Today I’m writting about a nice add on for the “cheap” DJI Phantom quadrocopter, which allows for getting pretty stable Aerial footage with a GoPro 3.

I’m not going to write about the DJI Phantom in this blog, as I mainly want to keep it technical on how to configure a Tarot T-2D 2 axis brushless gimbal for Position Mode pitch control with a Naza Controller.

Be Aware!

Working on the electronics of your DJI Phantom, gimbal and every other part might leave you with a non working product.

The description bellow only describes on how I Setup These parts for my self. I will not be responsible if you mess up anyting or your Phantom falls from the sky ;0)

The T-2D also gots a Rate Mode, but this one is not as usefull to most People.

Rate Mode will not stop the pitch movement if you stop the controll unit on defined Position on your remote. So you will always have to return to the center Position of your control unit to stop it from moving. And turning it way back to get the camera back up. Stopping the movement again with Setting the controll to the Center Position. This might be usefull if you use stick, which will always return to Center Position if you release it.

But without fpv (remote camera control) you will never know what angle the camera is set to.

So this is why I prefer the Position Mode.

If i turn the button on the remote (channel 7) to a specifi Position the camera will always rest at the same angle.

This allows me to better control camera movement.

So how to configure the T-2D pitch control to get it work in Position control?

It’s not that hard at all!

You will need to get 3 wired Connections. You can use standard servo cables, or you can crimp your own ones.

This is for Firmware 1.1 and 1.2. It seems you can skip the cable C to F1 if you are using firmware 1.3 or greater.

I’m running 1.4 the way as described bellow without any problems. But I was just to lazy to remove that cable yet.

Jeremy Nichols was stuck in rate mode by using 3 wires and a firmware higher then 1.3.

So if you use one of the latest firmware releases then skip the C to F1 cable mentioned bellow.

If your gimbal is doing strange movement after upgrading to 1.4 you might need to recalibrate it.

Follow the steps in the manual or just watch the following Youtube clip 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0PU0osCE4o

  • C will need to go to F1 bottom (signal) (you can skip this cable if you just want Rate Mode or using a Tarot T-2D firmware higher then 1.3
  • T will need to go to F2 bottom (signal)
  • (-) will Need to go to a – (use the one in the Center row so you can use the other one to power your GoPro straight from the T-2D gimbal board)

tarot-T-2D-pitch-settings

Now you will also need to change some Settings in the Naza control Software. These Settings might need to be slightly different on your Setup, depending on how you set the Parameters in the ZYX-BMGC-EN V1.0.exe Software, which you will need to Change Parameters on the gimbal board.

I set the gimbal for a max of 90 degrees movement. So it will never turn up to the Rotors or backwards.

My Naza Settings are:

Servo Travel Limit

Pitch F2 Max 1000, Center 0, Min -1000

Roll F1, Max 50, Center 50, Min 0

Automatic Control Gain

Pitch F2, 0.00

Roll F1, 0.00

Manual Control Speed

Pitch X1, 10

When everything is setup like this, the gimbal should behave like in the Video bellow.

Tarot T-2D Pitch control in Position Mode using a Naza controler on a DJI Phantom from Riot Media on Vimeo.

So this is it.

Not much Magic at all.

Oh, and one more tip ^^

If you fix your Tarot T-2D Gimbal straight to the DJI Phantom housing, then the gimbal will hang slightly to low.

Instead of buying some different landing gears i just placed some cheap 5mm plastic nuts between the landing gear and the housing. If doing so you will also need some longer screws to screw the landing gear back on. M3, 10mm worked great for me.

DJI Phantom landing gear spacer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of days ago I shot a little test clip to see how the Tarot T-2D gimbal performs.

Please click like on Youtube if you enjoyed it ;o)

Zug – A aerial view on the medieval part of the beautiful Swiss town from Riot Media on Vimeo.

There are many more clips in my RIOT MEDIA Vimeo Account