Hi, i also bought the toad and am quite happy using it. I just have one small issue: the M-10 when equipped with the toad is not fitting the stand very well any more. It's quite hard to balance, because the vertical tilt arms always hit the bottom tubes of the stand. Will there be a new one, maybe "automatically" when upgrading to m-15? Thanks and cheers, Wolf
Brad, Steve or anyone else: Can you tell me if the hole will bolt up to an older style pan pulley? I'd like to try it on my home made gimbal that has a belt/pan configuration just like the radian gimbals.
I got 2 Toad in a holes today and it appears that they do not work with the old style pan belt drive system gimbals. The bolt spacing for both the toad and the hole is not the same as it is for the plate. I talked to Adam today and we are both going to do some creative work arounds.
I had to add a little redundancy to get this to work. I had to take a spare CS8 star plate and use it to bolt up the toad side. I took off the wing parts of the plate just to keep it small. Because the toad couldn't sit flush because of the outer bolts on the CS8 plate I had to space the toad out so that it would clear the bolts. If I remember correctly these spacers are about 3mm and came with the original 2 axis freefly gimbal. I used M3X16 bolts and they just came out of the threads on the star plate. Perfect length. Here's the finished product. Originally I thought about mounting the hole portion to the gimbal but it appears there's no easy way to get the 4 supplied bolts out of the hole. The supplied bolts wouldn't be long enough because of the added 3mm spacers.
Dave, I put mine on the other way with the “Toad” on the copter and the “Hole” on the gimbal. That way the “Freefly” logo is right-side up. These things are meaningful to me. But I doubt it makes a difference, although Freefy sells additional Toads, not holes, so I think that means your copter and your handheld rig both get a Toad, and your gimbal gets a Hole.
Both my gimbals have the pan belt setup that need the exact same mod I just did as neither pan pulley has the correct spacing for the toad. I purchased 2 complete toad sets so that I can use either copter with either gimbal. I am about to build a 3rd gimbal with direct drives for a 5D so that I can have a lower option video camera. I flew the radian servo gimbal the other day and I remember all the issues with it (randomly spins with no control). 2 different radian gimbals did the same thing UGH!! Time to upgrade that gimbal!
Steve the idea was that the Toad goes on the carrying bit (copter, handle bars, Plate). Hole goes on the gimbal. Toad's are cheap. Much simpler than the mechanics of the Hole. Not sure if there is any technical or mechanical reason. If you have multiple things that you want to connect to the gimbal might want to rethink your install for cost savings. EDIT: Had it backwards. Note to sell quit answering on the iPhone.
I had a shoot this weekend using the toad in a hole for about 15 flights. It worked great. I had to change locations several times and it was very easy for me to remove the copter. The biggest thing I like about it is that before I leave for the day I had to get the entire copter through an average size door frame with the red and it was very awkward. Now I can load up everything by individually to make it easier. I always hated lying on the ground trying to line up the 8 holes with the small screws from underneth. Those days are over.
Corrected my posting on the where the Toad and the Hole goes above. Hole on the Gimbal. Toads on everything else.