Josh Medlin

My Setup and Gear

The head tracker doesn’t add much to the overall system once it’s set up and working, I use the same carrying cases and bag. Your gear doesn’t need to match this to use a head tracking gimbal, the only thing you need is to verify that your transmitter supports a trainer function via an auxiliaryContinue reading “My Setup and Gear”

Servo vs. Brushless Gimbal

The intention is to try both. I have started with an assumption that servos will provide the best general-purpose support among other advantages, but the DJI FPV drone uses a brushless gimbal for camera pitch so my concerns may be invalid, regardless of that here are my initial thoughts on it. General Application A concernContinue reading “Servo vs. Brushless Gimbal”

Finding the Right Servo in the Wrong Places

In my early testing I did a lot of tests with a lot of expensive RC servos (consider supporting Medlin Drone), only to find that each new servo had the same twitchy movement of the last, even the programmable servos tuned to maximum dampening vibrated the camera when moving. But then I tried the LDX-218,Continue reading “Finding the Right Servo in the Wrong Places”

New Capabilities of FPV Drones with Head Tracking Gimbals

FPV drones have been limited in the types of footage they can capture, unable to replicate what standard cinematography drones can create. The addition of a gimbal on a FPV drone allows it to seamlessly transition from dynamic “proximity” flying into more traditional (non-FPV) drone shots, and vice versa, as well as a whole newContinue reading “New Capabilities of FPV Drones with Head Tracking Gimbals”

Early Designs

After some early testing I started to make some changes to the gimbal designs Andy Shin had made, reinforcing the hinge and even experimenting with designs that intentionally added friction to the hinge in addition to a sprung servo linkage in an attempt to stop the servo jitters from making it to the camera. IContinue reading “Early Designs”

Early Testing

Initial testing was more for the viability of a head tracking gimbal on a FPV drone than anything else, I had the idea several months back and after finishing some work on my home it was time to give it a shot and see if it would be flyable. For initial testing I used theContinue reading “Early Testing”

Head Tracking FPV Gimbals for Multirotors

This sub-system significantly augments the flight dynamics and filming capabilities of a FPV drone and allows it to seamlessly transition from dynamic “proximity” flying into more traditional (non-FPV) drone shots, and vice versa, as well as a whole new set of maneuvers. FPV pilots have gotten very good at flying and filming within the constraintsContinue reading “Head Tracking FPV Gimbals for Multirotors”