so ive been running a DJI RS3 under my homebuilt hex for about 3 weeks now and theres this slow drift on the roll axis that drives me nuts. it's not like catastrophic drift, just like the horizon slowly creeps maybe 2-3 degrees over a 30 second clip and then snaps back when i move the drone. calibrated it probably four or five times at this point using the auto calibration in the app and it seems fine on the bench but soon as i get it in the air the drift comes back.

my suspicion is the motors on the hex are causing some kind of vibration that's confusing the IMU but honestly i don't really know. the camera is a Sony A7C which is about 500g with the lens so its within the payload rating. running a 24mm f2.8 so nothing too heavy on the front. anyone had something similar or know what i should actually be looking at here

almost definitely vibration from the motors or props if it snaps back when you maneuver. the gimbal IMU is getting confused by consistent low frequency vibration and the gyros are slowly drifting trying to compensate for what they think is actual movement. classic issue on homebuilts honestly. first thing i'd do is check your prop balance ? even a tiny imbalance on a hex translates to nasty harmonics that gimbals hate. also look at how you're mounting the gimbal, rubber dampeners make a huge difference. if you're hard mounting it directly to the frame you're basically feeding every vibration straight into the RS3's sensors.

also worth running a vibration analysis in Betaflight or whatever FC you're running and see what frequencies are actually showing up. the RS3 is not really designed to handle a lot of that external input, it expects a relatively stable platform.

had the exact same thing with a different gimbal on a quad, turned out one of my motors had a slightly bent shaft. not enough to notice visually but enough to create vibration. might be worth ruling that out. also are you using any kind of anti-vibration mount between the gimbal and the frame? that helped me a lot