Hi I have seen numerous pictures of 3-Axis gimbals with RED mounted but I am still not sure how to upgrade the gimbal. I purchased the gimbal from quadrocopter.com along with the extra parts they recommended for RED. The service at quadrocopter was excellent but as far as I can see there is no step to step guide about alterations required for RED on their pages or elsewhere. I humbly ask for help. In the attached picture you see all the extra parts I have. The two longer tubes are 20cm each and the shorter one is 12.5cm. What puzzles me is the adjustable tilt bar. I did not find a matching product from quadrocopter shop. Mine looks a bit like FreeFly tilt bracket but is not. And what are the L-shaped carbon fiber parts on the upper right for? It would be a great start if someone more skilled told me what goes where and do I have everything required. Thanks!
Anyone can help a little? I suppose the two 20cm tubes are the new horizontal tubes and the 12.5cm one the new vertical tube? What I don't know is what are the L-shaped parts on top right. And how to mount the extra X-shaped part that joins the copter and the gimbal and the four extra vibration isolators. Do they come under the first X-part/vibration isolator combo?
Tuuka, the 200mm bars replace the shorter side bars that hold the tilt axis. The shorter one is the replacement for the droptube as you expected. The little brackets look like the brackets for holding the GPS/NAVI stack on boom 1.
Thanks for your input Gary. And sorry for the less than satisfactory picture. Here are better pictures of the items that are still somewhat a mystery to me. What are the small L-shaped parts in the first picture? I do not think they are GPS/Navi mounting brackets. I did not order one and I fly Wookong-M, not Mikrokopter. And how should I mount the extra Gimbal vibration plate and the extra Vibration dampening brackets? Directly under the first one or somehow differently? Thanks so much.
Tuuka If you already have a CS8 gimbal mounting plate and the one in the photo is a second one the way that Jeff at QC mounted his was to lay one plate over the other offset 45 degrees so that you have an 8 star combination. Then use the extra vibration dampers in the extra mounting holes on the bottom plate to give you a total of 8 vibration dampers. Video HERE. The L brackets are for GPS mount. I would ask QC about why they sent them. Maybe the didn't realize that you didn't have an MK setup or they had some other use in mind. You will see the extended tilt bars (photo 3015) in the video also and that should help you understand how they are used. If you find that you have trouble getting a perfectly balanced gimbal Freefly released an Adjustable Camera Rail a couple of months ago. This allows a bit easier adjustment of where the camera mounting point is located. In my case I needed to be directly over the cross bar with my Nikon 800 and that wasn't possible with the standard mounting system. See HERE
Gary, I am curious if anyone has compared doubling them up as Jeff did and using 8 vibration isolators or Doubling them up so there is just 4 but they a thicker obviously and using different colored o rings. Thoughts on why one would be better than the other?
We did the stack. I didn't think it was worth it to spend $300 more dollars on isolators to "maybe" have the radians work better.
Talked with Kyle of the Quadrocopter fame last night Finnish time. The L-shaped parts in the photo 3020 are actually something that come with the CS8 frame and they are indeed for mounting of the MK GPS/Navi. So that was my bad. For the extra gimbal vibration plate Kyle suggested the 8 star solution mentioned by Gary above. As for the vibration dampening brackets Kyle suggested testing blue/black O-ring combination. For example three of each in every bracket. I am happy I ordered from Quadrocopter because their support - even after they have closed the deal and gotten their money - is very good. And these instructions were for mounting RED Scarlet. Hope my noob questions help some other noob somewhere in the world. Test with RED coming up soon. I purchased a second hand Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM lens (my Scarlet has EF mount) and will be testing it shortly.
Thanks, Tuuka. Much appreciate you posting the feedback above. I have to ask about the image that you chose to use -- can you explain it a little? <evil grin> Andy.
You´re welcome Andy. The hound in the picture is my poodle boy called Vili, three months of age. His dad is a multiple prize-winning poodle from Texas
It reminded my of one of my now deceased relatives who was probably not as smart as Vili is.... Andy.
One more question: The metal frame clamps. These: http://www.quadrocopter.com/Metal-Frame-Clamps_p_806.html Are they absolutely necessary, i.e. will my precious RED fall from the sky if I don't use these? I would like to believe not, because the price for upgrading the down bar is horrendous (16 clamps = 400 USD) and waiting for the clamps would postpone my test flight weeks. Any other way of securing a heavy camera? Just tighten the clamps after every flight?
I hope Vili will learn to fly the copter for me one day so I can concentrate on the cinematography side And open me a cool beer bottle while doing it. Your relative must have had a handsome hair!
The frame clamps will help the roll bar not to slip. Folks were finding that the plastic clamps were not holding the bar from rotating allowing the tilt bars to slowly sink from their balance positions. You should only need 4 clamps. One on each end and replace the two in the middle.
I understand. That (four clamps) sounds more reasonable. No need to secure the down tube from slipping and the camera crashing with terra firma with additional metal frame clamps? Due to to the very expensive international shipping I want to be sure I have absolutely everything for my RED conversion in the new order.
Thanks Gary. Yes I watched both of them with interest. They were very well made and informative on the matters they were about. But there was no mention on the RED Scarlet video of the metal frame clamps or the different o-ring options. Other than that the Scarlet video was excellent. I already have the adjustable camera rail thanks to the other video I have seen before.
What's your CS8 setup? If it's the stock CS8 with the MK board and you haven't had it built to fly a RED... then you may be in trouble. It's one thing to upgrade the gimbal... it's another to upgrade the copter. The stock MK board and ESC can't handle all that weight.
Not to worry Brandon. MY CS8 is built with one goal: To carry RED. It has WK-M, Power hungry distro board, Kopterworx KW8 motors, Xoar 13x6.5 and 14x6 propellers (haven't tested 14x6 yet) and Maytech 60A ESC`s. RED should be easy with my setup.