SIYI ZR10, ZR30 and A8 Gimbals¶

The SIYI ZR10, ZR30 and A8 are 3-axis gimbals and camera which can communicate with ArduPilot using a custom serial protocol.

Warning

Support for these gimbals is available in ArduPilot 4.3.1 (and higher)

Where to Buy¶

These gimbals can be purchased directly from SIYI

Connect the gimbal’s RX, TX and GND pins to one of the autopilot’s serial ports as shown above.

Connect with a ground station and set the following parameters. The params below assume the autopilot’s telem2 port is used,

SERIAL2_PROTOCOL to 8 (“SToRM32 Gimbal Serial”)
SERIAL2_BAUD to “115” for 115200 bps
MNT1_TYPE to “8” (“Siyi”) and reboot the autopilot
MNT1_PITCH_MIN to -90
MNT1_PITCH_MAX to 25
MNT1_YAW_MIN to -80
MNT1_YAW_MAX to 80
MNT1_RC_RATE to 90 (deg/s) to control speed of gimbal when using RC targetting
CAM_TRIGG_TYPE` to 3 (Mount / Siyi) to allow control of the camera
RC6_OPTION = 213 (“Mount Pitch”) to control the gimbal’s pitch angle with RC channel 6
RC7_OPTION = 214 (“Mount Yaw”) to control the gimbal’s yaw angle with RC channel 7
RC8_OPTION = 163 (“Mount Lock”) to switch between “lock” and “follow” mode with RC channel 8
Optionally these auxiliary functions are also available
- RC9_OPTION = 166 (“Camera Record Video”) to start/stop recording of video
- RC9_OPTION = 167 (“Camera Zoom”) to zoom in and out
- RC9_OPTION = 168 (“Camera Manual Focus”) to adjust focus in and out
- RC9_OPTION = 169 (“Camera Auto Focus”) to trigger auto focus

Download, install and run “SIYI PC Assistant” which can be found on the SIYI ZR10 web page’s Downloads tab
Ensure the gimbal is running a recent firmware. For ZR10 use 0.2.1 or higher. For A8 use 0.1.7 or higher.