Help! Trying to make my tiny brain understand any of this

Projects Programming
1

Hi,

So from the title you may have gathered that I'm not a programming genius. Quite the opposite in fact!

However, I REALLY want to figure this out, so I'm not planning to give up. Here's where I'm at...

I have an RC transmitter called a Turnigy 9xr that I am trying to use to control a DJI Ronin gimbal. The receiver for the Turnigy 9xr connects to the DJI Ronin via an sbus port. I am using the pots to control each axis of the gimbal. The more I turn the pot, the faster the gimbal moves (in any direction). This is normal...

However, what I'm trying to do is to get the gimbal to act more like a servo. So when I turn the pot 90 degrees to the left, the gimbal turns 90 degrees to the left and stops. When I turn the other pot 20 to the right, the gimbal tilts 20 degrees down and stops. Basically, I want to get the gimbal to track the pot.

The problem is that the gimbal doesn't give any feedback, so getting this 100% accurate isn't going to be possible. That's not too much of a problem, as long as it isn't miles out and drifting loads.

So after looking around I'm thinking that we need to use a Rotary Encoder and output a PPM signal to the trainer port on the Turnigy 9xr. But I have no idea where to start.

If anyone could point me in the right direction for a starting point, that would be fantastic!!!

Thanks, Bob

2

I am not clear where the rotary encoder will be placed. Can you please explain in more detail ? Where does the trainer port of the Tx come into it ?

3

Hi UKHeliBob!

The rotary encoder will be hooked up to the Arduino and then programmed to output a PPM signal that would be sent to the trainer port. I am a full on newbie (if you couldn't tell already), so I'm not even sure that this would be the best way to go about it...