Lets talk gimbals

[Peter Patricelli]

It is clear that I am goingto have to get a gimbal/stabilizer of some sort for my Phantom/gopro in order to get reasonably good video.

There appears to be four levels. At the top end seems to be the DJI Zenmuse for about $600, which has 3D movement with a tilt factor/lever. That seems to be the 'state-of-the-art at th moment.

Then, in the 2D range there appear to be a @ $150-$250 set of assembled, ready-to-go models. Anyone have experience/suggestions for any one of these?

There appears to be generic or UN-assembled 2D gimbals, most of them from China, available from eBay in the $50-$100 range.

Last are just the vibration dampening models for $20-$30. I a sure I want more than this level o stabilization.

Does anyone have any experience with or can speak to the pros and cons of each variety...inherent design or functional problems....difficulty mounting...getting to work....etc.

Thanks,
Peter Patricelli

 

[cd419]

The zenmuse is only 2 axis (pitch and roll). I personally have the Arris CM2000 and it's great @ 330 usd. The most recent versions come with an official AlexMOS board. The build quality is excellent and it comes pre-tuned from the shop. Tuning PIDs can take a long time and you may never get it quite right if your balance is off. Which is why I would stay away from the cheapy no-name options. The tarot is a good option for about 150 usd never used it but have heard good things.

The arris and the tarot gimbal will be much simpler to install than the zenmuse on a phantom. The zenmuse requires the pmu v2 to be installed or the upgrade PDB board which both require a bit of simple soldering and placing some components in the phantom body. The arris and tarot just require power and optionally a servo wire to your receiver or the NAZA for pitch control.

You can't go wrong with the zenmuse as it's a high quality gimbal however the price might be too high compared to the quality of other options.

 

[simonthk]

I dunno about the zenmuse but I guess it is easy to setup, and upload new firmware too etc. Probably works fine mostly aswell. Cost alot.

When it comes to the cheap china models, they are most often based on the Martinez board. My china gimbal works perfectly fine, but the software to the Martinez board is the most tricky and also how to learn and update the stuff etc. Im sure you get some guides with the zenmuse on how to do stuff and you don't get anything usefull guides when buying a china gimbal base on the Martinez board, and there are endless of threads on the internet with people having troubles.
For me example, I destroyed the bootloader. The board is based on Arduino and for some reason eh bootloader can fail. So I hadda first figure that out (maybe the reasons for none working) and then buy another board to burn bootloader back on the board.

Anyway, after long working with the china model, I can perfectly fine do whatever I want with it. Change PID values, upload firmware, change motor positions..... but it has taken a hell of along time for me to figure out all the details... Though of you ought to buy the China model, it will work when u get it outta the box... but will the tilt work with DJI 7 channel or do u have to upload new firmware.....

For some people, it sure can pay of to buy a more supportet product like zenmuse.

 

[Firestat]

I just got one less then a week ago. It is a Gadget Salon on Ebay for $219 and I am very pleased. I found the little rubber thingys just teribble to deal with, and went with, our friend, Velcro. This is one of the first videos that I did.

Chuck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA7xWbkFBmk

 

[Firestat]

I probably did push the Youtube button when they asked to fix it. Maybe I should leave it alone.
Anyway, this was right out of the box. Still playing with it.

Thanks,
Chuck

 

[Rigger609]

DJI Phantom Aluminum Brushless Gimbal Camera Mount w/ Motor & Controller for Gopro3 FPV Aerial Photography from goodluckbuy. Does anyone know if this has pan/tilt function? I would like to know before I get one.

Thanks

 

[niknas]

I was using the GoodLuckBuy $109 gimbal. I worked great right out of the box until I attached the pitch control to NAZA. It worked for about 10 minutes then it bricked. I tried for a better part of a day to fix it to no avail. Looking for different replacement that I can program.

Nik

 

[howardmaryon]

In between the Zenmuse and the passive "four rubber balls" approach, there are many variants, but they all have one thing in common, they only work in 2 dimensions, hence the "2d" designation. 3d is pointless on a phantom, because of the fixed landing legs. The only ones worth considering are direct drive brushless motors, and of those, the simplest to install are the ones with on-board controllers, which only need power and dont interfere with the Naza in any way. Of these, I have the Tarot and am totally happy with it. One good point, any gimbal will not look its best if you fly in gps mode, the Phantom will be twitching all the time to correct itself and ruin your shots, so get used to flying in atti mode, it really helps.

 

[Rigger609]

I was using the GoodLuckBuy $109 gimbal. I worked great right out of the box until I attached the pitch control to NAZA. It worked for about 10 minutes then it bricked. I tried for a better part of a day to fix it to no avail. Looking for different replacement that I can program.

Good to know. Glad I checked before I ordered one.
Thank you

 

[maytrix]

Try the 4 rubber balls first. For $20 its a low cost way to get some improvement. I have that and feel it works great, although I never tried it without, so its hard to say. But moving slow I can get some very smooth video. Only reason for wanting anything more is if I was going to try to sell the footage, but for personal use, its perfectly acceptable.