Tarot T2-D 3rd Axis Conversion... **UPDATED - NEW MOUNTING METHOD**

[PaulJC]

Well i had grand ideas for converting my Tarot 2D gimbal with a 3rd Axis as originally posted here...

I had already purchased an AlexMos board with the thought that this may happen at a later date and also an RCTimer Gimbal Motor...

So i spend some time doing a few measurements (some of them badly but more on that later) and knocked up some 3D drawings so i could have them printed off...





I sent the STL files off to Phil at www.Makeitbuildit.co.uk who printed them off for me and sent them over...



Perfect, just what i had ordered, also the first things i';ve ever had 3D printed so a little bit proud lol  As is the nature of melted plastic i cleaned up some of the holes ready to accept screws etc then got to seeing if it would go together as planned...

So first of all i tried attaching the boss to the motor, 3 out of 4 screws went straight in, the 4th, being the one at the bottom of the hole in the center of the square boss refused, this is no fault of the part just the way 3D printing works, expecting to retain a fairly small diameter column in a tall (compared to diameter) ratio is asking a bit much, i could have cleaned/drilled it out but with the 3 screw fitted elsewhere it was already a very tight and stable fit so i left the 4th one out, i';ll update the STL to remove that hole all together... Apart from that it fitted quite nicely :)



So the plan for this part was to fit through the standard mounting bracket and attach to the rubber isolated plate without having to make any modifications to the original tarot parts, only this is where i made my first screw up and either measured wrong or added ';more meat'; round the screw holes while drawing up because it looked a bit thin, bugger...



No biggie though, razor saw to the rescue and the part fitted in quite nicely, again needed to clean the holes up for the screw to go in but that';s completely expected :) So here you can see the new 3rd axis motor attached to the bracket/boss passing through the mounting plate and attached to the rubber isolated plate, sweet :)



So, the next step is to get the Gimbal arm attached to the bottom of the motor and this is where the disc comes in... This attached to the Gimbal arm with 2 counterbored cap head screws...



And then at 90 degree to those were another 2 holes to allow attachment to the motor...



And here it is all together :) It has added 40mm to the original gimbal height so if you';re short of ground clearance it probably won';t do you any favours, or you can look at it the other way and see that you could now mount it further back without getting any props in your video



I';ve then fired up SimpleBGC GUI software for my AlexMos board, turned on the 3rd Axis motor and ran autotune on it, and here is the end result :)

http://youtu.be/s00D-We5cX8

It';ll need some further tuning, and i may change the way the motor fits to the tarot bracket or modify the original bracket and lose a bit of height but it';s been a fun and useful little project :)

I may even buy a couple more of these motors and continue on designing a nice small lightweight 3 axis gimbal that actually allows filters to be mounted to the lens and also access to the GoPro USB port as those 2 things drive me nuts... lol



The motor cost me $11.94 (Approx £7.80) from HERE
The AlexMos 32Bit 3 Axis Controller Board with 2nd IMU cost $120.99 (Approx £79.22) from HERE
And the 3d Printed parts i got printed by Phil at www.Makeitbuildit.Co.uk for a very reasonable price :)

[Rommie]

hey paul if you have the .stl any chance of pinching em lol I have the exact same gimbal and would love to make it 3 axis too, I can always print off any .stl if you amend as a payment of sorts.

that';s if that';s cool anyhow

[PaulJC]

hey paul if you have the .stl any chance of pinching em lol I have the exact same gimbal and would love to make it 3 axis too, I can always print off any .stl if you amend as a payment of sorts.

that';s if that';s cool anyhow

Yeah no problems at all, i';ll amend them soon

[Rommie]

Sweet ta buddy, tempted to get the 2608-70t motor with the slipring for continuos 360 rotation or get the same motor and wait till they do a slipring for that hmmm decisions decisions lol, thanks again buds

[PaulJC]

Sweet ta buddy, tempted to get the 2608-70t motor with the slipring for continuos 360 rotation or get the same motor and wait till they do a slipring for that hmmm decisions decisions lol, thanks again buds

Well when you decide let me know and i';ll adjust the design accordingly for you lol

[Rommie]

hey paul,

gonna go with the same motor as you as I have seen there going to make a slipring for it too so the files you have will be sweet buddy

thanks

[PaulJC]

Well, as much as i loved my little 3D mount, on my copter it reduced the ground clearance just a bit too much so i decided to take the plunge and mod the original mount 

Obviously a bit nervous that if i screwed it up i';d have no mount at all but luckily it worked out pretty well and once i get it back together will have given me some ground clearance back :)

So i had a quick eyeball and decide if it was going to work that this was roughly the best place for it to go, so i drilled 3 holes and made a recess to clear the center bearing of the motor... You can just see some small white spacers between the motor and frame, these were needed or the screws went in to the motor too far...


And here it is all fitted up from the other side...


Now i needed to make clearance in the lower plate for the motor, both of these plastic mounting parts are very rigid and the removal of material doesn';t seem to have had a obvious affected on their strength at all...


And here is the bracket back together ready for re-assembly...