SIYI ZR10, ZR30, ZT6, ZT30, 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.

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Warning

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

Warning

The Siyi A2 is not supported

Where to Buy

These gimbals can be purchased directly from SIYI

Connecting to the Autopilot

../_images/siyi-zr10-gimbal-autopilot.png ../_images/siyi-zr30-gimbal-autopilot.png ../_images/siyi-a8-gimbal-autopilot.png

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 (“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 -135

  • MNT1_YAW_MAX to 135

  • MNT1_RC_RATE to 90 (deg/s) to control speed of gimbal when using RC targetting

  • 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

  • Enable camera controls with one of the following AP version specific parameters

    • For AP4.3 (or earlier) set CAM_TRIGG_TYPE to 3 / “Mount (Siyi)” to allow control of the camera

    • For AP4.4 (or later) set CAM1_TYPE to 4 / “Mount (Siyi)” to allow control of the camera

  • 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

Warning

A8 does not support zoom at 4K recording resolution

Configuring the Gimbal

  • 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.

../_images/siyi-gimbal-firmversion.png

Ethernet Connectivity

Instead of using a UART serial connection to control the gimbal, an Ethernet virtual serial connection may also be used, as well as transmitting a video stream from the camera.

An example of the setup of the gimbal in a networked ArduPilot vehicle system is detailed in Ethernet Connected Vehicle Example

Downloading Images and Video

Images and videos captured by the camera can be remotely downloaded to a companion computer or PC via Ethernet using this siyi-download.py Python script

Control and Testing

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