Cablecam and Ronin gimbal with one Futaba14SG

Recently A friend of mine bought a cablecam in order to use it with Ronin MX and he called me to complain about a problem that as I have learned most of the people using cablecams and Ronin gimbals have, they have to use two remotes, one for the cablecam and another one for the Ronin gimbal and they have to either use the cablecam with two operators or they need a table to lay down the remotes and work simultaneously on both of them like some sort of DJ 🙂

I have tried searching on google for solution but only found forum posts of users complaining that it is impossible task.

He bought the cable cam from ROTTOR TEAM website and received a FlySky FS-I6S transmitter with it, he had the RoninMX and a Connex full HD video downlink. Also, he owns a Futaba 14SG that he uses on a big X8 heavy lifter quadcopter. So I had three different remotes to work with and find a way to use only one transmitter.

I have started with the one that comes with the Ronin MX gimbal, I thought that it will be easier to add the two channels from the cablecam to the remote since there were plenty of spare channels. I was hoping that DJI may have done something similar to the  feature on the A2 flight controller where you can have multifunction PWM output channels F1-F4. Unfortunately, there are none (DJI please) and there is no way to map the spare channels on the remote to something useful.

I have continued reading the Ronin manual and there was part explaining that you may use custom remote that supports SBUS, so I said to myself, OK, fine I can try with the Futaba and R70008SB and maybe pair 2 similar receivers with the remote, one for the Ronin and another one for the cablecam, but I had only one receiver and there was no time to order and wait for the other one.
I have managed to connect the R70008SB on the D Bus port on the gimbal and control the gimbal with the Futaba on 12CH Mode but I had to find another solution.

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Then I have remembered reading that you may use the Connex along with the Futaba to control the gimbal, without the need of an additional receiver. Here is a tutorial that explains how to connect and use the Futaba to control the Ronin gimbal.

I have gone trough the steps on the video and I had the Futaba control the Ronin in no time by using the training port, so one part of the problem was solved. Now I have had one R70008SB that was bound to the Futaba in 14CH Mode and I have plugged in the two channels from the cablecam into it taking care that I use the throttle channel 3 for cablecam movement and channel 5 for the cablecam limits since the only the throttle channel wasn’t used for gimbal control. After that I have powered the cablecam and voila, everything was working.

As I’m writing this article the cablecam is used on a local pop star concert, I have been there for a while in order to make sure that everything is working as it should.

Let me know if this article had helped you in any way and if you have any additional questions.