PixHawk + 3 Axis Camera Gimbals

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1

Hi

Following the announcement of the follow me mode (granted, still in beta) and the ROI feature, I have some questions on how to connect a 3 axis gimbal (AlexMos controller) to enable the correct pointing of the camera both for the follow-me target and also to a ROI target.

Currently I use 3 separate channels (channels 14,15 and 16) on the receiver (FrSky X8R) to manually manipulate the gimbal position.

From what I understand of the documentation, at the current state of APM, only Pin 1 of auxiliary outputs can be used to control a single channel/axis (typically tilt) of a brushless gimbal (like the Tarot one 3DR sells or the VRGimbal). And on the optional hardware tab, setting only one axis at a time to be controlled each requiring the precious and scarce extra channels (6 or 7).

So, questions are: What are the current functions (APM 3.1.5) of the Auxiliary Ports of the PixHawk? Are these to change on 3.2?

Has someone been able to control a GoPro camera inflight via the PixHawk? If so, please give me some tips.

Considering that the current state of the PixHawk/APM RC control system only goes up to 8 channels, what are the best options to correctly control a GoPro for ROI and/or Follow-me??

brgds

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The capability to use a 3Axis gimbal will be in 3.2

3

Thanks Craig.

But I presume that still “consuming” from the 8 RC channels ?? Or no way to manually override the gimbal position?

And with or without remote shutter/activation control?

I’ll have a look at the source code later tomorrow.

brgds

4

So[quote=“Craig3DR”]The capability to use a 3Axis gimbal will be in 3.2[/quote]

What is an alternative method of controlling a 3 Axis Gimbal then?

Currently building a heavy lifting octo w/ a 5d using Pixhawk (foxtech kraken k130) any ideas???

or when will 3.2 be coming out?

5

We have release candidates in test and 3.2 should be out in a few weeks.

6

Hi

IMHO, currently you can go either with a second transmitter and a dedicated receiver for the gimbal, or the method I’m using that is using a FrSky Taranis TX and a FrSky X8R receiver. I have the PixHawk connected to the receiver via SBUS and use 3 or 4 channels above 8 connected directly to the 3axis gimbal. In your specific case I would use a Infrared controlled shutter button on another channel.

What is an alternative method of controlling a 3 Axis Gimbal then?

Currently building a heavy lifting octo w/ a 5d using Pixhawk (foxtech kraken k130) any ideas???

or when will 3.2 be coming out?[/quote]

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This is an interim fix until 3.2 comes on board and consists of ppm- channel expander-ppm… I used the 3Dr ppm converter and the xpress power systems 10x channel expander… Now I have 8 plus 3 channels… works great…

8

Has there been any updates on this? I had a Tarot 2d and ROI worked great now I have a 3 axis gimbal and when I try to use the ROI feature the camera just points down. With the Tarot 2D settings the gimbal works exactly opposite. When far away the camera is face down and when right over top of the ROI the camera is pointing off in the distance. Gimbal is a DYS 3 axis alexmos 8bit. Any help would be great.

Pixhawk with 3.2.1
Futaba 14SG

9

Any updates on this with 3.2.x?

I’d like to control a 3-axis gimbal thru the Pixhawk so that I can manually control tilt and yaw with sliders/knobs (on a Taranis/X8R), and also have the Pixhawk automatically point to a region-of-interest (during follow me, etc).

All the while NOT using channels 6, 7, or 8, as I’d like to use thos for other things.

Thanks…