Camera Positioning Kits/ Gimbals


HexaTiger,
I was in the same predicament as you, looked like a cool solution for my F550 but not able to find any write-ups on it. I rolled the dice on this kit, ordered it, and just received it last week from Helipal. The box was poorly packed, busted open (not necessarily Helipals fault), and one of the carbon tubes was missing. Emailed Helipal requesting a replacement. They did respond within 24 hours (pretty good support IMO) but told me the that the cost of shipping just the replacement tube alone was too high for them to cover. They did offered to add the replacement to my next order for free which I thought was pretty solid. While I appreciate their responsiveness and support I'm not sure I'll shop there again, the wait time and shipping costs are too high for me. They zapped me $28.50 to ship a $55 part that weighs less that 1.2kgs. Ouch! Well, I still wanted to mount it up and try it, so I ended up sourcing carbon tubes from Goodwinds which cost me another $35 so now I'm into this thing for $120.

Having said all that, the kits itself isn't bad, it's a clever design, the quality of the parts is good and fit well together, although not worth $83 to me. The issue with my set-up is that I'm using a 5500 [correction-5000mAh] 4S pack (530g) that's offset but a Turnigy 2D gimbal and Mobius camera up front and I can't get the fore/aft CG right without adding a bunch of weight out front. And this is my smaller battery, the other is a RMRC 6600 (660g). Maybe with a 3s pack, a heavier gimbal and camera set-up it would be fine, but doesn't work for me, which is really disappointing. Again, nothing wrong with the kit itself, but do a little experimenting with your rig to see how the CG will play out.
My 2 Cents, :)
Jim
 
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HexaTiger

Member
Hey Jim,

In thinking about your predicament is it possible for you to shift the centering of the rods towards the camera end to bring the battery in closer towards the CG and pushing the camera further away generating a stronger moment arm? My engineering brain says with the right mix you could possibly find a balance solution, but maybe the battery so vastly outweighs everything else that the location is negligible.

I don't own a camera nor gimbal, but I currently fly with a Sky LiPo 4S 5000 mAh so I'd assume our weights are approximately the same. I was leaning towards a go pro with the Tarot 2D gimbal. I'm flying a NAZA LITE. I'm not familiar what gimbals/how many axes are supported via the NAZA. Is it possible to go straight from the receiver to the gimbal if I were to use a 3-axis gimbal?
 

HexaTiger,
So I played around quiet a bit with moving the gear around to get the balance right. For reference the replacement carbon tubes from Goodwinds are 6 inches longer that the stock tube so I had some additional room to work with that the standard kit wouldn't offer. Started off with the battery (5500 4S) all the way forward, as close to the CG as I could, it just made the most sense. Even then my gimbal and camera, which weigh 7.25 ounces, had to be 18" from center of the copter to balance out. That put it far out in front of the arms and props. Again, a problem that could quickly be solved by applying some peel and stick lead to the front end. I just didn't want to carry around dead weight or worry about messing with it when I switched to different sized batteries. So I'm back to placing the battery on the top deck and working on fabricating a mount that goes between the front arms. I may not get the full effect of the Helipal kit as far as getting the blades completely out of the view of the camera, but I'm not shooting pro level stuff. :)

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Side note: You Mentioned that you don't have a camera or gimbal yet so I'll offer my unsolicited 2 cents. :nevreness: I own 2 GoPro Hero2 cameras that I use for other hobbies but it seems that most of the gimbals are geared to use the Hero3 cameras. In lieu of buying a new $400 that might potentially get wrecked the $70 Mobius seemed like a great solution. The Tarot 2D gimbal took some tweaking but is working great just testing it manually. You can run the gimbal without connecting it to the Naza (I'm flying a Naza v2) the roll/pitch compensation works independently, but you won't have manual pitch control to get down facing shots. That's where you need to connect to the Naza.

Here's a good write up on how to connect the Tarot 2D to your Naza:
http://www.riot.ch/tarot-t-2d-gimbal-configuration-for-pitch-controll-on-a-dji-phantom/
 

FlyGirl

Member
Does any have a recommended gimbal/camera combo they would recommend for my F550? I was looking at the GP Hero 3. As for a camera positioning kit, do you recommend one?

Helipal offers this one(http://www.helipal.com/camera-position-kit-660mm.html), but I can't seem to find any reviews of the device. Worth it?

The Tarot T-2D like Jim said is a nice gimbal for the Hero 3 and + Hexa... I just used zip ties to attach mine to my Y6 copter and it seems to work fine.

http://www.rangevideo.com/tarot-t-2...mera-gimbal-and-zyx22-controller-tl68a00.html
 

FlyGirl

Member
Side note: You Mentioned that you don't have a camera or gimbal yet so I'll offer my unsolicited 2 cents. :nevreness: I own 2 GoPro Hero2 cameras that I use for other hobbies but it seems that most of the gimbals are geared to use the Hero3 cameras. In lieu of buying a new $400 that might potentially get wrecked the $70 Mobius seemed like a great solution. The Tarot 2D gimbal took some tweaking but is working great just testing it manually. You can run the gimbal without connecting it to the Naza (I'm flying a Naza v2) the roll/pitch compensation works independently, but you won't have manual pitch control to get down facing shots. That's where you need to connect to the Naza.

Here's a good write up on how to connect the Tarot 2D to your Naza:
http://www.riot.ch/tarot-t-2d-gimbal-configuration-for-pitch-controll-on-a-dji-phantom/

Thanks Jim! Needed that write up!
 


Vibration dampers are actually built into the mount. They are the little airbag looking gizmos in the corners.
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