Camera gimbal setup for V4

[lauka]

I have been flying the V4 on iNav lately. It’s flying quite stable, only some minor twitching on the tail. Maybe I’ll port the Triflight stuff at some point. Have been very busy lately.

A gimbal would go nice with this setup to do some aerial photography. What kind of gimbals have you installed on your V4? Are there any gimbals that could be mounted on the battery/camera tray? Is it really worth it on the V4 as you can’t install it underneath the copter? Should I forget it and build a quad for that?

I found some information through search, but not much.

[FlyingFarmer]

I don’t know if you saw this from August, 2015 (You can google it):
Home › Forums › Everything about the Tricopter V4 › Tricopter with Gimbal

http://rcexplorer.se/forums/topic/tricopter-with-gimbal/

http://rcexplorer.se/forums/topic/tricopter-with-gimbal-2/

[wynnsquad]

I have had good experiences with the Tarot T-2D gimbal but haven’t used it on the tricopter before. Copterframes.com also makes a nice little GoPro gimbal (and I believe it uses an AlexMos controller). Most gimbals as I’m sure you’ve noticed are the hanging style which isn’t well suited for the V4 camera tray in standard configuration. HOWEVER, what I’d LOVE to see someone try is mounting the vibration-damping camera tray inverted (above the V4 frame) with the F3FC as the bottom frame instead of the top frame. This way you could use a standard hanging-style gimbal, and still take advantage of the awesome vibration-damping tray design. I wonder if it would look weird, but maybe it would be super cool!

[wynnsquad]

This one looks interesting too if you are looking to use a hero session

Tarot GOPRO T-3D IV Metal 3 Axis Brushless Gimbal PTZ for GoPro 4 Hero4 Session TL3T02 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0RGYBE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Dl9AybS0X2MET

[jihlein]

I’ve got one of these:

http://www.fortisairframes.com/titan-brushless-gimbal-frame/

Gets the job done, could probably be adapted to the V4.

[DaveL]

I recommend to estimate the weight of a gimbal, mounts, and tall landing legs, then ballast your V4 to see how well it hovers.
More load requires more lift (=more drag), and as the disc loading goes up, the efficiency goes down. This is why the prop size and quantity must go up for heavy multicopters to have decent flight times.

[FlyingFarmer]

Does a Tricopter require a 3 axis gimbal? Some have said the rear servo is constantly moving to maintain straight ahead flight and that a 2 axis gimbal will not remove the back and forth motion on the video. Is this true?

[lauka]

Thanks for the comments.

@DaveL: good idea! I will definitely try loading up the copter with a weight of a gimbal and see how it affects the flight time and performance.

I’ll probably make a video explaining the setup of the copter and showing some waypoint flight footage. Waiting for a good weather..

[DaveL]

Yeah, could use some good weather here too, hoping to film some Timbersled action on Sunday.

I have a suggestion about using a gymbal with the V4:
– this is a stand-launch and catch-recovery method
– mount the gymbal & camera under battery tray but don’t install tall landing gear
– set the aircraft on a stand, even a plastic pail/bucket, to be motionless during power-up
– take-off is easy
– recover by hovering overhead and hand-catching, facilitated by INAV with its excellent position & altitude hold performance
– usual cautions apply, don’t give yourself a haircut

[lauka]

Why not just add tall enough landing gear to accommodate for the gimbal. They would have to be quite long..

[DaveL]

As long as the landing gear attachment is flexible or fragile (zip-ties), because they will have so much more leverage to twist the airframe on touch-down.
Here’s a photo showing attachment using crossed zip-ties.

Attachments:

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   IMG_0010.jpg
   

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

I’ve toyed around with couple of ideas about mounting a gimbal to my tricopter. One thing that could potentially be done is mounting a two- or three- axis gimbal to the front spacer; kind of the same idea as on the ImmersionRC XuGong Pro. My only concern is the lack of any vibration dampening system (the XuGong at least has a clean/dirty separation between the motors and the battery/camera compartment).

Another option is to design a small plate that would sit on top of the F3FC board and be held in place with the two screws that hold the front wire holders. The Mini Tricopter uses a plate to attach the cage to the F3FC, so perhaps one could extend this plate forward and mount an underslung gimbal to it with vibration dampening grommets. This would both get the gimbal off the ground and have vibration dampening capabilities.

In order to get the camera/battery tray out of the GoPro view, one could simply mount it backwards, with the wider camera mount part sticking out the back where there’s room.

How does that sound? 🙂

[Bentomannen]

Just by accident I ordered a HK mobius 2 ax gimbal and a controller from Ebay. I Didn’t think so much before i put the goodies in the basket but now after a week have I realised that there will be some long nights with the tools before the thing will go up in the air 🙂

One of the things that bothers me is how control the tilt. I got the F3 tri frame where the only available PWM is PWM5 and I currently run latest version of Inav. Is there any chance to forward a channel to that pin, and in that case how.

[GAntonjo]

Hi, @Bentomannen. It all depends on what type of receiver and gimbal controller you are using;-) I, for instance, am using a FrSky X4R-SB to control both the F3FC (through CPPM) and the Gimbal Controller (an StoRM32 BGC v1.31 NT) through the SBUS port. This gives me channels 1-8 over CPPM and channels 9-16 over SBUS (OK SBUS actually carries all 16 channels, but using 1-8 for the gimbal controller would obviously not be smart;-) )

[Bentomannen]

Hi GAntonjo,

Thanks for helping!

I had no idea that regular pwm were available when using cppm. Now I’m just waiting for the goodies to arrive so I can start working on the installation.

[Author]

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