MultiWii

for some time DJI ZenMuse was THE ONLY one offering it,
price was somewhere in the 5000$ ballpark, (3500 gimbal + 1500$ flight controller needed to make it work)

showing off
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 7DlcxuSuYk

wind or no wind, and no matter how you punch the sticks, the video is rock stable...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgLCR3bVEDU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRUa4yU5HSY

with price like that, in my whole country there is only one flying.

now let's get back to cheap stuff.. that's where the fun is
I'm not selling anything to be clear,

parts cost around 50$ for DIY style or if you don't want to make it by yourself,
there is an user you can contact on german forum RC FAN2,(he speaks english )
or here: http://brushlessgimbal.de/

you need:
L6234D motor driver chip, 5$ each (2 needed for two motors=10$)
6050 well known IMU, 7$ free shipping
Arduino promini 7$ or even some empty mwii board 10-20$
(promini is most compact in size and cheap, if no promini available, empty mwc is better than populated,
because the IMU has to be on camera pad, not on model like in Multiwii, so it's more practical tu put only small IMU there than whole mwii board or arduino mini which need batteries also)
2 cheap brushless motors that you rewind with 0.15mm wire, bonus is they can be burned so you can get some for free in your rc club maybe




how smooth can DIY direct drive gimbal work, NOT Zenmuse but pretty close, for a fraction of a cost! servo gimbals, bye bye:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 56bWTFu65Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... HX_l4Yi0bg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prq5INQ ... r_embedded

not open source,
http://www.simplebgc.com/files/
even has a nice GUI, seems familiar



Thanks to RC FAN2, his version of code is public and free
http://code.google.com/p/brushless-gimbal/

the pcb design is also free
http://fpv-community.de/showthread.php? ... post252104
but if running of an multiwii board, you just need driver pcb, not the one for atmel...




posted just to get people interested,
so maybe someone will implement it into MWii, or make it better without implementing it, guys over there are open for suggestions
code is in arduino,
hardware IS compatible (I run it from MWii board without problems) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1svUkQwgIo
it works far better than any servo gimbal out there

I'm no expert,
multiwii is open source so nothing got stolen if it gimbal code gets implemented, still could get downloaded by anyone on official wii code site,
both could even benefit, because I believe MWii has better IMU processing than this newly created code,
even if no implemetation, is worth taking a look into. it's cheaper than 2 good servos, and works better.

It can be used for small cameras like gopro,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... HX_l4Yi0bg

and even for bigger ones >1kg for professionals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... qVn9WOEbaI

interesting approach.
I wrote to Alexej at simplebgc.com on the GPL open source issue. The GUI code is a copy of MWii gui code.

On RC FAN2's project:

and multiwii is open source so nothing got stolen if it gets implemented

not true (GPL is not equal to open source), but that project seems to have no relations to MWii other than being hardware compatible, which is ok (and smart).

I wish that project good luck.

Olá dr.tom.
Pode escrever normalmente em seu idioma. Entendo um pouco o inglês, o resto uso no google translate.
Sou o Rafael(do Brasil) que postou recentemente no outro forum(fpv-community.de).
tenho interesse em ver seu progresso. tenho um Arduino soldado com um 6050.
Mas não sei como você montou seu driver para o motor(aquela placa com transistores e FET(eu acho) que dá pra ver em seu vídeo.
teria o esquema dela? Assim posso fazer testes aqui também.
Quando comecei, usei um ESC que tinha guardado. um TowerPro H40A, que usa um Atmega8. Assim, aproveitei para criar o firmware encima dele.

No problem,
at the moment I am using DIY motor driver from parts available in local store.
(waiting for the smaller and better working one, L6234D from ebay, it's even cheaper than this parts needed for DIY version and no need for so much soldering!)
schematics are here: see attachment.

it would be great if you succeed in hacking a ESC,
some managed to get it to work, but didnt post how

some even have great results with BRUSHED motors!
see how quickly it compensates fast movements, but still has amazing precision for slow moving corrections
also not sharing how-to

http://vimeo.com/55463600
http://vimeo.com/56171458

this is a great project... thank you

Hello guys! I am an author of one of this project. I confirm that brushless gimbal work mush better than all servo gimbals I have tryed. And it is very easy to assemble this gimbal (you need H-bridge drivers, arduino, IMU sensor, rewound motors and simple mechanics).

MultiWii code is not good for it - we need very fast closed loop and only gyro raw data as main PID-controller source. My code is much simplier than multiwii, and code that german guys have published, looking pretty simple, too.

But don't wait quality like ZenMuse from it - there is many pitfails that dont let to get hi-end stabilization.

Hello!
Interesting project indeed!
@alexmos: use of brushed motors seems mechanically/electronically simpler so why you chose brushless (technical reasons or just availability)?

Regards
Andrej

He used brushless motors in order to be able to control the magnetic thrust vector by simultaneously powering all 3 coils (i guess). I also want to know more details about how controller realize in witch position is at start-up.

dr.tom:
Eu vi estes videos usando BRUSHED.
Achei os resultados melhores que Brushless.
E como você mesmo falou, parece bem simples de montar.

I think Brushed motor will not work - it has high non-linearity when switching to next coil.

dramida wrote:He used brushless motors in order to be able to control the magnetic thrust vector by simultaneously powering all 3 coils (i guess). I also want to know more details about how controller realize in witch position is at start-up.

It is no matter wich position at start up. Just rotate magnetic field untill it will move camera (and IMU) to desired position. Only direction is matter and shoul be configured (or auto-detected at startup).

someone posted a little educational video,
doesn't say what code he is using.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... _8Kb_fXRrU

love this sooo much!! It is only at an early stage of development but already it is so stable! I will build one of these in couple of months

Nice catch, dr.tom,

thanks for pointing to this before I dump all this boxex with CDR-Drives and "Conrad-BL"-parts my wife told me to dump during the new year cleanup. (because not touched for 5+ years, the boxes of course Now I see a big recycling event on the horizon .
For a single channel solution the old Plush 6a with Mega8 maybe worth a look as it brings a MCU, I2C(with some mods) and 3/2 of h-bridge on a very tiny PCB. I really disliker the change to SiLabs as with RFM12/22 connected the 6A was something like my "Atmel electric imp" (e.g. also good as combined rx/esc for LEGO Power Functions rc-car with only plugging a tsop1438 to the rc-port and some SW to drive 2/3 of the bridge for brushed motor and 1/3 for servo PPM; a pair of these is driving my warm water circulation pump, one as wireless switch in the bathroom, second powering the relais for the WILO, with Arduino/AES128 lib).

regards,
gompf

give it a try, maybe you make something better than it is now

here are my test videos..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7E6p8cLt-U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSQo-r8Vdq8

gimbal has to be in perfect balance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqTl3QURUJs

alex kindly posted his hex files public

http://www.simplebgc.com/eng/downloads/

can't get it to upload via ftdi to try it out...

edit: soldered ISP pins on atmel

flashed ok but it doesn't work,






guess we will have to wait for it to be available in shops... hope not 2 more months like now

hey there is a program on his website that lets you upload hexa file. gonna try it tomorrow

here's my controller made by german PCB design,
I used only driver part of the PCB, controller part was not needed IMHO because I already had promini laying around, so I used it.






the code is now at this level
Brushless Gimbal FW_0.39 3.Test
(not my video)
hope it will get better, PatrikE from this forum started to work on MultiWii code for gimbal too,
works for now but when driving 2 motors it starts to jitter and have a great lag.
he will post when it will be ready for beta testing.

I got PM's asking for parts list, no secrets, no problem,
better to put it here so anyone could see if interested


IMU 6050
http://www.ebay.com/itm/370691521469...84.m1497.l2649
CPU 328p
http://www.ebay.de/itm/350646580746?...84.m1497.l2649
driver chip 2x L6234D
http://www.ebay.com/itm/L6234D-Manu-...item19d15dfd88
driver board PCB
http://code.google.com/p/brushless-gimb ... loads/list
http://brushless-gimbal.googlecode.c...dware_V1.1.zip
you send treiber(driver) platine schematics to this guy and he makes it and sends it back to you,
http://myworld.ebay.com/tedchen1632?_tr ... 7675.l2559
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-Layers-PCB- ... 2c6b637e3b or you buy it on german forum, they have it unpopulated or populated (RTF)
motors you can also buy over there on german forum or by yourself.
I am still experimenting with different ones that i rewound by myself, I have 8 of them for now, as code got better I will sure do some more tests

if someone finds a better price for parts, please do post here, I just c/p ones that I used a month ago, now there may be better options

whaaaaat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5enRVS8JxA

thanks dr. tom,

pls could you share the link on the german forum, where they have it unpopulated or populated (RTF) ??

thanks in advance

CH

Jonit wrote:whaaaaat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5enRVS8JxA

that's Russian closed source controller
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1804109

I have 1 on route to me and I hope it works OK.

this is free open source code from german forum:

http://fpv-community.de/showthread.php? ... post282640

crazyhorse21 wrote:thanks dr. tom,

pls could you share the link on the german forum, where they have it unpopulated or populated (RTF) ??

thanks in advance

CH

1. http://fpv-community.de/showthread.php? ... Controller

2. http://fpv-community.de/showthread.php? ... er-50x50mm

you can always contact the german users via PM and ask them for empty boards,
or download free plans posted there and make it in your country, or send plan via e-mail to china (ebay link above in my post)
he will make whatever you want,

that's how I got my boards for this until alexmos started to sell his version.
now i can test both and see which works better for me

Jonit wrote:whaaaaat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5enRVS8JxA

THIS IS THE GIMBAL I WANT!!!!!

compact and don't need a tall gear to use it...

dr.tom,

thanks for the links

i also wanted to know if there are other alternatives for the driver chips ... sourcing them here is bit too difficult ...

thanks in advance

CH

if you can't find them locally
5$ per piece, unlimited supply,
7-10days delivery time...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/L6234D-Manu-ST- ... 19d15dfd88
me and my friends bought them there, works as it should.
in other locations (parts stores locally in my country it costs around 40$ per piece!)

and here they are selling alex's controller alone, not too high price and it works 100%
all beta testers and those video where it says SIMPLE BGC use that controller.
http://www.csgshop.com/product.php?id_product=136

I ordered 1 for myself too

Dr Tom..
Just a quick question? If I have Arduino Nano, MPU6050 board all I need to do is get the driver board made, upload the firmware to Arduino and re-wire the motors and job done?

Yes,
free german code is working much better than 7 days ago...
and it is getting better and better every day, like Multiwii

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... K01qRW95qI

Hi Dr Tom, tired to get a pcb from the kraut gays but no reply, do you by chance have another sours?

Hi guys!

Do you think, that AlexMos's code could run on the german guys hardware?

I've have test it but couldn't get it running, it's loading with 115200 baud so you need a boot loader(optiboot?) with that speed, have loaded it with my Dragon without boot loader no success.

Sorry, i forgot to mention, that i would like to connet an arduino pro mini with the german style motor control board, and use Alex's fw on it.

My experiment to drive a BLC gimbal with MWii
MWii BLC

Motor 1 uses A0,A1,A2 // Roll
Motor 2 uses 9 ,10 ,11 // Nick

Use together with dev 1317 gui.

Just found this topic, thanks for all the great info! I am going to try getting my own gimbal going soon, with the german opensource or maybe with the Alexmos hardware now that it is becoming available for purchase.

Could it be possible to modify SimonK esc code to work as a BLC?

I was wondering about that too. There are also the ESC32 and OpenBLDC projects which are possible starting points. The OpenBLDC has not been that active in the last while, but I heard some of the developers were busy with the Quadshot and are coming back to OpenBLDC now.

i guess, they using tree phase drivers so why not, more interesting would bee to have an open loop controller with 14bit magencoder on STM32 and 2.4mhz i2c.

PatrikE wrote:Could it be possible to modify SimonK esc code to work as a BLC?

I was thinking of using some cheap Brushless ESCs - remove the controller chip and use 3 half bridge drivers left. Your idea is even better! If the outputs used to drive the motor are hardware PWM, it is duable!

hey does anyone have list of components for the drive circuit pcb? and what size smd components?

Thanks

come on coderes and hardware folks. lets get the ball rolling on a english open source version circuit board

here you is hardware files for eagle, size wouldent be to hard to find out

http://code.google.com/p/brushless-gimb ... p&can=2&q=

Partlist

Exported from Gimbal Controler.sch at 07/02/2013 10:55

EAGLE Version 6.4.0 Copyright (c) 1988-2013 CadSoft

Assembly variant:

Part Value Device Package Library Sheet

C1 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C2 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C3 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C4 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C5 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C6 100µ CAP_POLD PANASONIC_D SparkFun 1
C7 100µ CAP_POLD PANASONIC_D SparkFun 1
C8 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C16 1uF CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C17 1uF CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C18 10n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C19 10n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C20 0.22uF CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C21 0.22uF CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C24 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C25 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
C29 100n CAP0805 0805 SparkFun 1
D1 ATMEGA328p-AU ATMEGA168-AU TQFP32-08 Arduino-AVR 1
D2 FT232RL FT232RL SSOP28 ftdichip 1
D3 T1 L6234 SO20POWER2 L6234 1
D4 T2 L6234 SO20POWER2 L6234 1
F1 FUSE_SMD_10MM FUSE_SMD_10MM SMD_FUSE_10MM f-lf-omniblok-s 1
H1 T67K ROT LS_T679-D2E2-1 PLCC2 led 1
H2 LG T67K GRUEN LG_T679-E1F1-1 PLCC2 led 1
JP1 M02PTH 1X02 SparkFun 1
JP2 M05PTH 1X05 SparkFun 1
JP3 M04PTH 1X04 SparkFun 1
JP4 M06SIP 1X06 SparkFun 1
JP5 M06SIP 1X06 SparkFun 1
JP6 M03PTH 1X03 SparkFun 1
JP7 M03PTH 1X03 SparkFun 1
R1 10k RESISTOR0805-RES 0805 SparkFun 1
R2 10k RESISTOR0805-RES 0805 SparkFun 1
R3 1k RESISTOR0805-RES 0805 SparkFun 1
R4 330R RESISTOR0805-RES 0805 SparkFun 1
R5 330R RESISTOR0805-RES 0805 SparkFun 1
R6 1k RESISTOR0805-RES 0805 SparkFun 1
R21 10k RESISTOR0805-RES 0805 SparkFun 1
V1 DIODE-DO214AC DO214AC diode 1
V2 BAS40-04 BAS40-04 SOT23 diode 1
V3 1N4148 DIODE-MINIMELF MINIMELF diode 1
V4 1N4148 DIODE-MINIMELF MINIMELF diode 1
V5 1N4148 DIODE-MINIMELF MINIMELF diode 1
V6 1N4148 DIODE-MINIMELF MINIMELF diode 1
V7 78L05F 78L05F SOT89 linear 1
X2 USBOLD USBOLD USB-MINIB-OLD SparkFun 1
Y7 16mhz RESONATORSMD RESONATOR-SMD SparkFun 1


Download eagle pcb and choose free ware when installing, then click export part list

Well I'm about to make a couple of PCB using toner transfer, a bit messy thou, planning to use teensy3 with mag encoder and then i would be able to run motors without rewinding, to achieve this it need's open loop feedback from encoder and PID pwm control, it feels like their can be some gain by having the imu mounted on the frame instead of the gimbal?

The concept is to use the imu on the gimbal instead of a encoder as I understand.

that's true if you going with present systems, but then it will always be one step behind, with the imu on the frame and knowing the position of the gimbal you can use high torque motors with pid

btw encoder are like 5$ and the mag 1$ or you can get free samples from Austrianmicrosystem, mail them and you get 3 for free as5048b 14bit, thats i2c witch are able to run at 2.4mhz

Gimbal wrote:that's true if you going with present systems, but then it will always be one step behind, with the imu on the frame and knowing the position of the gimbal you can use high torque motors with pid

btw encoder are like 5$ and the mag 1$ or you can get free samples from Austrianmicrosystem, mail them and you get 3 for free as5048b 14bit, thats i2c witch are able to run at 2.4mhz

sounds good.
will need to port the code to that processor?

Hi, succeeded in obtaining list of parts.

but have trouble finding some parts as
C12 CAP_POLPTH1 CPOL-RADIAL-100UF-25V
D1 1N4148 diode-MINIMELF MINIMELF diode
C10 0.22uF CAP0805 0805
someone who has a good place to buy? and even order numbers

I received a few PMs asking for parts and where does what go,
people, please install eagle program, and open the schematics,
there you can click on ''i'' icon on the left, and click on anything you like,
it will show it's name and specifications.

I took some screenshots even to show how it works.



right now I am playing with alexmos's controller from csg

Hi dr.Tom, nice board I'm just curious about the ticker is it 16 or 20 MHz, have had som problem running code on 328p 16 Mhz

Dr.Tom so that board from cgs is directly compatible with that .hex alexmos has put on his site? Can you reverse engineer the board and draw a schematic

Here's my first run of alex's board

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUn-M5rJij0

To run alex hex you will need his special boot loader which i think is fuse bit so wont be able to dump alex bootloader from the arv.
Alex hex is probably encrypted with inscription keys embedded in the boot-loader,