Help, struggling with landing gear + RC Timer Gimbal for F550

[thurcombe]

I have an F550 and recently added an RC Timer gimbal to my inventory. Initially I had the AeroXCraft landing gear (which is very nice) but at full extension of the gimbal I dont have anywhere near enough ground clearance from the landing gear. Does anyone else run this setup and can you advise what landing gear you used?

Note that im not talking about the gopro gimbal, im using this one... http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=950&productname=

 

[Langdale]

I'm using this one, comes with several plates. http://www.goodluckbuy.com/atg-univ...-for-dji-f450-f550-quadcopter-hexacopter.html[h=1][/h]

 

[thurcombe]

I'm using this one, comes with several plates. http://www.goodluckbuy.com/atg-univ...-for-dji-f450-f550-quadcopter-hexacopter.html

With the RC Timer gimbal? What is the ground clearance as it's difficult to tell from the pics but it doesnt look like theres enough clearance there either.

Looks like 190mm, I need like 230mm at full extension of the gimbal I think.

Came across this which gives 295mm clearance I think???, shame its not all black. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carbon-Land...03KY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_k_h_b_cs_8#productDetails

Nope, that 190mm too. It's looking more like I will need to adaptify my existing gear, any good UK suppliers for carbon tube clamps?

 

[Langdale]

With RCTimer gimbal on I've got about 30mm clearance from bottom of gimbal to floor.

Where in UK are you?

Peter

 

[thurcombe]

With RCTimer gimbal on I've got about 30mm clearance from bottom of gimbal to floor.

Where in UK are you?

Peter

That's interesting, is that with the vertical adjustments on the gimbal at full stretch? I'm up in Aberdeen.

I've found something in the stores at work which I am hoping I can use to mod the aeroxcraft gear but it won't look as sweet as a proper tool for the job.

 

[tstrike]

I'm using the 200mm lg set from quadframes-http://www.quadframe.us/collections/landing-gear/products/200mm-clearance-landing-legs
View attachment 13750 you sure can tell it's carrying the weight though.

 

[thurcombe]

Sorry guys, I should have fully qualified this earlier, I am not using the gopro gimbal, its the 2axis gimbal for the NEX so is much bigger (because I want to lift a bigger camera than the gopro). 200mm isn't going to cut it, 300mm is where I need to be.

 

[tstrike]

I've got the asp gimbal too and it fits the 200mm (won't lift it, but it fits) but quadframes also sell a 215mm. The 300 is really freekin big and heavy.

 

[Langdale]

It's a bit complicated...... The landing legs come with plates and the gimbal comes with plates but the ....... here's a link to a Forum on which I posted the same question as you. It shows some pics of the gimbal and legs fitted. Hope it helps. I'm down in Preston.

http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=2816.0

Have you got a control board for the gimbal, if not have a look at the Alexmos board (very easy to set, unlike the RCTimer one) from Desire RC

Whoops, must learn to read previous posts, didn't realize you were using a bigger gimbal !!!!!

Peter

 

[tstrike]

View attachment 13751View attachment 13752This is what roughly 290mm looks like with the pos errr asp gimbal mounted on a wire rope damper that's the same height as the stock rubber ball dampers. I don't think a stock 550 would lift the 300mm and a larger camera. The up and down adjustment on the gimbal shown is about 2/3rd's up, you wouldn't want it fully extended, too much vibration. Some good ideas with the gimbal just not well executed. It is an rct product and they're like the Taco Bell of rc!

 

[thurcombe]

View attachment 17355View attachment 17356This is what roughly 290mm looks like with the pos errr asp gimbal mounted on a wire rope damper that's the same height as the stock rubber ball dampers. I don't think a stock 550 would lift the 300mm and a larger camera. The up and down adjustment on the gimbal shown is about 2/3rd's up, you wouldn't want it fully extended, too much vibration. Some good ideas with the gimbal just not well executed. It is an rct product and they're like the Taco Bell of rc!

I am only putting a decent compact on it right now, that weighs in at 275 grams, I chucked a different gimbal (a cheap *** gopro gimbal) and the compact on top of the 550 and flew it around my lounge no bother, im hoping that the additional weight of the ASP gimbal would be manageable.

I don't want to have to replace the gear later when I stick a heavier camera on as I'll have other stuff to waste... err justifiably spend money on to get that lifted.

The problem with gear you show in your photos is no load rails, I want to get the gimbal as far forward as reasonable balance will allow.

Today I found some small brackets that we fix to a chain conveyor, that's used to clip conduit to and whilst that conduit would have a way larger diameter than the landing legs of my existing gear, I think I might be able to pull it off. They weigh 19 grams each but they are solid plastic so I'll save a few grams when I attack them with a drill. This would raise the existing gear off the ground by about 1.5-2 inches and after a quick eye up, I think this might just be enough. Ok its not going to look particularly great but if it does the job.

If it works I will post pics later.

 

[thurcombe]

Have you got a control board for the gimbal, if not have a look at the Alexmos board (very easy to set, unlike the RCTimer one) from Desire RC

Whoops, must learn to read previous posts, didn't realize you were using a bigger gimbal !!!!!

Peter

I do have a control board, I don't know what it is but it looks very similar to the other boards out there, it came with cheap gopro gimbal and I robbed it to use on the RCT gimbal, its not so bad to get setup, fine tuning is something that I'll need to spend time with as I still see a very tiny amount of pitch & roll, I played with it this much trying to eliminate that and now my settings aren't as good and I cant remember what the good ones were.

I seem to have induced a problem on the pitch, its fine for small movements but if you pitch too much, the motors get jumpy and even if you pitch it back level the motors seems to be spazzing out a bit and it really only gets sorted out by powering cycling. Roll is superb, if I hand hold it, I can take it to 90 degrees and it seems perfectly smooth and stable. I did spend a good while balancing though, its almost perfect but I have only done this with a gopro attached and I think its hard to perfectly balance the gopro on there as it's so light and that's not what this gimbal was designed for. I could add weights I guess but nooooo if I can avoid it.

I was worried about how good the RCT gimbal would be and although I have yet to fly it, I was pleasantly surprised, I've used it handheld and it's really not so bad. The machining quality is a bit ropey but it cost less than £150 with express delivery and I simply cannot afford a zenmuse.

 

[tstrike]

The problem with gear you show in your photos is no load rails, I want to get the gimbal as far forward as reasonable balance will allow.

Today I found some small brackets that we fix to a chain conveyor, that's used to clip conduit to and whilst that conduit would have a way larger diameter than the landing legs of my existing gear, I think I might be able to pull it off. They weigh 19 grams each but they are solid plastic so I'll save a few grams when I attack them with a drill. This would raise the existing gear off the ground by about 1.5-2 inches and after a quick eye up, I think this might just be enough. Ok its not going to look particularly great but if it does the job.

If it works I will post pics later.

You've got to watch how forward you get your gimbal, brushless doesn't like prop wash, those pics are just that gimbal clipped onto the legs for photo purposes. If your copter is pretty well balanced and vibe free, you could ditch the damper business and mount direct. A lot of guys are compressing stock vibe mount with zip ties or loading the lil rubber balls with ear plugs to make'm firmer, they are pretty wiggly.
You need to find out what firmware your boards running and download the right gui to make adjustments. This is a whole NEWWWWWWW adventure for you...
assuming your board is the open source-http://code.google.com/p/brushless-gimbal/downloads/list

good luck!

 

[thurcombe]

You've got to watch how forward you get your gimbal, brushless doesn't like prop wash, those pics are just that gimbal clipped onto the legs for photo purposes. If your copter is pretty well balanced and vibe free, you could ditch the damper business and mount direct. A lot of guys are compressing stock vibe mount with zip ties or loading the lil rubber balls with ear plugs to make'm firmer, they are pretty wiggly.
You need to find out what firmware your boards running and download the right gui to make adjustments. This is a whole NEWWWWWWW adventure for you...
assuming your board is the open source-http://code.google.com/p/brushless-gimbal/downloads/list

good luck!

What's prop wash?

I've already setup the gimbal, I need to go back and make some adjustments as I have gone too far, im using SimpleBGC and I have firmware 2.01.

I don't want to see landing gear or arms/props in my photo or videos hence why I want to get the gimbal as far forward as I can get away with.

The landing gear mod was not successful, been looking at the 215mm landing legs at quadframe, looks like I will have to live with that because as someone rightly pointed out, the 300mm gear is heaaaavy.

I just want to make sure I can pull this off. According to the interweb, the F550 frame weight is 478g (not sure if that includes motors/esc's etc), the 215mm gear is 290g, the camera is 275g and the RCT is 600g

That puts me at 1.643kg without taking the naza/fpv tx, radio rx and lipo into consideration. From what I see the take-off weight of a stock F550 is 1200-2400g, am I right then in thinking 2.4kg is the maximum total weight it can get off the ground (thats a pretty wide range they've listed)? If so there's is headroom I think.

If I can lift that much, is there a formula for calculating how long I could fly with a 3s (i only have 3000's at the moment) and 10" props?

 

[tstrike]

What's prop wash?

From the DJI website: "For fresh player is recommended to wash props on 2nd and 4th week of month to ensure successful happy clean flight."

some guys go all out and use the professional grade ArmorAll, I just use a wet paper towel (make sure you do the under side also).










JK-prop wash is the down force of the air under the props, it can cause all kinds of jiggles and movement making smooth video shaky.

 

[thurcombe]

From the DJI website: "For fresh player is recommended to wash props on 2nd and 4th week of month to ensure successful happy clean flight."

some guys go all out and use the professional grade ArmorAll, I just use a wet paper towel (make sure you do the under side also).










JK-prop wash is the down force of the air under the props, it can cause all kinds of jiggles and movement making smooth video shaky.

Ahh, ok that makes sense. Any thoughts on the weights I posted up?