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
Here is the brushless controller manual on my site. Manual
Maybe a good idea for everyone to take a picture of their setup and info about the software version and settings. Saves a lot of work if someone already have a good working board :D
Anyway, the stock 161 software from BruGi doesn't work. Damn
Yeah John, trying to get the software working nog to put on the new software. I tought the "out of the box" functions were all right. Guess not. So i downloaded the Brugi049br161 now and have yet the arduino to do and i will give an update.
Appreciate your comment! Cheers
Looks like you have the pitch working not the roll. Please use the examples in the GUI download as basic settings. It looks like the roll is not working at all. Its going to be trial and error and I can suggest using the latest GUI/firmware which i believe is ver 161. The stock settings were pretty dam good. I did tweak mine some for my setup and preference in filming.
Problem gimbal Here you can see what i mean. So if anyone knows what's going on, i would love to hear :D
Thanks
Ok, update: So i got the roll function working. But now the pitch? It glitches as i lift the front of the quad. Does that mean that the sensor on the bottom of the gimbal has to be in the middle of the bottom plate. I mounted it on the far left side if you looking towards the quad. Should it be in the middle? Or maybe the main controller board has to be mounted in a specific direction? Thanks for the reply guys.
I'm the Oliver to whom Gary is referring to and who got the $109 goodluckbuy gimbal. Haven't had time to deal with the little lean it has, but other than that I'm real happy with it. It replaced a servo-city servo based gimbal that I cobbled together a few months ago (and reported on here). That wasn't so bad, but this one is really smooth, and weighs a lot less to boot. A couple of things: This one is made for a GoPro H3 - meaning an H3 balances just about perfectly on it. An H2 is heavier and thus unbalanced, but it still works OK. Also it seems that you want the camera mounted when testing - with nothing on the bracket the roll motor goes into spasms. I'll mention that although I didn't buy any of the shipping upgrades goodluckbuy sent it right away (and sent a notification) and it took only one week to arrive here on the US west coast.
Hi, My friend Oliver bought a really nice aluminum 2 axis brushless gimbal with controller from GoodLuck Buy for $109.00.
Came with no manual at all but he managed to actually get it working anyway - almost.
The little board will contain the 3 axis gyro and it finds level by continuously leveling the little board that has the gyro attached.
On Oliver's setup the little board was attached underneath the camera glued upside down onto the bottom plate on which the camera sat.
You can verify this by wiring up the camera and mount and when you move the little board, the camera should move accordingly.
When you have the little board oriented such that when you move it the camera tries to correctly follow it's movements, the gyro board is lined up properly.
Just glue or double side tape it to the camera holding bracket in that orientation.
The reason I said almost is because even though his little board is parallel with the camera bracket, it lists about 7 or 8 degrees to one side.
Clearly this is meant to be compensated for with a firmware offset write, but without documentation that hasn't happened yet.
The gimbal is very fluid and responds instantly, actually keeping the camera pointing the same direction without any of the nasty inertial "ratcheting" that plagues servos.
You move the bracket all around and it just stays pointing where it was.
He also has his camera pitch servo hooked up and it can pitch from somewhat up to straight down and beyond.
Brushless gimbals will totally replace servo driven ones, they just work.
"The proper way the manual shows", There's a manual?
Ron,
Actually there is no right way it really depends on your setup but if you look at the top photo on this thread its the proper way the manual shows.
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