Solo Grande..A DIY Build from Solo..

[Jubalr]

But the arms are angled up?

Yes. Adds stability, like dihedral in an aircraft wings. Not good if you want to burn holes in the sky and aerobatics, but great for stability.

 

[pyrate]

I'm already looking at my next build. I think I am going to do a big hex next with those low kv motors.
Love the sound of that thing

 

[wsalopek]

Nope. No gimbal control in smart shots. Have to control tilt manually. Still waiting for that code to be cracked.

I guess this is a dumb question, but why cant a person use the gimbal controller board from the Solo's gimbal, place that board in whatever larger gimbal, and just run the gimbal motor wires from the gimbal controller to the motors on the larger gimbal?

--

Bill

 

[Jubalr]

I guess this is a dumb question, but why cant a person use the gimbal controller board from the Solo's gimbal, place that board in whatever larger gimbal, and just run the gimbal motor wires from the gimbal controller to the motors on the larger gimbal?

--

Bill

it was the first thing we tried. But without the ability to adjust certain parameters in the controller, it would't drive the motors.

 

[pyrate]

I'm honestly surprised no one has just built the gimbal support into ardu or ardu companion computers to do what the solo gimbal does.
it is clear 3dr cant or wont release the gimbal code. but target slewing with brushless motors is not new. telescope makers have been doing it for years

 

[Jubalr]

I'm honestly surprised no one has just built the gimbal support into ardu or ardu companion computers to do what the solo gimbal does.
it is clear 3dr cant or wont release the gimbal code. but target slewing with brushless motors is not new. telescope makers have been doing it for years

Me too. But it is obviously more involved than that, and does require the computer. I know that if it was easy it would already had been duplicated. Not only on Ardu but competing platforms as well.

 

[pyrate]

it cant be any harder than some of the other things those guys are tackling

 

[wsalopek]

it was the first thing we tried. But without the ability to adjust certain parameters in the controller, it would't drive the motors.

Hmmm...

So is it the size of the motors? They wouldn't move at all?

Any guesses as to what the actual issue is? And I wonder if a smaller motor would work? (If that's even the problem.)

I'd be happy for starters to be able to fly an RX100/similar...the gimbal for that size camera, and the motors, would be smaller than for the GH4. And further...if a gimbal is perfectly balanced (or very close), wouldn't even the small Solo gimbal motors work well enough?

Thanks...

--

Bill

 

[Jubalr]

Hmmm...

So is it the size of the motors? They wouldn't move at all?

Any guesses as to what the actual issue is? And I wonder if a smaller motor would work? (If that's even the problem.)

I'd be happy for starters to be able to fly an RX100/similar...the gimbal for that size camera, and the motors, would be smaller than for the GH4. And further...if a gimbal is perfectly balanced (or very close), wouldn't even the small Solo gimbal motors work well enough?

Thanks...

--

Bill

There is a lot involved and some very smart people trying to get Smart shots with larger gimbals, and a reason no one has been able to do it. In addition, the solo gimbal has encoders on the shafts of the roll and pan with their own hardwired PCBs. And those encoders will not accommodate larger shafts without a lot of work. I wish someone would come up with a solution, but as of yet no one has.

 

[pater]

I'm looking at doing this myself in the very near future. I had a crash on a beach with my Solo and the motors are trashed. Just bought a new one and have the electronics from the old one. I just have a few questions about your build process with the board.

1) How did you get the board to handle the total of 48 volts? Did you use a step-down? If you did that, then did you lose battery info on the transmitter? Yes, voltage is stepped down and no longer do we have voltage read on the Tx. We use a voltage monitor on one of the batteries.
2) How did you end up controlling the new escs with the original board? Just using the 2 Esc wires needed for Esc. You can see them in the pic.
3) What did you use to mount the board on the new frame? Did you have to modify the board in any way for the new frame? 3D printed a box for it to sit in, stuck to the frame with good 2 sided foam tape.
4) Do you think it would be possible to build this as an X8 by splicing the signal wires for the escs and motors on the same arm? Someone else mentioned it should be possible, but I wonder if there would be sufficient yaw control.
Thank you for publishing this to us, it's great to see the Solo can be used for so much more!

@Jubalr could you share your 3D printed box for mainboard please ?

 

[Mountain Flyer]

Love this idea. I'm going to use the guts from one of these Ebay drones that worked fine with a factory reset and re seating the sd card on a tarrot Ironman 650. It won't be as large and will use the solo gimbal with a gopro but I might finally be able to get close to half an hour of flight with the right motor, prop, battery combo. It looks good in ecalc but I am still waiting on the slow boat from China to deliver the Ironman frame. I am curious how you are arming it for flight. Did you trick the battery minder or are you arming with MP?

 

[XevetS]

Love this idea. I'm going to use the guts from one of these Ebay drones that worked fine with a factory reset and re seating the sd card on a tarrot Ironman 650. It won't be as large and will use the solo gimbal with a gopro but I might finally be able to get close to half an hour of flight with the right motor, prop, battery combo. It looks good in ecalc but I am still waiting on the slow boat from China to deliver the Ironman frame. I am curious how you are arming it for flight. Did you trick the battery minder or are you arming with MP?

I just did that myself you can arm the same way you arm the stock solo, no tricking involved...

Running Solo on Master

 

[Jubalr]

Update on Solo Grande: Rebuilt the frame using 25mm tubes instead of the 30s. We flew the first Smart Shot with it today while carrying a Sony a6300 camera. Still having issues with the Smart Shot controlling the gimbal, so this is using free look option and using the throttle stick for pan & tilt of the camera while Solo does the flying. Have to fine tune the gimbal speeds. A little jerky still.

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[Ed Beck]

Looks awesome. Good job and I like hearing about your progress.

 

[RichWest]

Looks awesome. Good job and I like hearing about your progress.

I agree. If there was only one reason to release the gimbal code, there it is.

Curious Jubal, why the change to 25mm arms?

 

[Jubalr]

I agree. If there was only one reason to release the gimbal code, there it is.

Curious Jubal, why the change to 25mm arms?

30 was just to big and was overkill. Wanted to lighten it up a bit too.

 

[xman4242]

How is it going?

 

[Jubalr]

It's going great. Flying with the a6300 and great control of the camera thanks to Solex. We can power the camera, zoom start/stop recording and take pictures while flying with Solex.

 

[xman4242]

I wonder if it could be ridden....[emoji3]

 

[skyhax]

Great job! Is there any chance of doing this on a Y6 frame?