The GoodLuckBuy Phantom gimbal. Any reviews ?

[phil flyman]

Hi,
Flying the Phantom, I want to buy a gimbal, but I'm still wondering ....

Another member pointed me towards this GoodLuckBuy gimbal for Phantom :

http://www.goodluckbuy.com/dji-phantom- ... raphy.html

for only 109 USD and free shipping. And the video looked very good to me. Didn't see much better with the Zenmuse for example.

It makes me wonder seriously about the price of the Zenmuse. I can't imagine they have a production price much higher then this one. The rest is what ? Marketing costs, brand, high profit margins ??? And too many people seem to have problems with it !

Does anyone have a review of this GoodLuckBuy gimbal ? Or anybody bought it ?
Are cables included, etc .... ?
Please let me know.

Something else :
Any thoughts also on the AeroXcraft gimbal for Phantom :

http://www.aeroxcraft.com/index.php?mai ... ucts_id=61

All your feedback is much appreciated.
Thx. Greetz
Phil (from Bali)

 

[Driffill]

Build gimbal $100

From manufacture to dji ^ $200

From dji to dealers ^ $400

Dealers to public ^ $800

Everyone wants to make their money

 

[phil flyman]

Build gimbal $100

From manufacture to dji ^ $200

From dji to dealers ^ $400

Dealers to public ^ $800

Everyone wants to make their money

Sure Driffill, but that's times 8 ! And reading all the problems on this forum .....
So, I was hoping to find some reviews on this cheap gimbal that looks OK at first sight.
Greetz.
Phil

 

[Driffill]

It's an example of people running a 100% profit margin!

The dealers may not have that high of a mark up, but that is why retail products cost more than the same item direct from a manufacture!

I use a $40 servo gimbal . . . Want a review on that I can help you, but not any of the brushless ones, tho for ~$110 I might give the goodluckbuy brushless gimbal a try

 

[Sac D]

I'm still waiting for the $136 version of the GLB gimbal to show up here. It's been almost three weeks since I ordered it!

http://www.goodluckbuy.com/2-axis-gopro ... aphy-.html

 

[hoounddog]

i have the 109$ on order and it should be here next week (slo-boat from china literaly). Will post some video when i get it.

I orignially bought the rctimer gimbal ( http://www.rctimer.com/product_872.html ) but it is too big for the phantom, so now I am in the process of building other crafts (quadcopters) as well. After a lot of work the rctimer works incredble.

I will say this, DJI stuff may cost a lot more but if it works out of the box then that is cool.

The 109$ gimbal uses a Martinez controller which is code written and flashed to a arduino board ( http://www.arduino.cc/ )
https://code.google.com/p/brushless-gimbal/

This is basically what DJI did...only they put it into a nice box/platform that (hopefully) works plug and play. This isnt a bad thing for many people. Fortunately, I come from a UNIX/programming background and this stuff (like arduino) just come prettu natural.

There is another project that is freggin' UNREAL call arducopter, which many of you will probably start looking for soon when you grow out of the phantom 'phase'.... It is all good, and honestly, what DJI did is wat Apple computer did in the beginning days of the computer: they made something pretty complicated easy to get into.

Anyway, some of you might also want to see the arducopter. The guy in this video bought a phantom case and put arducopter in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCSBhScI_dI PRETTY NEAT!

here is his blog: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/fly ... copter-3-0


anyway, just wanted to share with you a bit about what I have learned since getting into this stuff via the phantom. It has only been 5 months since I got it, and I stil use it all of the time.

Happy flying to all.

Peace,
hd
http://ardupilot.com/

 

[Adam]

Surprised no one is offering a ArduPilot Phantom RTF with waypoint software all setup. Seems all the components, including Phantom shells are readily available, just need someone to button it up into a nice package and sell them...

i have the 109$ on order and it should be here next week (slo-boat from china literaly). Will post some video when i get it.

I orignially bought the rctimer gimbal ( http://www.rctimer.com/product_872.html ) but it is too big for the phantom, so now I am in the process of building other crafts (quadcopters) as well. After a lot of work the rctimer works incredble.

I will say this, DJI stuff may cost a lot more but if it works out of the box then that is cool.

The 109$ gimbal uses a Martinez controller which is code written and flashed to a arduino board ( http://www.arduino.cc/ )
https://code.google.com/p/brushless-gimbal/

This is basically what DJI did...only they put it into a nice box/platform that (hopefully) works plug and play. This isnt a bad thing for many people. Fortunately, I come from a UNIX/programming background and this stuff (like arduino) just come prettu natural.

There is another project that is freggin' UNREAL call arducopter, which many of you will probably start looking for soon when you grow out of the phantom 'phase'.... It is all good, and honestly, what DJI did is wat Apple computer did in the beginning days of the computer: they made something pretty complicated easy to get into.

Anyway, some of you might also want to see the arducopter. The guy in this video bought a phantom case and put arducopter in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCSBhScI_dI PRETTY NEAT!

here is his blog: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/fly ... copter-3-0


anyway, just wanted to share with you a bit about what I have learned since getting into this stuff via the phantom. It has only been 5 months since I got it, and I stil use it all of the time.

Happy flying to all.

Peace,
hd
http://ardupilot.com/

 

[hoounddog]

You asked for it, now you got it. Here is the first review (to my knowledge anway) of the goodluckbuy $109 gimbal....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljyoqBtByx4

I definitely like the low profile and the fact that it comes prebuilt and preloaded with the firmware. COOL! So there you go, easy as that. I am assuming that optionally if you didnt care to do any of that soldering you could just run a 3s battery w/ a JST connector as power. Not sure, but I will let yall know. Man, this is cool and it looks SOLID! I am stoked I ordered this.

I am also starting to look for new motors, eg like http://www.rctimer.com/product_814.html which would probably run 9x5 carbon props pretty nicely. These are also very interesting: http://www.rctimer.com/product_813.html

Better still... just get these doodads from goodluckbuy too!! http://www.goodluckbuy.com/emax-mt2213- ... hrust.html for under $16 each!!!

For cheap props for the phantom, I am thinking about just getting these http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... llow_.html

If you are getting those, might as well get 3 phantom batteries for the price of one dji!! http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... _Pack.html hehe. I have four of these, one was actally a little big for the phantom, so I use that with other stuff... But for $7.89??!! might as well get 10!

There... Now I can overhaul this thing and make the resulting product (video) as good as those octocopters!!

Hope everyone is doing well.

HD

 

[hoounddog]

Ok, here is the results of the 109$ gimbal. Someone tell me that it is better/worse than the dji 700$ one.


Goodluckbuy Brushless Gimbal - 1st flight test w/ DJI Phantom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNLNAx7zQp0


Looks really good to me.

 

[Sac D]

I've got the $136 version of the GLB gimbal finally installed and tuned... it's working fine, although I would have liked it better if they hadn't neglected to send the isolation mount with it, so now I am waiting on the slow boat from China AGAIN.
I'm gonna operate on it when that arrives, and move the controller board up top (like it should be) instead of hanging down behind the gimbal with a HIT ME! sign on it.

 

[Tysondvs]

The 109$ gimbal uses a Martinez controller which is code written and flashed to a arduino board ( http://www.arduino.cc/ )
https://code.google.com/p/brushless-gimbal/

This is basically what DJI did...only they put it into a nice box/platform that (hopefully) works plug and play. This isnt a bad thing for many people. Fortunately, I come from a UNIX/programming background and this stuff (like arduino) just come prettu natural.

Thanks for the information. I recently received the gimbal as well but it's acting erratic and won't stay level. I'm not too familiar wih how to flash the board or update the firmware for the gimbal. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? I tried plugging into the USB but it isn't recognized as an external device.

 

[Hiway]

... I recently received the gimbal as well but it's acting erratic and won't stay level. I'm not too familiar wih how to flash the board or update the firmware for the gimbal. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? I tried plugging into the USB but it isn't recognized as an external device.

I believe the info and firmware you seek is here: http://www.basecamelectronics.com/downloads/

You will find documentation, firmware from 2.0 on up (My gimbal, and yours (but verify of course) are using 2.0)

My gimbal is erratic if the camera is not mounted- the weight of the hero balances it I think. I also notice that while it jumps once or twice immediately following boot up, none of my video footage shows any issues once airborn- also the clearance tolerances are very touchy- any wire loom hitting the landing gear, or pinching against the landing gear or motors will cause a hitch in the giddy up.

Personally, my issues are around the poor soldering- I had 1 wire come loose from the board (black ground to the battery) and the red wire detached from the balance connector plug. All easy and quick fixes mind you, but a second or 2 more in production would have solved that problem and not lead to potentially poor perceptions (alliteration is also a hobby of mine)