A couple months back someone posted a pretty cool controller they had built which used a wireless link to feed gyro data from a remote handheld device to a Alexmos/Basecam gimbal controller... It was obviously targeted at the higher end film-maker space, and had a pricetag to match - but it caught my fancy and I had already done a bluetooth gamepad controller for gimbals, so I figured I would give it a shot.

All in all turned out really well and costs well under $50 to build - while it is more complicated than my last controller to build, if you've got some background or experience with electronics and a soldering iron, and a free hour or two, you should be good to go.  Here's a video showing it in action, and giving all the details on how to build one yourself:

I just finished making a tutorial on how to build a Arduino gamepad-based controller for any of the AlexMos-based gimbals out there with Bluetooth.  The build itself is super-easy to do, probably taking about an hour or so, and the parts can be had for under $100, so I think it's a great option when you want to have one person control the camera while another controls the gimbal.  The bluetooth transmitter claims 100ft range which I'm dubious of, but I've had no problem using it in the 30-40ft range, which is typically about as far away as I get from the gimbal when I still want to control it.

I also added a couple cool features to the gamepad, like the ability to set multiple camera positions, and then quickly switch through them - which is great for the whole camera-automation side of things.  You can also easily control the speed and range of each of the analog joysticks, so it's a bit easier to get smooth movement when you want them.

Hopefully everyone enjoys it as much as I do!  :)

I just finished my first actual useful flight trying to do something productive with my DJI Phantom. Very impressed with how it works, although I've done a fair number of modifications to it. Everything you see in the video was shot with a GoPro Hero 3 Black, 1080p30. All the flying was done in ATTI mode, except the exterior shot which was in GPS most. Wind was at about 4-5 knots.

I'm running the ARRIS CM2000 Brushless Gimbal from Hobby-Wing.com, must say that I'm really impressed with it - after a few hiccups getting it going, it works flawlessly. I did drill out the vertical alignment screws a bit so I could balance the camera better, which helped quite a bit. Power is tapped from the built-in battery using the cable they have stashed in it from the factory.

I also replaced the built in TX/RX with a Futaba T8FG Super setup - I wanted the extra range and flexibility it gives, plus being able to continue to use S.BUS is a nice plus. I use the servo mirroring that the RX automatically does for the gimbal control (pitch and roll) instead of enabling it in the NAZA as I've seen other do.

Running the stock plastic blades - I have CF blades, but I crash on a regular enough basis I haven't the courage (or fool heartiness) to run them yet.