Servo-Controlled DIY Camera Gimbal with Arduino

Table of contents

1. Intro to horizontal camera mount
2. Device specifications
3. 3D printing the mount parts
4. Writing programs
5. Let’s test it!

In a previous article, we built a servo controlled wireless light switch. Today, we are going to step up our game and try creating another horizontal camera mount or gimbal. If you haven’t already, feel free to check back our first camera gimbal project here: Part 1 and Part 2.

Today’s Electronic Recipe

Estimated time to complete: 60 minutes

Parts needed:

• Arduino UNO R3 or Arduino Pro Mini
• Breadboard
• 3-axis accelerometer KXR94-2050
• Towerpro MG996R Servo Motor

1. Intro to horizontal camera mount

Horizontal camera mounts, commonly called “stabilizers” or “gimbals”, were once used only in high-budget productions in the past. Thanks to the drone industry boom and emerging consumer technologies, now it’s quite common to shoot high-quality videos with a gimbal-equipped drone, if you own one, or with smartphones. There are many consumer products that are easy to handle and operate. Some of these products use brushless motors for point of view shots (noise, speed, etc).

Figure 1. Stabilizer

I’ve been longing to create one of these devices. I’ve challenged myself and created one last time in this article, but the result was not ideal…

It sort of has its own charm.. but it’s not useful at all when it does not function as a stabilizer. I reflected back on the previous project and found many areas that need improvement. The biggest setback was my choice of servo motor. The previous one didn’t have enough power. It also didn’t have enough torque needed for the smartphone.

For this reason, I would like to first go over the required specifications before moving forward.

2. Device specifications

First, let’s look at the servo motor. Although the servo motor SG90 I used before was inexpensive and easy to use, clearly, the torque was not enough. Therefore, this time we’ll be using MG996R servo motor, which has nearly 5 times the torque although the operation speed will be slightly delayed/slow.

In addition, other parts will be basically Arduino and accelerometer, so I will set these in almost the same configuration as last time. Since the servo motor is larger, I made it so that the power is supplied from the adapter. And the wiring circuit will be the same.