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Connecting and controlling high-end gimbals through PPM/SBUS/CANbus via pixhawk

Posted by Peter Skotte on November 13, 2016 at 5:02am

I have been searching high and low (I believe) for information on how to connect an control high end gimbals for DSLR cameras that only support PPM/SBUS/Canbus etc. for example: https://www.gremsy.com/gremsy-h7

I need to be able to control the gimbal FROM the pixhawk not just passthrough from the remote control.

Any pointers are welcome.

Thanks, Peter

H7_OnePage_Ver03_Leftside_62.jpg

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Tags: gimbal, pixhawk, ppm, sbus
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Replies

  • Richard Joy October 25, 2017 at 4:39pm

    The attached file is a screen shot of the gimbal setting in MP. I believe in order to have channels 10 and 12 output to the sbus I had to change BRD_SBUS_OUT to 1.

    Richard Joy said:

    3702402796?profile=originalI have this setup because I wanted to be able to control the gimbal angles from a mission script or from the Dronekit APIs as well as being able to manually control them from my TX. I believe Aducopter will use the S.bus (RCIN) OR the PWM inputs channels from the receiver and output those corresponding channels to the S.Bus of the gimbal. I assume your RX does have PWM outputs. There is a number of parameters to change to get this to work so hopefully I made some notes.


    Wyatt said:

    So I am using a TBS Crossfire Receiver... Any idea how that would work? It doesn't have an SBUS out.

  • Richard Joy October 25, 2017 at 3:09pm

    I have this setup because I wanted to be able to control the gimbal angles from a mission script or from the Dronekit APIs as well as being able to manually control them from my TX. I believe Aducopter will use the S.bus (RCIN) OR the PWM inputs channels from the receiver and output those corresponding channels to the S.Bus of the gimbal. I assume your RX does have PWM outputs. There is a number of parameters to change to get this to work so hopefully I made some notes.


    Wyatt said:

    So I am using a TBS Crossfire Receiver... Any idea how that would work? It doesn't have an SBUS out.

  • Wyatt October 25, 2017 at 2:36pm

    So I am using a TBS Crossfire Receiver... Any idea how that would work? It doesn't have an SBUS out.

  • Richard Joy October 25, 2017 at 2:24pm

    I am able to control a Tarot T4-3D GoPro gimbal with a Pixhawk 1 via the S.Bus and I don't see any reason why it should not work with the Gremsy and Pixhawk 2.1 the same way. The S.Bus out of my receiver is connected to the RCIN of the Pixhawk and the S.Bus of the Pix is connected to the S.Bus of the gimbal. I've uploaded a diagram.

    Wyatt said:

    Any update on This? I have a Gremsy T3 and a pixhawk 2.1 to do some experiements with. Anyone have any ideas on how to start? Gremsy claims https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmxGn0dA2bk will control via Mavlink. I am not sure what you would do to set this up? Any ideas??

    Gimbal.001.jpeg

  • Wyatt October 25, 2017 at 9:04am

    Any update on This? I have a Gremsy T3 and a pixhawk 2.1 to do some experiements with. Anyone have any ideas on how to start? Gremsy claims https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmxGn0dA2bk will control via Mavlink. I am not sure what you would do to set this up? Any ideas??

  • keith mann June 27, 2017 at 12:03pm

    Hi Dave

    No i have not.  A pixhawk 2.1 ( or 3 ?) is the most likely solution.And even then probably not. I considered a 16 channel radio for a few minutes at least ! No matter how many channels you have there are still only 2 joystick controls so camera/Gimbal control is still the issue.

    I guess you could build a custom radio tray and hack slide controls to some joystick gimbal wiring and achieve a 3 or 4 joystick solution. Then even if it worked you have the issue of can you deal with the requirements of controlling everything safely.

    This is 2 seperate problems in one though, Gimbal via ppm/sbus and the single person to put it all into safe use.

  • Dave Guerrero June 23, 2017 at 1:50am

    Greetings Keith,
    Besides the 2x transmitter control option, did you find an alternative solution to control the Gremsy H3 with Pixhawk? I am currently using Pixhawk 2.1 Cube with Intel Edison.

    Many Thanks,

    Dave



    keith mann said:

    Hi

    No answers to the issue but i need to join in as i have exactly the same problem.

    I have a pixhawk powered X8 controlled via a gruapner 8 channel TX'r. I now also have a Gremsy H3 gimbal that will need a PPM input and this appears to mean 2 transmitters.

    But, i also want to fire the shutter on a Nikon D90 DSLR. I could do this via the Graupner/pixhawk and a passthough channel but that means the camera shutter is controlled by a different person to the one controlling the gimbal. This is not ideal .

    Are there connection options i am not considering here by any chance ?

    Regards

    keith

  • OG May 29, 2017 at 6:15am

    http://mymobilemms.com/OFFTHEGRIDWATER.CA/BGC-gimbal-Pixhawk.pdf

    Peter Skotte said:

    I agree. However if available gimbals only provide the above: PPM/SBUS etc. is there a way to achieve that?
    http://mymobilemms.com/OFFTHEGRIDWATER.CA/BGC-gimbal-Pixhawk.pdf
  • OG May 29, 2017 at 2:13am

    hello guys storm 32 and 32 bit Alexmos are supported in this way can be controlled by the pixhawk the configuration is similar as well! please keep in mind alexmos has encoder option as well! 

    http://mymobilemms.com/OFFTHEGRIDWATER.CA/BRUSHLESS-GIMBALS/Control...

    http://mymobilemms.com/OFFTHEGRIDWATER.CA/BRUSHLESS-GIMBAL-PTZ/Cont...

    BaseCam SimpleBGC 32-bit Extended Gimbal Controller Encoder Vers [BG03975+] - $275.99 : OFFTHEGRIDW…
    OFFTHEGRIDWATER.CA BaseCam SimpleBGC 32-bit Extended Gimbal Controller Encoder Vers [BG03975+] - SimpleBGC 32-bit Extended controller is the advanced…
  • Mike Isted May 29, 2017 at 12:40am
    Very interesting Andre.

    I am upgrading the servo gimbal on my Groundhog hexacopter, which requires the gimbal angles to be both controlled by software and ideally interrogated (via Dronekit.)

    Do you think the Storm32 might be the way to go?

    Cheers

    Andre K. said:
    Truly high end would speak mavlink, check out http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-storm32-gimbal.html
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