As I progress with my build I am doing research into building my own brushless gimbal frame using spare carbon fibre and control based on the Alex Mos board http://www.simplebgc.com/eng/. I have spent the last week looking at suitable motors.

Looking at Zenmuse and the AM gimbal the idea of flat  dc motors was appealing aesthetically yet expensive on the basis of purchasing very good Maxon motors that would not require me rewinding the copper. Most third-party manufactures of complete AM brushless gimbals use these motors. From a DIY perspective 40 GBP (60 USD) is quite expensive.

 

I also knew that there were potentially better motors out there that have higher resolutions. Ie piezo motors used in autofocus SLR units, engraving machines, medial machinery. The advantage is the higher resolution, response speed and power-saving features. A supplier in the UK of the rotary motor manufactured in Sweden http://www.piezomotor.se/products/rotary/ quoted 1,200 GBP for the 50mNm and 600 GBP  for the 80mNm.

 

However I have now ruled this out as the distributor has informed me that I would require a 4 phase motor driver to control the motors.

 

Other than using a sub $10 Turnigy low kv/ low profile motors and rewinding the copper has anyone out there found a better alternative high resolution motor for their brushless gimbals? 

 

Views: 6746

Tags: Gimbal, brushless, motor

Comment by Sérgio Domingos on March 20, 2013 at 4:26pm

Check flyduino, they recently have in stock a motor made for AM, they also sell the AM Gimbal control board.

I'm really looking forward to see the evolution in Gimbals, now with the AM and new Dji Zenmuse for GoPro ;)

Comment by Wojciech Batog on March 20, 2013 at 6:35pm

how about using little stepper motors with built in reduction gears?
I saw the availible on ebay some time ago , 
ano of course availble in china, like so:http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5V-Stepper-Motor-28BYJ-48-With-Drive...

Comment by thomas Butler on March 20, 2013 at 9:47pm

RCTimer is going to produce motors for the gimbal.  $27 each.

http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=...=


3D Robotics
Comment by Joshua Ott on March 20, 2013 at 11:46pm
Comment by Erman Ozen on March 21, 2013 at 12:42am

Thanks for the links guys going to check them out. Last night I came across the T-motors GB2208 which they are introducing soon specifically for brushless gimbals.http://www.rctigermotor.com/show.php?contentid=202 I ping'd a mail to a European distributor and to T-motors trying to find out cost and availability. They are going to produce two versions. One for large camera units and one for gopro sized cameras.


JDrones
Comment by Jani Hirvinen on March 21, 2013 at 1:41am

We at jDrones have been working with Alex since last year and there will be motors, electronics, imus etc coming soon. Currently we are testing and optimizing 4 different motors for several payloads. Latest revision of electronics is arriving in less than 2 weeks or so. 

Stepper motors wont work with this type of electronics and also as their name already tells.. They "step" which is not good for camera mounts. Ok if you have several gears to slow down then it would be better but still they step.

Comment by Wojciech Batog on March 21, 2013 at 1:50am

in principal brushless DC motors are virtually the same as stepper motors, the only real difference is the type of  speed controller used.
So it is interesting to see how it all comes back, because stepper motor became brushless DC when we got electronic capable enough (both in processing power and efficiency, also cost efficiency), and now we have them morphing into steppers back again...
What goes around...


Distributor
Comment by UnmannedTechShop.co.uk on March 21, 2013 at 2:37am

We are actually having a batch of gimbal motors being manufactured.  These are custom wound motors ranging from gopro size to SLR gimbal size motors so keep an eye out for them soon!

Comment by Erman Ozen on March 21, 2013 at 2:55am

My t-motors guy just came through. Ordering me 4 GB2208. Made my day.


Developer
Comment by John Arne Birkeland on March 21, 2013 at 3:16am

Steppers, step from one magnetic pole position to the next.. And guess what brushless does pretty much the exact same thing, but they can be rewound so that you do standing wave positioning (static positioning in between magnets poles). The hard part is the controller doing proper micro stepping so that the motor smoothly and consistently move from one position to the next.

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