Autonomous Gimbals ?

[CapttimD]

I am new to the forum, please excuse me if there has been a thread on this topic in the past. I have not fully read the P1 history discussions..

My reference to AUTONOMOUS GIMBALS refers to units that require no input from the flight platform, hence no wiring to the drone. Input can be preset prior to launch or from the operator via, radio signal, Bluetooth or other wireless links (IR?)

With many gimbals now off the shelf for earthbound use, requiring nothing more than secure the camera and go (autonomous), are there any that are small enough to be mounted to a Phantom 1 requiring no electrical connection to the platform itself?
Irregardless of the effects of flight time...even minus a tilt 3rd axis, does such an animal exist?
At current, my interest is purely focused on maintaining a level horizon, even if I need to preset that before flight, during a turn or change of direction.

 

[Pilot_FML]

To answer your question .... yes there are gimbal(s) out there that you could use on a P1 that do what you wish.

The un-modded P1, however, is limited to how much weight that can be added without dramatic reductions in flight times or loss of maneuverability.

Since weight is an important issue, the combined weight of P1 gimbal AND camera needs to be as light as possible. One such combination is the Mobius camera mounted on an EagleEI gimbal. This gimbal (unfortunately?) has to be assembled and a gimbal controller added to finalize the build. The entire assembly would not be for the novice builder but in my opinion gives really great results.

Regardless of what gimbal you decide on, you'll need to have a power source to operate gimbal controller circuitry. Using the P1 flight battery with appropriate safe guards is perfectly acceptable.

P.S. There might be other camera/gimbal combinations out there suited for the P1 but none would come any where near the low weight of Mobius/EagleEI combination.

 

[gianni_BT]

I am new to the forum, please excuse me if there has been a thread on this topic in the past. I have not fully read the P1 history discussions..

My reference to AUTONOMOUS GIMBALS refers to units that require no input from the flight platform, hence no wiring to the drone. Input can be preset prior to launch or from the operator via, radio signal, Bluetooth or other wireless links (IR?)

With many gimbals now off the shelf for earthbound use, requiring nothing more than secure the camera and go (autonomous), are there any that are small enough to be mounted to a Phantom 1 requiring no electrical connection to the platform itself?
Irregardless of the effects of flight time...even minus a tilt 3rd axis, does such an animal exist?
At current, my interest is purely focused on maintaining a level horizon, even if I need to preset that before flight, during a turn or change of direction.

You can find economic brushless 2 axis gimbals (check on Banggood or Goodluckbuy) around 40/45 Euro that work as you like: you can manually set the camera pitch position at power-up and you get horizontal X/Y stabilization in the starting position. To drive the pitch from your remote you need a connection to the Naza controller, but this is not mandatory. There are many other gimbals (Tarot 2D, Walkera etc) at an higher price level. All these gimbals can be powered without opening the Phantom, using the auxiliary power available with a red/gray couple of wires that come out from one of the legs and you can extract simply pulling them.As alternative an extra battery can be used, but is additional weight.
With reference to the reduction of flight time, I can tell you that with the heavier low cost gimbal(230 gr) and an SJ4000 camera (around 65/70 gr) the reduction time on my P1.1.1 was of about 2 minutes( 1 minute 50 seconds).