Hey everyone. This has been a semi-secret project in the works for a couple months now. It's a long read, so skip to the end if you just want to see the finished product.
Some of you may know of my DIY 2-axis gimbal builds that I have done using wood and acrylic in the past. Well, back in December I became the proud owner of a 3D printer which opened a huge door for me. At the same time, I was building a TBS Discovery platform for AP use and had the desire for a 3-axis gimbal. Buying an entire 3-axis gimbal was out of my budget, but I did have three gimbal motors available from my earlier builds. At the same time, three axis gimbal controllers had finally come down to a price I could afford.
I searched around the internet for 3D printable 3-axis gimbal designs, but to my dismay I didn’t find anything I liked. There were few gimbal designs out there to start with. Most of them were just 2-axis and clunky and heavy looking. So I decided to design a 3D printable 3-axis gimbal myself. A challenge for sure, but it gave me the power to design a gimbal I liked, with the characteristics I wanted.
Goals:
Here are the goals I set for the gimbal design:
-Lightweight
-Fully adjustable to balance pitch, roll, and yaw
-Compact
-Easily removed from airframe
-Ability to mount on a handle for handheld use
-Vibration isolated
-Easy to mount/remove camera
-Xiaomi Yi/GoPro compatible
-3D Printer friendly
-Minimum cost
-Professional and attractive design
For starting points in the design I took a look at some well performing and attractive gimbal designs that are commercially available. Gimbals like the FeiyuTech mini 3D and SteadyGim3. Gimbals like these utilize a minimal amount of material to hold the camera and are only as wide as the pitch motor and camera side by side. They are very minimalistic, yet perform well. Taking these characteristics as inspiration, I designed all the parts in CAD and printed the very first prototype.
When designing, there is only so much you can predict before actually making the product. One of the things I could not easily determine (I’m sure there is some way), is the balance point of all three axis. The balance point determines the necessary arm length and if known can reduce the overall size of the gimbal. So the first parts I printed where rough designs of the pitch, roll, and yaw assemblies. That is why the arms are extra long at the adjustment points. I then balanced the gimbal on each axis and updated the design from there. It also served to determine if any bolt holes were out of alignment or needed to be enlarged.
V2 of the design started with adjusting part lengths and positioning in CAD then printing the entire updated gimbal. With this prototype, all the parts could be tested together and reprinted individually to fine tune the design. Over time this gimbal became V3, the current version. It utilizes a rail system to easily add and remove the gimbal and controller from the airframe. All the printed parts are printer friendly and do not require supports. The gimbal is easily assembled and balanced, and weighs less than most commercial action cam gimbals.
Version 3 is composed of 23 printed parts, all of which will be available on Thingiverse. It is designed specifically to mount a Xiaomi Yi on a TBS Discovery (see my build log), so as a result the roll is not full range. I will however upload longer versions of the yaw arm and a mounting bracket to suit GoPros to Thingiverse as well to support those who want full range of movement and use GoPros. I cannot guarantee full GoPro compatibility though, unless I somehow get one in my hands.
Technical Specs:
Parts: 23 Printed
Hardware: 4 x M1 Bolt and Nut, 6 x M2 Bolt, 6 x M3 Bolt
Motors: 1 x Turnigy 2804-210kv, 2 x Turnigy 2206-140kv
Controller: Micro Storm32 (unfortunately I do not recommend this model due to it's limited functionality and difficulty to flash, but it works for this project).
Weight: 233g with camera, 157g without
Video:
Thingiverse page. If you are using slightly different components and need a tweak to the design let me know! I can make a adjustments and send the files your way.
If you’d like to support me and more projects like these, consider subscribing to my youtube channel, or following me on Instagram, facebook, or twitter. I’d love to get feedback and suggestions for future mods and projects.
-Sam
Some of you may know of my DIY 2-axis gimbal builds that I have done using wood and acrylic in the past. Well, back in December I became the proud owner of a 3D printer which opened a huge door for me. At the same time, I was building a TBS Discovery platform for AP use and had the desire for a 3-axis gimbal. Buying an entire 3-axis gimbal was out of my budget, but I did have three gimbal motors available from my earlier builds. At the same time, three axis gimbal controllers had finally come down to a price I could afford.
I searched around the internet for 3D printable 3-axis gimbal designs, but to my dismay I didn’t find anything I liked. There were few gimbal designs out there to start with. Most of them were just 2-axis and clunky and heavy looking. So I decided to design a 3D printable 3-axis gimbal myself. A challenge for sure, but it gave me the power to design a gimbal I liked, with the characteristics I wanted.
Goals:
Here are the goals I set for the gimbal design:
-Lightweight
-Fully adjustable to balance pitch, roll, and yaw
-Compact
-Easily removed from airframe
-Ability to mount on a handle for handheld use
-Vibration isolated
-Easy to mount/remove camera
-Xiaomi Yi/GoPro compatible
-3D Printer friendly
-Minimum cost
-Professional and attractive design
For starting points in the design I took a look at some well performing and attractive gimbal designs that are commercially available. Gimbals like the FeiyuTech mini 3D and SteadyGim3. Gimbals like these utilize a minimal amount of material to hold the camera and are only as wide as the pitch motor and camera side by side. They are very minimalistic, yet perform well. Taking these characteristics as inspiration, I designed all the parts in CAD and printed the very first prototype.
When designing, there is only so much you can predict before actually making the product. One of the things I could not easily determine (I’m sure there is some way), is the balance point of all three axis. The balance point determines the necessary arm length and if known can reduce the overall size of the gimbal. So the first parts I printed where rough designs of the pitch, roll, and yaw assemblies. That is why the arms are extra long at the adjustment points. I then balanced the gimbal on each axis and updated the design from there. It also served to determine if any bolt holes were out of alignment or needed to be enlarged.
V2 of the design started with adjusting part lengths and positioning in CAD then printing the entire updated gimbal. With this prototype, all the parts could be tested together and reprinted individually to fine tune the design. Over time this gimbal became V3, the current version. It utilizes a rail system to easily add and remove the gimbal and controller from the airframe. All the printed parts are printer friendly and do not require supports. The gimbal is easily assembled and balanced, and weighs less than most commercial action cam gimbals.
Version 3 is composed of 23 printed parts, all of which will be available on Thingiverse. It is designed specifically to mount a Xiaomi Yi on a TBS Discovery (see my build log), so as a result the roll is not full range. I will however upload longer versions of the yaw arm and a mounting bracket to suit GoPros to Thingiverse as well to support those who want full range of movement and use GoPros. I cannot guarantee full GoPro compatibility though, unless I somehow get one in my hands.
Technical Specs:
Parts: 23 Printed
Hardware: 4 x M1 Bolt and Nut, 6 x M2 Bolt, 6 x M3 Bolt
Motors: 1 x Turnigy 2804-210kv, 2 x Turnigy 2206-140kv
Controller: Micro Storm32 (unfortunately I do not recommend this model due to it's limited functionality and difficulty to flash, but it works for this project).
Weight: 233g with camera, 157g without
Video:
Thingiverse page. If you are using slightly different components and need a tweak to the design let me know! I can make a adjustments and send the files your way.
If you’d like to support me and more projects like these, consider subscribing to my youtube channel, or following me on Instagram, facebook, or twitter. I’d love to get feedback and suggestions for future mods and projects.
-Sam
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