Using 3rd Party gimbals on a Solo?

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Just ordered the Best Buy geek squad "refurbished" Solo. No gimbal supplied. Hope the software will work with my Samsung phone. It should arrive tomorrow.
I was wondering if I could put another gimbal on the solo. I have a cheap STorm 32 3 axis gimbal that I know I can hang below the solo, but is there any way I can control the gimbal tilt using the solo connections to the gimbal. The gimbal requires standard PWM, so is there a way to get a PWM signal to the gimbal? I have a degree in electrical engineering, and familiar with about every operating system out there.
By the way this is my first 3DR product but I own several other quads, Yuneec, Hubsan, DJI. I have searched the forum for any topic about tying a 3rd party gimbal to the solo and haven't found any info. The worse case is that I can hook up the gimbal and use it without any tilt with a cheap action cam with HDMI output. I see that as long as the camera has a HDMI out, it should work. I am wondering if some one out there has tried different gimbals with success.

Thanks in advance for help
Doug
W5DUG (ham radio call sign)
 
Just ordered the Best Buy geek squad "refurbished" Solo. No gimbal supplied. Hope the software will work with my Samsung phone. It should arrive tomorrow.
I was wondering if I could put another gimbal on the solo. I have a cheap STorm 32 3 axis gimbal that I know I can hang below the solo, but is there any way I can control the gimbal tilt using the solo connections to the gimbal. The gimbal requires standard PWM, so is there a way to get a PWM signal to the gimbal? I have a degree in electrical engineering, and familiar with about every operating system out there.
By the way this is my first 3DR product but I own several other quads, Yuneec, Hubsan, DJI. I have searched the forum for any topic about tying a 3rd party gimbal to the solo and haven't found any info. The worse case is that I can hook up the gimbal and use it without any tilt with a cheap action cam with HDMI output. I see that as long as the camera has a HDMI out, it should work. I am wondering if some one out there has tried different gimbals with success.

Thanks in advance for help
Doug
W5DUG (ham radio call sign)

Interesting, I was wondering about the Walkera G-2D brushless gimbal also? Some of the fellas on the X380 forum like them over the factory gimbal.
If you can get the signal wire located on the Solo you probably can get it to work. I got the factory gimbal and it's working great on my Solo and the
prices on Ebay are coming down on them. The gimbal is made for the GoPro camera but I'm not having any problems using a GitUp camera it just
has to be started for video recording and the Solo software doesn't control it so that's no problem.
 
Just ordered the Best Buy geek squad "refurbished" Solo. No gimbal supplied. Hope the software will work with my Samsung phone. It should arrive tomorrow.
I was wondering if I could put another gimbal on the solo. I have a cheap STorm 32 3 axis gimbal that I know I can hang below the solo, but is there any way I can control the gimbal tilt using the solo connections to the gimbal. The gimbal requires standard PWM, so is there a way to get a PWM signal to the gimbal? I have a degree in electrical engineering, and familiar with about every operating system out there.
By the way this is my first 3DR product but I own several other quads, Yuneec, Hubsan, DJI. I have searched the forum for any topic about tying a 3rd party gimbal to the solo and haven't found any info. The worse case is that I can hook up the gimbal and use it without any tilt with a cheap action cam with HDMI output. I see that as long as the camera has a HDMI out, it should work. I am wondering if some one out there has tried different gimbals with success.

Thanks in advance for help
Doug
W5DUG (ham radio call sign)
Please see the 'Solo gimbal and the code that runs it' thread.
 
Thanks for the info, but I searched the thread and still didn't find any useful info on integrating a 3rd party gimbal to the solo. Anyone out there that has a broken gimbal that they want to sell cheap contact me. I can reverse engineer it and maybe dissect the code to handle standard PWM commands. It's worth a try, I don't want to pay more than 40 bucks for a gimbal and looks like the ultra low prices on the 3dr gimbals are a thing of the past. I checked Ebay and it looks like the prices are in the 100 dollar range as of July 2017. I should have ordered one when they were 50 bucks or less.

Thanks,
W5DUG
 
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Thanks for the info, but I searched the thread and still didn't find any useful info on integrating a 3rd party gimbal to the solo. Anyone out there that has a broken gimbal that they want to sell cheap contact me. I can reverse engineer it and maybe dissect the code to handle standard PWM commands. It's worth a try, I don't want to pay more than 40 bucks for a gimbal and looks like the ultra low prices on the 3dr gimbals are a thing of the past. I checked Ebay and it looks like the prices are in the 100 dollar range as of July 2017. I should have ordered one when they were 50 bucks or less.

Thanks,
W5DUG
I managed to snag the Solo gimbal off of Ebay several weeks ago and it works great with the git1 and the tilt control does work good. I got the Solo
off of Ebay for $80.00 and it seems like it's well designed. The Walkera is a good one and is easy to setup but whether the tilt control cold be made
to work is a question. Stay away from the cheap aluminum ones! I had a serious crash using one on my X380. The X380-A gimbal never gave me
any problems but when I put the cheap aluminum one I had a crash with it.
 
The solo from Best Buy just showed up. Looks brand spanking new! I don't think it has ever been flown. Not bad for 178 bucks. I found out that my cheap ( Lightdow brand ) action cam with hdmi doesn't seem to work. As soon as I plug the hdmi cable into it the small display screen blacks out. I have yet to see if the video is being transmitted to a smart phone because my replacement samsung galaxy 8 is being shipped to me by Verizon.I found out that the phone I am using won't work with the apps, so new phone! Looks like the Git2 might be the best action camera to use. From reading some posts it seems to work with the solo hdmi cable. I will know more when I get the smart phone in and load up the 3DR app. It might just be blanking the screen when the hdmi cable is connected. Power light is still on and if I unplug the hdmi cable, video shows on the small screen on the camera. Might be normal. If I start a manual record it seem to record ok. \\I am going to wait till I get the phone and make sure the imu and compass is calibrated. Or maybe I will get brave and try a test flight without a phone. Any advise on whether I should wait or go ahead and try a flight?? Expert advise on line welcome!

Any one using a Lightdow camera? Any success?

I am very excited about the solo and can hardly wait to get it in the air!!

Thanks for all the help,
Doug
W5DUG
 
Just discovered the Lightdow does turn off the screen on the back of the camera when a hdmi cable is plugged in. but the biggest problem is when the hdmi plug is in, the camera refuses to record!The record button becomes non operational!
As soon as I pull the hdmi cable out, it will record. Go figure?? Perhaps there are other cheap action cams like the GIT2 that will record at the same time the hdmi output is in use. Any ideas??
Thanks,
Doug
W5DUG
 
Thanks for the info, but I searched the thread and still didn't find any useful info on integrating a 3rd party gimbal to the solo. Anyone out there that has a broken gimbal that they want to sell cheap contact me. I can reverse engineer it and maybe dissect the code to handle standard PWM commands. It's worth a try, I don't want to pay more than 40 bucks for a gimbal and looks like the ultra low prices on the 3dr gimbals are a thing of the past. I checked Ebay and it looks like the prices are in the 100 dollar range as of July 2017. I should have ordered one when they were 50 bucks or less.

Thanks,
W5DUG

there is a lot more than just PWM commands.....
but you could try to reverse engineer the code and share it with us, as solo gimbals will die out in the near future and we definetely need a replacement for them.
 
I just bought a new gimbal for 124.00 on ebay. To answer the question on why not just get a go pro, I don't want to spend the money that a real Go Pro costs! I would rather have a less than 100.00 4K camera platform that performs as well or better than a Go Pro. And I enjoy reverse engineering devices that are no longer manufactured. To bad 3DR is not building the solo anymore. Looks like a decent quad. I will keep posting info as I tear down the gimbal.
 
I just bought a new gimbal for 124.00 on ebay. To answer the question on why not just get a go pro, I don't want to spend the money that a real Go Pro costs! I would rather have a less than 100.00 4K camera platform that performs as well or better than a Go Pro. And I enjoy reverse engineering devices that are no longer manufactured. To bad 3DR is not building the solo anymore. Looks like a decent quad. I will keep posting info as I tear down the gimbal.
If it helps you, it's already been torn down, with pictures, in a thread on these forums.
 
View attachment 6639
Just ordered the Best Buy geek squad "refurbished" Solo. No gimbal supplied. Hope the software will work with my Samsung phone. It should arrive tomorrow.
I was wondering if I could put another gimbal on the solo. I have a cheap STorm 32 3 axis gimbal that I know I can hang below the solo, but is there any way I can control the gimbal tilt using the solo connections to the gimbal. The gimbal requires standard PWM, so is there a way to get a PWM signal to the gimbal? I have a degree in electrical engineering, and familiar with about every operating system out there.
By the way this is my first 3DR product but I own several other quads, Yuneec, Hubsan, DJI. I have searched the forum for any topic about tying a 3rd party gimbal to the solo and haven't found any info. The worse case is that I can hook up the gimbal and use it without any tilt with a cheap action cam with HDMI output. I see that as long as the camera has a HDMI out, it should work. I am wondering if some one out there has tried different gimbals with success.

Thanks in advance for help
Doug
W5DUG (ham radio call sign)

This is what I did to get my SONY AS100V on the solo, Its a googluck/sell ebay 3d gimbal with a storm32 controller, here is the link to pinouts, Extend 3DR Solo Accessory Bay - Hackster.io

***Note*** its easier to pull the battery tray and solder connections right from the top of the mainboard as its also numbered and very easy to get to and run wires straight to the gimbal bay.

You can control the tilt of your gimbal, with either the mavlink or PWM signals I could not get a hearbeat for the mavlink to work on this gimbal, so I opted for the PWM **NOTE the smart shots will not tilt automaticallyIMG_20170125_152607.jpg
 
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I just bought a new gimbal for 124.00 on ebay. To answer the question on why not just get a go pro, I don't want to spend the money that a real Go Pro costs! I would rather have a less than 100.00 4K camera platform that performs as well or better than a Go Pro. And I enjoy reverse engineering devices that are no longer manufactured. To bad 3DR is not building the solo anymore. Looks like a decent quad. I will keep posting info as I tear down the gimbal.

There is a way to get GoPro w/out the "GoPro price" I just got a used GoPro+3black edition on eBay for around $120.00 and it came in mint condition.

I agree tho, it is too bad they don't make the solo anymore, wish they would reboot it's production, seems crazy not to imo, great quad.
 
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In agreement here, The fisheye lense on the GoPro is what I don't like along with the overpriced accessories. The camera is also pretty heavy
and I've had to add quite a bit of weight to get the gimbal balanced for the GitUp camera. I've been watching the prices on Ebay and the prices
for the GoPro Hero 4 are still out of reason since GoPro is probably phasing the older models out for newer ones. I've seen some of the videos
where the fellas were using the GoPro 4k knockoff cameras on the Solo with the Solo gimbal and the videos were good. A real good Sony
camera would be a good setup.
 
There is a way to get GoPro w/out the "GoPro price" I just got a used GoPro+3black edition on eBay for around $120.00 and it came in mint condition.

I agree tho, it is too bad they don't make the solo anymore, wish they would reboot it's production, seems crazy not to imo, great quad.

When it comes to the Gimbal -- cheap Chinese is going to run you $60 - $80, I'd go for the 3DR gimbal. I've flown with non-gopro cameras on the 3DR gimbal and they do work but you've got to watch what camera you buy. I've tried the Git2 - sent it back. I have coming a Eken V8S that uses an Ambarella chipset (same as gopro) and dues true 4k the size and the ports, and is only a few bucks more than the Git 2 which only does 2.7k. The Eken also has a remote that comes with it that I hope to mod so that it can be triggered using Solex's servo commands, thus giving you some of the control back that you lose by not using a gopro. I just think the Eken is a better deal then the Git2.

For a camera other than gopro, what you want to buy is a camera that has ports in the same general position as the Gopro -- And facing the right direction. Most of the Gorpo knockoffs have the HDMI port either in the wrong spot or upside down and you wont get the HDMI cable connected to the Solo gimbal. Right now the cameras that seem to work are the Eken 8 series cameras, Firefly 6s, 7s (but not the new 8s).
 
Also... I am wondering what the video would look like using the Stock hard mount for a camera on the 3DR solo using a camera with stabilization.... You still don't have smartshots but you'd still might get some nice looking photos.
 
When it comes to the Gimbal -- cheap Chinese is going to run you $60 - $80, I'd go for the 3DR gimbal. I've flown with non-gopro cameras on the 3DR gimbal and they do work but you've got to watch what camera you buy. I've tried the Git2 - sent it back. I have coming a Eken V8S that uses an Ambarella chipset (same as gopro) and dues true 4k the size and the ports, and is only a few bucks more than the Git 2 which only does 2.7k. The Eken also has a remote that comes with it that I hope to mod so that it can be triggered using Solex's servo commands, thus giving you some of the control back that you lose by not using a gopro. I just think the Eken is a better deal then the Git2.

For a camera other than gopro, what you want to buy is a camera that has ports in the same general position as the Gopro -- And facing the right direction. Most of the Gorpo knockoffs have the HDMI port either in the wrong spot or upside down and you wont get the HDMI cable connected to the Solo gimbal. Right now the cameras that seem to work are the Eken 8 series cameras, Firefly 6s, 7s (but not the new 8s).

Dont understand, why does it work on Eken , i got Eken 9, and it does not work.For the firefly the new 8 s has a Ambarella processor ,same as Gopro and it does not work, anyone has any explanation ?. The chip on the firefly 6s and 7s is Novatek 96660. confusing .
 
Yeah my camera arrived after I wrote that and I was VERY displeased that it couldn't record and do hdmi at the same time. It seems Eken spent more money on boxing and fancy packaging than they did on the firmware. Even if the hdmi did work the firmware is still a disappointment, as you can see what Gopro, and other companies can do with an Ambarella chip, it's like selling a car with a Hemi V8, but with a 2 speed powerflite transmission. I told Eken if it can't do HDMI that was a deal breaker and they could refund my money. Which they did.
 
I've since taken up buying Gopro cameras off of EBay. I have three cameras on my desk right now that work great in the Solo. Check out the Facebook 3DR UAV/UAS Buy Swap and Sell, I have a Gopro silver up there for $150.
 

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