UAV gimbals, just like sports cars, when customized to fit a particular case, offer unmatched comfort and endless satisfaction to the user. That’s why, customizing aerial gimbals is becoming more commonplace at HD Air Studio. We get a lot of questions about the process of customizing gimbals, so today we’ll try to get to the bottom.
What parts of UAV gimbals can be customized?
While there are no two identical projects of custom UAV gimbals at HD Air Studio, one element is common in all of them – freedom. Custom aerial gimbals give our clients absolute freedom of movement, no compromise. So, there are numerous gimbal parts and components that we actually customize to deliver this freedom and flexibility:
- Gimbal size. One thing is to make the gimbal fit perfectly to the sensor (this can be a gimbal for LIDAR, laser, industrial or thermal camera), so that you don’t have to adjust the gimbal manually. Also, we always optimize dimensions of the gimbal to its operational mode – creating a gimbal for a drone and creating a gimbal mounted to a machine, such as a robotic arm, are two completely different stories.
- Brushless motors installed on the gimbal. Whether the gimbal is to carry 2 kg or 20 kg, it’s crucial to choose brushless motors that will handle the payload. Direct drive is one of core elements in our gimbals.
- Sliprings used in UAV gimbals. Depending on the gimbal application, we use different sliprings in motors, combined into a clean wire routing. You want to control video and shutter signals? No problem.
- Designing a weather sealing compatible with a gimbal. A must-have, when you intend to use the gimbal in some harsh weather conditions. Water, dust or humidity are no good to such equipment ☺ So it’s worth to make customized sensor enclosure to protect it against hard weather conditions.Our enclosures are compliant with even IP65 ingress protection code (protection against low pressure water jets from any direction, as well as condensation and water spray), as defined by the international protection marking EN 60529.
- Gimbal mounting system. Both mounting the gimbal to the drone/machine and mounting the sensor to the gimbal need to be effortless – and this is what we achieve by developing by designing a tailor-made mounting system.
Is it possible to unleash extra software options in a drone gimbal?
HD Air Studio industrial UAV gimbals offer great camera stabilization plus they can be combined with powerful data processing software. Users of our gimbals communicate with the gimbal’s on-board computer, autopilot and perform commands defined by the gimbal operator or some automated tasks (e.g. to change settings, control gimbal, retrieve real-time data, execute various actions, etc.)
How long does it take to produce a customized UAV gimbal?
When introducing custom modifications to a camera stabilizers from our regular line of products, we’re able to customize them within 1-5 days. This can be, for example, a different size of a camera tray or modification of cabling – we know that these details can determine whether you like working with the gimbal or not.
When building a completely new gimbal from scratch, we’re able to complete the whole process within a 4-5 week timeframe, starting from the project analysis up to training a client how to use the gimbal to its full. After that, it’s possible to run a small-scale production of custom gimbals according to customer requirements.
So, what’s the recipe for a smooth gimbal development project?
I believe, it’s all about good communication – as simple as it sounds. Getting to the bottom of the project and defining the goals properly (and adjusting them, if necessary).
If you want to know, how it works in practice, have a look at one of our projects of custom gimbals here.