STorM32 controller and Pixhawk

I’ve been through the wiki for the STorM32 gimbal controller and the Pixhawk wiki too, but nowhere is there any information relating to the advantages of controlling the gimbal through the FC.
I have mine hooked up directly to the X8R which seems to work fine, although I guess a splitter on the S-Bus would be more elegant.
What I would dearly like to know is how to get the Gimbal to follow a point of interest, controlled by the FC. Would this entail using Telem2 on the PX4, and setting the Gimbal to emit a Mavlink heatrbeat etc.?
Can someone please steer me in the right direction please…?
Best DP.

both configurations have their advantages and disadvantages

connecting the STorM32 directly to the receiver (either via PWM, PPM, or sbus splitter) has the advantage that one can use all functions of the STorM32 via the transmitter, but the disadvantage that obviously none of the features where the FC needs to control the gimbal are possible

vice versa, connecting the STorM32 to the Pixhawk (either by using PWM outputs from the Pixhawk or a serial connection) has the advantage that those features where the FC controls the gimbal are possible, but the disadvantage that essentially none of the STorM32’s functions can be accessed via a transmitter.

As a corollary it follows: For follow me you either can chose to use Pixhawk’s PWM outputs connected to STorM32’s RC inputs, or use a serial connection. In the latter case, you have two options, either to use the Mavlink protocol on the serial connection or the STorM32 serial protocol, as it’s called in the docu. So, you have 3 options to achieve one and the same. I’m not aware of a significant advantage/disadvantage of either of them.

As a 2nd corollary, in order to get the “best of both sides” you could have “wires” from both the receiver and the Pixhawk to the StorM32, for instance a sbus splitter from the receiver to the STorM32 and a serial connection from the Pixhawk to the STorM32. Alternatively, in case of a (quad) copter and a NT STorM32 setup you could consider using betacopter, which gives you the best of both with only a serial connection from the Pixhawk to the StorM32.

Plenty of possibilities. Hope that clarifies things a bit.

1 Like

Hi OlliW.
It seems that too many options make for a difficult choice…
I’m not familiar with betacopter, but will google it.
I’m intersted that you mention the alternative for an NT setup, which I have, and make the distinction of a (quad) copter rather than, for instance a hex, which would be my next step…?
For the time being I think I will stick to the config that I already have. Perhaps with a slight tweak in the directionod S-bus connection from the receiver to neaten thing up a bit.
Thanks for your wisdom Olli!
Best DP.