serial gimbal ground facing mode

[anti-vaxxer]

Hi all,
I have the Caddx GM2 gimbal and I want to use it for looking down. I want the gimbal to look straight down at the ground regardless of the quadcopter's attitude.
I think it would be a great feature for being able to look down, since I have tried a fixed downward facing FPV camera beneath the quadcopter before and it was useless because every time I pitch or roll the camera will point in different directions so I couldn't use the camera to land.
I think this feature would help landing FPV quadcopters and would make vertical controlled landings possible which is not possible with the traditional fixed camera style commonly used.
Imagine if you are flying above a forest with many trees and you want to land in an opening between trees, with this gimbal landing/ground facing mode you could make a controlled vertical landing while seeing your landing spot below.

The gimbal's built in firmware already has a similar mode for horizon lock which keeps the gimbal pointing at the horizon regardless of the model's attitude, so what I'm talking about is similar but just 90 degrees downward.
I contacted Caddx and asked if they could add this feature but they didn't do anything, they also told me to use INAV 8, but as far as I know INAV doesn't have this feature so that wouldn't help.

I think it would be best to have this feature directly in the gimbal firmware because then this mode could be used regardless of what FC firmware the model is running, INAV Betaflight, Ardupilot etc., or if someone want's to use it on models without FC.

I just want to know your guys thoughts on this.

[sensei-hacker]

Turn your camera 90° downwards in the gimbal?

The GM2 automatically detects if it's mounted "right side up" or "upside down", if the mounting bracket is at the top or bottom. So you can mount it on the bottom if you want. Then put the camera into the gimbal, pointed down. While the gimbal is pointed forward.

Seems like it should work, but I don't have one on hand to check for any little details that would need to be addressed, if there's anything that gets in the way or whatever.

[anti-vaxxer]

Thanks. I thought about that. I think it would theoretically work for the ground facing part. I don't think I want to do that though because the camera wouldn't be mounted as well having to make some kind of 90° bracket. Also the camera would hit the gimbal if it tilted all the way downward and it would sacrifice the tilt range if I wanted to look up..

[sensei-hacker]

I don't think I want to do that though because the camera wouldn't be mounted as well having to make some kind of 90° bracket.

I'm curious how exactly the camera fits in the stock bracket.

[mmosca]

You may want to contact caddx directly and ask about it. Or you can try to use gimbal trim in INAV.

I never tried to force it to point straight down, but in theory, should work.

[anti-vaxxer]

Yeah I contacted Caddx as I think it would be best for them to add this feature to the gimbal itself but they didn't seem to be interested.
Thanks for the idea about using gimbal trim. To be honest I haven't even mounted or used the gimbal yet since sadly it doesn't have the feature I want.
Even if using the trim as a workaround works for ground facing, as far as I know the trim is adjustable from CLI only so I couldn't change between the ground facing mode and regular modes during flight. I just want a simple solution that's why I thought having the ground facing mode built into the gimbal would be best.

[mmosca]

You can manually control the gimbal as well. That should avoid the need for trim to be adjusted. you can switch back and forth by switching center lock mode on/off. Off using radio input that points camera down.