Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all of the emails, and excellent feedback so far. I must apologize for the delay in response to some of your messages though - we've been overwhelmed with emails about this gimbal, but are slowly getting on top of things.
Here's a little more information about it:
- CNC machined aluminum parts from 7075-T6 aluminum ("aircraft grade"). Aluminum typically doesn't *snap* when crashed, unlike many plastics, or carbon fiber
- 3D printed Vision mounting bracket which is lightweight, strong, and doesn't interfere with wi-fi signal transmission
- The mounting bracket will either allow the DJI filter holder to be installed, or we will include a 46mm thread on the mounting bracket... in either case, you'll still be able to use filters!
- Protective case for the gimbal control board
- Tilt control maintained through the Vision App (or through X1 channel on the radio... trying to purchase a large quantity of them now...)
- Completely plug-and-play. Just connect the vibration damping balls together, and plug in 2 cables. No soldering or opening the Phantom necessary. You also need to go into the Assistant software and change the gimbal gain settings, since you don't want the standard gimbal correction signals (meant for the stock pitch servo) to be sent to the gimbal control board.
- Uses an official AlexMos gimbal control board (not an open source one with a hacked firmware which can't take upgrades...), and the latest Basecam GUI, which will allow a 3-axis upgrade eventually!
- Hero 2 or Hero 3 cameras can be used with appropriate mounting brackets, with a few minor adjustments.
Regarding the cost - we haven't settled on the price yet, but it should fall in the $300-400 range. The actual price will depend on several factors, including final machining costs, gimbal board prices, quantity of parts that we commit to manufacture, how long each will take to assemble, test, package, and ship, etc.
Regarding quality of components - we are not skimping on anything. High quality aluminum. High quality machining. Industrial quality 3D printers with ABS-Plus plastic (not desktop printers which have low repeatability). Custom cables designed specifically for this gimbal. We're trying to come out of the gates with as high-quality a gimbal as possible.
arinvideo said:
I asked them what if I want to swap to a go pro later on and a few other questions..
The vibration issue has been theoretically solved - the problem is a particular joint in the gimbal not being perfectly rigid, so it was acting like a spring...
Regarding the quote above - since responding to that email, we have decided to completely re-design our gimbal from the bottom up, specifically for the Vision camera, rather than just trying to adapt the Vision camera to our existing gimbals which weren't strong enough to handle the additional weight of the Vision camera. Now, our new design is MUCH stronger, and eliminates the vibration problems that we were having before.
Regarding the motor magnets being too close to the compass - this has not been a problem at all. It's actually somewhat far from the compass, so doesn't pose a problem for flight characteristics. Our tests confirm this.
We're anxiously awaiting the final production samples so that we can finally get these gimbals shipping!
Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns about the design, since we're still able to make changes to the design now.
Thanks,
Keri
