DIY Handheld 2 axis stabalizer

P

Pazza

Member
2 Axis gopro (or any other camera upto 100g) handheld stabalizer


Ive noticed a few projects on kickstarter and other sites and they seem to want a lot of money for these handheld stabalizers.

Most of them are just quadcopter brushless camera gimbals with a handle strapped on and are Pretty easy build,took around 2 hours.

gimbal1.jpggimbal2.jpggimbal3.jpggimbal4.jpg



Parts are:

1 brushless gimbal including 2 motors
1 martinez brushless gimbal controller (v 3.0)
1 bicycle handbar grip
1 length of 22 mm plumbers pipe
4 x cable ties
hot glue

Total cost £75

Havent got any footage yet as im awaiting the controller in the post,
but i know its going to work well as i run 3 of these gimbals on various quadcopters i own.


Paul
 
Can I ask what is probably a very stupid question? I know nothing about these gimbals, but in you example, you hold the handle and twisting it left and right produces no movement in the camera because of the gimbal attached to the camera, and rotating it as in a steering wheel on a car, produces no movement because of the gimbal nearest the handle?

So these gimbalswork like a steady cam, leaving the camera's direction constant due to inertia v low friction. However as I'm understanding it, the gimbals are also servos, so they can be controlled externally to pan, tilt, rotate etc. with a 3 gimbal system the camera would be totally independent from the thing keeping it off the ground?

Plug in the controller, and you restore pan/tilt, but the wobble from the support is missing?

Have I got it right? These gimbals seem very clever devices - ultra low friction to isolate the shaft, yet containing a motor - presumably the brushless type so the friction is kept to a mimimum.

How expensive are these powered gimbles?
 
That is correct,the controller compensates for the hand movements making the movement smooth,very similar to a steady cam and no weights needed to counter balance.

The controller has an imu which knows when its not level and adjusts as required.

This gimbal uses brushless motors instead of servo's, which in turn gives smoother more precise movement.

You can also link it up to a transmitter and control the movment that way too.

Heres an example of one of my gimbals being flown around on my quadcopter:


If you look at the top right and left you can see part of the quadcopter and how much its moving relative to the gimbal which is keeping the picture level.

This one im building cost £75.
 
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I spent a lot of time and money (repairing) trying to learn to fly an RC helicopter with VERY limited success. Are Quadcopters easier to control? The footage on your video is superb and I'd like to look into getting one of these.
 
JCjib said:
I spent a lot of time and money (repairing) trying to learn to fly an RC helicopter with VERY limited success. Are Quadcopters easier to control? The footage on your video is superb and I'd like to look into getting one of these.
Click to expand...

Yes quadcopters are much easier to fly than your standard rc helicopter and more stable due to the extra motors,you can get a flight controller with an auto level feature
which makes these things a lot easier to fly.

I would suggest purchasing a mini quadcopter first just to practice with,something like the hubsan x4.

That way if you crash it wont cost you anything as the mini's are so light and take a good beating.
 
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Image1.jpg


Just a quick update:

The controller came today,soldered a jst connector for the power and hooked it up to an 11.1 v 3s battery.

Tuned the gimbal up using the gui,seems to be working great.

Will do video testing next and post results.
 
First video test,looking very promising though i can see allready a two handle support would smooth out some of the yaw axis roughness.


Later on i plan to convert this to 3 axis.
 
Image2.jpg

Cable tied the gimbal to a two handed support frame,much smoother results now due to the yaw axis
not wobbling around as much.

Theres still some wobble but that wont go away until the 3 axis conversion.

 
Very interesting project. Congrats! Can't wait to see how it further develops.

Some questions:

1) Can you do some tests with a less wide angle lens? Something like a normal or short tele might more interesting to see how the rig filters the movements.

2) Can you tell me where you bought the important brushless parts? Some google got me into a lot of parts I wouldn't know how to choose from.

3) Can you use a higher definition on your test so small details or shutter bugs can be identified when moving the camera? The rig is important for rolling shutter issues too.
 
carlmart said:
Very interesting project. Congrats! Can't wait to see how it further develops.

Some questions:

1) Can you do some tests with a less wide angle lens? Something like a normal or short tele might more interesting to see how the rig filters the movements.

2) Can you tell me where you bought the important brushless parts? Some google got me into a lot of parts I wouldn't know how to choose from.

3) Can you use a higher definition on your test so small details or shutter bugs can be identified when moving the camera? The rig is important for rolling shutter issues too.
Click to expand...

Hi at the moment this gimbal is limited in what it can carry due to the motors,so i cant change the lens.

I bought the gimbal frame and motors from www.goodluckbuy.com

I will do a 1080p test later on.

I will be making a bigger version of this to carry a DSLR and also a 3 axis controller for much smoother movement.
 
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