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Controlling The Camera Gimbal Using ESP8266 - Building Smart Drones With ESP8266 and Arduino

This document discusses controlling a two-servo camera gimbal remotely using an ESP8266. You need a servo bracket, two servo motors, an ESP8266, a smartphone, router, and 5V power supply. Code is written to connect the servos to the ESP8266 GPIO pins and control them using sliders in a Blynk app. Moving the sliders rotates the servos from 0-180 degrees, allowing remote control of the camera gimbal angle. The full code is provided in a GitHub link.

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Juan-PabloChaperoArenas
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416 views

Controlling The Camera Gimbal Using ESP8266 - Building Smart Drones With ESP8266 and Arduino

This document discusses controlling a two-servo camera gimbal remotely using an ESP8266. You need a servo bracket, two servo motors, an ESP8266, a smartphone, router, and 5V power supply. Code is written to connect the servos to the ESP8266 GPIO pins and control them using sliders in a Blynk app. Moving the sliders rotates the servos from 0-180 degrees, allowing remote control of the camera gimbal angle. The full code is provided in a GitHub link.

Uploaded by

Juan-PabloChaperoArenas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Controlling the camera gimbal using


ESP8266
In this section, we will make a custom gimbal with two-servo motors that can be controlled remotely. You need to
buy a Servo bracket to install the servos. You can buy a cheap one like
this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Servo-bracket-PT-Pan-Tilt-Camera-Platform-Anti-Vibration-Camera-
Mount-for-Aircraft-FPV-dedicated-nylon/32697306736.html (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Servo-bracket-
PT-Pan-Tilt-Camera-Platform-Anti-Vibration-Camera-Mount-for-Aircraft-FPV-dedicated-
nylon/32697306736.html). You will need the following things:

' ESP8266 or NodeMCU

' Two-servo motors (SG90 mini gear micro servo preferred)

' 5V power supply

' Smart phone

' Router (for Wi-Fi connection)

Let's see how this is done:

1 Firstly, attach the servos to the bracket. Connect the servos to the ESP8266, as follows:
2 From the diagram, you can see that the servos are connected to the GPIO pins of the ESP8266. GPIO 0 and GPIO 2
or D3 and D4, respectively. Now you need to write code for our ESP8266 but, before that, open your Blynk app and
create a New Project :
3 Give your project a name and from Choose Device , select NodeMCU or ESP8266 , whichever you use for your
gimbal. Hit Create Project . Remember the authentication code of the project. The code will also be sent to your
email.

4 Next, swipe right to get the Widget Box and choose Slider :
5 Give your slider a name. I gave Servo 1 and Servo 2 for the two sliders we need:
6 Select a Virtual pin for each of the sliders. I chose V1 and V6 :
7 Your final look of the project will look like the following screenshot. You may change the color from the slider
properties:
Let's begin our coding to control the gimbal:

1 Fire up your Arduino IDE and add the following lines at the top of the sketch:

Copy

#define BLYNK_PRINT Serial


#include <SPI.h>
#include <BlynkSimpleEsp8266.h>
#include <Servo.h>
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

2 You need to install the ESP8266 libraries to do that.

3 Now, declare the authentication code you got for your project and the Wi-Fi name and password for the connection,
as follows:

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char auth[] = "**********";


char ssid[] = "**********";
char pass[] = "**********";
4 Then, declare our servos:

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Servo s1, s2;

5 Inside the void setup() , we need to start the Blynk and then attach the servo pins:

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Serial.begin(9600);
Blynk.begin(auth, ssid, pass);
s1.attach(0);
s2.attach(2);

6 Then, assign the virtual pins of the Blynk, as follows:

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BLYNK_WRITE(V1)
{
s1.write(param.asInt());
}
BLYNK_WRITE(V6)
{
s2.write(param.asInt());
}

7 Then in the void loop() function, run the Blynk:

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Blynk.run();

The full source code can be found here: https://github.com/SOFTowaha/Selfie-Drone/blob/master/blynkCode.ino


(https://github.com/SOFTowaha/Selfie-Drone/blob/master/blynkCode.ino).

8 Now, verify and upload the code after connecting the NodeMCU to the computer.

9 From your Blynk application, run the project. You will see your sliders, as follows:
( BACK

Building Smart Drones with ESP8266 and


Arduino

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Things to Know Before You Build a Drone )

(/BOOK/HARDWARE_AND_CREATIVE/97817884…

Assembling Your Drone )

(/BOOK/HARDWARE_AND_CREATIVE/97817884…
10 Now, if you move your sliders from left to right, you will see your servos will move 0 - 180 degrees.

You may get some resonances. So, I would suggest you use an LM1117 voltage regulator between the NodeMCU
and the battery or the power supply. Now, I have some home work for you. I want you to make a switch from the
Blynk and trigger the camera you will use in the drone using Blynk application.

( Previous Section (/book/hardware_and_creative/9781788477512/6/ch06lvl1sec45/flying-and-taking-shots)

Next Section - (/book/hardware_and_creative/9781788477512/6/ch06lvl1sec47/summary)

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