Hi Im trying to figure out the best place to attach the lipo battery to power the Radiants and the video transmitter I thought of the bottom of the gimbal could be a good easy to reach and change palce is this a good idea? I have seen that others attach the lipo to one of the landing legs, what do you guys think
In that position, it's going to be the first thing that hits the ground -- not a good thing for a LiPo to do. Here's my setup: I put the QC 1200 Lipo on the right hand side forward boom to counterbalance the weight of the tilt Radian/servo, and pulley. Underneath the Lipo, on the top surface of the side boom there is some adhesive backed foam. On the underside of the side boom there is a patch of loop Velcro, so that the Velcro strap attaches to the underside of the boom (and doesn't drop off when you change the LiPo). The Velcro also wraps around and connects to itself and a patch of Velcro on the top surface of the LiPo. You can also see behind the LiPo a 3S LiPo monitor that has a blue LED (it was flashing when I took this image which is why it happens to be off), and a beeper that beeps when the LiPo gets to minimum voltage. THe Lipo voltage monitor is Velcro'd on to the boom clamp. The 3S Lipo monitor/alarm is from dpcav.com. Oh...I do have the 200 mm side booms on as I fly a 5D Mk III too. That's why there's an excess of boom stick backwards out of the clamp. Hope this helps. Andy.
I have a different setup that might be of interest.... I use a small Turnigy 1.300mAh (Corrected Andy ) 3S for both Gimbal Receiver, Radian and Video down link (not the best setup I' know, but it's working well so far) I've installed it on the boom that had noting on it to counter balance the Pan servo. I always do my best to keep everything mounted out of the gimbal roll and tilt. My thinking is: more weight = power for the servo to move it. So if you install something on the Tilt bar, you will increase the current on the, Pan, Roll and Tilt system, if you install on the Roll bar, you will increase on the Pan and Roll only.... so if you install on the Pan bar.... Yes I'm crazy about efficiency every mAh spent you can eliminate is more flying time, in this case this mean a smaller and lighter battery for the gimbal. That little circuit on the center of the Pan is my Radian, it's one of the beta units.
Thanks Arthur it makes sense I saw a quadrocopter video and they put the gimbal lipo on the one of the legs
I think the real message is that one can put the gimbal lipo anywhere we like as long as the gimbal is balanced. Arthur: Are you really using a "1.3mAH" Lipo. I guess it will not last for long! (Did you mean 1.3 AH? <evil grin>) Andy..
My battery placement. In the upper arm is the BEC and the power leads go out the back of the arm to the yaw radian. In the lower tube is a power board for fpv transmitter and the fpv transmitter itself. ( The free-floating connector is my "switch" for the fpv power.) Joe Azzarelli
I mount my battery on a carbon fiber plate that spans the two forward landing leg booms. Just forward of the pan pulley wheel. Seems to help balance the whole rig and does not add unnecessary weight/inertia to the stabilized parts of the gimbal.
I can see why you'd want to reduce the weight of stabilized mass in motion! Interesting "copter" too.... Thanks Andy.
Are most folks using a separate battery to power their Radians, etc.? Is this idea to isolate the camera bits from the thrusting bits for reliability? Redundancy? The Radians don't suck up much power from what I can tell, right? I have lots of LiPo batteries, but it seems that managing multiple batteries (and connectors, etc) is a bit of a PITA.
Steve: Most of folks using 3-Axis gimbals use a second battery as a necessity as there's obviously no way of feeding a cable from the spinny bit on top to the other spinny bit on the bottom.... But even I were to use just a 2-Axis, then, you're right -- the philosophy is hang the minimum stuff on the flight battery because if any of the extra stuff shorts out, the bird promptly switches from from flight mode to plummet mode. This is generally agreed amongst the multi-rotor crowd to be a Very Bad Thing. Andy.
hi guys i have a 3 axis and i dont know how to power it up.i mean i dont know where to connect battry?can u help me?please!
I bought this set up from allied drones, It works great and keeps all the clutter off of my gimbal tubes. Also comes with two other mounting plates for transmitters and receivers and what ever else you may mount to your rig. http://www.allieddrones.com/collections/accessory-plates/products/cinestar-gimbal-up-armor-kit
Ebad: It looks like you may not have got an answer to your question. Did you? If not, I'll be happy to try and answer it, but I'll need a little more information. Can you tell me what you have on your 3-Axis gimbal? For example: are you just trying to power the RC receiver and the Radians and servos....or do you have an FPV video downlink and payload camera control? Andy.
Hi Jose, We use a 1300mah on our 3axis. I have it strapped across the centre of the hub between the 2 front legs (does not mess with the balance for us here. This powers the whole system. Video TX and Radians etc. I have also placed an on/off switch that fits neatly inside one of the leg booms, this splits into a y-connector inside the boom. One split maintains the full voltage of the lipo the other to a BEC that throttles it to 5v. The switch is great for easily powering the system on and off between take offs and the birds lipo changes. Deans connectors are my least favorite for disconnecting ... They always seem to fight the cause ...
Jeez....you guys down in the Southern Hemisphere. How do you work with your copters on the ceiling? The other place you can put the LiPo is on the side boom opposite the tilt servo/Radian or brushless motor -- that way the LiPo will counterbalance the weight of the servo/Radian or brushless motor. Andy.