Carbon Fibre Brushless Gimbal for NEX and smaller.

I now have an RCTimer OpenSource BGC board ("Martinez") and a couple of LD-Power Gimbal Motors which are large enough for an NEX or smaller. I looked over a number of BGC frames for sale but they all seem to incorporate metal or glass fibre, both of which do not have the same strength and low weight of carbon fibre. Based on the connection system I had used on the first CF gimbal I built from scratch (servo based), I have come up with this design with the size needed for a Sony NEX and the adjust-ability to balance for any camera of that size or smaller to maintain roll balance. Also, the base plate the camera sits on is deep enough to move the camera back to balance the weight on the pitch axis due to the size of the NEX lenses.

Once I have hand crafted this design I'll post some video. From there, if there is enough interest I may get a batch of these laser cut and put them up for sale. Roughly $30 of 2mm CF board for this and whatever the rate is for laser cutting.

This specific design is for the LD-Power GM4008-57 motors which are 45mm in diameter, 21mm in depth and 85g each. Still need to work out how many poles these motors have to be able to set up the firmware correctly. If anyone knows please let me know? I was planning on using the smaller LD-Power 2208 gimbal motor which was 39g or so but the eBay seller had the wrong picture and weight in the listing.

Spent a little time with the Martinez BGC build 49 Rev 69 firmware. Finally managed to get something close to suitable. I don't have a NEX camera to test on this (yet) so had to do with a GoPro mounted high and slightly forward to get the balance. When there is more light tomorrow I'll shoot some video with it to see how it goes. Only odd thing about this firmware is that it appears to have been coded to apply a slight amount of tilt in the direction you move in. As an example, if I tilt left, rather than staying perfectly level, it tilts a few degrees to the left. If I hold it left it slowly comes back to level again. Bad coding or intentional to aid in FPV flying? I thought it was just my setup but looking at other video's using the same controller they all appear to do the same thing. The only exception is the AlexMos controller. Might need to look into getting one to compare.

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John Grouse June 24, 2013 at 3:02am

Version 1.1 - Slightly lower platform and larger corner brackets. Slightly more CF removal in non-essential area's.
John Grouse June 23, 2013 at 2:06am

Now to design the GoPro only size. Just waiting on the smaller brushless gimbal motors to arrive to have an idea of their sizes.
John Grouse June 22, 2013 at 6:08am
John Grouse June 22, 2013 at 6:07am
John Grouse June 22, 2013 at 6:07am

Here is a 3D interactive WebGL object of the gimbal - http://168.63.167.21/gimbal.html
John Grouse June 21, 2013 at 5:26am
John Grouse June 21, 2013 at 5:07am
Cloud9Drones June 21, 2013 at 12:23am

Count me in!
John Grouse June 21, 2013 at 12:19am

Finally mounted the gimbal to my hexacopter. Used rubber washers at the contact points on the hexacopter frame to reduce vibrations.
John Grouse June 12, 2013 at 12:27am

Spent a little time with the Martinez BGC build 49 Rev 69 firmware. Finally managed to get something close to suitable. I don't have a NEX camera to test on this (yet) so had to do with a GoPro mounted high and slightly forward to get the balance. When there is more light tomorrow I'll shoot some video with it to see how it goes. Only odd thing about this firmware is that it appears to have been coded to apply a slight amount of tilt in the direction you move in. As an example, if I tilt left, rather than staying perfectly level, it tilts a few degrees to the left. If I hold it left it slowly comes back to level again. Bad coding or intentional to aid in FPV flying? I thought it was just my setup but looking at other video's using the same controller they all appear to do the same thing. The only exception is the AlexMos controller. Might need to look into getting one to compare.

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