Topotek Gimbals

Topotek provides a wide variety of camera gimbals which communicate with ArduPilot using a custom serial protocol.

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Warning

Support for these gimbals is available in ArduPilot 4.6 (and higher)

Where to Buy

These gimbals can be purchased directly from Topotek

Connecting to the Autopilot

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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 and the Camera1 control instance,

  • SERIAL2_PROTOCOL to 8 (“Gimbal”)

  • SERIAL2_BAUD to “115” for 115200 bps

  • MNT1_TYPE to “12” (“Topotek”) and reboot the autopilot

  • MNT1_PITCH_MIN to -90

  • MNT1_PITCH_MAX to 45

  • MNT1_YAW_MIN to -180

  • MNT1_YAW_MAX to 180

  • MNT1_RC_RATE to 60 (deg/s) to control speed of gimbal when using RC targetting

  • CAM1_TYPE to 4 / “Mount” 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 = 9 (“Camera Trigger”) to take a picture

    • 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

Control and Testing

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