Across the field aerial

Trying to reach the peak of the mountain ahead in a windy day. The gimbal got crazy. I had to press Return To Home to come back and land automatically.

Placing the Tarot T-2D gimbal with GoPro Hero 3 on the Iron Man 650

After the successful mayden flight of the Tarot Iron Man 650 (apart from landing!), now it is the moment of placing the Tarot T-2D gimbal with the GoPro Hero 3.

As I don´t want the propellers neither the quad legs to appear on camera, I have to place the gimbal on the front of the quad. As this unbalances the whole quadcopter, I have to redistribute some items on the top plate. This means placing the GPS of the Naza on the front, the gimbal battery on the middle, and the main battery on the bottom of the top plate.

I have set up the end point of the gimbal in the transmitter, so when the camera is looking to the front the propellers never appear on camera. But what if I lean it to the front to much because I go fast forward? and if the camera is facing down and I lean it to the right or left? In the angle is too wide then the propellers or the legs are very likely to appear on the footage. I will test it soon.

Now the weight of the quadcopter has gone up to 2,18kg with the bigger battery (Turnigy 3S 5000 mAh). I don´t spect it to fly now for 13 minutes, but hopefully it reaches 10 minutes easily.

I will put the visor as well to avoid the shadow of the motors on camera.

Tarot Iron Man 650 - Gimbal Tarot T-2D

Redistributing the elements on the top plate

Iron Man 650 with Naza and FPV

Front view of the Iron Man 650 with Tarot T-2D gimbal

Top view of the Iron Man 650 with Tarot T-2D gimbal

Weight of the Tarot Iron Man 650 with T-2D gimbal and FPV

UPDATE:

I was not convinced about the gimbal position, so I´ve used longer tubes to place the camera further from the center of the quad. Now it is much more difficult to have the propellers on camera when going forward, or the legs when the camera is facing down and moving from side to side.

I have several batteries of 2200 mAh, that gives me just a few minutes of flight, so I have made a serial wire so I can join two of them having 4400 mAh.

I have also purchased a 45C 5200 mAh Blue Monster battery with 4S instead 3S which is what I usally use. I will test it to see the difference. I expect to have more flight time despite of the weight of the whole quad that goes now up to 2,35 kg more or less.

Because of all the mess described above, I have had to redistribute the weight so the quad is balanced. I´ve put a rear battery plate that seems to do the job.

Hopefully tomorrow is not raining and I can go out there and see what happens...

Blue monster 5200 mah battery lipo

Serial wire for lipo batteries

Tarot Iron Man 650 Battery holder

Tarot Iron Man 650 Folded arms

Tarot Iron Man 650 Gimbal Tarot T-2D GoPro Hero 3

Tarot Iron Man 650 Top plate

Trying to get rid of the shutter effect (jello) with ND filters

Yes, I´m still trying to get rid of jello! It seems that shooting with the GoPro under too bright conditions, it uses a very fast shutter speed which records all the tiny high-frequency vibrations from your motors, props, etc., and causes this rolling shutter effect, or jello.

Fixing this is still a priority in my To-Do list, as I have to eliminate lot´s of shots that could be used perfectly in the final footage because of the jello. I will try to reduce part of it (or all If I´m lucky!) using a neutral density filter to reduce the shutter speed but letting through enough light for a clear picture.

There are some already made filters for the GoPro but are a bit expensive, and who knows if they are going to solve my problem... so I prefer to go first for a DIY solution and see what happens.

This is the solution I have come up with, for under $5:

• Lens protector ($4.57)
• A piece of cardboard (used to avoid the shadow of the propellers on the lens)
• A thin cord
• A neutral Density filter (I have used a .9, that reduces light 3 stops)
• Glue

Steps:

1. Cut the cardboard with the shape of a trapezium. 

• Long side: 4.5cm
• Short side: 2.5cm
• Height: 2.5cm

1. Cut the plastic base of the lens protector so it fits the holder of the GoPro Gimbal. I guess you can use it without this holder to reduce weight too...
2. Glue the lens protector to the holder. I highly recommend to always use the lens protector (with or without filter). I´ve commited the mistake of not using it and I´ve damaged the lens :( (see picture below).
3. Cut a circle of 3cm of diameter from a piece of ND filter. You can either buy it, or ask for a filter sample bock at a photography store. The samples have the perfect fit for the GoPro and you have lots of them to try!
4. Glue the thin cord to the border of the filter, in order of being able to take it out from the lens protector. This is due to the holder of the gimbal, that has a smaller diameter than the protector itself.
5. Insert the filter into the lens protector.
6. Glue the cardboard (the visor) over the lens protector, and use the WiFi preview of the GoPro to check if you need to cut a bit more the visor in order to not appear on the shot (I had to do it to avoid it using the wide FOV).

So let´s fly and see what happens!

TAROT T-2D Gopro Hero 3 brushless gimbal

October 2013. I decided to buy the TAROT T-2D Gopro Hero 3 brushless gimbal. This is a two axis gimbal for stabilizing the GoPro Hero 3. Please find at the end of the post the technical specifications and software.

This gimbal comes half assembled but it's really easy to complete it. In order to have it working I have bought a 500mAh 3S 20C LiPo battery, which gives you enought power to stabilize the camera for about 1h30m. It works out of the box! I've been afraid of connecting it with the software in case I screw it up :)

I've managed to fit it under the quad, being hold by two extra tubes I had, so I can put the gimbal or remove it in a matter of seconds, for flying only FPV or for recording video.

The quad now weights around 1.7kg, depending on the battery I put. I have a 0.5kg 5000mAh one! So it's really heavy now for the plastic propellers that will replace one day with anothers of carbon fiber.

T-2D PTZ is TAROT company for GoPro Hero3 camera was developed, used in photographic film and entertainment, advertising and many other areas of model aircraft photography. PTZ using 6061T6 aluminum alloy full CNC precision machining, brushless direct drive motor, the overall framework designed with the idea of ​​compact, easy installation and other characteristics. Stable head structure allows the aircraft is flying at high speed state, still be able to precisely control the camera mounted GoPro Hero3 remain stable, so that the screen output to achieve the best model aircraft photographic effects.

Gopro two-axis brushless PTZ English software description and download link:

Manual & Assistant Download V1.3 Firmware Download

Product Features:
1, support GOPRO Hero3 video auxiliary output
2, support the supply voltage polarity protection and voltage compensation
3, support the motor drive end short-circuit protection
4, support for custom initial pitch angle
5, support sensitivity parameter adjustment and software 3D pose show
6, the support rocker rate mode and position mode
7, support Receiver: conventional receiver, S-BUS receiver, DSM2/DSMJ/DSMX receiver
8, support for remote devices: PPM/PCM/2.4G
9, the working voltage: DC 7.4V ~ 14.8V (Recommended 12V, three lithium battery)
10, working current: 200mA-500mA (power supply voltage and the motor related)
11, the working environment temperature: -15 ℃ ~ 65 ℃
12, the processor: Dual 32-bit high-speed ARM core processor
13, the sensor: Three rotor MEMS gyroscope rotor MEMS accelerometers and the three
14, the maximum angular rate: 2000°/ sec
15, the maximum acceleration: 16g
16, the control frequency: 2000Hz
17, the motor drive frequency: 20KHz (no noise smoothing driven)
18, the control accuracy: 0.1°
19, the control angle range: -45 °~ 45 °(roll), -135°~ 90°(tilt)
20, pose solver algorithms: PTZ dedicated brushless motor decoupled EKF algorithm
21, for shooting equipment: GOPRO Hero3
Related Part Number:
Head hanging hook TL68A01
GOPRO camera fasteners TL68A02
GOPRO brushless PTZ camera frame assembly TL68A03
GOPRO head roll arm TL68A04
GOPRO PTZ stand arm motor base TL68A05
GOPRO brushless motor TL68A06 PTZ
GOPRO two axes PTZ shock group TL68A07
GOPRO brushless pan rack assembly TL68A08
GOPRO head roll axis brushless motor TL68A09
GOPRO PTZ suspension ball TL68A11
GOPRO two-axis gyroscope ZYX22 PTZ
Specifications:
GOPRO brushless pan rack assembly TL68A08 x1
GOPRO two-axis gyroscope ZYX22 x1 PTZ
Weight: 195g