Seismic, I see on your pictures you are not using a pot on your roll.

I use a gimbal with a similar design as yours. Modifying my savox servo and adding a 1 turn 5k pot to the pitch made a huge difference, but I cannot find a similar pot for the roll.

Mechanical limits in my gimbals roll are aprox 70º, so I need a 5K POT with 1/5 turn, did anybody find some of these?

The most similar thing I have found are the original cinestar roll pots but they are not exactly cheap....

>>Seismic, I see on your pictures you are not using a pot on your roll.<<

No because I don't need that much travel in my roll axis to keep the images level.

I finally got the 1/2" square aluminum tube gimbal on a multi rotor and flew it.

The result is pretty encouraging. I believe with a little tuning it should yield very usable video footage.

20121011 2 axis metal gimbal first test w Naza M (1 min 40 sec)

I really like your alum design and will try to follow that. Since I will only be testing with a small camera I may just braze the C and L brackets. This is probably a dumb question (won't be first or last) but why is the roll pivot off center?

Originally Posted by SeismicCWave

I finally got the 1/2" square aluminum tube gimbal on a multi rotor and flew it.

The result is pretty encouraging. I believe with a little tuning it should yield very usable video footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVYX4P_ismE

Looks good! Seems to me that the naza gimbal controls are a bit lagging, but maybe it's just not tuned up yet? I would say comparable to some of the early, pre fine-tuned video coming from askman's gimbal. I am assuming that was with a Nex?

Originally Posted by pug398

I really like your alum design and will try to follow that. Since I will only be testing with a small camera I may just braze the C and L brackets. This is probably a dumb question (won't be first or last) but why is the roll pivot off center?

I had that dumb question earlier: It's because the lens on most cameras are off to one side. You want the lens rotating close to the pivot point. It helps with lateral CG of the gimbal as well since more of the mass is on the "short" roll side.

Ahh..makes perfect sense. Never pictured it in my head with the camera mounted on the plate. Thanks for explaining it. Now to think up my next question.

Originally Posted by jcmonty

I had that dumb question earlier: It's because the lens on most cameras are off to one side. You want the lens rotating close to the pivot point. It helps with lateral CG of the gimbal as well since more of the mass is on the "short" roll side.

Originally Posted by pug398

Ahh..makes perfect sense. Never pictured it in my head with the camera mounted on the plate. Thanks for explaining it. Now to think up my next question.

No prob.. and I will probably beat you to it again

Originally Posted by pug398

I really like your alum design and will try to follow that. Since I will only be testing with a small camera I may just braze the C and L brackets. This is probably a dumb question (won't be first or last) but why is the roll pivot off center?

It will be great if you can braze the tubes together. That should save some weight.

I put the roll off center because the lens on the Sony NEX is offset. Plus I want to "balance" the weight of the tilt servo a bit.

Originally Posted by jcmonty

Looks good! Seems to me that the naza gimbal controls are a bit lagging, but maybe it's just not tuned up yet? I would say comparable to some of the early, pre fine-tuned video coming from askman's gimbal. I am assuming that was with a Nex?

Yes, I set it up a bit laggy. My gain on the tilt axis is down to 15. Roll gain is 20.

My philosophy is that you are not trying to setup a gimbal to be able to follow the movement perfectly. The stabilizer is only there to "damp" the large movement and reduce it. So instead of over compensating with too much gain I am using less gain.

Yes, the camera was a NEX 5N. I took off the camera to take the still image after the flight.

hey there possibly a drawing available?

Thanks in advanced

Originally Posted by skygizmo

hey there possibly a drawing available?

Thanks in advanced

The whole idea behind these gimbals I am building is that you DO NOT need a drawing. You just pick up the off-the-shelf parts, measure, cut and bolt them together.

If you have to follow a drawing and use specialized tools, not too many people can build one.

What makes it difficult for me is the sizes and the measures of special items. It would be great if I had a shopping list for bearings, rods, pulleys and belts that are needed. The measuring and cutting of alu tubes is the easy part.
By the way askman has made a nice change to his yoke design. He is using carbon tube and delrin sheet...

>>What makes it difficult for me is the sizes and the measures of special items. It would be great if I had a shopping list for bearings, rods, pulleys and belts that are needed. The measuring and cutting of alu tubes is the easy part.<<

That is why Rusty at AGL Hobbies is going to make a kit. You can get the pulleys and belts from a number of different sources. Andrey (askman) sells belts, pulleys and potentiometers. You can find bearings on eBay. Rusty is trying to make the gimbal so the builder does not have to drill holes.

>>By the way askman has made a nice change to his yoke design. He is using carbon tube and delrin sheet...<<

Yes I have been keeping up with Andrey on his designs and improvements. His gimbals are getting nicer with each upgrade. I am flying 4 of his prototypes.

Great thread, great work. I'm currently after a gimbal just like these, buying one is far too expensive. I only need to have it hold a GoPro so I might be able to cut some weight once the design is fully refined.

Until then, I'm trying to get this printed on an FDM free of charge. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:20080