Secondary tethered controls for gimbal operator

[athertop]

Looking at a hex build with 3d gimbal. Given that frsky x8r can service 16 channels, I';d plan to use 8 in the flight controller over s.bus and some of the rx pwm outputs to connect the gimbal directly. In most cases I';d control the gimbal from the Taranis directly, but would like the ability to tether a remote set of controls to the Taranis for a camera/gimbal operator to use (he can then have the fpv monitor and operate the gimbal). Has anyone seen such a tethered controls setup/mod before. Idea is saving on a second tx/rx.

[Jumpy07]

You can bind two RX';s to the Taranis.. which is one way..  so one model would be single operator on two RX, and another could be dual operator with two different Taranis TX';s bound to each of the RX';s... 


Other was is in this link.. which allows to switch on the fly..


http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=10178.msg85226#msg85226

[athertop]

I know that goggles which track head movement can be used to control a gimbal through the trainer port on the tx, so by the same principle, it must be possible to build a secondary set of controls which can tether through the trainer port to allow 2 people to control flight and operate gimbal separately through one radio?

[athertop]

Guys, surprised no one mentioned the options available through the trainer port with 2nd Radio. Just figured out how the master/slave trainer functionality can be harnessed to configure a camera operator radio, plugged into the master using trainer cable. Keeps things really simple - one radio using Tx and one Rx in the craft. Some basic mixer configuration allows the master /slave configuration to work perfectly.

[Dek]

Exactly what I';m planning Atertop, hopefully I can use my old 9X as the camera controller through the Taranis. Any chance you can post your configuration once working?

[Calomile]

Personally I feel that two receivers is the way to go - the gimbal op will then theoretically have full 360 degree pan as there doesn';t have to be a wire passed from the main RX down to the gimbal controller.

[athertop]

Personally I feel that two receivers is the way to go - the gimbal op will then theoretically have full 360 degree pan as there doesn';t have to be a wire passed from the main RX down to the gimbal controller.

I will have 360Deg pan even with one Rx - not sure how this makes any difference. I have the X-Cam a10 3 axis gimbal which has limitless pan. The gimbal controller is mounted above the gimbal and cables are routed completely internal to the gimbal frame. Because the X-Cam is S-Bus on ch1-5, I feed out any 5 PWM channels from the X8R Rx into a sbus convertor (ch1-5), then into the gimbal. Using the mixer on the Taranis, you can set switches for the master radio (the Taranis) for all 5 channels if you want, then set secondary mixes for these same channels but this time the input is the TR1-5 inputs (configuring a switch position to activate that secondary function on each of those channels. Flicking that switch will move control to the TR inputs, so your second radio - in my case I am looking at a cheap X9 (same as you Dek)  with no module fitted for mucho cheapness! You set this radio up as a slave, connect the cable, setup the first 5 channels for the controls you want to use for the gimbal and hey presto! You may have to calibrate the trainer inputs on the Taranis - its one of the radio setup screens (Trainer screen) I beieve, so that the slave controls (on the 9X) give full -100 -> +100 range to the Taranis. Its all theory so far as I haven';t yet bought a 9X to try this.

[badmojo]

Guys, surprised no one mentioned the options available through the trainer port with 2nd Radio. Just figured out how the master/slave trainer functionality can be harnessed to configure a camera operator radio, plugged into the master using trainer cable. Keeps things really simple - one radio using Tx and one Rx in the craft. Some basic mixer configuration allows the master /slave configuration to work perfectly.

This is exactly what I want to do. Can';t find any good guide how to set this up though. Could you point me in the right direction och maybe write a short guide how to get this to work. My plan is to use 2 Taranis.

[Nige8021]

I';ve set my 550 clone up were if I';m flying solo, I can control just the pitch on the gimbal, but by flicking a switch on my Tx, the gimbal can be controlled by a second Tx & Rx to have control over the three gimbal modes, pitch & yaw control and to switch between the gimbal gopro (copy) and the fixed frame camera, The unit I';m using to switch between the two Rx outputs is this http://www.pyramidmodels.com/shop/product.php/1176/rcd3022_dual_redundant_double_receiver_backup_system

[athertop]

This is exactly what I want to do. Can';t find any good guide how to set this up though. Could you point me in the right direction och maybe write a short guide how to get this to work. My plan is to use 2 Taranis.

As soon as I get it working I will write a guide. The x-cam gimbal I bought failed after 2 weeks so is back with hobbyking.  I';m not the first person to have issues with this same gimbal model unfortunately. I just hope they honour the warranty.

Just for some quick info, I setup 5 channels for the gimbal and created 2 lines in the mixer for each channel. In the first line, if a certain switch is in the up position, then the channel is mapped to a control on the taranis, then in the second line, it takes over if the initial switch is in the mid position and has the TR1 input assigned to thus channel. The next mix uses TR2....and on etc. for 5 channels.
I';m using channels 10-14 for my gimbal, so in mode4 the X8R Rx has servo cables from ports 2-6 mapped to these channels. For my gimbal is sbus input only, so I have these 5 servo cables connected to a sbus converter and from there to the gimbal.

I haven';t been able to test this yet as I don';t have a second Tx at the moment.

[athertop]

I';ve set my 550 clone up were if I';m flying solo, I can control just the pitch on the gimbal, but by flicking a switch on my Tx, the gimbal can be controlled by a second Tx & Rx to have control over the three gimbal modes, pitch & yaw control and to switch between the gimbal gopro (copy) and the fixed frame camera, The unit I';m using to switch between the two Rx outputs is this http://www.pyramidmodels.com/shop/product.php/1176/rcd3022_dual_redundant_double_receiver_backup_system

Nige - I did originally plan to have a Rx multiplexer like you have, but I figured out I could do the same with a trainer cable and a second radio with no Tx module (I was thinking a cheap Turnigy x9r), so very cheap and simple solution with one Tx radio and one Rx on the craft - only bugbear is the linking cable, but I can live with this. I think if I built a larger camera platform though (say a Tarot X8), I would definitely go with the more advanced solution as you have.

[Nige8021]

The only reason I went for the second Tx/Rx & switcher unit setup was I';m using a Futaba T9ZAP with a frsky 2.4 module so I';m stuck with only 8 channels, 6 used for control, modes (APM 2.5) & retracts, so only 2 left, Gimbal pitch control & control of switcher unit

[james]

Out of convenience I went for a full second radio system; I had a DSMX Spektrum 4 kicking about so bought a cheap OrangeRX S.BUS RX and plopped it on the back of the gimbal. One wire into the controller, no fuss, no muss  and the gimbal op gets a completely isolated radio.