Another FC40 Pilot in the Uk - My Setup :-)

[QuadBod]

Hello all,

New here but been lurking for a while!

I've always been interested in aerial photography, mainly strapping lightweight cameras to my many Parkzone fomies and hoping for the best, so I was very interested when I started looking into aerial photography using quadcopters.

I've had the FC40 now for around 2 months and i'm loving it

Decided to use the stock FC40 camera for FPV via a Kindle Fire HD and also attach a Mobius HD action cam with lens extension cable for 1080p recording.
I'm using a cheap GoodLuckBuy Chinese Gimbal for stability which after some tweaking in the GUI, is working quite well.
Videos are nice and stable apart from some jello that i'm trying to combat but I'm also getting quite a lot of the landing gear in my shots so the next upgrade will be wider / higher landing gear or relocating the Mobius lens on the gimbal.

So far so good! Thought i'd share some pics below in case anyone is interested in how I currently have everything setup
All comments welcome....

 

[deltamike]

Welcome - Looks a nice set-up.

May the weather be kind.

Pete

 

[QuadBod]

Cheers Pete,

Not far from your neck of the woods, I'm on the Wirral.

Currently visiting Swindon area, so trying to get some aerial shots to add to the collection

Certainly addictive this hobby- find myself constantly checking the wind map on XCWeather.co.uk trying to get some flight time in!!!

 

[scooterbuk]

Looks a good setup that, I am 2 weeks into my FC40 only used the stock cam and mount but have already started ordering bits and bobs.
Would like to see some footage from your setup!! get it posted

 

[wattage]

Hi from another part of the UK Nice looking home brew setup, what kind of usable range will you get with the Kindle Fire? Hope you can get rid of your jello effect. It's ruined many a good video for me.

 

[QuadBod]

Cheers for the comments guys.

I'd guess that I'm getting a good 400m or so range by using the Kindle Fire but I'm still waiting for a Hobbyking Altimeter to arrive from a slow boat from China so I can measure more accurately.

Will get some vids posted up asap, when I'm back home.

 

[SimonH78]

Looking good - enjoy flying your FC40.... any questions just ask they're a good bunch on here

 

[wattage]

I'd guess that I'm getting a good 400m or so range by using the Kindle Fire but I'm still waiting for a Hobbyking Altimeter to arrive from a slow boat from China so I can measure more accurately.

Word of advice, don't expect miracles from the FC40 camera though. It's really not very reliable so be careful about investing too much time and money into making it what you hoped it would be!

 

[QuadBod]

Looking good - enjoy flying your FC40.... any questions just ask they're a good bunch on here

Cheers mate, appreciate the support.

I'd guess that I'm getting a good 400m or so range by using the Kindle Fire but I'm still waiting for a Hobbyking Altimeter to arrive from a slow boat from China so I can measure more accurately.

Word of advice, don't expect miracles from the FC40 camera though. It's really not very reliable so be careful about investing too much time and money into making it what you hoped it would be!

Yep I hear you but it suits my needs for now plus the FC40 is only used so I can see what my Mobius is filming from the ground and I know it's being recorded in good quality 1080p @30fps .

Will eventually move on to something a bit more high tech no doubt!

 

[ilblissli]

can you possibly post some more details about your gimbal set up and how you have mounted the fc40 camera?

 

[Dplovin]

New to the forum also from the UK cheshire area, nice setup.

anyone using fpv on the phantom with goggles

 

[QuadBod]

can you possibly post some more details about your gimbal set up and how you have mounted the fc40 camera?

Hi, No probs,
The Gimbal I'm using is a Chinese one that can be had fairly cheap at Goodluckbuy. I got it through Ebay, the seller is called GoodLuckSell.
It cost me £45 and does the job nicely. Only downside is that being made of metal its a little on the heavy side.
Total weight of my Phantom as it is now is around 1140g.

The controllers on these gimbals are clones of the Base Cam Electronics SimbleBGC and will only run on hacked versions (.null.hex) of the firmware (SimpleBGC_2_2_b2_null.hex to be exact!)
I found this out the hard way when I plugged in the gimbal to my PC for the first time and updated the firmware, the gimbal stopped working altogether and I spent a few day's searching the web until I found the correct firmware for my board. So bare this in mind if you go for one of these gimbals!
Having said that it works really well once you add the right weight and balance it properly through the GUI software, I just need to work on slight Jello effect that I'm getting in some of my videos.

I have been making some adjustments to both the FC40 and Mobius camera mounts and how these are attached to the gimbal, I currently have it set up as per the pictures below.
Sorry for the poor quality pictures but hopefully you get the idea:

 

[QuadBod]

New to the forum also from the UK cheshire area, nice setup.

anyone using fpv on the phantom with goggles

Thanks, and welcome not far from me then!

I'm sure there's a few people on here using goggles with the FC40, would love to myself one day

I think because the transmitter runs on 5.8ghz there are fewer options with FPV gear that run on 2.4ghz though...

 

[scooterbuk]

Love the kindle mount looking for something the same, find the screen hard to see when the sun is out tho

 

[QuadBod]

Love the kindle mount looking for something the same, find the screen hard to see when the sun is out tho

Thanks! Bit of a botch job but does the trick!

Yeah could do with a sun shade but it's already quite bulky and a bit heavy to handle so will probably just deal with it for now