Heavylift Beginner

[Ryan Forte]

Hello Multirotor Forums Members.

I am officially a member that will now start contributing to the forums when I can. I have been reading them intensely for months. Thank you everyone for all the info that has been shared

I am a Commercial and Feature DP/ Camera Op that has been getting into Aerial Cinematography since last August. www.fortenox.com

My business partner and Writer/Director Milton Horowitz was a PIC for single engine planes and as filmmakers we became very interested in Drones and more specifically heavy lift Octo's have been extremely appealing to us for the last couple of years. He is the pilot I am more so a Gimbal Op/ Multirotor Technician I don't do much flying I just like building, fixing, maintaining the multirotors and handling the camera aspect of the process.

I thought we were gonna buy a drone and be off and shooting in two weeks... I was in for quite a surprise. We couldn't even figure out how to operate the polaron pro lipo charger when it showed up. Had almost no experience with hobby rc stuff in the past just film equipment.

We have started off with a Cinestar flat 8 550mm that has now been converted to X8 with a DJI wookong m FC, Tmotor 4014 KV330 motors, Hobbywing 40A ESCs and Graupner MZ24 along with some other acc.

Adding a note for people in search of a 3 Axis gimbal. I have a longstanding background in custom built PC Desktops for 4K Video Editing, Rendering ect... So I am not shy to building things and solving problems for the record.

We previously had an Iflight Alexmos 32 bit 2 IMU gimbal with Ipower motors that probably cost me almost 30 physical man hours of testing and trying with almost no results what so ever (probly was user error). I personally do not recommend anyone use a custom gimbal unless they are very, very savvy with poorly designed open source programs, have a great understanding of Brushless Gimbal motors and are familiar with custom robotics. Don't wish this frustration upon my worst of enemies.

Recently purchased a Freefly Movi M5 added the Aero landing gear, toad in the whole upgrade and had the gimbal up and running with our 7D test camera in 15 minutes I am not kidding. Best thing that has ever happened to me. Hopefully this can save people time in the future. It's better to have a working reliable gimbal that can only handle a camera of 5lbs than a dysfunctional complicated problematic gimbal that can support 15+ labs tech specs aren't always everything. There is normally a reason good things are expensive.

Currently I am in the process of building a heavy lift rig geared for cinema camera packages like the ones we shoot our commercials and movies on. Our goal is to fly a Red Epic Dragon/Scarlet, 21mm Zeiss CP.2, Vocas Clip on Matte Box w/.9 ND and Heden Carat FF and a Connex Animon Mini. Haven't measured total weight but hoping this will fit on a Movi M10.

We just got Tiger U7 kv420 Motors with Castle 75A ESCs. We plan on getting a DJI A2 FC, PHS 16 Board, Sticking with the Graupner TX and gonna put it on a Xfold Cinema Rig if our contact can make the frame available or if not move to a skyjib X4 V2 Frame.

Looking for feedback from Pilots and Users that have experience with Heavy lift rigs. Does this combination of parts pose any problems that people can see?

 

[SleepyC]

Welcome to the Cleveland AV scene. We have Been doing it here for years. I personally have around 32 years of RC experience and have been involved with AV for the past 8 years. Honestly Clevelnd is a ruff place to operate, (Especially now with all the new regs) get ready for red tape and "kid- wanna be "i have a phantom" ' jumping into your quotes and clients. Also, if you look at the maps, there is hardly a place where the blanket 333 COA applies in the entire area. Lots of calling paperwork ahead!!

If you have not obtained your 333, I'd plan on starting operations in 2017.
HAHA They are that behind.
I was on a board with the AMA working with the FAA and was told to hold off on my 333 because of a new bill being introduced. Well after the FAA flopped on the AMA last year, I finally applied. It's been 7 months and I'm told we have a few more to go.

There is a pretty lively scene of AV guys in Cleveland, some established and some not.

We have 9 commercial rigs currently ranging from a P3P , I1P, Hexacrafter/Movi rigm all the way up to a U7 - X8 HL Cinema rig that carries an H16 gimbal.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

One thing I'd REALLY check into for your proposed setup are the Castle ESC's.
U7's only like certain ESC's. Believe you me when I say many of us have been there done that.
Do some research on that, might save yourself a lot of time.

 

[Carapau]

Tiger U7s are pretty fussy about which ESCs they are paired to. Tiger recommend their 80A ESCs and given problems with other ESCs I would go with the Tiger recommendation. The last thing you want is to see a Red Epic equipped drone going doolally.

 

[Hexacrafter]

Tiger U7s are pretty fussy about which ESCs they are paired to. Tiger recommend their 80A ESCs and given problems with other ESCs I would go with the Tiger recommendation. The last thing you want is to see a Red Epic equipped drone going doolally.

Wise advise....
The days of mismatching manufacturers of motors/ ESC & props are past us now. This will be even more evident with new releases coming this year.
Advice #1: Use ONLY manufacturer recommended pairings of motors & ESC.
Advice #2: Use ONLY aircraft airframe manufacturer tested and recommended Motors/ ESC & Prop combinations on their frames. Not all airframes are created equal.... or have the same engineered capacities...
Advice #3: Use ONLY airframe/ Aircraft tested and recommended power distribution systems for the proposed current and voltage.
Advice #4: Leave the engineering to the engineers- There is value in paying for a aircraft/ system that has been engineered and tested by a manufacturer. You can buy a system that has been engineered and tested to be a proven and reliable platform, or you can "Experiment" with your time & money. If you like a particular style or brand.... contact the MFG and ask for recommendations & tested configurations that will meet your requirements.
Best of luck.

 

[Ryan Forte]

Hey Sleepy,

Thanks for the warm welcome welcome and certainly understand. Cleveland is a strange market in general.

For the next year I plan to work on work on our own films and commercials with our system to help balance cost of startup and already have.

We also have some incredible car rigs in the works that work with the movi we have access to an m10 as well for larger cameras. I can send videos of testing if you ever needed anything like that. Always like collaboration.

I could imagine that was a rough process and don't expect mine to be any easier. I hear a lot about tiffs between the AMA and the FAA.

Sounds like you have a great arsenal! If you are ever going to any events or things we could meet up at and chat feel free to send me an email directly at fortenox@gmail.com.

The guy I got them from said that he used them and they worked well together, but I would definitely not like to see anything fail in the air.
We are using hobbywing ESC with our Tmotor 4014 Currently and haven't had any issues.

But will contact Castle Creations and see what they say might just have to bite another bullet in the series of bullets to be biting and get Tmotors instead.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Carapau]

The 4014s were always more tolerant with different ESCs. The U7s are known to be fussy so I would seriously stick to the TMotor ESCs.

 

[Cinematic Effect]

Hey Sleepy,

Thanks for the warm welcome welcome and certainly understand. Cleveland is a strange market in general.

For the next year I plan to work on work on our own films and commercials with our system to help balance cost of startup and already have.

We also have some incredible car rigs in the works that work with the movi we have access to an m10 as well for larger cameras. I can send videos of testing if you ever needed anything like that. Always like collaboration.

I could imagine that was a rough process and don't expect mine to be any easier. I hear a lot about tiffs between the AMA and the FAA.

Sounds like you have a great arsenal! If you are ever going to any events or things we could meet up at and chat feel free to send me an email directly at fortenox@gmail.com.

The guy I got them from said that he used them and they worked well together, but I would definitely not like to see anything fail in the air.
We are using hobbywing ESC with our Tmotor 4014 Currently and haven't had any issues.

But will contact Castle Creations and see what they say might just have to bite another bullet in the series of bullets to be biting and get Tmotors instead.

Thanks for sharing.

Welcome bro! I'm in Cleveland as well.