Interchange Zenmuse and Cinestar Gimbal on S800

[Pedro nunez]

Hi,

My name is Pedro and I work in a AP company called www.DiscoveryAirPictures.com located in Mallorca, Spain.

We are using the DJI S800 with Zenmuse and Sony Nex 7 with nice results but some clients want to film with their own cameras and we are thinking about the possibility of buying the 2 Axis Cinestar Gimbal for this guys.

The plan would be use the DJI Retract Landing Legs with the Zenmuse for most of the jobs where the camera it's not a restrictive point and the Cinestar Gimbal with the DJI S800 original Landing Gear for the other situations (won't be many). I would not like to buy Radians by the moment, so Stabilization would be done by Wookong (enough?).

I'd just change the "star" of the hexa and I'd have one gimbal on each legs (Retracts for Zenmuse, normal legs for 2 Axis Cinestar Gimbal). Do you thkink it's a usable configuration?

Do you thkin I can have problems changing the frame to different gimbals (GC, weight, wookong gains, etc) Too much work to make the change?

I really apreciate your help in advance.

Best Regards

Pedro
Discovery Air Pictures

 

[ChrisViperM]

Hi Pedro

First off all, what comes now is just my personal opinion, nothing more, and ther will be a few different point of views follow:

The S800 in connection with the Zenmuse is a perfect combination and cant't be beat (at the moment), as long as you can live with the camera restriction.
Once you hook a Cinestar gimbal (or any other gimbal) to the S800, it will rattle your gimbal into pieces (if it still uses original blades). You can make things better in terms of vibration by using different blades...look here: http://www.multirotorforums.com/sho...-alternative-props&highlight=S800+alternative
To make things even better, something new came up : http://www.multirotorforums.com/sho...ly-for-all-unhappy-S800-users-antivib-upgrade ....I got them just now and will do some tests with a smartphone vibration-test app (before and after) over the weekend.
And if you hook your gimbal on top of that to the WooKong built-in gimbal stabilisation (which is useless) then you are set for disaster, especially if you do this on a pro-level for customers. As far as I know there are some adapters avalible to hook a Zenmuse to a Droidworx or Cinestar, but I am not sure about the other way arround.

I wanted to check your hompage to see on what level you are pro-wise, but I get always an error when trying to load your page.

Even if I assume that you are a new company and have a tight budget, I would really suggest that you step back from the idea of changing gimbals back and forth....just get a second Copter with a matching Gimbal. A very good combination (althought not absolutely on the same level, and some time for tuning requiered) would be a Cinestar 6 or Cinestar 8 with a Cinestar 2-Axis gimbal (can be later upgraded to a 3-Axis) and the Radian.....All that stuff comes from one Company, which means support and experience is on a different level than mix and match products which are not made for each other. Another option is the Droidworx Copter range which goes very well together with the Cinestar gimbal and the Radian.

If you take your business in a serious way you have to invest in another Copter any way, just alone to have a backup machine.....and your NEX-7 can be hooked to either Gimbal. I really love to try new things out, but once anything works perfect, I don't touch it anymore......and mounting and de-mounting stuff from one Copter to the other one is never a good idea....even if it's not very often. I fly my copters as a hobby guy (2x S800 with Zenmuse, 1x Cinestar 8 with Cinestar 8-Axis Gimbal and Radian, 1x TBS Discovery) for pure fun and personal enjoyment, but if I would do this for business, I would rather have 5 perfect Copters for different applications than always shifting stuff from one bird to the other.

Again, this is only my personal view and hopefully there is a few more (maybe controversial ones) to follow to make your choice easier...


All the best


Chris

 

[Pedro nunez]

Thanks Chris!! That's a helpful response. I don't love the idea of changing the frame from one place to the other but it's the only possible solution for us now. Then I can upgrade it to a complete Cinestar + 3 Axis as 2nd MR. S800 is not the best frame for AF but it's what It's what I have now.

Look how to change Gimbals fast: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...10387.68374.264645063570963&type=3&permPage=1 .The gimbal is screwed in a S800 Battery tray, having the possibility of changing gimbals really fast. I do not know if is strong enough but it's very smart!!

About vibrations, I made the antiv-upgrade by myself but I have to test it yet. I have to balance the motors and propellers, I would like to change them. I have the KopterWorks adaptor for any brand, which one would you recomend me? I was using Xoar.

The website was working but I the link it' written wrong ---> www.Discoveryairpictures.com

On Saturday we launch the new showreel.

Best Regards

 

[ChrisViperM]

Hi Pedro

In your specific case it might be ok to do as you suggested in your first post....

BTW: You got a very cool web-page.....I hope you don't mind my suggestion to move the Facebook thing to the left side ( it's somehow disturbing ) and use a few more pics for the slide show....your Showreel vid is absolutely fantastic....

There is a few threads on this forum on how to make the S800 more rigid and stable.....

http://www.multirotorforums.com/sho...-alternative-props&highlight=S800+alternative
http://www.multirotorforums.com/sho...ly-for-all-unhappy-S800-users-antivib-upgrade
http://www.multirotorforums.com/showthread.php?8995-s800-is-now-solid-as-a-rock&highlight=rock+solid

Hope this helps

Chris