STorM32 Gimbal Controller

The STorM32-BGC is a relatively low-cost 3-axis brushless gimbal controller that can communicate with ArduPilot (Copter, Plane and Rover) using MAVLink or a proprietary serial protocol.

  • SToRM32 gimbals with I2C setups and firmware v0.96 should use the SToRM32 Serial driver

  • SToRM32 NT gimbals running firmware above v0.96 should use the SToRM32 MAVLink driver

Where to buy

Please refer to the STorM32-BGC wiki pages for more detailed information including where the gimbals can be purchased.

Warning

Some v1.3x boards has been found to cause significant RF interference on the 433mhz and 915mhz band. Use with caution, if you are using either 433/915mhz control or telemetry.

Connecting the gimbal to the autopilot

../_images/pixhawk_SToRM32_connections.jpg

Connect one of the autopilot’s serial port’s TX, RX and GND pins to the gimbal’s UART port as shown above. The autopilot’s serial port’s VCC, RTS and CTS pins should not be connected

Setup if using SToRM32 Serial protocol

To use the serial protocol use all the same settings as above except:

  • When Configuring the Gimbal controller set the “MAVLink configuration” parameter to “no heartbeat”

  • SERIAL2_PROTOCOL = 8 (SToRM32 Gimbal Serial). If another serial port is connected to the gimbal replace “2” with the serial port number

  • MNT1_TYPE = 5 (SToRM32 Serial)

Control and Testing

See Gimbal / Mount Controls for details on how to control the gimbal using RC, GCS or Auto mode mission commands

Resistor issue on some boards

Some in-depth analysis here on rcgroups turned up that some STorM32 boards need resistor #4 (shown in pic below) shorted (i.e. a wire soldered over the top of the resistor to turn it into a regular wire) in order for the gimbal controllers messages to get through to the Pixhawk.

../_images/Gimbal_SToRM32_resistorFix.jpg