Gimbal on RCExplorer style tricopter

[Niall762]

Hi everyone,
First time posting to the forum!

I plan on building an RCExplorer style tricopter this summer, I have made a quadcopter already in school but now I'd love to make my own multirotor. I have a brushless gimbal (the aluminium cnc ebay ones designed to fit phantoms) and have been struggling to think of ways to mount it onto the frame. I have some 1.6mm glass fibre sheet I'm going to use and have access to a CNC router at school. One idea I had was for the wooden back boom to go all the way through the centre plate and for it to stick out the front, so I could bolt the gimbal to it.

For the arms to fold however I would need to move the left and right booms further apart, otherwise the wood boom passing through the middle would get in the way when they folded.

Has anyone else managed to mount a brushless gimbal on their tricopter? If so how?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Niall

 

[ikem]

you could modify the tray to be kinda like my fortis brushless gimbal tray.

 

[Niall762]

Thanks for the reply, how is that mounted?

 

[Cyberdactyl]

I hang mine underneath.

I use four plates of 5/32" plywood. Not as heavy as that sounds. . .

The upper plate is about 1.5" wide and the length of the DW plate and attaches to the front two screws and two rear most screws with 3/8" holes drilled at all the locations of the other screws so as to not interfere.

I then stacked and wood glued two 1.5" x 1" plates to the bottom of the attached plate. This is to give the gimbals mounting screws clearance. I then glued a 2.25" x 2.25" plate to the bottom of the lower stacked plate. I then attached the gimbal to that. Then painted it all black.

The whole mount weights right at 30g. I can remove just the gimbal or both the mount and gimbal fairly quickly for low weight flying.

 

[Niall762]

That's a really good idea, can you do a photo with a bit more of the tricopter in shot so I can get a better idea of how it's mounted? Thanks!

EDIT: Just read through your post again looking at the plans and I now understand! I'll give that a shot, thanks!

Can I just ask though, how come you've still got the top plate of your gimbal even though it's not attached to anything?

 

[ikem]

Thanks for the reply, how is that mounted?

it is a tray that mounts under the frame. Kinda like Davids Camera Tray. This uses rubber tubing, you can see the tubing in the picture. The battery hangs off the tray.

 

[Niall762]

Thanks! I'll be sure to share what I've done when it's finished.

 

[Cyberdactyl]

Can I just ask though, how come you've still got the top plate of your gimbal even though it's not attached to anything?

Actually it's the bottom plate that is attached rigidly to the tricopter's frame mount. The top plate rests on the silicone bearings. In the photos above, you can see the metal standoffs passing thru the ridged bottom plate to attach to the floating top plate, which is attached to the gimbal.

[edit, here's a quick schematic]

 

[Niall762]

Very clever! Thanks so much for all your help! I hope to cut my fibreglass plates cut next week, had a couple of software issues today. I'll definitely go for a mounting system that's easy to remove to add more batteries or to make it lighter. What motors/prop/lipo combo do you use? What flight times are you getting?

Edit: As an Englishman, I have to say I am amazed by the helpfulness and generosity in helping me. Not something you come across often in this country!

 

[Cyberdactyl]

One thing I found somewhat quaint, was Bruce from 'rcmodelreviews', in his latest installment, describing a "new" method to dampen vibration that has been known for at LEAST 4 years in the multi-rotor community, and that is using the battery mass to further lower the vibration frequency on an isolated rigid mass the camera is rigidly affixed to. David W. uses the method exclusively in his tri builds.

His excitement about a "great anti-vibration idea" gave me a chuckle, and bit of concern for Bruce. . . in that he's supposedly on top of RC innovation.

 

[Tieman]

You can try to do it like me. I have a boom on the top and my gimbal is mounted in front (
instead of at the bottom )

 

[Niall762]

One thing I found somewhat quaint, was Bruce from 'rcmodelreviews', in his latest installment, describing a "new" method to dampen vibration that has been known for at LEAST 4 years in the multi-rotor community, and that is using the battery mass to further lower the vibration frequency on an isolated rigid mass the camera is rigidly affixed to. David W. uses the method exclusively in his tri builds.

His excitement about a "great anti-vibration idea" gave me a chuckle, and bit of concern for Bruce. . . in that he's supposedly on top of RC innovation.

Yeah he kind of annoys me! He's always very critical of everything. He does offer good tutorials though.

 

[Niall762]

You can try to do it like me. I have a boom on the top and my gimbal is mounted in front ( instead of from the bottom )

That's a clever idea, that's a V-Tail right?

 

[Tieman]

That's a clever idea, that's a V-Tail right?

Yes, but 2 weeks ago it was a Tri