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
Google for "dji phantom additional channel". You'll find several videos demonstrating exactly what you are trying to do. The Phantom transmitter has a 7th channel that you can tap into. Now I could not see on the videos where on the phantom to connect to that channel, but maybe it's very obvious (I don't have a Phantom)
Andreas, You seem to know this stuff so I'll run it passed you. I'm thinking about buying the RCTimer Brushless gimbal and controller and using it with the Phantom Quadcopter. There is information about using an additional potentiometer on the Phanton transmitter to control the tilt of the gimbal while in flight. Does this seem doable?
Thanks,
Chuck
Thank you Andreas, This is the information that I was looking for.
Here is the step of connecting the controller to the remote for tilting:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Brushless-Gimbal-for-Aerial-Photogr...
@Chuck, two ways of doing that:
1) Use an RC channel to tilt the camera 45 degrees down. The camera will continue to be stabilized.
2) Some people have used an offset on the IMU to start out at an angle. Have not tried that but makes sense that it should work as well.
In all of the comments here the camera is set facing forward. Can the camera and gimbal be set facing, say 45 degrees downward. Will the controller still work properly? Will the camera still be stabilized?
magnus i think the rubber mountings are way too soft. mine does wobble the gimbal occasionally. i haven't replaced mine yet. they seem OK for the most part. only when the copter shakes like when descending rapidly.
Is this the best (cheap) gimbal for GoPro 2's?
I also have it, but I was having problems with the gimbal jittering as I was pitching my copter back, so when reducing the speed of my tricopter, it would start to shake. Otherwise it would be good. But, interestingly, this did not happen when USB was plugged in, so dialing in on the PIDs was a nightmare. It seems to work differently when USB is connected. My final resulution was to put a DCDC stepdown converter in front of it, so that it always runs on 2S instead of 3S.
I do however find it a bit wobbly, the rubber mountings might be a bit too soft?
I just bought this little bad boy and it seems to be working. Took me ages for build, but found a series of step by step images on the internet. Amazed at how "fluid" and responsive it is. Incredible technology. (Yes, I'm easily impressed). :)
-
6
-
7
-
8
-
9
-
10
of 12 Next