Alternative approach: emulate controller with separate JDY-40 connected via serial port

[jdesbonnet]

Thank you for this excellent hack. I'm trying a slightly different approach. Instead of altering any of the gimbal hardware, my plan is to use a brand new JDY-40 module and emulate the controller by writing packets to it using a USB to UART adapter.

I've wired up the JDY-40 to a USB/UART adapter, tied CS permanently low and I'm using UART DTR line to drive SET .

Everything in your documentation checks out. With SET=3.3V I can issue AT queries and I receive responses. With SET=0V I can see the 3 byte packets stream in when I press the controller buttons. However when I echo the same bytes out, the gimbal motor does not respond. So I'm missing something.

I can confirm that the JDY-40 settings are exactly the default values specified in the datasheet:
+CLSS=A0 +RFID=8899 +DVID=1122 +RFC=001 +POWE=9

I'd appreciate any thoughts from those that have experimented with this setup.

[jdesbonnet]

I got back to it today and repeated what I did last week, and it started working. I think it's a buffering issue with the serial library I'm using.

Anyway, hooking up a JDY-40 to a USB to UART adapter, setting CS=LOW, SET=LOW, using configuration defaults (no AT commands needed) and fire off hundreds of 3 byte sequences of format [0x60, cmd, 0x60] as documented in the 'research' folder in this repo works as you'd expect.

This means you can keep your hardware fully intact, no need to open or modify anything and be able to take full computer control of the YT-1000 gimbal. Bill of material is about $10 for the JDY-40 + USB/UART adapter.

[featherbear]

Oh this is cool! Don't 100% understand how you connected the JDY-40 to the device - from a glance it sounded like you're utilising the USB port of the pan tilt head?

[jdesbonnet]

Hopefully this will make it a little clearer. I'll try to post a photo of the setup later.