Camera gimbal for DJI F550

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CarpCharacin

Member
I'm planning on building a DJI F-550 hexacopter, and I'm not sure what camera gimbal to use. I know DJI makes a gimbal for the GoPro hero 4, but the hero 5 is out and I'd like to use that, but I'm not sure if it works as an FPV. Does anyone know of a third-party gimbal that would work and if the GoPro hero 5 works as an FPV camera?
 

John Doecliff

John Doecliff

Member
If your going to use a DJI FC then go with their gimbal. It seamlessly integrates with the FC and works great. When using a DJI FC stay with their components like OSD and gimbal because it will give you less hassles. I tried to make off brand stuff work together and found out that its easier to just use all of their stuff. I did wire in my own FPV xmtr for FPV back to the ground station rather than buy their HD video link though. The DJI gimbal is set up to take the hero 3 or 4 video signal and send it to a xmtr with a form factor that's better than you could home build.
 


John Doecliff

John Doecliff

Member
That's my abbreviation for transmitter (xmtr). Not sure if DJI makes a gimbal for the hero 5 but my bet would be they don't. They have (or had) a Zenmuse h3-3d gimbal that was great. Its for the phantom 2 but they made one for any drone. It was basically the same gimbal but it had an extra component (I think it was an additional IMU but cant remember). The thing I liked about it was that it hooked right up the hero 3 and gave video out and gave tilt control at the radio. And it did it in a way that was clean without a bunch of wires hanging out everywhere. I hear you about wanting to use the hero 5 though, If no one is making a gimbal for it then you will have to rig something up or use the hero 5 gimbal and figure out how to get video and tilt from it. Go pros on a drone are starting to become a thing of the past. They still make a lot of aftermarket go pro gimbals but not for the hero 5. You may want to consider picking up a used hero 4 off of craigslist or something. Im sure you can get video out from the hero 5 but I don't know how, keep looking.
 



John Doecliff

John Doecliff

Member
Looks like a good price too. I have a Tarot gimbal for my hero3, I haven't used it very much because its a backup but it works good. As far as video out goes you can always get a separate FPV camera and only use the go pro for video capture.
 

davidbitton

davidbitton

New Member
CarpCharacin said:
I'm planning on building a DJI F-550 hexacopter, and I'm not sure what camera gimbal to use. I know DJI makes a gimbal for the GoPro hero 4, but the hero 5 is out and I'd like to use that, but I'm not sure if it works as an FPV. Does anyone know of a third-party gimbal that would work and if the GoPro hero 5 works as an FPV camera?
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I use an H4-3D with a Naza M V2 on my F550 hanging from AeroXCraft landing gear.
 

C

CarpCharacin

Member
John Doecliff said:
Looks like a good price too. I have a Tarot gimbal for my hero3, I haven't used it very much because its a backup but it works good. As far as video out goes you can always get a separate FPV camera and only use the go pro for video capture.
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It looks like it supports video output, but I'm not sure.
 

John Doecliff

John Doecliff

Member
I couldn't see where it did. if it did it would have a connector built in to the gimbal that plugged into the USB port on the camera and then went to a fixed position somewhere on top of the gimbal, That's what I meant by a clean form factor, everything is nice and neat. The homemade way has you building your own connector with thin wire and rigging it up yourself. It still works but you have to be careful it doesn't interfere with the gimbal operation. Don't be afraid to do it yourself if that's what you want/need. Some guys like making everything themselves others want to buy plug and play. Then there's me who's budget sometimes dictates what I do.
 


C

CarpCharacin

Member
John Doecliff said:
I couldn't see where it did. if it did it would have a connector built in to the gimbal that plugged into the USB port on the camera and then went to a fixed position somewhere on top of the gimbal, That's what I meant by a clean form factor, everything is nice and neat. The homemade way has you building your own connector with thin wire and rigging it up yourself. It still works but you have to be careful it doesn't interfere with the gimbal operation. Don't be afraid to do it yourself if that's what you want/need. Some guys like making everything themselves others want to buy plug and play. Then there's me who's budget sometimes dictates what I do.
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On the Tarot RC website, it says that it comes with a USB module, so that's why I think it might support video output.
davidbitton said:
You just need to buy the GCU. Then if you really want to go for the full Monty, then buy a iOSD.
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What's the GCU?

I think I might build the f450 kit instead of the f550 because it has better flight time, it's cheaper and I'm not planning on lifting anything heavy, just the GoPro.
 

John Doecliff

John Doecliff

Member
GCU, Gimbal Control Unit. The gimbal needs to sense what's level etc, its the brain that keeps it level on all axis's.

450, 550 either way its a good choice for a first build.
 



T

Trevcharl

Member
John Doecliff said:
That's my abbreviation for transmitter (xmtr). Not sure if DJI makes a gimbal for the hero 5 but my bet would be they don't. They have (or had) a Zenmuse h3-3d gimbal that was great. Its for the phantom 2 but they made one for any drone. It was basically the same gimbal but it had an extra component (I think it was an additional IMU but cant remember). The thing I liked about it was that it hooked right up the hero 3 and gave video out and gave tilt control at the radio. And it did it in a way that was clean without a bunch of wires hanging out everywhere. I hear you about wanting to use the hero 5 though, If no one is making a gimbal for it then you will have to rig something up or use the hero 5 gimbal and figure out how to get video and tilt from it. Go pros on a drone are starting to become a thing of the past. They still make a lot of aftermarket go pro gimbals but not for the hero 5. You may want to consider picking up a used hero 4 off of craigslist or something. Im sure you can get video out from the hero 5 but I don't know how, keep looking.
Click to expand...
 

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Trevcharl

Member
I have been looking for a 2 axis gimbal, and there are many available for gopro and for the Phantom. My concerns were the angles it could move to, the roll and pitch, and the specs dont say much most of the time. A lot of the youtube shorts, the person wobbles the copter around to demonstrate the stability, but that didnt help. Of course one guy did demonstrate the manual movement, where it could look straight down. Some specs show +45 and -45 for roll, the pitch was +5 and -45? Ish! that wasnt good enough (The Roll was ok, but pitch not) My point is every gimbal I looked at from Aliexpress and Banggood seemed to be for the DJi Phantom. I have no sedervations on putting them on my home built model, Drilling and tapping holes is easy. (All around the $40 mark) All had their own controller with a sensor on the camera platform.
 

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