DSLR Brushless Gimbal

With the booming market for brushless gimbals, I attempted to create my own.

I had an idea for a camera stabilizer back in 2013 as a Sophomore High-school project. I followed the RC community for a while and during this time the only camera stabilizers were still servo controlled. Suddenly, around mid-2013, Alexmos came out with one of the first hobby-level brushless controllers. This controller allowed brushless motors to substitute servos and brought a new level of smooth balancing that even geared servos could not bring (servos have a set # of positions that creates a limited pan/sweep). I made sure to pre-order this new controller and held on to it until more custom winded motors became easier to find.

List of Materials

(From Hobbyking)

1. 30x 25mm Boom Clamps
2. 3x 500mm Carbon Tubes
3. 2x 2.5mm 300x100 Carbon Fiber Sheets (Not needed if 3D printing)
4. 2x 5208 Brushless motors
5. 1x Brushless Gimbal Controller
6. 1x 2200mAh 3s Lipo battery

Other

1. 1x Tarot Full pitch arms
2. 1x 5mm bearing shaft
3. 5x 5x9x3mm flange bearings
4. 3.2mm drill bit
5. 40x M2.5 Press nuts
6. Heatshrink Combo pack

7. GOOD RESPIRATOR MASK! (CARBON FIBER DUST IS DANGEROUS)

Optional

1. CNC or 3D printer or Dremel
   1. These tools can be substituted with a good file, saw, patience!

After this new technology became more developed I decided to begin the design phase. I began cading the initial designs using Solidworks, which I had to learn as I designed, and came up with these base plates. I did not know how to use assembly back then, so unfortunately I don’t have a final render of the gimbal.

These parts are optimized for 2.5mm cuts of carbon fiber plates.

After I finished the CAD plates, I then converted that into gCode using SheetCam. From there I put it into the CNC and cut out the pieces from a 2.5mm carbon fiber plate (make sure to wear the appropriate mask filter when cutting carbon fiber!). I had to make 3 passes through the plate due to a weak spindle. These multiple passes ended up creating frayed edges which I sanded off using the rough metal edges of the CNC and a high grit sandpaper.

The parts do not have to be cut using a CNC. They can also be cut out using a dremel or even a good jeweler's saw. Simply print out the sldworks file, glue to the CF plate, and carefully cut it using a dremel or saw. I cut these boom clamp joints in about a minute with no sanding or cleaning up.

Caution: the CF's high abrasiveness will dull most tools VERY quickly.

For all the plates I made sure to redrill the hole with the 3.2mm bit. This created an accurate sized hole and cleaned up any frayed edges. For the sides I used a cheap sanding drum to get rid of the frayed edges.

From then, I added the press-nuts to the plates to get rid of any loose nuts. When adding the press-nuts to the larger plates, I drilled a larger hole about 1/3 deep first to prevent the carbon fiber from cracking. I didn’t have any lever presses so I used a vise to force the press-nuts into the plate.

After the plates, I cut the booms to size using the dremel’s abrasive disk. I ended up with 8 separate pieces (2x 5.5in, 4in, 6.5in, 8.5in, 9.5in, 18in).

For the pitch part of the gimbal, I needed to create a pin to hold the second side of the pitch arm. What I ended up doing is replacing the shaft of the gimbal motor with a new modified version. I used a shaft that was the same diameter as the brushless motor’s shaft and added a wider tube on its end for the pitch support arm.

For the pitch motor I needed to replace the motor shaft with a longer one. So I loosened the bolt on the side of the motor and then used a hammer to push the old motor shaft out. From then I took out the eClip and disassembled the motor. I did the same process as making the pin from the previous gallery and recreated another shaft that was longer that the original. From there I reassembled the motor and I was finished with the general fabrication.

I started the assembly with the 2 handles. The handles use 5.5in booms and the U-shaped plates.

The next piece I started assembling was the monitor holder. It has a standard hole for most monitor mounts and should easily be strong enough to fit most <7″ monitors.

Continuing from there I assembled the center piece plate. It connects the actual gimbal with the handle portion. The boom it connects to is the 18in and the 6.5 in.

This assembly is with the boom connectors that utilizes the 4in boom, 9.5in, and 5in.

This is the 2nd half of the pitch arm. It uses the pin/shaft made earlier and connects to the 5in boom.

This is the other half of the pitch arm. It uses one of the brushless motors with the extended shaft and connects to the 4in boom.

This part goes on the center pitch boom (8.5in) and holds the camera. Hopefully I can replace this with a quick release mount later.

This is the final piece and hold the roll motor. It connects to the roll boom (9.5in) and is the most complicated part of the gimbal. Hopefully I can replace this with a roll mount that is not limited to a 120deg roll movement.

This is Alexmos 2-Axis controller board. I attached it to a small plate of aluminum which I glued a velcro strap too. The smaller circuit on the right goes on the camera and contains the gyros. The thickest wires soldered on the board are the power inputs (connects to the lipo) and the very thin twisted red and black wire is attached to a simple momentary button allowing it to turn on and off.

Congrats now you now how to make a dslr 2-axis camera gimbal that would usually costs thousands to buy! I would love to see your own creations or interpretations, maybe even a 3D printed one. One day I'll update this with a 3-axis mod.

This was an older picture with a standard monitor vs an HD one.