Tarot T4-3D on Solo

mihamil · May 7, 2018

Has anybody tried or heard of anyone using a Tarot T4-3D gimbal on the Solo?

After a slight mishap *cough* crash *cough* my 3DR gimbal seems to have suffered slight but irritating damage. I am looking to replace it with a 3rd party gimbal and wanted to get an idea if this could work.

I am a software developer with a fairly high technical skill, but very new to the drone world and would rather not waste money if this gimbal has already been ruled out by the experts.

IrishmanPDX · May 7, 2018

Pretty sure if you search the boards you'll find out a lot of info about using alternative gimbals. Although thinking the board may need two new area's created. 1 for Gimbal development, 1 for Battery development. Too often posts pop up and then disappear, although maybe there's more co-ordination happening elsewhere. Either way, hope you find out some useful info!

mihamil · May 7, 2018

I did search and found threads of people using the GoodLuckBuy 3 axis and Tarot T-2d, both seemed to have successful turnouts. I would like to stick to a 3 axis Gimbal which led me to the Tarot I mentioned and I assume the process of getting the T4-3D to work with tilt on the paddle will be similar. I think I will go for it. Best case, we have another good working option that has been done and tested, worst case, I'll keep the gimbal and build a copter to hold it (much to my wife's dismay)

XevetS · May 7, 2018

mihamil said:
I did search and found threads of people using the GoodLuckBuy 3 axis and Tarot T-2d, both seemed to have successful turnouts. I would like to stick to a 3 axis Gimbal which led me to the Tarot I mentioned and I assume the process of getting the T4-3D to work with tilt on the paddle will be similar. I think I will go for it. Best case, we have another good working option that has been done and tested, worst case, I'll keep the gimbal and build a copter to hold it (much to my wife's dismay)

The Goodluckbuy Storm32 based Gimbals are 3D . They have UART/Mavlink the TAROT does not.. although the TAROT is a nice Gimbal and will work..Just use PWM signal for tilt, Its normally set for sbus so you'll have to change that to function... If you search I have a how to with pics to accomplish this...

mihamil · May 7, 2018

XevetS said:
The Goodluckbuy Storm32 based Gimbals are 3D . They have UART/Mavlink the TAROT does not.. although the TAROT is a nice Gimbal and will work..Just use PWM signal for tilt, Its normally set for sbus so you'll have to change that to function... If you search I have a how to with pics to accomplish this...

Thank you for the input. I searched around today and may end up going with the GoodLuckBuy storm32 gimbal. It looks like you can get them on eBay shipped from a US location. I couldn't find many options on where to get a Tarot shipped form the US and I don't really want to wait forever to get it.

XevetS · May 8, 2018

mihamil said:
Thank you for the input. I searched around today and may end up going with the GoodLuckBuy storm32 gimbal. It looks like you can get them on eBay shipped from a US location. I couldn't find many options on where to get a Tarot shipped form the US and I don't really want to wait forever to get it.

The Storm32 is a great gimbal I've had mine for a while now and it works as intended, There are plenty of threads on install and setup is straight forward. I modded mine to work with my sony action cam...

wsalopek · May 12, 2018

But not including smart shots, correct?

Thanks.

XevetS said:
The Storm32 is a great gimbal I've had mine for a while now and it works as intended, There are plenty of threads on install and setup is straight forward. I modded mine to work with my sony action cam...View attachment 8684

XevetS · May 12, 2018

wsalopek said:
But not including smart shots, correct?

Thanks.

Smart shots work although you need to manually tilt the Gimbal, I personally do not use smart-shots, I needed tilt only and used the PWM signal, But you could connect the gimbal right to the Data cable on the Solo and it will work with Mavlink,....according to certain individuals see this>> Gimbal wire diagram for aftermarket gimbal

but no-body has ever confirmed nor denied Smart-shots actually do work..

wsalopek · May 12, 2018

OK...I see...that's actually not too too bad...manually tilting the gimbal...after all, that's all the pilot would be left having to do since the Solo is doing everything else...nice to know there's a decent option for when all the gimbals are gone, or too expensive.

denmol81 · May 13, 2018

Check this link an the discussion below it

XevetS · May 13, 2018

denmol81 said:
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Check this link an the discussion below it

That's a 2D gimbal the OP is asking about a 3D gimbal, this video does not show how to do the install and the instructions are vague. Also there is no HDMI cable hooked up to view via FPV? There is no need to step down voltage with the newer Gimbals they have power regulators built in but the older tarot gimbals need clean 12 volts so a BEC or voltage regulator is needed. I helped @DromoCR get his 2D Tarot installed he was quite happy you can see my destructions here >>>
Tarot 650 sport/3DRSolo build flies with Arducopter master...

mihamil · May 21, 2018

XevetS said:
The Storm32 is a great gimbal I've had mine for a while now and it works as intended, There are plenty of threads on install and setup is straight forward. I modded mine to work with my sony action cam...

I've bought the GoodLuckBuy 3 axis gimbal from eBay and am working on mouting and wiring it. I'm a bit confused about how to wire it up to the solo. I know the main power points and have found information about which points on the solo main board I need to use, but cannot figure out where to connect them on the Storm32 controller. Do you think you can point me in the right direction?

XevetS · May 21, 2018

If you want smart shots you will need to go with Mavlink here is a write-up, from @awp0

Gimbal wire diagram for aftermarket gimbal

otherwise you can go the simple route and go with PWM which will still do Smart-shots but you will have to manually tilt the gimbal with the paddle..

Here are the pinouts on the Storm32

The colors on the gimbal data cable are green wire "TX" to the "RX" on the storm32 UART and white wire "RX" to the "TX" on the storm32 UART, and the brown wire goes to the Ground on the storm32 UART. Red wire is power and the black wire is the negative or ground, (this is as per @awp0 )

BigTulsa · May 21, 2018

I had that same gimbal for a while on my DIY hex. I now have this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Tarot-TL3T01-Update-Photography-Brushless/dp/B01E6WE954

mihamil · Jun 16, 2018

I'm back. After a few weeks of working too much, I finally have a new gimbal on my Solo. I ended up going with the GoodLuckBuy Storm32 gimbal on ebay. I am having a slight problem. It is more likely me not knowing how to adjust this.

The gimbal I received starts with the pitch motor to the left side of the drone. This makes it difficult to connect the HDMI cable to the camera since it must go between the motor and the camera. I noticed yours is to the right side of the drone, I cannot seem to get the roll motor start position to be different.

I've tried the "Configure Gimbal Tool" which looks like it sets the start positions, but I cannot get past what seems to be step 1. When I start it, it says to level the gimbal within 15 degrees, which works. I press continue. Then it says to tilt (pitch) down 45 degrees. The continue button is greyed out. I've held it in this position for the 2 minute timeout several times and it just aborts after two minutes. Any ideas on how to get the gimbal flipped over?

mihamil · Jun 16, 2018

Nevermind. Finally figured it out. For any that search and end up here. To flip the Roll Axis, I needed to adjust the IMU orientation before running the configuration tool. After Adjusting to 0 degrees in my case, the tool reconfigured it to 90 (it started at 270). After that the tool went through everything else and worked perfect.

antani871 · Jul 14, 2018

mihamil said:
Has anybody tried or heard of anyone using a Tarot T4-3D gimbal on the Solo?

After a slight mishap *cough* crash *cough* my 3DR gimbal seems to have suffered slight but irritating damage. I am looking to replace it with a 3rd party gimbal and wanted to get an idea if this could work.

I am a software developer with a fairly high technical skill, but very new to the drone world and would rather not waste money if this gimbal has already been ruled out by the experts.