Preview: DJI Phantom XGimbal by Bo Lorentzen

Adam · Jan 18, 2013

I've been reading about two gimbals which should be coming to the market soon. One is from Tony of RC-Drones.com, the other is from Bo Lorentzen.

Let's talk about Bo's gimbal. Bo uses a 3D printer so this model will be made from ABS plastic. Bo promises easy fitment utilizing the GoPro thumbscrew mount on the underside of the Phantom. Bo doesn't have a price or a release date, and he has stated it is still in testing. The second video shows some servo "twitching" - it appears this is just a problem with a bad servo and not the gimbal. This gimbal shows promise and I think Bo is going to take his time to get it right the first time before releasing it for sale.

A few videos here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07i9J02OvM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAy13EYa_bE[/youtube]

Dansker · Jan 19, 2013

Adam, thank you for posting this, Im a bit reluctant to promote it yet as its still being worked on. I call the design the Xgimbal.

Yes, the twitching is fixed, it was a faulty servo, today I was testing the rig with a pair of maga powerful SAVOX servos, way over priced for this, but they move smoooth as butter. as my s800 is down for fixing this week, I will be using the phantom on a shoot tomorrow and intend to fly it with the Xgimbal and the SAVOX servos.

I have said before, and it is important for me to make sure I do not miss-represent this and what to expect... I do not believe it is possible to get perfectly smooth gimbal control from the NAZA system, but I do believe shooting with a 2 axis stabilized gimbal can get us 80-90% of the way. getting very close deliver video that is optimal for running through warp stab on FCP or any other post stabilizer. I feel that is a good compromise, after all we are talking about a system costing about 10% of high-end multi-rotor systems.

*** Now on another note.. since I love the portability of the Phantom, I have flown the gimbal with a higher end gimbal controller, and it is conceivable to marry the xGimbal to a standalone controller for much higher gimbal performance.

The Hero3 have been my focus in making this, and my thinking is along this line, it is possible to shoot 1440p video and stabilize-render to 1080p or shoot 1080p and render to 720p in post and get very clean results.
BTW.. if one don't have a trick editing software with solid stabilisation options, it is even possible to upload as a private video to YouTube and let YouTube stabilize, then download the stabilized result.

Part of the design parameters come from me being a old news-shooter, and I have tried to keep it really simple. the Xgimbal is designed to completely fit inside the landing gear, so the Phantom landing gear work as a roll-cage for the gimbal and your camera. * I adjusted the size of dampeners for vibrations to keep the bottom of the camera about 1cm off the ground.

Putting the gimbal inside the landing gear space, makes it easy to leave the gimbal on and stick the entire rig in a padded case.

I ignored the choice to put a underslung battery, because most video production center around much less than 5 minute "takes" and I am more likely to do one or two takes, then change battery regardless if I need it or not.

The top of the gimbal is designed to fit under the Phantom and mount with the existing mounting treads in the Phantom.

Status of the gimbal at the moment is that the main hardware is finished, and the gimbal have been send to a couple of beta testers, we are still improving the Servo choice.

To illustrate this, some pulltape from one of the beta gimbals.
The indoor looking good,
the outdoor was shot with gusty 90 deg side wind from left, not pretty bust works with stabilize. the last few sec, full throttle forward, then climb and full stop forward. yes that DID shake a bit.. notice the prop arms in the top of the image for that.
https://vimeo.com/57771814
Please feel free to ask or comment on this.