It's amazing how quickly BLGs went from a novelty and costing thousands (zenmuse) to something you can get for $172 shipped!
I received my RCTimer Brushless Gimbal (BLG) and controller (Martinez v1) yesterday and of course had to try it immediately. Mark came over and helped with the build and documentation. The kit does not come with any instructions, so the RCGroups thread is the best source for build info.
Overall the quality of the RCTimer kit is not bad. There was one missing screw and a few things we had to alter to make it fit (see the build log link below for details). But the material is easy to work with. The default firmware and settings on the board seem to be pretty decent for a start. We initially had the IMU orientation and motor connections different, the result of that was shaking in the pitch axis. Once positioned and connected as shown above, it started to work fine without any parameter changes.
Build log with many detailed pictures:
http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2013/05/rc-timer-brushless-gimbal-build-log.html
Video showing connections, start-up sequence and motion test:
Time lapse build video:
Next up: Connect to the GUI (no luck so far), connect the RC, fly...
Comments
no you need to use a brushless gimbal controllers. you can only use apm for servo's
Finally got around to testing it in the air with BruGi_049B_r77 loaded on it. To be honest I barely noticed the slight change in angle in the video. It's only when I started really thrashing it about in the air that I could see the issue. It is such a big improvement over the servo based gimbals. Just uploading a 3min sample to Youtube now.
@Mike T - I'll head back to RCGroups to see if BruGi has a solution up his sleeve. Your issue sounds more like drift. At least my gimbal is coming back to level after a second or two when you hold it over.
Thanks Andreas!
@Andreas Very solid cannot move. double sided tape
@John Yes after i move the gimbal around, or fly around it seems to not come back to level, but rather about 5 degrees off in one direction. it seems to level it self if i leave it for a minute. if you read the rcgroups forum you will see people talking about the drift problem
I turned the build log of the RCTimer gimbal into a very detailed Instructable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Brushless-Gimbal-for-Aerial-Photogr...
If you like it, please vote for it in the competition. Many thanks in advance!
@MikeT have not seen the drifting issue. How solid is your IMU connected to the gimbal. Noticed that any little play leads to odd results. Right now I have it hot glued to the base.
Can the motors handle 4S? That might be your simplest way to get more power. I use NTM 3530 motors, the quad has no problems lifting the gimbal on 3S. With 4S the quad can lift 8 pounds of payload.
apm 2.5 control board
APC 10 inch props
DJI 550 frame
3drobotics 850kv motors
rctimer 30a esc Simon K flashed
batteries 2200mah 3s 30-45c
I'm open to all ideas/thoughts.
By drift do you mean that it starts to drift from level and stay at that drifted angle?
An example of what I am seeing is that if I throw the vertical support arm to the left 45 deg reasonably fast I notice the roll angle tilt to the left by about 3-5deg. If I hold that angle the roll slowly corrects itself back to level. If I then do the same to the right I have the same effect (3-5deg to the right). Same for the pitch movements. It's like the controller is not correcting the level fast enough to maintain the level during movements. If I set the PWM any higher the motor starts to buzz and vibrate. PID's are all as high as they will go without introducing the shakes.
If you are not seeing this then I probably have an issue with the motor's.
i noticed mine "drifts" a bit but generally stays pretty much level. no amount of tuning seemed to fix this for me. im running 048 but tried 046. i think the martinez code has a long way to go.
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