Hoverfly HFGimbal and Photoship One 3XPro

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bhockenstein

Member
(sorry for the double post here and in the settings thread, just thought i'd start my own thread to keep things simple and help for future searchers)

Ok, so who here has the HFG and PhotoshipOne 3XPro setup going?

I just got my HFG and need some help setting it up.

A few questions I have are:

Does the HFG need to have it's own power supply or can it get power from the main system (I have a cablecam system, not a multi)?

What settings do I need to change from default?

The first time I plugged it in, nothing happened other than the roll axis trying to roll all the way over, ie. it just went forever in one direction.. any tips there?

Thanks so much in advance, I look forward to getting this going!

BH
 

DucktileMedia

DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
As long as it gets the correct voltage you can use the same battery. Most that have a separate hfg are using it on 360 gimbals so a separate battery is required. I forget the voltage requirement on the hfg but you could always run multiple BEC's if you needed to.
 

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bhockenstein

Member
Thanks for the reply!

It says the HFG can take anything up to 16v so you're saying it's ok to let it take it's power from/through the wires to/from the receiver? At that point it's only 6v anyways due to the way the ESC with built in BEC is set up.
 

S11D336B

S11D336B

George - Hoverfly
The HFG feeds the voltage directly from it's power port to the servos. So, if you have servos that can only use 6v you shouldn't feed the HFG more than 6v.
bhockenstein said:
Thanks for the reply!

It says the HFG can take anything up to 16v so you're saying it's ok to let it take it's power from/through the wires to/from the receiver? At that point it's only 6v anyways due to the way the ESC with built in BEC is set up.
Click to expand...
 

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bhockenstein

Member
Again, thanks for the reply, but perhaps I was not clear as that's not what I was asking.

I am asking if the HFG can operate without anything being plugged into its power supply, rather it would get its power from the receiver (which gets power from the ESC/BEC)
 

S11D336B

S11D336B

George - Hoverfly
If you hooked up the receiver power to the HFG, this could work. Just plug a servo connector into one of your RX channels and the other end into the HFG. Just disconnect the signal wire from the receiver.

bhockenstein said:
Again, thanks for the reply, but perhaps I was not clear as that's not what I was asking.

I am asking if the HFG can operate without anything being plugged into its power supply, rather it would get its power from the receiver (which gets power from the ESC/BEC)
Click to expand...
 

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bhockenstein

Member
that makes sense....

what if nothing is plugged into the power port of the HFG at all? will it get power through the other connections like a receiver?
 


avmedia123

avmedia123

Member
Just wondering if anyone that is using the Photoship One 3xPro and Hoverfly Gimbal can post a picture or two of their setup. Trying to get mine set up but was wondering if anyone had some good mounting ideas? Haven't been able to find any photos of PS1 3xPro gimbals and the Hoverfly Gimbal. Thanks!
 

S11D336B

S11D336B

George - Hoverfly
We have one in the office, but I have been on holiday all week. I will try to remember to get it setup / take some pictures when I get back. It's really pretty cool!

avmedia123 said:
Just wondering if anyone that is using the Photoship One 3xPro and Hoverfly Gimbal can post a picture or two of their setup. Trying to get mine set up but was wondering if anyone had some good mounting ideas? Haven't been able to find any photos of PS1 3xPro gimbals and the Hoverfly Gimbal. Thanks!
Click to expand...
 

avmedia123

avmedia123

Member
S11D336B said:
We have one in the office, but I have been on holiday all week. I will try to remember to get it setup / take some pictures when I get back. It's really pretty cool!
Click to expand...

Hi George, any luck setting up the Hoverfly Gimbal on the 3xPro V2? Can't wait to see some picture how others have done it before I start modifying my mount to make it fit. Thanks for any help/pointers!
 

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chopper

Member
PS1 HF Gimbal setup in progress

Getting the wiring nice and neat is a bit of work I find. Because i mounted the gimbal on the bottom of the tray (as far as I know thats the best way to mount HF Gimbal to 3X pro as per the manual), all wires must find their way there. This makes it challenging to keep it clean as the wires need to go quite some distance but also flex with the movement in a way that does not obstruct the movements, but also doesn't look like a school project.

I must say, having the hollow shaft in the pan came in very handy as I decided to put the battery and esc at the top so as to remove as much load (dead weight) from the rest of the moving gimbal axis as possible. It also allows you to power everything below without being affected by pan rotation/tangling issues. I have one set of 6v cables for the servos and HF Gimbal, and a second set at 11 volts for the video tx all going through the pan shaft.

I did some basic setup testing last week prior to the wire clean up, and it seemed to work quite well. I have not yet had a chance to mount it to my heli for an official test, but it was already an improvement over my previous gimbal setup (3x pro using much slower servos and gyro designed to level a plane), and I had good results with that.
 


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chopper

Member
chopper said:
Getting the wiring nice and neat is a bit of work I find. Because i mounted the gimbal on the bottom of the tray (as far as I know thats the best way to mount HF Gimbal to 3X pro as per the manual), all wires must find their way there. This makes it challenging to keep it clean as the wires need to go quite some distance but also flex with the movement in a way that does not obstruct the movements, but also doesn't look like a school project.

I must say, having the hollow shaft in the pan came in very handy as I decided to put the battery and esc at the top so as to remove as much load (dead weight) from the rest of the moving gimbal axis as possible. It also allows you to power everything below without being affected by pan rotation/tangling issues. I have one set of 6v cables for the servos and HF Gimbal, and a second set at 11 volts for the video tx all going through the pan shaft.

I did some basic setup testing last week prior to the wire clean up, and it seemed to work quite well. I have not yet had a chance to mount it to my heli for an official test, but it was already an improvement over my previous gimbal setup (3x pro using much slower servos and gyro designed to level a plane), and I had good results with that.
Click to expand...


Here are some pics. The servo wires make use of the frame and roll/unroll like a gantry-style cable setup. I've included pics with the roll fully extended both ways. I also made a simple carbon plate to cover the HFP gimbal, and put a transparent bulb just above the LED so it can shine through. That little piece of blue velcro tape is where the video TX will go. Its power supply is just above where the tape is. Note, I have not hooked up all the servo wires to the HFG in these pics, only the roll is actually attached in the pics, the others are just waiting to be put on the pins. Also I have not added the receiver, but it will sit next to the HFP gimbal board. For now the gimbal stabilizes on the roll and pitch without any receiver input.
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chopper

Member
I spent a good deal of time just staring at it and figuring out how best to rout the wires. The limit of rotation was my first concern, and the reason why i chose to rout the power from the top, through the pan shaft.
As it sits, the main concern is on the pitch. If your camera was to go all the way around, you might run into issue. I don't plan to run my camera past 90 degrees on the pitch, however i left enough wire that in the event it did go all the way around, there would be no damage. beyond this, all other areas are cleanly moving through their entire range of motion, and I can pan 360, 720, 1080 without concern.
 
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chopper

Member
Benjamin Rowland said:
Chopper, that is a very clean install. Are you concerned about limiting where you can put the camera screw?
Click to expand...

Thanks Benjamin.
I use a Canon T2i at the moment, and its mounting location (screw location) is below the HF gimbal board (below the LED as per the images posted earlier). As for other cameras that may come along the way in time, I am actually working on a floating platform that will sit on top of the existing platform, which will allow for faster attachment and removal of various cameras. It will also be vibration isolated from the gimbal pitch platform to remove any last vibes (we'll see how it goes :p).
 

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