3rd Party Gimbal

Jay Halligan · Oct 13, 2017

FLIR is releasing a new thermal imaging camera called the FLIR Duo Pro R but I can not find anything online that says if this will work with the 3DR solo. What specs do I need to consider if buying a gimbal that would compatible with the Solo?

mike_kelly · Oct 13, 2017

It is not really a matter of specs. It has to be designed to work with Solo. Mavlink gimbal control and a weight that is close to the original gimbal.

Lon Denard · Oct 14, 2017

This may be a stupid question but do you really need a gimbal for a thermal camera? Honest question.

mike_kelly · Oct 14, 2017

The purpose of the gimbal is to allow the vibrations of aircraft movement to not affect your images. Even tho the flir camera has lower resolution you still want to have clearly delineated zones. If you are taking video. Still images don't require the same care as video in a gimbal.

Lon Denard · Oct 14, 2017

mike_kelly said:
The purpose of the gimbal is to allow the vibrations of aircraft movement to not affect your images. Even tho the flir camera has lower resolution you still want to have clearly delineated zones. If you are taking video. Still images don't require the same care as video in a gimbal.

Thank you. I was honestly interested. I figured the vibration isolators were the same whether you had a gimbal or not so I didn't figure that into my thought process.

Thanks again.

mike_kelly · Oct 14, 2017

You still have vibration but a high shutter speed will stop action in a still image. Video is much more difficult because subtle changes in movement are easy to notice in video. But if your concern is counting sheep it probably does not matter if the recorded video is bouncing around.

Lon Denard · Oct 14, 2017

mike_kelly said:
You still have vibration but a high shutter speed will stop action in a still image. Video is much more difficult because subtle changes in movement are easy to notice in video. But if your concern is counting sheep it probably does not matter if the recorded video is bouncing around.

Fair enough! I really didn't think of it that way. I've used FLIR systems in the military but I would have never described the image as "clear" so I didn't understand why some vibes would matter. Now with your explanation, I totally see your point. Thanks again.

mike_kelly · Oct 15, 2017

Ya in that use they are only concerned to see if something is there or not there. But if you are using flir to map a crop you may need better clarity to see which parts of the field are sick, how sick and which are not. Then not having blurred edges due to camera bounce is valuable.

Maybe a better example is a house/roof survey looking for heat leaks. You want to be able to identify the seams that are leaking heat.

Jay Halligan · Oct 17, 2017

This is a link to yandaonline that shows the gimbal for the camera in question. I have also attached a link to the FLIR Duo Pro R camera link. If anyone has experience with either company I would like to know if I could get this to work on a solo. If anyone has any guides, that would be a bonus!

Gimbal
Sky Eye-Duo Pro 3-Axis Drone Gimbal For FLIR Duo Pro R Thermal Camera

Camera
FLIR Duo™ Pro R| FLIR Systems

Lon Denard · Oct 17, 2017

I was wondering what was wrong with this set up? I remember seeing it last year after I purchased my Solo. Too bad it won't work with the Duo/Duo R cameras.

Made for Solo | 3DR SOLO Gimbal for the FLIR VUE Series

mike_kelly · Oct 18, 2017

Jay Halligan said:
This is a link to yandaonline that shows the gimbal for the camera in question. I have also attached a link to the FLIR Duo Pro R camera link. If anyone has experience with either company I would like to know if I could get this to work on a solo. If anyone has any guides, that would be a bonus!

Gimbal
Sky Eye-Duo Pro 3-Axis Drone Gimbal For FLIR Duo Pro R Thermal Camera

Camera
FLIR Duo™ Pro R| FLIR Systems

Unfortunately it would not be a plug and play situation. The Solo has a moulded curved belly so the Solo Gimbal has a matching plate that fits the curve. Commerical general purpose gimbals will be flat and it is up to the user to adapt them to a multirotor. You can engineer a mount for the Solo with maybe 3D printed parts. People have done it but there is a lot of hacking involved.

Next Solo owners enjoy a level of control of the Camera and the Gimbal that is not common in the industry. It is partitally due to the IMX6 Linux computer on board which most multirotors do not have. The Solo gimbal was designed around the Gopro but the Gopro is very light at under 100grams. The payload for a multirotor is a critical characteristic and increasing the payload will lower flight time or be too heavy to even lift.

The gimbal has to be able to use the control mechanism that Solo uses. Most gimbals are controlled by PWM signals from the flight controller. Some use s.bus, CANBus and serial connections to send tilt, roll and pan commands. The Solo uses a serial connection and MAvlink commands.

So you see this is a task that requires DIY skills unless the gimbal is specifically designed to be used with Solo.

Lon Denard · Oct 18, 2017

mike_kelly said:
Unfortunately it would not be a plug and play situation. The Solo has a moulded curved belly so the Solo Gimbal has a matching plate that fits the curve. Commerical general purpose gimbals will be flat and it is up to the user to adapt them to a multirotor. You can engineer a mount for the Solo with maybe 3D printed parts. People have done it but there is a lot of hacking involved.

Next Solo owners enjoy a level of control of the Camera and the Gimbal that is not common in the industry. It is partitally due to the IMX6 Linux computer on board which most multirotors do not have. The Solo gimbal was designed around the Gopro but the Gopro is very light at under 100grams. The payload for a multirotor is a critical characteristic and increasing the payload will lower flight time or be too heavy to even lift.

The gimbal has to be able to use the control mechanism that Solo uses. Most gimbals are controlled by PWM signals from the flight controller. Some use s.bus, CANBus and serial connections to send tilt, roll and pan commands. The Solo uses a serial connection and MAvlink commands.

So you see this is a task that requires DIY skills unless the gimbal is specifically designed to be used with Solo.

Ahem, so why won't the rig that I posted work? They claim to have full control of the system if you purchase the gimbal and camera from them, they'll do the modification for you.

mike_kelly · Oct 18, 2017

Where exactly does the ad for the gimbal say it will work with a 3DR Solo? It says it can be controlled with PWM from an RC controller, which is not the Solo controller.

>> Sorry I was looking at the second link. Yes the one you posted is designed specific for the Solo. I have no idea if the product is a good one and actually does what it claims.

Lon Denard · Oct 18, 2017

mike_kelly said:
Where exactly does the ad for the gimbal say it will work with a 3DR Solo? It says it can be controlled with PWM from an RC controller, which is not the Solo controller.

>> Sorry I was looking at the second link. Yes the one you posted is designed specific for the Solo. I have no idea if the product is a good one and actually does what it claims.

It won't work with the Duo though. These guys have a good reputation and they are American based fwiw.