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Tarot 2d, Spektrum AR6001e receiver, DX6i

Posted by Florian Schipflinger on August 14, 2014 at 12:03pm

Hi folks,

I am from Austria and i just recently got a Blade 350QX V1 from my brother (as he never used it)! Anyway - i ordered a Tarot 2d gimbal, set everything up and also wanted to set up the tilt control with my DX6i (i know it's only partially available as there is no knob to rotate). 

I am a bit desperate now, as I am trying to power my receiver through the Tarot 2d gimbal. I can't figure out how to make the connections so it would work! To power the gimbal I am using a 3s, 11.1 V 450 mAh Lipo battery.

Do i have to connect the receiver to the DSM2 port on the gimbal to power it up? 

The next step would be to bind the AR6100e with my DX6i. But it is already bonded with the Blade 350QX - so how would that work?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Tags: 2d, 350, tarot, blade, qx
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Replies

  • Michael Ciurescu August 20, 2014 at 8:58pm

    I finished configuring my Tarot gimbal! yeey :)

    This video helped a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwogodUlGAI, and also the link nickthecook posted.

    First thing I did was to upgrade the firmware to 1.5. First I did the Gimbal, and then I wanted to test, and the tilt kept spinning in one direction, and I could not figure out what was wrong!  then I thought to also flash the motors firmware, and then it worked fine :) So when you update the firmware, update both at the same time, and then test...

    I changed the settings to "stick position mode", and now the position is wherever the knob is turned. I also changed the Angle Limit Max/Min to 50 and -100, this way the min is looking straight down, and max, it's looking slightly up, because higher than that the view will be blocked by the gimbal top plate, so there is no point to go that much...

    I also changed the motors power to a bit higher, I set Roll to 70, and Tilt to 40.

    The rest of the settings I left default.

    Now I need to take my Hexa out and test to see if I get any shakes or glitches, but I am confident it will be OK because even with the default firmware & settings it was pretty good, I did notice some minor shakes once in a while in the video maybe because of the wind? so next time I will take it out, I will have to see if those shakes disappeared.

    By the way, I discovered that the files (when you click on "Save Config") are in text format, this makes it easy to share the settings :), so here are my files:

    [PARAMETERS]
    ROLL_ACC=120
    ROLL_TOTAL=100
    ROLL_VEL=150
    ROLL_INT=70
    PITCH_ACC=80
    PITCH_TOTAL=95
    PITCH_VEL=80
    PITCH_INT=70
    ROLL_MAX=44
    ROLL_MIN=-44
    PITCH_MAX=50
    PITCH_MIN=-100
    ROLL_SERVO_CENTER=0
    PITCH_SERVO_CENTER=0
    YAW_SERVO_CENTER=0
    ROLL_SERVO_REV=1
    PITCH_SERVO_REV=1
    ROLL_RC_ACC=50
    PITCH_RC_ACC=50
    INSTALL_MODE=2
    RECEIVER_TYPE=1
    INIT_PITCH=0
    INIT_ROLL=0
    DEFAULT_MODE=2

    [MOTOR_PARAMETERS]
    POL_MOTOR1=14
    POW_MOTOR1=70
    POL_MOTOR2=14
    POW_MOTOR2=40

    By the way... one final note: The software for the Tarot gimbal crashed my computer 3 times while I was configuring the gimbal!! the screen just went black, and the computer restarted. I am using Win 7 Pro, so I am very surprised this is happening!  Then I tried to run it on my Win 8 tablet, but the driver for the USB cable is not installing properly! so I was not able to get the software to connect to the gimbal on my tablet :(

  • Michael Ciurescu August 19, 2014 at 9:25pm

    I was successful to connect the Tarot to the receiver, and now I have tilt control.

    After I watched this video, it was pretty easy for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po6WTUIbKS4

    I had previously connected the power to the Tarot using a 12V UBEC from the main battery, and now all I had to do was to connect one wire from the Tarot "T" pin (from the C.T.R. line), and I connected to the channel 5 of my Receiver (because that's where I have the knob mapped on my transmitter)

    One thing I don't like though is the way the Tarot does the tilt. If the potentiometer is below 50% by a little bit, (lets say at 45%), then the Tarot starts to tilt the camera down slowly but constantly until it's pointing all the way down and it cannot turn anymore. But my knob is only at 45% !!!  so to put it back, I have to turn the knob to above 50%, and wait until it's pointing where I want it, and then turn the knob to 50% to make it stop. This way it's hard to control, and it's hard to know where the camera is pointing when I am flying because I don't have video out going from my GoPro. Obviously they made it like this because they wanted it to make it compatible with switches, to be able to adjust the position by flipping a switch and to stop turning when you flip the switch back. But I am using a potentiometer, so the position of the tilt should be where the knob is turned!.... anyways.... it's late now, have to go to sleep... maybe there is a setting to change that?

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    2014-08-19 23.05.31b.jpg

    • nickthecook > Michael Ciurescu August 20, 2014 at 2:56am
      Good to hear you've got it working. I got it last night too, I'm also using a 12V BEC to power and directly connecting the tx. Haven't got control from APM working yet.

      In the gimbal configuration program you can change from rate mode to position mode, so that if you put your pot at 50%, gimbal tilts to -45, if you put the pot at 100%, gimbal tilts to -90, etc.
      Have a look at the APM:Copter wiki on configuring the T-2D.
  • nickthecook August 19, 2014 at 12:09pm

    Hi Florian,

    I have a DX6i and an ar610 receiver. I have no idea about powering the receiver through the gimbal, but I'm also working on setting up tilt control from my tx.

    Do I understand correctly that you have two receivers on board - the ar6001e and one to control the copter - and just the one tx? Or do you have an extra transmitter as well?

    I think the easiest way is to take one of the channel outputs from the existing receiver and feed that into the gimbal's tilt input. Then configure the gimbal to use position mode and not rate mode.

    In this discussion, Alan D responds to some of my questions about this:

    http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/power-source-to-run-a-2d-gimbal-a...

    • Florian Schipflinger > nickthecook August 19, 2014 at 1:00pm

      Hi Nick,

      that's how i thought it would work.. When you take a look at the user manual of the Tarot 2d, there is a port where you can connect a receiver (if i understood it correctly) - See pictures enclosed! And it was part of my question too, if something like controlling two receivers with one transmitter at the same time would work - I guess it just doesn't... But what do they want to tell you then with that picture?

      What quad are you flying? Not even sure if you can replace the receiver built-in on the blade 350 qx? It has got two free ports though where you can connect servos.. So IDK.. 

      Thanks for the link! 

      Bildschirmfoto 2014-08-19 um 21.40.21.png

      t-2d-setup-6.jpg

      • nickthecook > Florian Schipflinger August 19, 2014 at 1:16pm

        That DSMX label does seem to imply a receiver may go there... I find documentation on that gimbal a little sparse, though, so I'm not sure.

        I believe to do direct control via the rx one uses the tilt signal pin on that little 3x3 grid of pins on the control board, but that doesn't give you power.

  • Michael Ciurescu August 18, 2014 at 10:02am

    I am confused... I did not know you can power anything through the Tarot...

    First of all, I don't think the battery you are using for the Tarot is enough, I would use a battery that is at least double the power it needs, so a 1000mAh should do it...

    For the receiver, isn't it already powered? I mean... the first thing you do is to fly the quad without anything attached (no gimbal), once you get that to work, then add the gimbal and you don't need a separate battery for it by the way... you can connect it to the battery of the quad (assuming it's using a 3S battery)

    • Florian Schipflinger > Michael Ciurescu August 19, 2014 at 8:12am

      Thanks for the answer! Yeah - you can power the GoPro and an extra receiver through the Tarot (P+- and S+-). Powering the GoPro is actually useful as (at least in my case) the original GoPro battery is quite weak! Here is a video of a german guy who attaches all kinds of stuff to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh9Xjw8cFbo (unfortunately only in german)

      Yeah i know i could use the flight battery as well to power the gimbal! I was just thinking that it might be a benefit (even though its extra weight), because i don't use up power from the flight battery (which of course gives me longer flight time) and the extra weight of the battery is only about 30 g.

      By the way, isn't the recommended operating current 200-500 mAh? 

      Yeah - of course the receiver to fly the quad is already powered, but how do i control the tilt with that built-in receiver? As far as i understand an additional receiver is required to enable the tilt control for the gimbal?!

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