How do you power your Zenmuse?

[PCMAerial]

Took the plunge from a DIY gimbal and bought a Zenmuse h3-3d. Love the build, but I'm almost stuck on the ease of use after building my own.

Running Naza v2 on a 550 copter. 3300mAh 4s LiPo. My last gimbal required 3s power source. So I'm wondering how do you guys power up your Zenmuse? I don't want to blow a motor here on my new piece of simplicity. I've got the naza IMU, and a GCU for the gimbal. Ready to wire things up and wanted to check with this forum before I make a move. I'm really hoping to have this gimbal functioning before Monday. Not sure if I have all the correct cables or wires, but I've heard people setting up and flying in less than an hour straight from the box. Am I overthinking this?? Lol. Thanks everyone!

 

[PCMAerial]

This is the wiring diagram on the Zenmuse manual. I see it has the PMU/GCU on the same power source. Does this mean the entire gimbal is powered through the same 4s battery as my motors/esc/etc?

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

Yes, it is.

 

[PCMAerial]

Yes, it is.

So is this my only option for powering the unit? Seems like it will drain my flight times. I guess I need bigger LiPo's now!!

Attempting to get it all connected now, just really couldn't risk blowing this gimbal in a current time crunch for AP work. Looks like we'll see what happens. I have the PMU connected to the GCU now. And I don't see any connections to my receiver so I'm assuming it's on the right track

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

You can leave the zen plugged in for hours and it will hardly drain your lipos.

Stop worrying and have fun! :nevreness:

 

[PCMAerial]

You can leave the zen plugged in for hours and it will hardly drain your lipos.

Stop worrying and have fun! :nevreness:

Well that's great to hear. Sadly after I ordered JST plugs with expedited shipping lol. But your info really saved my day. Now I'm at a bump in the road. Noticed I don't see any mounting dock connector on my zen to connect to the gopro? Seems like every other one I see has this installed

You'd think after building a few CF AlexMos gimbals something like this Zen would be a breeze but I'm a noob to some of this information sorry.

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

It should be there. Check the packaging again.

 

[PCMAerial]

It should be there. Check the packaging again.

Just my luck. I'm scouring the packaging and I don't see that piece anywhere. I'm about to contact the seller but not even sure what that component is called. Here are the only other pieces in the package. Of course when it's something I need to work my Monday

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

There's always one of those twisty things or a rubber band. Even a paper clip would do.

Think Macgyver!

 

[PCMAerial]

There's always one of those twisty things or a rubber band. Even a paper clip would do.

Think Macgyver!

Maybe I've described the wrong piece. I have the metal bracket to secure the GoPro. BUT I don't have the input into the back of the camera.

The actual connector on the gimbal is not present. Therefore nothing can connect into the port on the back of the camera. Does this make sense at all? And I guess the bigger question is...can I function without it?

Here's what mine looks like. Notice no connector on the right side, yet on all DJI demo and installation videos I see a connection to the camera. Odd

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

No idea then. I thought it was all done via the USB port.

What does the manual say?

 

[PCMAerial]

No idea then. I thought it was all done via the USB port.

What does the manual say?

Manual shows the connection going into the back of the GoPro. Now I do have the USB connection into the side, but no rear connection as shown.

I'm just wondering if it can function without the back connection for the time being. Currently I'm only flying line of sight and have a gig on the way. But I don't want to screw up my Zenmuse if it should be connected to the camera internally. Seems like it would hold the camera and I have to manually control rec/stop which would be no problem. Can't think of any other reason the gimbal connects to the camera besides for the video out/FPV signal

p.S. thanks for the help Benjamin. You have made a huge difference

 

[PCMAerial]

So I went ahead and fired up the gimbal and took a test flight. Things are working! The only thing I can't figure is how to control my gimbal via my Taranis controller. Looking to tilt the camera. I believe the GCU software is Pc only unless someone knows otherwise? I'm on a mac

One step closer!!
Thank you to this forum

 

[Tahoe Ed]

You need to connect the ribbon cable to the USB connector provided. That charges your camera battery. If you do not connect it you will go through the GP pattern very quickly. Look at this video. I know it is for the Phantom but what you are looking for is the ribbon cable install.

The small board you also showed is the anti-interference board. It is inserted between the gimbal and the GCU. The tilt control is the X1 channel.

 

[PCMAerial]

You need to connect the ribbon cable to the USB connector provided. That charges your camera battery. If you do not connect it you will go through the GP pattern very quickly. Look at this video. I know it is for the Phantom but what you are looking for is the ribbon cable install.

The small board you also showed is the anti-interference board. It is inserted between the gimbal and the GCU. The tilt control is the X1 channel.

Awesome! Got the ribbon cable connected to the GoPro USB. Got the GCU soldered and everything seems to power up. Now I'm trying to figure out how to make the x1 work for tilt. I'm not sure if the assistant software works on my mac though, so that may be a bump in the road. Unless I can activate this in the Naza assistant instead.

Also with the interference board should that be connected to the g8 cable instead?

 

[Tahoe Ed]

You can download and install on your Mac. There are still some that DJI has not ported over yet but they are getting better. From my MacBook Pro.

 

[PCMAerial]

You can download and install on your Mac. There are still some that DJI has not ported over yet but they are getting better. From my MacBook Pro.

Have you installed the GCU firmware on mac?

I have the naza-m assistant on my MBP. But I cannot get the GCU firmware to work for the life of me. Always an .exe file that my computer doesn't recognize.

Sooo much closer now thanks to this forum! If only I can figure out how to control the tilt on this thing. Using a FrSky Taranis btw if that helps

-Thx!

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

It should be as easy as running a spare receiver channel straight to the GCU tilt port. No need to even run the assistant program for that.

 

[PCMAerial]

It should be as easy as running a spare receiver channel straight to the GCU tilt port. No need to even run the assistant program for that.

Really, had no idea it would be that simple. So I need to run a servo from the GCU to the receiver on the x1 or x2

 

[PCMAerial]

It's odd I can't seem to find or active the X1 channel on my controller at all. I'm using a FrSky Taranis. Trying to set channel 5 to tilt control but the X1 calibration isn't showing up. I can move and see x2 working. No x1 at the moment. Digging around in these menus