1/20/2026 2:38 PM - Defining Structure

18/1/2026

Time: 4h

I need this gimbal to be used with medium mirrorless cameras which usally weight 1kg-2kg, so that is the goal.

The components are as the folling

1. Control board
   • Custom built
2. Motors
   • 3x 90kv Brushless motors
3. Sensor
   • Using two ICM20602 (inertial sensors) for minimizing yaw drift with fast movement
4. Frame
   • Considering minimizing the frame to make the product much compact
5. Battery
   • Using 4S LiPo battery

Control board

The board would feature the following

• Power Button
• Toggle Button for Manual movement
• Analog Joystick
• Two Buttons for joystick sensitivity

In this board i am using the following components

• STM32G431
• DRV8313 three phase driver for each motor
• TPS54302 step down converter

Firmware setup

• SimpleFOC library

1/20/2026 2:39 PM - Schematic

18/1/2026

Time: 4h

I use Kicad in my design.

The first thing i added the schematic symbol for the STM32 then added the ones for IMU, for the DRV8313 driver i had to download the footprint and symbol from SnapMagic site and imported them to kicad then started connecting main connections for the STM32, then went for buck converter connections from the datasheet, then made connections for the IMU's connection, then connections for the drivers.

Next i would add the buttons and joystick.

1/20/2026 2:40 PM - Additionals for Schematic & PCB

19/1/2026

Time: 2h

I started with adding the pcb buttons i listed before, one switch for toggeling the gimbal on or off then added five connection pins for joystick module, i found it simpler to use an already made joystick pcb than 3d printing it.

Second section i organized the schematic by putting the motor drivers on a separate sheet.

Then i worked on assigning footprints for each component, i encountered issue for the imported motor driver footprint as i imported it with different name and the library i imported was almost messed up so had to reimport that check the footprint.

1/20/2026 2:40 PM - Schematic Revisions

19/1/2026

Time: 2h

Once all that was done i went for pcb editor and got all the components together started getting each component into its respective place and i wanted to make a 4 layered pcb as for reducing the size, but i thought this is my first prototype and it would be overkill if i started with 4 layers so i went for the normal 2 layer setup.

After i was organizing the pcb components i found the connection pins on the drivers did have their reference names on the schematic but not on the silkscreen so i went back to the schematic changed their names and got them in what you see in the image, OUTx_Z is naming convention like number pairs describing each three output for each motor.

1/20/2026 2:41 PM - Connecting PCB

19/1/2026

Time: 4h

So after organizing the pcb, i started connecting the rat lines of each driver alone making the mess a little easier to deal with then after that, then working on putting all of them together which took endless times, i wanted to connect the drivers in series so the board is narrower but again, it is only possible with a 4 layer board and even with this i was able to put sloppy cross connections with lots of vias and then i connected the buck converter and added the two GND & 14.8V pins which are directly connected to the battery.

After connecting the things together i found that i had to probably chose a little smaller button for the toggle on/off as this is taking a lot of space i am putting this into consideration for future versions.

The final steps was adding the outer border for pcb frame and the mounting holes

1/20/2026 2:42 PM - Frame & CAD setup

19/1/2026

Time: 1h

After finishing the pcb i exported it as .step for importing in Fusion 360, so to start off the first thing is having a holder case for the pcb, so i made some sketches and doing cad things, so the final result i got was what you see in the image, i know it looks simple but again i think organizing that should be in future iterations,

1/20/2026 2:43 PM - General Frame & Ergonomics

20/1/2026

Time: 1h

So i have chosen somewhat of a big battery so i need a big place to put them, i took the battery dimensions for the Aliexpress seller (link in BOM) and made a case behind the original pcb holder because that is the only place i found intuative.

1/20/2026 2:46 PM - Handles

20/1/2026

Time: 3h

After that i thought about how to handle that large structure and i got inspired by some professional gimbals and i tried my best, at first i made a simple hand drawn 2D cross section imagining how the handles would be and yeah almost every large gimbal use two handle setup as it would be hard for a person to hold that weight comfortably with one hand.

What you see in the image as blue are the main frames while the red circles are the rotating motors, if you notice that thing on the green line is the imported step file for the pcb.

So The next step is taking that image to reality,
i took somewhat medium level approach in making the handles as they are complex curved geometry.

So i made a curved path and used the Fusion 360 tool "pipe" for making the pipe shape that you see in the next image, the process was tedious becuase somehow the software doesn't accept the fact that i want to increase the diameter of the handler and i couldn't resolve that issue and i still don't know why, i would like to improve that in future iterations and maybe would try to get help from a professional. However the second handle was much better as also somehow i was able to get large diameter for the second top handle.

I thought about adding a rough texture to the handles but it was too much for my skills, so i was good with that.

1/20/2026 2:46 PM - Motor Holders

20/1/2026

Time: 3h

Starting with the first motor i searched for an existing cad model for my BLDCs and i found the one you see in the image colored as green, the next part was the most exhausting as i had to be creative, at first i made a circular base which took time found that i can't make a model for the parts connected to the motor base as circular geometry was too complicated so i had to roll back and design from the begining the base with square shape and gave it rounded edges, then started making the curved path of the holder that connects the other motors.

1/20/2026 2:47 PM - Seconds motors

20/1/2026

Time: 2h

Here i continued the curved geometry and built the second motor base on it, which is directly horizontal, then i made the perpendicular structure that holds the third motor.

When making the third motor i realised i needed some way of "equalizing" or centering the center of mass of the device so i added the part you see that is highlighted with red strokes, that part can be removed and i am planning on making it hold counter weights, the last part was the camera holder which is a simple rectangular shape, i added four screw parts for the wider first segment of that rectangle.

1/20/2026 2:48 PM - Final thoughts

20/1/2026

Time: 30mins

I added camera model for the sake of rendering cool images, and most importantly checking how the whole frame looks.

Here i added fillets (rounded edges) for the bottom parts of both handles making it look a little professional,

Also added a fillet to the edge of the first motor base.

1/20/2026 2:49 PM - Rendering

20/1/2026

Time: 30mins

I exported the design into .step and .obj for blender for rendering, i am not good at rendering but got the next images, i had bad lighting for the first two images, but got much better at the third.

I think i would do an animation that shows the gimbal moving which would be cool but i should fix the rendering first.

1/20/2026 4 PM - BOM & Submission

20/1/2026

Time: 2h

So the most exhausting process ever, i organized all components of pcb together and put them in one excel sheet then open JLCPCB components library and querry each components, make sure it is the correct one and then taking its link and part number, after all that i start making new sheet in which it is much cleaned one with prices of each and you can see that in PCB folder, then after that i took each component and got the important data only from it and putting it into the main BOM.csv giving you the final addition you see in the Readme.

1/20/2026 5 PM - Showcase

Time: 30mins

This is the final rendered image for the Blueprint platform.

So, i took the carts images and uploaded them to the repo, hope you like this project and that it gets on the staff picks list :) .