Has anyone created a Franken-Phantom?

kphantom · Nov 16, 2015

Hello,

Has anyone mixed and matched P3 airframes with other gimbals?

For example, a P3P airframe but Zenmuse H43D gimbal?

cheebs · Nov 16, 2015

Well, not with P3 components. I imagine it would take some coding skills to get the zenmuse to work with the P3 control system.
My FrankenPhantom is wildly different LOL
My latest build: Carbon Black | DJI Phantom Forum

ianwood · Nov 16, 2015

Different interfaces. It'll be very hard to integrate anything but P3 specific gimbals.

kphantom · Nov 16, 2015

ianwood said:
Different interfaces. It'll be very hard to integrate anything but P3 specific gimbals.

What are the differences? Mechanical? Electrical?

ianwood · Nov 17, 2015

kphantom said:
What are the differences? Mechanical? Electrical?

One is serial bus while the other is CAN bus.

kphantom · Nov 17, 2015

ianwood said:
One is serial bus while the other is CAN bus.

Ok. Would something like this work to bridge the different bus interfaces?

Programmable CAN bus to RS232 Adapter | Grid Connect[PLA]%20%20-%20All%20Products%20General%20All&mm_campaign=477cea803cb14c83d8a99b6c7d0cd349&keyword=&mkwid=sLIIZssnI_dt%7Cpcrid%7C59302249153&gclid=CJfI7uKgl8kCFU47gQodQooMkA

ianwood · Nov 17, 2015

Not easily. Too big. You'd be better off with a Teensy 3.2. It has SPI, I2C and CAN baked into it and it's very small. The not very small challenge of reverse engineering the protocol messages on both still stands. And you may likely find differences that can't be bridged easily. A competent hardware protocol developer could probably do it.

kphantom · Nov 17, 2015

ianwood said:
Not easily. Too big. You'd be better off with a Teensy 3.2. It has SPI, I2C and CAN baked into it and it's very small. The not very small challenge of reverse engineering the protocol messages on both still stands. And you may likely find differences that can't be bridged easily. A competent hardware protocol developer could probably do it.

Yes, size and weight matter when on a flying platform! I agree, converting the messages and protocols may be too much hassle than to just mount a gimbal and camera that were purpose built for the platform.