2 Axis Joystick controller for DJI Ronin Gimbal

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi,

Im very new to building, programming and prototyping projects. I work in the film industry and have purchased the DJI Ronin Gimbal system a while back. I have recently seen that a few people have developed a 2 Axis Joystick to control the gimbal. I wanna challenge myself to see if I can figure out and build something like this, its not a matter of buying the product for the sake of ease.

The DJI Ronin has a D.Bus/PPM 3 pin connection.

Link to what I am trying to accomplish:

I have purchased the adafruit 2 axis joystick and have figured out how to program it to get a serial print out of what the two axis's are doing.

My questions are:

  1. How would I go about connecting my 2 axis joystick to my Arduino Uno and then sending a signal to my DJI Ronin to move the gimbal.

  2. What other hardware or software would I need.

Any help would be grateful.

2

Have you a link to the datasheet that describes the connection and the communication protocol ?

...R

3

Thanks for your reply.

I can not find any information or data sheets for the Gimbal, I am assuming that its the gimbals data sheet info your asking for.

4

If it's like other gimbals I have, then PPM is just acting like a radio-control servo. They expect it's mounted on a RC vehicle with spare servo outputs. The Arduino can simulate this output nicely. Just use any of the servo libraries, hook it up and see if it responds.

5

Thanks, I shall try and figure out how to use the servo library to send signals to the gimbal.

6

Hey Shane - did you get this working?