Eachine Gimbal (@holtniel)

glowingturnip

glowingturnip

Well-Known Member
Hi Neil,

I just wanted to ask you a couple of things on this gimbal, since I know you've got the same one (or anyone else who's got one too for that matter !).

I've not mounted the gimbal on my quad yet, but have been playing around with it for the last couple of days, and when i rig a temporary power supply to it, I can get it levelling the camera very nicely - impressive.

However, what I've not been able to do is to link it to my laptop to use that Simple-BGC program. I've tried it on a Windows 8.1 laptop and on an old Windows Vista one, I've downloaded all the virtual com port drivers that the documentation suggests, and still nothing - when I connect the USB, the board lights up, but that's it, the PC doesn't see a new device and there's nothing new showing on the device manager. Bit frustrating, since if i can't link to a PC I'm stuck with the stock settings that it has on it.

Just wondering if you'd managed to link yours to a PC ?

It's also a little annoying that you can't point the camera vertically straight down because the wire attached to the little sensor board gets in the way of full travel. I'm toying with mounting the camera upside down with the bar holding the camera on top instead of underneath, but I'd need to change the default behaviour for that, and seems a bit cumbersome anyway.

Would be happy to hear your thoughts,

Cheers,

Stuart
 
Hi yes go to basecam web site down load the 8 bit GUI 2.2b2 is the one you need this will let you set up when you look at the pins on the side the second pin in at the bottom will let you pitch the camera off the transmitter ,Brian at Painless360 on you tube has done a really good video
I know what you mean about the sensor mine is on the Phantom and it just clears the ground , I re routed the wires this helps too
 
yep, that did it - I was trying to use the 32 bit GUI before, but that 8bit one connects fine, thanks vm.

Can't seem to flash it to later firmware though, I get a 'Failed to upload: Error writing firmware: Invalid avrdude exit code (-1073741515)!' from the gui, and the avrdudeR app just crashes.
 
haha, and just watching that video 'ignore the firmware updates, anything over 2.2 will brick it' !

good job the write didn't work then huh. gimbal is still working fine
 
nope, it's on and working ! Must get round to editing together some of the video I shot on holiday.

One thing I couldn't get working though, since you asked, is the FCB gimbal-outs to work with the Basecam board...

I've connected M7 and M8 from my KK2.1.5 to the fc inputs on the basecam board, set 'SS Gimbal' to no, 'Gimbal Control' to no (not as stupid as it sounds, is to control the gimbal pitch through the aux channel via the fcb, but I'm doing that direct from the rx), have the roll and pitch gimbal offsets set to 50% and experimented with the roll and pitch gains to try to get anything useful, but no joy.

There's definitely a signal getting through - on the basecam software, with non-zero gains for both channels I can see an input from the fc board of 1500 on each channel, +/- very small amounts of noise (+/-2). If I change the offsets in the kk, then the signal shifts (eg a 40% offset gives 1400 +/-) but there's no discernible change in signal when I tilt the quad frame, and the basecam can't calibrate to the fc. If i turn either gain off then there is no output sent to the board, and playing with the other settings gives differing but equally non-useful outputs.

Anyone been able to use kkk2.1.5 fc outputs like this ?



Apart from that, I'm controlling the pitch of the gimbal directly using a potentiometer on my tx via channel 6 (only a 6 channel tx) which works fine, and I'm considering adding a manual potentiometer onto the quad directly, something like this, so that I can do a quick roll-level by turning the knob on the quad, rather than pressing that fiddly button or going into the software or accelerometer calibrations.

Oh, and I hate those long legs I've put on, am definitely changing them.
 
glowingturnip said:
nope, it's on and working ! Must get round to editing together some of the video I shot on holiday.

One thing I couldn't get working though, since you asked, is the FCB gimbal-outs to work with the Basecam board...

I've connected M7 and M8 from my KK2.1.5 to the fc inputs on the basecam board, set 'SS Gimbal' to no, 'Gimbal Control' to no (not as stupid as it sounds, is to control the gimbal pitch through the aux channel via the fcb, but I'm doing that direct from the rx), have the roll and pitch gimbal offsets set to 50% and experimented with the roll and pitch gains to try to get anything useful, but no joy.

There's definitely a signal getting through - on the basecam software, with non-zero gains for both channels I can see an input from the fc board of 1500 on each channel, +/- very small amounts of noise (+/-2). If I change the offsets in the kk, then the signal shifts (eg a 40% offset gives 1400 +/-) but there's no discernible change in signal when I tilt the quad frame, and the basecam can't calibrate to the fc. If i turn either gain off then there is no output sent to the board, and playing with the other settings gives differing but equally non-useful outputs.

Anyone been able to use kkk2.1.5 fc outputs like this ?



Apart from that, I'm controlling the pitch of the gimbal directly using a potentiometer on my tx via channel 6 (only a 6 channel tx) which works fine, and I'm considering adding a manual potentiometer onto the quad directly, something like this, so that I can do a quick roll-level by turning the knob on the quad, rather than pressing that fiddly button or going into the software or accelerometer calibrations.

Oh, and I hate those long legs I've put on, am definitely changing them.
Click to expand...


I tries, but then assumed that the firmware was designed to handle some other gimbal like a servo powered one, as it would not work for me. Also the gains will have to be really exact to make the gimbal function smoothly, even a 1/10 can make it jittery.
 
A couple of photos of it in place.

Really not a fan of those long legs, I have to be really precise in landing - any sideways drift at all when landing and it can trip the quad over so it lands on its side, and they're springy too, if I land with a little tension in placement between different legs, it can bounce it back up into the air. Going to try some different ones

DSC_4785 by Stuart Goodwin, on Flickr

DSC_4781 by Stuart Goodwin, on Flickr

DSC_4778 by Stuart Goodwin, on Flickr
 
i asked steveis on his blog about the fc gimbal outs btw, seems the board needs to be armed before signals are sent, which makes sense I suppose.

Going to be a while before I can test it on mine though
 
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