Gimbal Hack

[lachers]

Hopefully this will help others......... Ive tried searching through the forums but here go's

Still working on it - but so far its basically right, just need to make a bracket to hold the original P2V Camera, change the software to have the tilt levelled correctly.

Here's a video of a 3rd party (ebay) gimbal, it wasn't really too hard to get it all going (surprisingly). Now that proof of concept works, just need to solder and make a bracket and i think it's good to go. The video shows the gimbal (powered by an external battery atm) with my go pro for balance. The original P2V camera is just off to the side and connected so i could get the app/wireless all working for the test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugw5wOksvno

With out any mods the app allowed me to change the pitch vertically (however "level" wasn't level, it had a downward tilt)

You can see me touching the iPhone screen controlling the tilt on the gimbal. Unfortunately with everything only loosely wired in i couldn't pick it up and throw it around to test.

 

[Shrimpfarmer]

Hi there thanks for sharing your modification. If you get this to work I can see your thread being longer than the increase your range thread. Good luck Pioneer

 

[lachers]

hahahah - Thanks Shrimpfarmer funnily enough, i have added an antenna to the wireless as well

 

[ZonComGMZ]

Awesome. I have a few questions.

Did you have to open the P2V shell?
Did you try the 7th channel to see if tilt works also besides the Smartphone tilt?
Did you see if you can get power from the existing P2V servo or camera cable?
Once you get it all figured out can you post pics and a how-to? We have all been waiting for someone to get the P2V with the cheapo gimbals and it looks like you are on the right track.

 

[Drone7]

Interesting.

It seems that you changed the servo for the brushless motor and i didn´t know this was possible.

If you connect the tilt in the way you do it now and manage to connect the roll to an external gimbal controller, then
you are getting somewhere.

In this case you get:
Tilt control by the app (or 7th channel)
Roll control by the gimbal controller but then automatically leveled

Sounds promising. Do you have a gimbal controller for your ebay gimbal? Then you can test it right away.

 

[BenDronePilot]

Someone has already used another gimbal, the Beholder Lite, making a Vision Mount and use it successfully on their Phantom 2 Vision now with a stabalized 2 axis vision camera on board.

This is his Youtube channel you can see his videos there demonstrating it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mattkaine1976

So this shows it can be done for sure. Now all we need is an easy how to for the rest of us to do it as well.

 

[lachers]

BenDronePilot - Spot on, i was using his video as a guide, but the one thing he didn't really talk about was the wiring as such. So far i encountered most of the same problems as him, but it's really pretty easy, I'm not advanced in my technical capabilities by any stretch.

ZonComGMZ -
Did you have to open the P2V shell? No, but probably will if i want to solder the power up to the P2V's battery/power
Did you try the 7th channel to see if tilt works also besides the Smartphone tilt? I didn't, can't be bothered in all honesty, don't need it
Did you see if you can get power from the existing P2V servo or camera cable? you still need to be able to power the gimbal and control board, the power is only sufficient to power the one servo that comes with the standard gimbal (apart from camera power cable that is.
Once you get it all figured out can you post pics and a how-to? We have all been waiting for someone to get the P2V with the cheapo gimbals and it looks like you are on the right track. Ill give it ago, the hard part is that I'm kinda experimenting and once its up and working, i aint pulling it apart, but will see what i can do to explain it all

 

[lachers]

ok - so I'm just very roughly testing out the P2V camera back on to the gimbal but this is going to be tough!!! the P2V camera is much heavier than the GoPro, so the centre of gravity is going to be a tough one

 

[Pull_Up]

Will you need to extend the power and data plug or will it still fit at stock length?

 

[lachers]

Yup - it's too short, I've changed it through the body to get some length back, but the cable also interferes with the balance!

 

[Pull_Up]

Argh! Well, it'll keep you busy, for sure.

 

[Noël]

... Here's a video of a 3rd party (ebay) gimbal ...

Do you have a link to the gimbal that you are using for this test?

 

[lachers]

Before i go "recommending" this gimbal i need to make sure i can get it to balance ok, so far it looks like its going to be pretty tedious.

 

[lachers]

Woo Hoo - So far so good, managed to get it pretty much balanced, just waiting for an extension lead for the cable and then should be right to go.

Ive soldered the power in and put it all back together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DDzR5My8dw

 

[iDrone]

Yup - it's too short, I've changed it through the body to get some length back, but the cable also interferes with the balance!

Which is why the others are using a flex cable; flat, very flexible, very light, very durable. I have a Tarot 2D so I understand the challenge. You're doing a great job, keep hacking!

iDrone

 

[Noël]

Looking good!