[Tim Good] built a 3-axis gimbal out of 3D-printed and machined pieces, and the resulting design is pretty sweet, with a nice black-on-black look. He machined the flat pieces because they were too long to be printed in his 3D-printer.
The various axes swivel on four bearings each, and each ring features a manual locking mechanism made out of steel stainless pins that immobilize each axis. The gimbal operation itself appears to be manual. That said, [Tim] used 12-wire slip rings to power whatever camera gets mounted on it–it looks like the central enclosure could hold a camera the size of a GoPro.
[Tim] has shared his design files on Thingiverse: it’s a complicated build with 23 different files. This complexity got us wondering: aren’t there two pitch axes?
We definitely love seeing gimbal projects here on Hackaday. A few cases in point, a gimbal-mounted quadcopter, another project with a LIDAR added to a camera gimbal, and this gimbal-mounted coffee cup.
I suspect there are two pitch axis visible in the picture because the mechanism has been put into gimbal-lock for aesthetic purposes. Rotate the inner ring 90° and you have all 3 axis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbal_lock
variable antennaz ?
I could use this, check out this video of a rig mounted on the back of a motorcycle filming following bikes at the Tail of the Dragon. Unlike countless GoPro videos there, the gimbal keeps the camera level and tracks around the curves. working on better vibration isolation. vVertigo on Vimeo.com
https://Vimeo.com/219247344