3 Axis Gimbal for Iris+ - looking for suggestions.

Posted by Erik Graham on January 23, 2015 at 10:04am

Does anyone have a recommendation for a 3-axis gimbal for an Iris+?

The only option I have found out there is the DYS 3 Axis.  Are there any others that work with a GoPro Hero 4 Black?

Thanks, erik

p.s.

If someone who owns a DYS and an Iris sees this, I have a few questions:

  1. Does the DYS integrate with pixhawk?
    • Meaning in auto missions or follow me, will the Iris+ be able to tilt the camera up and down to keep the subject in frame?
  2. Is there an interface plate, or do I have to find someone to 3D print one for me?
  3. Does the DYS work with a GoPro 4 black?
  4. How are the vibration levels?
  5. Is it difficult to install
    • Complicated software config I can handle, but on the hardware side I'm pretty awful at soldering and tend to really mess things up.

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Replies

    • Jouni Helminen > Erik Graham February 5, 2015 at 7:43am

      The storm32 looks like a good chip/firmware for a gimbal controller. but can't find any 3 axis gimbals that would ship with it by default

  • Erik Graham February 1, 2015 at 7:46pm

    Trouble installing DYS...

    I ended up getting the DYS 3 Axis Gimbal.  I still plan to look at the Feiyu Tech 3G Ultra, but for now I've got what I've got.

    Now I need to figure out how to install this thing on an Iris+.  I've seen the YouTube video on how to install on an Iris (non plus) - http://youtu.be/CVOZPXytFoI

    But at least one user posted in the comments that he burnt out his Iris+ following those instructions. Also the Iris Plus comes with black and white wires (black is ground I assume), whereas the Iris (non plus) apparently comes with red and orange (as shown in video). 

    Maybe I should start a new thread on how to install, but if anyone has advice it would be much appreciated.

  • Tomáš Frank January 30, 2015 at 4:00pm

    Have you considered Feiyu Tech 3G Ultra?

    • Erik Graham > Tomáš Frank January 30, 2015 at 6:15pm

      No I haven't.  Should I?  

      I have noticed some people refer to it in other posts recently and was wondering whether its a better option.  I hadn't even heard of it until less than a week ago.  I thought the DYS was pretty much the only option.  Is it better?  Is it lighter?

    • Tomáš Frank > Erik Graham January 31, 2015 at 2:50pm

      I am looking for 3 axis gimbal myself, I was using 2 axis tarrot, but yaw oscilation is real killer of any video.

      Todd Harper recommend it to me, he used  it for video in this post. It is also lighter than DYS. I will try it.

  • Joe Dietrich January 23, 2015 at 12:12pm

    I like the DYS 3-axis gimbal.  I use it with my Pixhawk on a F550 frame modified with Aeroxcraft X55 arms using the DJI E600 propulsion system.

    As far as vibrations (camera jello) it is fairly comparable to the DJI H3-3D gimbal (which I also have, flying on a DJI F450 / NAZA M V2, using the white vibration dampers).  I am using the stock (grey) rubber dampers on the DYS mount and they seem to work well (they are a "compression" damper whereas the H3-3D dampers are "tension").  Some claim that dampers should work in compression, not tension.  My opinion is if the "jello" goes away, its working.  All of my videos are shot using GoPro's Hero 3 Black, 1080P-60FPS which also seems to help alleviate jello.  Do note that the Hero 4 Black weighs about 19 grams more than the Hero 3 (although I can't comment on the balance between the two, I have both, so I should try it out and report my findings).

    There are three things I have noticed as differences between my DYS 3-axis and H3-3D gimbal:

    1) The DYS seems a bit more twitchy at the end points of motion, meaning that when my hex makes a hard turn (pitch / roll / yaw), there's a little overshoot of the final position of the gimbal.  I am sure I could minimize this with improving my tuning parameters (PIDs) in the BCG software, and probably an adjustment to the "POWER" setting for the motors.  The H3-3D gimbal, by comparison, has really nice "damping" at its endpoint motion of travel right out-of-the-box.

    2) I have noticed when I do a really hard yaw "snap", the DYS gimbal will sometimes "lock" at a 45 degree angle to it's original front pointing position.  Again, this is likely a tuning matter, and I have not (permanently) implemented the "yaw" control via the SBUS connection to correct this while in flight (and this is actually stipulated in the gimbal documentation that using the DYS for FPV could result in such a situation).  The H3-3D gimbal has a slight YAW / ROLL issue when flying at high speeds where wind can cause it to drift from non-horizontal / perpendicular positions with relation to flight.

    3) The DYS gimbal has 5x 360 degrees of rotation available in the YAW direction, controllable via the SBUS input to the RC_Roll Pin input (my gimbal had the AlexMOS 8-bit controller, with two RX inputs for ROLL/PITCH, and two F/C inputs for ROLL/PITCH).  I tried out the YAW control with my TX with one of my rotary dials.  Now while this worked (I could get the DYS to rotate several complete revolutions), what I found was that with a ratching TX dial, sometimes the final YAW position would not be perfectly aligned "straight ahead" with relation to the rotor-craft nose position even when the dial was in it's own "centered" position.  I might have been able to "trim" this out, but I abandoned its use because I have immovable landing gear, and full yaw rotation of the camera was useless to me.

    For the half the cost of a DJI H3-3D gimbal, the DYS 3-axis is a very nice gimbal as far as video stability goes.  I plan to shoot some more "action" video with it this weekend, so I will post to YouTube my results, and you will be able to compare it to my other videos shot with the H3-3D.

    Here is a video shot with my H3-3D:

    http://youtu.be/gd1C93vUrho

    Here is the only video I have posted to YouTube with the DYS 3-axis:

    (You'll notice there's about a 10degree ROLL tilt because my gimbal calibration was off prior to this flight)

    http://youtu.be/Lsgoq-Mm5hM

    There is definitely a lot more to tuning the DYS 3-axis gimbal (even getting it to work the first time was difficult).  You will need patience with this gimbal.  As for mounting solutions, I cannot comment as I am using my DYS on an F550 frame using AeroXcraft landing gear designed for this specific application.

    • Raph > Joe Dietrich January 30, 2015 at 4:31pm

      +1 for the DYS 3 axis. Great gimbal for the price - but as mentioned, takes a little playing with. I have mine almost perfect.. only thing I still notice is when I pitch forward or back, there's a tiny noticeable movement of the gimbal.. have to tune it out. I only didn't buy a H3-3D because they do not sell a stand-alone version that will work outside of the DJI bubble.

      here's a vid with the DYS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU-MAn1BIWw 

    • Erik Graham > Raph January 30, 2015 at 6:20pm

      I need to go to hawaii  ;-)

      thanks for the video

    • Erik Graham > Joe Dietrich January 23, 2015 at 3:37pm

      Great info here.  Thank you very much.  On mobile right now so haven't checked out the vids yet.

      I happen to have an H3-3D already.  I never considered it an option for the Iris+ because I assumed it was DJI specific hardware.  Am I wrong to infer from your post (where you compare the DYS to the H3-3D) that the H3-3D could be mounted to the Iris+?

    • Joe Dietrich > Erik Graham January 26, 2015 at 9:29am

      I'm pretty sure the H3-3D will not work with the Iris+ as a plug-n-play solution.  On the RCGROUPS forum, I have seen where you can hack into the CAN-bus (for OSD purposes) but I have not come across a means for controlling the gimbal.  

      http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2014472

      What I haven't tried myself is powering-up the H3-3D gimbal from the GCU (Gimbal Control Unit) without the CAN-bus connected back the NAZA flight controller.  Assuming the GCU would power-up the H3-3D gimbal, and the gimbal is self-leveling (without knowledge of multi-rotor position), you might get a level (video) shot and that would be it.  You would not have any camera pitch control for pointing the camera downwards.

      Anyway, my first response was really more about the video stability between the H3-3D and the DYS 3-axis.  Hope this helps...

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