The excitement of getting my DJI Phantom quadcopter with 3-axis gimbal airborne was quickly diminished when I found out that the bird was heavy, sluggish, and very low on the flight time. The landing gear extensions, camera mount, and gimbal add quite a bit of weight to the unit.

If I absolutely have to go with that setup, I can.  I’ll be able to get 3-3:30 worth of GREAT video per flight before each battery tanks.  When it tanks the unit drops out of the sky quickly.  Caution is necessary.  Can’t fly it too far away or I won’t have time to get ‘er back before she crash lands.

Today I tasked myself with trying to get the 3-axis gimbal installed but without the heavy landing gear extensions and mounting platform.  I took those off and found a way of mounting the gimbal to my old jello mount simply by rotating the mount about a half an inch.

By taking off the extended landing gear and the mounting platform I was able to shave off about 1/4 pound of weight.  As a perspective, I can imagine trying to fly the copter with a McDonald’s Quarter-Pounder on it.  WIthout the 1/4 pound it will certainly fly a little better and a little longer.  I’ve heard as much as a second per gram.   The old weight was 1,360 grams and the new weight is 1,247.  Below is the 2.75 pound setup:

I’ve got some new accessories on order to combat the flight time issues.  Yeah, more costly accessories.  What else is new?

I’m changing to the propellors which come on the new DJI Phantom 2.  They’re bigger and more efficient.  They’ll provide more lift.  That means more flight time and perhaps even better handling with the load.

I’ve also ordered a couple of more powerful “LIPo” batteries.  The stock batteries which come with the Phantom 1 are 2200mAh and these new ones are 2700.  They should provide more power and a little more flight time.

I’m hoping reducing the weight of the copter combined with the new props and more powerful batteries will bring that flight time up from 3:30 to something a little more usable, like 6-7 minutes.

This weekend I’m planning a golf trip south.  Many courses other great spots in sceninc southern Utah to fly and shoot.  Lots of material should be forthcoming.

I’ve been dying to take a flight with my DJI Phantom quadcopter with a gimbal in action since I ordered my first gimbal in October.  FYI: Gimbals do their best to keep the camera level to help produce better videos and photos.

After going through one defective and less sophisticated gimbal, I finally got a 3-axis model by Arris, a CM3000.  Today was my first real flight.

The Good News

The gimbal works!  The camera stays level and the video/stills look great.  There’s a bit of jello effect in the first video and I’m hoping that is because I forgot to tighten the camera mount.

There was a bit of wind and despite that the video looks great.  No horizon shift.  It is LEVEL the WHOLE time.  That is very cool.

Video

Here’s the video:

IT is quite amazing that the video is so level, especially considering the lack of handling and the amount of wind there was.

On the second flight I had a hard time landing the unit, so for the first time I just caught the Phantom in my hand.  Did it without chopping my eyeballs to shreds.

The Bad News

Deep breath… okay.  I knew adding the gimbal and the associated landing gear extensions that the flight time and performance would be affected.    Affected is an understatement.

On the first flight the Phantom took off seemingly fine.  Naturally the unit seemed sluggish and less sporty as compared to the lighter version.  Responses seemed slow and sluggish and the unit doesn’t climb as fast.  Also, when reducing the throttle the unit drops, hard.

I can deal with the performance issues though.  I’m not worried about performance if I’m trying to get smooth video and decent pictures.

As always I timed my flights, which there were three.  After seeing the red warning light indicating that the battery is close to being dead on the first flight, I started to pilot it back to myself for a landing.  The unit started descending and would respond not throttle up.  10 feet from me it collided with a fire hydrant of all things, ending up face down in the mud and snow with the gimbal jerking itself trying to level.

A couple of scuffs and not any damage.  A look at my timer showed around four minutes.  FOUR minutes.  Normal flight time with no camera is 12-15 minutes.  The basic setup with the camera and jello mount is 8-10 minutes.  Could this extra weight of the gimbal and landing gear extensions reduce my flight time to four  minutes?  There was some wind, but still that is not a good number. The next two flights would confirm that I had under four minutes, closer to 3:30.

I weighed the whole unit and it is coming in at three pounds or 1360 grams.  That’s simply too heavy.

I will be removing the landing gear extension kit and seeing if the gimbal will function with the regular landing gear and the plastic snap on 3D printed feet I bought on eBay a while back.  I think I could knock it down quite a bit.

I’m thrilled to post that I finally seem to have a working gimbal for my DJI Phantom quadcopter.

I ordered my first one, which turned out to be defective, in October 2013.  It is now January 9th, 2014!

This gimbal has three axes, as opposed to two.  The third axis can be set to keep the camera pointing a certain direction unless the copter rotates more than x degrees.  VERY cool.

It was suggested that with the unit I install a setup which widens and extends the landing gear.  This makes the unit more stable in takeoff and landing, and also allows the gimbal room to rotate.

I’ll be taking some test video flights this weekend.  Hope to show some nice, smooth video.  I do know that the extra weight and power draw will reduce flight times and possible some of the handling capabilities of the copter.  But really, if I’ve got the video/photo gear attached, I’m not looking to do any crazy stuff.