counterbalancing gopro with filter?

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Hi there

Just ordered a ND filter for my gopro. Should I put some counterweight on the back of the camera when its mounted in my zenmuse H3-3D?

Saw a video on Youtube where there was a guy using a coin on the back... Do you have any thoughts about that?

Take Care
 
The H3-3D is balanced for the naked gopro in the factory. If you put anything on it, you may need to rebalance it. A gimbal is balanced NOT when it just holds a level position but when it holds any position you place it in. You may need to counterbalance the weight of the filter or you risk either burning out the gimbal motors which will try to compensate for the extra weight (howsoever fractional that may be) or the gimbal may just freak out on you. Equally, it may be just totally fine :)

Best thing would be to try and see how it's balanced before you place the filter on it and once you've placed the filter see if you can get it to balance the same again. You'd be surprised how little weight is needed to throw it off balance.

Bmews
 
BMEWS said:
The H3-3D is balanced for the naked gopro in the factory. If you put anything on it, you may need to rebalance it. A gimbal is balanced NOT when it just holds a level position but when it holds any position you place it in. You may need to counterbalance the weight of the filter or you risk either burning out the gimbal motors which will try to compensate for the extra weight (howsoever fractional that may be) or the gimbal may just freak out on you. Equally, it may be just totally fine :)

Best thing would be to try and see how it's balanced before you place the filter on it and once you've placed the filter see if you can get it to balance the same again. You'd be surprised how little weight is needed to throw it off balance.

Bmews

if its not in balance, what then to do?
 
I've got the Polarpro ND on mine. I counterbalanced with stick on tire weights but didn't like the idea of having so much additional weight on the gimbal. I also noticed a bit more shake from the P2.

I emailed Polarpro to see if any of their guys are flying multirotors with the ND and using a H3-3D. The tech told me that many of them are flying the P2 using that setup and none of them are counterbalancing the H3-3D. They all prefer it that way and all are thrilled with the performance. None have had issues with the Gimbal.

I removed the counterbalance weights and now fly with the ND filter on and let the Gimbal handle the rest. No Problems and I love the footage. No Shake!
 
flyfishdk said:
if its not in balance, what then to do?

Either fly without and let me motors do the work. Other's have already attested in this thread that they're flying fine without. However, this may be putting additional strain on the gimbal motors. Equally, it may not. That''s the risk.

Put the filter on. see if it's balanced. If not? You have a decision to make.

To balance some use weights on the rear of the gimbal and the pitch axis (lots of trial and error).

Bmews
 
I just got my PolarPro ND and at certain gimbal attitudes, it touches the canbus that's attached to the landing gear leg. I don't have any other choice on mounting the canbus as the cabling from the canbus from inside the Phantom body would have to be rerouted to a different leg. I'm using the iOSD Mini mounted under the battery compartment of the Phantom 2.

Do you have this problem?

Xrover said:
I've got the Polarpro ND on mine. I counterbalanced with stick on tire weights but didn't like the idea of having so much additional weight on the gimbal. I also noticed a bit more shake from the P2.

I emailed Polarpro to see if any of their guys are flying multirotors with the ND and using a H3-3D. The tech told me that many of them are flying the P2 using that setup and none of them are counterbalancing the H3-3D. They all prefer it that way and all are thrilled with the performance. None have had issues with the Gimbal.

I removed the counterbalance weights and now fly with the ND filter on and let the Gimbal handle the rest. No Problems and I love the footage. No Shake!
 
Xrover said:
I've got the Polarpro ND on mine. I counterbalanced with stick on tire weights but didn't like the idea of having so much additional weight on the gimbal. I also noticed a bit more shake from the P2.

I emailed Polarpro to see if any of their guys are flying multirotors with the ND and using a H3-3D. The tech told me that many of them are flying the P2 using that setup and none of them are counterbalancing the H3-3D. They all prefer it that way and all are thrilled with the performance. None have had issues with the Gimbal.

I removed the counterbalance weights and now fly with the ND filter on and let the Gimbal handle the rest. No Problems and I love the footage. No Shake!

Good to hear you got that confirmation from Polarpro. I've been using this filter unbalanced for a few months. I chose not to balance it mainly to avoid adding weight. I also read some users having problems getting it to work correctly after balancing the gimbal. Honestly, I didn't even try and just went off of other people's experiences.

I have noticed that sometimes my gimbal will "drop", tilt all the way down then pop back up. I'm pretty sure this is due to the extra weight of the lens since this doesn't happen without the filter attached. When this happens, I'll move the gimbal to tilt down slightly and that takes care of it.

I'm sure someone will jump on here and tell us that we MUST balance our gimbals. Maybe for my reason above, but as for burning out gimbal motors, I think you'll crash/destroy your gimbal before the burnout happens....just my opinion.
 
BrentHG said:
I just got my PolarPro ND and at certain gimbal attitudes, it touches the canbus that's attached to the landing gear leg. I don't have any other choice on mounting the canbus as the cabling from the canbus from inside the Phantom body would have to be rerouted to a different leg. I'm using the iOSD Mini mounted under the battery compartment of the Phantom 2.

Do you have this problem?

I have my canbus inside the P2.

Xrover said:
I've got the Polarpro ND on mine. I counterbalanced with stick on tire weights but didn't like the idea of having so much additional weight on the gimbal. I also noticed a bit more shake from the P2.

I emailed Polarpro to see if any of their guys are flying multirotors with the ND and using a H3-3D. The tech told me that many of them are flying the P2 using that setup and none of them are counterbalancing the H3-3D. They all prefer it that way and all are thrilled with the performance. None have had issues with the Gimbal.

I removed the counterbalance weights and now fly with the ND filter on and let the Gimbal handle the rest. No Problems and I love the footage. No Shake!
 
I fly with a polarized filter from polar pro and have no counterbalancing going on. The gimbal seems to handle the weight just fine
 
Ejazzle said:
I fly with a polarized filter from polar pro and have no counterbalancing going on. The gimbal seems to handle the weight just fine

the same here, the filter looks huge, but it doesn't affect the gimbal in any way. By the way - is it possible that filter reduces video quality? (glass is clear ;)
 

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