL In most cases only one PITCH channel is enough to control a camera in 2 axis systems Before a flight you can assign control from pitch channel to roll and make a camera precisely leveled Activating this function again swaps
56. nal steps may be required See notes at the end of this section e For Tiny version of the board you need to install the custom DFU device driver using Zadig utility Driver installed by default by Windows does not suit Detailed instructions on driver installation are provided at the end of this section There is an option to configure the system to check for updates automatically When a new version is issued you will be prompted to upgrade to it If automatic upgrade fails just after downloading firmware from our server for example there could be problems upgrading when using a Bluetooth connection under Mac OS you can try to upload firmware in the manual mode You can find the downloaded firmware in the SimpleBGC_GUI firmware folder and upload this file to the board in manual mode Uploading firmware in the manual mode This option is intended for special cases when the board becomes bricked GUI cannot connect to it and you need to upload special a recovery version of firmware or when you experienced problems with automatic upgrade Use this mode carefully and only if you understand what you are doing 1 Disconnect any power source and USB cable 2 Close set FLASH jumper on board attach jumper to the 2 pins marked as FLASH thus shorting them Connect board to PC by USB cable 4 Run GUI select COM port but don t connect and go to Upgrade firmware Manual tab but DO NOT PRESS CONNECT IN THE GUI
57. o 10 Its done for cases when the RC signal is limited in range and does not cover the full RC range correction of up to 500 and on the screen the blue bar does not reach its Limits After activating parameters by pressing button Write you will see the current RC signal level on the selected slot as well as the current value of controlled variable Table 1 Decoding of names of controlled variables Parameter s name Description P_ROLL P_PITCH P_YAW Parameter of P PID controller ROLL I_PITCH YAW Parameter of l PID controller multiplied by 100 D_ROLL D PITCH D_YAW Parameter of D PID controller POWER_ROLL POWER_PITCH POWER_YAW Parameter POWER ACC_LIMITER Acceleration limiter unit of measurement 4 s squared FOLLOW_SPEED_ROLL FOLLOW_SPEED_PITCH FOLLOW_SPEED_YAW The speed of movement in the mode Follow FOLLOW_LPF_ROLL FOLLOW_LPF PITCH FOLLOW_LPF_YAW Smoothing of operation in the mode Follow RC_SPEED_ROLL RC_SPEED_PITCH RC_SPEED_YAW Speed of movement when operating from the RC transmitter RC_LPF_ROLL RC_LPF PITCH RC_LPF_YAW Smoothing of operation from the RC transmitter RC_TRIM_ROLL RC_TRIM_PITCH RC_TRIM_YAW Neutral point trimming for channels controlling the camera by ROLL PITCH YAW in the speed mode RC_DEADBAND The deadband of the RC signal for the camera control channels in the speed mode RC_EX
58. og Trigger control is designed for connecting the buttons and switches in such a way that each state of the button triggers a certain command pre assigned to this particular state The entire range of the RC signal is divided into 5 sectors whereby the transition from one sector to another triggers the action assigned Up to 10 slots are available for matching the control channel set designed for 5 different functions Analog Control is designed for fine adjustment of selected parameters by rotating the potentiometer on the remote control panel It is also possible to switch between fixed values using a multi position toggle switch that almost all RC transmitters have Up to 15 slots are available for assigning the control channel to one parameter For both types of Control the signal source can be PWM inputs on the board designated as RC_ROLL RC_PITCH RC_YAW FC_PITCH FC_ROLL They take input from standard RC receivers Analog inputs ADC1 ADC3 They can be connected to analog potentiometers with resistance value of 1 10 kOm the end terminals are connected to GND and 3 3V and the central terminal is connected to the ADC input in question Virtual channels from multi channel RC In the event of connection of RC receivers with a large number of channels over a single wire virtual channels of RC_VIRT_CH1 RC_VIRT_CH32 receiver can also be used You can read more on this in the section RC Inputs Virtual channels operated through the
59. oles and motors direction Do not proceed to next step until proper direction is detected Run auto tuning for PID controller using default settings the first time Adjust PID controller settings if required To check stabilization quality use the peak indicator in the control panel shown by the blue traces and blue numbers Incline the frame by small angles and try to minimize peak values by increasing P and D to its maximum You may use gyro data from the Monitoring tab to estimate stabilization quality too It is better to tune PID with the Follow Mode turned OFF for all axes Suggested algorithm for manual PID tuning 1 Set l 0 01 P 10 D 10 for all axes Gimbal should be stable at this moment If not decrease P and D a bit Than start to tune each axis sequentially 2 Gradually increase P until motor starts to oscillate you may knock the camera and see on the gyro graph how fast oscillation decays Increase D a Little it should dampen oscillations and decay time decreases The lower is decay time the better 3 Repeat step 2 until D reaches its maximum which is when high frequency vibration begins to appear you may hear it or feel it in your hands and see noisy lines on the gyro graph When this begins current P and D values are at maximums for your setup At this point decrease them a little and go to step 4 10 2 Step by step setup sequence 4 Increase until low frequency oscillation starts Decreas
60. onfigure Camera IMU Frame IMU RMS error threshold 0 Axis TOP Z RIGHT X AUTO A 2 Attenuation rate Recovery factor MOTORS ON OFF WRITE Device goes to reset Profile Disconnect Profile1 aE ORS Rename Load Save basecamelectronics com Upgrade Encoders Filters Scripting Adj Vars Analyze Advanced RC Service Follow POWER INVERT NUMPOLES ROU Foo mj 28s PITCH 120 ry 28 YAW 430 6 83 0 12 T 28 Sensor FJ Skip Gyro calibration at startup IMU Calibration Helper 0 42 0 03 The GUI contains different functional blocks 1 A configuration block in the central part of the window organized by tab Basic Basic gimbal stabilization settings Adjusting these settings is usually adequate to achieve good camera stabilization Advanced More precise tuning options RC settings to control the gimbal roll pitch yaw orientation with RC inputs Service Specify the behavior of the MENU button located on the controller board or mounted externally and tune the battery monitoring service Follow settings related to special mode of the camera control when it follows the frame Monitoring real time sensor data monitoring This screen is extremely helpful in tuning your gimbal performance Firmware Update Firmware and GUI software versions and update options Upgrade lets you to check the version of firmware and upgrade if necessary 3 The Basecam GUI overview e Filters
61. onnection to a battery To avoid connection interruptions it is recommended that you solder the wires to these pins from the corresponding connector to your battery and include some form of physical strain relief Note Polarity at all times do not make an incorrect connection Even a brief instantaneous incorrect connection may damage or destroy the board and perhaps the battery When handling batteries never cross terminals even momentarily Particularly when handling lithium batteries accidentally locking terminals may very definitely cause a fire or explosion Use great care particularly when cutting and soldering battery leads to prevent any contact of opposite poles in a closed circuit 1 Overview NOTE Battery voltage of 8 to 25V is acceptable If you use a lithium polymer battery LiPo 3S to 5S inclusive are acceptable where S stands for the quantity of standard 3 6v nominal cells in a given battery Note the voltage maximum for most such cells is 4 2V when fully charged Consequently a fully charged 3S LiPo is equal to 12 6V and 5S LiPo is equal to 21V Heed all warning indications regarding safe handling of lithium polymer batteries Remember that LiPoly batteries use only chargers specifically designed for this chemistry Never connect a LiPoly battery to a charger not intended for this battery chemistry A detailed description of a controller connection within a complete stabilization system can be found in the detailed
62. ontroller optional For better stabilization and utilization of some additional features knowledge about the frame inclination angles is required In the single IMU configuration there is no such information But most of FC s have servo outs for connecting gimbals that may be used to obtain such information These outputs should be connected to SimpleBGC controller through EXT_ROLL and EXT_PITCH inputs and the following steps to be performed 28 8 Advanced Settings o Activate gimbal outs in FC and set range limits for angles you generally fly for example 30 degrees of frame inclination should equal a full servo range of about 1000 2000 o Deactivate all filters and smoothing for gimbal stabilization in the FC if present o Inthe RC tab make sure that inputs EXT_ROLL and EXT_PITCH aren t used to control gimbal i e are not chosen as a source for any other RC control task o Inthe Monitoring tab check availability of EXT_FC_ROLL EXT_FC_PITCH signals and make sure they are assigned to axes correctly Frame roll angle tilting should cause EXT FC_ROLL change in approximately the 900 2100 range The same for pitch o Turn gimbal ON It should be properly tuned and stabilization should work to this step o Push AUTO button in External FC Gain group and smoothly incline aircraft s frame to different directions by all axes for 10 40 seconds Controller will match signal from the aircraft and from the IMU sensor and find a relatio
63. output to the buzzer or a buzzer is installed on board that is triggered on some events like notification on errors or confirmation for user actions Events are configured turned ON or OFF in the GUI You can connect an active buzzer only which has an internal sound generator working from 5V and current below 20mA check this Digikey product search for example If you have no buzzer connected there is an option to beep by motors Note that motors can emit sound only if they are powered and turned on Status LED There are 2 LEDs on the board The Red LED lights when the power for MCU is present The other LED which is either green or blue depending on the boards manufacture gives more specific information about the state of the system e LED is off pause before calibration allows time to take hands off of or to Level gimbal e LED blinks slowly calibration is in action Keep the gimbal absolutely still throughout this process e LED blinks fast system error stabilization cannot be performed To check error description connect to the GUI e LED blinks fast for short time confirmation for user action e LED is on normal operation mode e LED is on but blinks irregularly there are 12C errors Check in the GUI I2C errors counter Also additional LEDs may be present to signal serial communication on RX and TX lines 31 10 System Monitoring 10 System Monitoring In this tab you can see the raw s
64. ow pass filter reduces the gain at high frequency and increases stability of the system But as drawback a low pass filter results in phase delay which grows negative near the crossover frequency and can adversely affect the PID stability This is the reason for the complexity of configuring this filter and its usage is not always justified NOTE Up to version 2 42 the parameter Gyro LPF was responsible for LPF and provided a first order filter Now it is not used and changed to a second order filter with more precise tuning of frequency and independent configuration for each axis 35 SimpleBGC firmware supports not only the remote control of camera angles but also that of a large number of system parameters allowing their change in real time Also it has expanded functions of various commands executed remotely similar to channel CMD but with a much more flexible configuration The tab with these settings is displayed after connecting to a 32 bit board with a firmware that supports this feature Mapping of trigger type controls Slot to edit Signal source Execute an action on each of 5 positions Slot 1 ADC1 analog Use profile Profile1 Lock no action Use profile Follow1 po Fa Look down Motors toggle ON OFF Mapping of analog type controls Slot to edit Signal source Parameter to adjust Slot 1 ADC2 analog NA FOLLOW SPEED _YAW P Min Max Current value There are two types of control Trigger and Anal
65. per right corner dropbox labeled Profile It is not required to read the parameters by pressing READ You can save different settings in 5 different profiles Profiles can be switched over through the GUI by RC command or by operating the menu button on the board Please note that some settings are shared by all profiles These settings concern hardware component configuration in particular as well as sensor orientation and configuration and some others You can assign random names to profiles They will be saved on the board and will remain unchanged when you connect to the GUI from a different computer Step by step setup seguence 2 Step by step setup sequence 1 Adjusting the mechanics Mount the camera on the gimbal s tray and balance the gimbal in all three axes Stabilization quality strongly depends on balance quality To check your balance take the turned off gimbal in your hands Make fast motions along all axes s try to catch any resonance point by swinging the gimbal back and forth If it is hard to do gimbal is balanced correctly NOTE Good balance and low friction allows reduced power levels and still keeps good quality of stabilization If you rewound motors by yourself it s recommended to check electrical resistance and connectivity of your work With motors removed from gimbal connect them to controller and set parameters P 0 I 0 1 D 0 for each axis and set enough POWER Connect main power supply Motors should
66. r D value Low frequency oscillations Feedback self excitation as a result of high D parameter or low P parameter Lower P increase D GUI cannot connect to the board Wrong COM port selected GUI and firmware versions dont match Try different COM ports Upload the latest firmware and download matching GUI version 50 18 Credits 18 Credits Special thanks to William for contribution in writing this manual GUI translation E Copter Fabien Deregel French translation Norbert Machinek Deutsch translation Fpvmodel Max Chinese translation Tomasz Ciemnoczutowski Polish translation lacopo Boccalari Italian translation Lubos Chatval Czech translation Henrick Almqvist Swedish translation Brandon Kalinowski English Togawa Manabu Pawana LLC Japanese 51 SimpleBGC 3 0 32bit connection diagram IMU SENSOR GND BATTERY 5V LA eS a BUZZER 5 12V E FRAME IMU Gan IMU SENSOR fee i BANA KA Set ed ee eg CAM STAB ROLL CAM STAB PITCH GND 6j6 0 ojo ojo v 06 6 00 0o ONO OV OVOWONONO FLIGHT CONTROLLER OPTIONAL CAM CONTROL ROLL SumPPM SBUS CAMCONTROL PITCH CAM CONTROL YAW RECEIVER YAW PITCH ROLL MENU BUTTON bi e 5 a FERRITE RING ional if I2C errors JOYSTICK 1 3 2013 2015 Basecamelectronics Simpl
67. re performed correctly in the case when the Level of the signal has changed Setting control of the Analog type e Select a slot for tuning Slots where the signal source is already defined are marked with symbol e Select the signal source One source can be selected to control the number of variables at the same time which can be convenient to change the value of a group of parameters by single control function e Select the variable that must be changed Decoding of names of variables is presented in Table 1 e Specify the range of variation by means of the sliders Min and Max For example if the full variation range is 0 255 and you need to change it to the range 100 150 you will need to set the slider Min at the mark close to 40 and the slider Max at 60 as shown in the picture Mapping of analog type controls Slot to edit Signal source Parameter to adjust Slot 1 ADC1 analog P_ROLL 440276 Min value P Max value Current value 37 12 Adjustable Variables In this case the maximum control deviation corresponds to the parameter Limit value of 153 Observing the parameter current value in real time it is easy to estimate the required range by moving sliders There is a possibility to invert a control so that when a signal goes up a variable goes down To achieve this set Min slider greater than Max slider You may notice that Min and Max sliders extend the range of a variable t
68. s of the camera Its recommended to not set it below 2 Operation in the Follow Mode At system startup in the follow mode keep the frame horizontal and manually adjust the camera to the horizontal position and adjust it s heading Camera easily jumps between the magnetic poles Rotate the camera by hands to desired horizontal position it will stick to the nearest magnetic pole Gently rotate and tilt the frame Turns within 45 will control the speed of the camera from 0 to 100 Camera rotates in accordance with the SPEED settings until it s angles are not equal the frame s angles or until its given restrictions will be achieved If the camera moves unpredictably perhaps its the wrong direction of rotation of the motors and you need to change the Reverse flag in the Basic tab 26 Follow Mode Settings To achieve smooth motion increase the LPF parameter increase the Expo curve and decrease SPEED and Acceleration limits For more dynamic control change these settings in the opposite direction In case of failure of stabilization due to external disturbances the camera can completely lose synchronization with the frame In this case it is necessary to return it to the proper position by hands You can switch between modes on the fly by activating different profiles during this the camera will keep its position between modes 27 8 Advanced Settings 8 Advanced Settings e AHRS options influencing camera
69. script at any time by pressing STOP button Other ways to run the script 1 Assign command Run script from slot 1 5 to menu button in the tab Service 2 Assign command Run script from slot 1 5 to the CMD channel of receiver in the tab RC 3 Assign command Run script from slot 1 5 to any control channel in the group Trigger type controls in the tab Adjustable Variables 4 Send the command CMD_RUN_SCRIPT through the Serial API 48 16 Encoders 16 Encoders This tab is available only if special version of controller is connected or if special version of firmware is loaded into a regular controller Encoder is a rotary position sensors that provide very precise information about motor s shaft rotation This kind of sensor gives some advantages for stabilizer system But because of high complexity of installing and tuning encoders we do not consider them in this manual All information you can find on this page www basecamelectronics com encoders 49 17 Possible problems and solutions 17 Possible problems and solutions Problem Motors don t spin Possible causes Power supply is not connected Supply polarity inverted POWER set to 0 Solutions Check all connections Set POWER between 50 200 Camera is trying to align but falls back Camera is not balanced It s an error in motor windings or one phase is broken POWER is not high enough Balance camera Check motor winding Increase PO
70. stimulus signal The most important things to say about a stimulus signal e t should contain a wide spectrum of frequencies White noise and sine sweep for example meets this condition e System should operate inside its most linear range If stimulus is too low non linear effects like static friction and noise in the sensor used for measurement output will significantly impact test result If stimulus is too high there is a chance to over saturate the signal inside the system actuators may reach their limits integrators may be clipped by wind up thresholds and so on Proper selection of the stimulus amplitude is very important to get test result close to reality Maybe several trials will be required to find clear looking and therefore useful Bode plots e Generally the gain of a system decreases at the higher end of the frequency range due to mechanical inertia We can raise stimulus amplitude at high frequencies to compensate for this drop in gain Open loop vs closed loop test In most cases we are interested in the open loop system response But if we have an integrator inside the controller we find that it has big gain for low frequencies that can lead to over saturation of an output and makes the system non linear For example after integrating gyroscope data we can get non zero DC offset of rotation speed As a result without negative feedback camera will go to infinite rotation Its not a problem for analysis
71. systems Depending on the platform you may need to issue some commands to enable the port and on some platforms it may be necessary to install a serial driver Once running and connected the GUI looks and runs the same on all platforms Note that when Bluetooth is employed as the serial bridge rather than plugging the board into a computer with a USB cable that it may be necessary to configure the bluetooth device separately from running our software See below for more details 1 Overview Basic connections The connection scheme for the basic controller board is shown in figure 1 Battery 8 25V SBGCv3 USB to PC ROLL motor button receiver Fig 1 Basic connections 1 The USB port is used to connect the SimpleBGC 32bit stabilization board to PC 2 Gyroscopic sensor s IMU s are connected to I2C slot When there is a second IMU their outputs are combined with an Y cable and in either case a single connection is made to the port as shown 3 Each axis motor is connected to the corresponding motor connection These outputs are connected directly to the brushless gimbal motors If any output is not used disable it in the GUI NOTE It is advisable to pull each motor cable through and make at least one loop around a ferrite ring to avoid high frequency interference from affecting the IMU sensors and other electronic devices both on and connected to the board 4 The controller board is equipped with a power cable for c
72. t temperature and results in increased stabilization accuracy for operation within the calibrated temperature range Temperature calibration is done through a computer connection with the use of the calibration assistant or offline by setting the corresponding commands for the board s menu button Calibration with the use of GUI is described below Offline calibration is carried out similarly Regular calibrating Current position Choose sensor for Current sensor was accomplished calibration temperature How many measurements Start button of Start button of Range of temperatures in which were collected for each of regular temperature temperature calibrating was 6 positions calibrating calibrating preformed a Sensor Calibration Helper Accelerometer Gyroscope Abs Se Camera IMU Temperature 27 C Mes 2 Frame IMU X B va sel 36x A soc 35 Moo wae i TEMP CALIB TEMP CALIB ISA RESET RESET Mos Yaz CALIBRATE CALIBRATE Fj Accelerometer temperature compensation Fj Gyroscope temperature compensation To calibrate accelerometer by six points always start from Z axis camera is leveled and rotate by 90 degree to each of six positions When calibration is done OK marks will appear near each axis You need to do calibration separately for each IMU sensor To calibrate gyroscope fix gimbal on any rigid surface Check the stability by the peak meter
73. the center of effort be a fixed unmoving point irrespective of the position of the gimbals arms and that the camera the stabilized device be centered its mass centered at that point Additional optional components such as switches joystick operation and interfaces to remote control devices PWM or S Bus from a standard RC receiver are described in detail farther on SimpleBGC actively compensates for undesirable movement in the stabilized portion of the gimbal which mounts a camera or other device that requires precise positioning irrespective of movement in the surrounding frame of reference The controllers high performance motion sensors MEMS gyros and ARM Cortex cm 32 bit core and additional capabilities to integrate PWM control and other signals directly to the stabilized devise makes the controller an ideal platform for applications from stabilized hand carried camera mounts to more complex objectives such as track and boom carried or aerial mounted applications Stabilizing is accomplished by directing energy to the gimbal motors in response to reception of repositioning data from the gyroscopic sensor s The primary gyroscopic sensor is mounted on the camera to register precisely any repositioning to be compensated Either one or two sensors can be used a Primary IMU sensor which is attached to the camera and optionally a Frame IMU sensor which is attached to the frame in one of two positions When two sensors are attached data
74. therwise be desired to improve traction 1 First detect which axis is causing vibration most To do this in the GUI go to the tab Monitoring and switch on the following graphics RMS_ERR_R RMS_ERR_P RMS_ERR_Y Slowly tilt the camera downward until vibrations occur The axis which shows the greatest growth will show the primary axis responsible In the example it is RMS_ERR_P the Pitch axis A more precise way is to make a test of amplitude vs frequency response in the Analyze tab 2 When in steady state vibration mode look at frequency indication check another variable in the same tab FREQ P It shows the main frequency of vibration in our case it has the value 100 Another way is to use a spectroscope for example an application for a smartphone that takes an audio signal from mic but this works only if the vibration is well audible 3 On the tab Filters fill out the parameters for the first notch filter for Pitch axis Frequency 100 Width 10 Gain 80 and checkbox Enabled is switched on 4 Write the parameters to board Now try to re establish the oscillation For our example the vibration has been significantly reduced and its frequency shifted to 105Hz Change the frequency of the filter to 105 Hz Now the frequency is shifted to 95 Hz Set back value of the frequency to 100 and increase the bandwidth to 20 Now vibration on this resonance frequency is completely gone Note you need to set the bandwidth as n
75. tick need to be inverted select the INVERSE checkbox If your RC stick have neutral position better to select the SPEED mode to have better control compared with the ANGLE mode Connect and tune remaining axes the same way as required You have 5 PWM inputs to assign to all axes and to the command channel 6 Testing gimbal in real conditions For flight on multi rotors connect controller to the GUI and turn ON the vehicle s motors holding it above your head and away from your face and hands Check the vibrations on the camera by using the Monitoring tab ACC raw data Try to decrease the level of vibrations using soft dampers on gimbal s mount balancing propellers and so on NOTE Brushless motors versus traditional servos provide faster reaction but less torque That s why it s hard for them to fight against wind and air flows from props If you are developing multi rotor frame try to avoid these influences for example lengthen arms a bit or tilt motors away from the center or place the camera above props in case of H frame Also bear in mind when copter moves with high speed an air flow is deflected and this affects the gimbal as well 11 ED the Basecam GUI overview Connection COM27 Monitoring sic r gt D Simple8GC GUI v2 50 b0 b File Board Language View Help Board version 3 0 Firmware 2 50 b1 PID Controller Motor Configuration Adaptive PID gains control _ ROLL _ PITCH _ YAW C
76. ting e Simple calibration mode set the sensor horizontally and press CALIB ACC button in the GUI or the menu button if it s assigned to Calibrate ACC action The LED will blink for 3 seconds Be sure not to allow the sensor to move during calibration At this step it does not matter how the camera is oriented You are calibrating the sensor not the camera e Advanced mode recommended to begin perform calibration in simple mode as above Then turn sensor successively in order such that each side of the sensor looks up 6 positions at all including base one To do this fix the sensor in each position then press CALIB ACC button in the GUI and wait about 3 4 seconds until the LED is stops flashing The order does not matter but the base position always goes first because the simple calibration cancels a result of advanced calibration You do not have to press the WRITE button at each step calibration data is written automatically the data is written when the LED stops flashing for each orientation performed NOTE Precise accelerometer calibration is a very important for horizon holding during dynamic flying or YAW rotation 2 Step by step setup sequence f ae po o 4 Tuning basic settings Connect the main power supply For 2 axis system disable unused output in the Advanced tab Motor outputs group Set POWER according to the motor configuration see recommendations below Auto detect number of p
77. trolled devices When connecting regular hobby servo to these ports there are two options to get 5V to supply them o Connect external power for example from 5V BEC to the central pin of any of RC inputs and cut de solder jumper J1 that passes 5V from internal voltage regulator to them WARNING two power sources joined together will likely burn each other out because a switching DC converter is used to provide 5V supply for the board and it may conflict with the external power source o Close solder jumper J1 and get 5V from internal voltage regulator WARNING before connecting servos check their total maximum current rating and compare it with the current rating that the board can provide on the 5V line you can find it in the hardware specifications of the board for regular Basecam SimpleBGC 32bit the version is 1A 24 7 Follow Mode Settings 7 Follow Mode Settings Follow Mode is a special control mode that makes the camera follow a movements of the outer frame but at the same time eliminates small frame jerking Several modes of this operation are possible e Disabled camera is locked to ground and may be rotated only by RC or joystick o Estimate frame angles from motors this uses the motor s magnetic field for rough estimation of frame tilting and helps to increase the range of the frame angles where the gimbal s operation is stable For proper operation in this mode it is strictly required to c
78. ystem may be tuned very well for certain positions but it may become completely unstable in different position Self excitation may cause strong vibration that may negatively affect gimbal construction and may even become hazardous for the camera For gimbals that have this problem a possible workaround is to use adaptive PID control another possibility is to change the physical characteristics of the gimbal or its Load improve its balance or employ counter balances etc explained as follows e RMS error threshold 0 255 RMS root mean square error state variable effectively shows the level of vibrations When it exceeds this threshold adaptive PID algorithm comes into action Recommended value is 10 15 e Attenuation rate 0 255 the more this value the more PID gains are decreased Choose this value big enough to quiet system quickly Effect of different rates is shown on the picture err_threshold 10 0 10 35 GO BE 11D 135 160 185 210 235 260 235 310 335 360 385 410 435 490 485 e Recovery factor 0 10 defines how fast PID gains are recovered back when the system becomes stable Too low of a value may increase a chance that vibration comes back in a short time Too high of a value may cause worsen of operation because lowered PID values are kept longer Recommended value is 5 6 21 6 RC Settings 6 RC Settings The SimpleBGC board provides very flexible configuration of a remote controller It supports up to 5

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