APM 2.6 Gimbal control through board.

[nilsen]

Hi Guys,

I have spent a lot of time trying to get the gimbal control to work via the APM2.6 and would like to share how I eventually got it working.

I was using the RC channel directly from the reciever to the gimbal but the APM should support the gimbal pitch/roll natively but in the documentation they always mention the Aux 9-12 channels however this is INCORRECT.

You have to attach your pitch or roll to the motor outputs!

So in the APM config screen for gimbal you select your input (aux 6 for example) and then your output is AUX7 or AUX8, these correspond to Motor out 7 or 8 on your APM. Obviously if you're running an octacopter then bad luck.

I hope this will help someone out there who is facing similar issues, I know a google search will allude that it is.

Cheers

 

[RichB]

It's been a while since I played with this but I am pretty sure that this is a configuration option. Somewhere in the menus I am pretty sure you can set this to AUX 9-12

 

[makattack]

So you're setting up the servo based gimbal control and not using an external gimbal controller?

 

[nilsen]

You can set the Aux 9-12 in the Gimbal settings but it doesn't work on the APM, it does however work on the Pixhawk.

The gimbal is a brushless one but you can externally control the tilt and roll using an RC input, the appeal of the controlling throught the APM itself is that you can you use the "Do Set Roi" and the gimbal will be tilted automatically up or down depending on the hight of the copter.

 

[RichB]

I had a servo-based camera tilter powered by the APM that did stabilization as well as programmatic aiming.

It was connected to AUX 9-11, but I seem to remember possibly modifying the source.

 

[tsaritepe]

Hello,
I want to mount and control a gimbal on my f450 with apm 2.6 for "Do Set Roi" but i could not make this clear to buy a gimbal.
Can i control any brushless gimbal with apm 2.6 or do i have to be aware of some specific requirements before buying one? İ would be glad if you can make that clear for me =)

 

[nilsen]

Hi,

The only thing you need is a gimbal which supports tilting and rolling via RC input such as a tarot or DYS or any "alexmos" control board.

Post which one you are considering and we can check if it will support it.

cheers