Suspended camera = very unstable oscillation

[iceryan]

I have a small "360 camera" I want to suspend from my P2V+
I removed the included gimbal and camera, and suspended the camera by a carbon fiber pole bolted to "near center" of P2V+ belly.
Camera is suspended about 30cm (12 inches) below belly.... would prefer lower, but at least need to get it below landing gear to be out of 360 main view.
Camera, pole and rigging weight 495 grams.

This SHOULD be OK as far as weight goes... but the phantom struggles violently with severe oscillation and tilting/falling back to earth quite quickly.

It handles the weight fine if strapped to belly, but mus be suspended.

Do you think I just need to get a more precise center of gravity for mount? (Anyone know for sure it is middle of where X asis crosses? Or otherwise...?)

Or must I adjust the center of gravity figures in the software (running NAZA/IOC mode) to compensate for the hanging weight...

I see videos of pantoms lifting other phantoms, so this seems doable....
NOTE - this is using stock motors and props - not the new upgrade version, although hopefully that is on the way, but a fix in the meantime would be grand.

 

[Meta4]

Camera, pole and rigging weight 495 grams.
This SHOULD be OK as far as weight goes... but the phantom struggles violently with severe oscillation and tilting/falling back to earth quite quickly.

Should be OK ?? On what do you base this statement?
The P2+ camera and gimbal weigh in at a lightweight 130g and you've replaced them with a boat anchor 495g.
For a start I'd be reconsidering whether the Phantom can fly properly with that much extra weight.
If you have your weight on a 30 cm rod - you have some basic physics to contend with.
Any off centre weight will have an increased effect due to leverage - like the weight in a yacht keel.
Your poor Phantom is trying to tell you that it can't handle this much weight that far away.
Any moves it makes to correct are met with additional forces from your keel weight of a camera, hence the oscillation.
Back to the drawing board.

 

[CityZen]

Instead of mounting the camera on a stiff pole, could you mount it on a pivoting pole with spring damping? You may have to work on the spring pressure, but it seems it might help.

 

[DBS]

495 grams is not OK for the Phantom... like you said, if you strap it up right to the belly, it will fly... but it won't fly "well" ... it won't deal with wind gusts very easily and it will be much more susceptible to VRS and won't be able to correct for that ...

Moving it farther away from center of mass is just compounding the problem... much worse with a stiff pole... hang it from a string and it will lessen the problem but then ruin the camera/360° idea.

One way or another you'll end up smashing the camera and/or the Phantom trying to accomplish this.

The TALI H500 was set up to deal with heavier camera setups like this and even that platform had the idea squashed... birds this size don't deal well with that kind of payload.

They can lift and get it airborne ... but if you're thinking about actually flying that way... you're gonna have a bad time :ugeek:

 

[iceryan]

The idea was to get it capable of some simple short moves or hoverings but clearly it struggles too much. It will be interesting to see if new motors and props help, but as you say, may not be worth the risk...