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[Devon W]

Hi all! I’m building a compact gimbal for a sensor head that needs to rotate around two perpendicular axes (pan and tilt). I’m trying to stay away from standard U-joints — they take up too much space and introduce too much backlash for this setup. The whole thing needs to stay within a 60 mm cube and still be pretty rigid.

Curious if anyone here has tackled something similar — how did you pull off two-axis rotation without going the bulky U-joint route?

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[baldin]

I faced this exact issue on a compact optical payload project last year. We ended up using a nested gimbal ring setup with slim-section crossed roller bearings and direct-drive motors. The inner ring handles pitch, while the outer ring handles yaw. Since both rings are supported by precision bearings, the backlash is virtually eliminated and the whole mechanism fits within a 58 mm cube.

I would avoid using plastic 3D prints for the rotating elements. We machined everything from aluminum and used hard stops for safety.

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