Hey DIY Community! It's been a while since we've posted on the site and we wanted to share some of the progress we've made on our gimbal design project. If you're interested in our project please visit our blog. It's filled with a lot of great photos and videos. We also try to add useful information from time to time - we have a very detailed post about PID tuning brushless gimbals.
Below I've added some renders of our latest gimbal prototype. We'll be receiving the parts from the machine shop in about a week. Once we do, we'll be testing and documenting the build on our website. For now I hope you enjoy these previsualizations.
The Skyris Mark VI gimbal is designed to reside at the front of the multicopter allowing for a clear camera view with no arms or legs in the shot. The gimbal secures to the copter via two arm clamps. The central widget allows the clamps to telescope outward so they can accommodate different multicopter frames.
Here the gimbal is configured for compatibility with copters that have a wide arm configuration. The Skyris Mark VI Gimbal Prototype can adjust to fit copters that have a 7" to 12" gap between arms.
Each clamp has the ability to swivel and fit different arm widths. Rubber grommets placed on the inside of the clamps mute vibration and add friction. Once the clamps are tightened the gimbal will lock firmly in place (no drilling required) on the arms of the copter.
An optional battery holder can be affixed to the rear arms of the multicopter. Placing the battery on the rear of the copter will help offset the weight of the gimbal and reduce the need to re-tune copter PIDs.
Older Designs...
As I mentioned before, it's been a while since we've posted on DIY Drones and our gimbal has evolved through many form factors in the interim (all of which are documented on our blog). We've had a blast trying out some very unique designs.
This version featured a central pitch/roll axis which was affixed to the center of the copter. The Gopro sits at the front of the copter so the arms and legs are out of shot.
The flight results were quite good, but we decided that the unit was too heavy - it's defeating to add so much weight to stabilize a camera that's a favorite because it's very light.
Many of our recent prototypes are cut from G10 Garolite material, which is roughly half the weight of aluminum and comparable to carbon fiber in strength. Our thanks go out to Jordi Orlando of DIY Drones for the suggestion.
If you peruse our website you might find yourself chuckling at some of our older and admittedly wackier concepts. This project has definitely been a learning experience for us and we've had a great time so far. We hope to share more with you soon! Thanks!
-Jeff and David
Comments
Awesome, glad to help!
Jordi, thanks for suggesting G10 as a material alternative. It's worked out very well for us!
Wow, great job guys! The footage looks silky smooth, and the design looks great! Keep up the awesome work!
Thanks Dave!
Randy, you are correct. We have been testing with the Martinez board. So far we've been pleased with it's performance though there was a bit of a learning curve.
Daniel, thanks for the sentiment! You may be right. There's a chance that mounting to the arms may introduce too much vibration. We'll just have to test and see. We'll be posting the results on our blog. Stay tuned!
Jeff and David, I love how you're design has come so far from that original tank. I'm glad you stuck with the idea of trying to level the camera near the multi's CG. However I've come to see that mounting the gimbal at the edge of the craft hardly effects the footage. Its far more important to reduce vibration and to use a narrower lens.
Looking good, I guess you're using Martinez (which I think is this) for the electronics?