Another Custom Camera Mount

Another Custom Camera Mount
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Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/10/2007 10:30:49 AM

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From: Huntertown, IN, USA
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After seeing the Blackdragan video in an earlier forum thread, I've been trying hard to come up with a camera mount that matches his performance. Although Blackdragan chose not to the reveal mount or even the camera, I will be providing the details of my approach. But first, I would like some feedback to see if the group thinks I've come close to his level of performance. The following is a 30mb unprocessed section of the 4 min video (the full length size is over 400mb!). This is in the camera's native format (MOV) which will play on the Quicktime player that I hope most of you already have linked to IE. I fly without TI enabled and I admit that my flying is not as good as Blackdragan's since I tend to rock the DF to keep my bearings. I look forward to any feedback.

Custom2f

Thanks,

Mike

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/10/2007 3:54:08 PM

BB_DF

Posts: 273
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From: Eagle, ID, USA
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Hey Mike,
You're really on the right track! The video doesn't have any jitter or bobble - it just follows the movement of the bird and you will always have good sections where you're straight and level. I'm sure everyone would love to see how you did it, but if you want to keep it close to the vest, that's understandable.

The thing about the DF is that it's light and pretty unstable in any kind of disturbance. You can tell because it's an absolute joy to fly when it's still, but a struggle in a gusty wind. To demonstrate the other end of the spectrum, here's an electric helicopter with a 6 foot rotor, a motor the size of your fist, and a battery the size of your bank account. German, of course. It is so smooth, it doesn't need any kind of camera dampening at all. This guy's got more guts than me flying that thing over all that water!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPLTroBd2YE

Cheers,
Bruce

(in reply to Old Man Mike)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 1:30:28 AM

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Old Man Mike that's some nice looking video! I can't see why Ti wouldn't work well from what I've seen of the layout of your property. The pitching would be significantly diminished using Ti and make your video even better. I'm convinced that onboard recording is the only way to maintain resolution and color representation. The downlink would still be useful, though not necessary, for framing.

BB_DF here is video of a Bergen turbine flying out over water.

_____________________________

Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead!
Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!

(in reply to BB_DF)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 2:48:58 AM

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From: Huntertown, IN, USA
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Here is the construction details as text associated with each of the pictures:

1) A new baseplate was constructed out of thin aluminum. The large hole is to allow access to the camera controls. Three rubberbands are used on each side to hold the camera mount. Three are used so that the mount is held somewhat loose to allow movement that will be shown later.

2) The primary camera housing is carved out of a toy foam stick called Plantet FOAM. The Pansonic DMC-FX07 camera slides into the cut slot. Additional holes provide for the lens, top controls access and back LCD viewing. The extra glued piece is to keep the assembly from tipping over when resting on the floor.

3) This is the back side of the foam housing showing a portion of the LCD. The white plastic piece at the top was an attempt to control the camera shutter button. (This did not work and I ended up using a rubber band around the camera when taking continuous still shots)

4) Camera lens extends within the protected housing when the camera is turned on.

5) Here is the MOST important aspect of the mount. I use a thin sheet of plastic that sits between the foam camera housing and another lay of softer foam. The thin plastic sheet allows the softer foam above the camera to pivot back and forth so that yaw movement is dampened for the camera. This was the big breakthrough for reducing most of the shaking effect seen in earlier mounting attempts. The soft black foam is from a special sound reduction foam and it has a thin foil on one side. I keep the foil side toward the plastic. I believe the soft foam slides just as well without the foil but have not done enough detail testing to be sure.

6)Assembly of the Foam Camera housing, plastic sheet and soft black foam.

7)Whole system mounted on the DF

8)Construction material used. I used the electric foam cutter shown which really makes the job easy. A substitute for the back foam that I used is also shown. Preliminary tests showed that it worked about as well as the black foam.

Whew! Lots of typing there but I hope everything is clear enough. I especially hope that this serves as a starting point for even more discussion of better approaches to vibration free video. The total weight of the Camera and Mount was 7 oz. The mount was about 1.5 oz out of that total weight.

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RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 3:31:05 AM

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The new mount also makes a big difference in taking still shots. Three samples are show below and here is a link showing even more detail for one of them: Higher Resolution Sample

A few notes about taking stills with this camera:

1) Setting ISO to 400 seems to give the best results since the camera is forced to use a faster shutter. These shots were at F/8 and 1/400 second shutter.

2) The jpeg process (even at the highest quality) within the camera now appears to be the limiting function in picture quality. Still, the pictures appear quite good for such a small camera and lens.

3) Antishake Mode1 was enabled but I'm not sure that it is helping much. I need to do more testing with both Mode 1 and Mode 2 antishake compared to no antishake.

4) The camera is shooting in continuous burst mode which produces around 400 6megpixel shots for a typical flight.

Although the DF flys a little heavy with this package, it certainly is manageable. I'm getting quite comfortable at flying it above 100 feet now.

NEWS FLASH for Sky High!!!:

I flew the camera with TI ON this evening! It was getting too dark to get good video but WOW what a difference! Both LEDs were lit during the arming but unlike previous attempts, this time I gunned the motors and tried to do the trimming in the air. I guess the whole problem is that I expected the trim to be about the same as with TI OFF. For some reason my DF needs a heavy trim to push the nose down. This is true with or without carrying the extra weight of the camera. Once set, it flys wonderful and appeared to have no problem with the extra camera weight. I could almost set the remote control down on the ground (not stupid enough to try) and let it just hang in space. Amazing stability and I am really excited getting some video while flying in this mode. I am puzzled why so much trim (almost 100) is required in TI mode. It also feels like I am flying it in training mode even though the active switch is up. I can now see how you can be comfortable flying at the 300 foot level when in TI mode.

Mike

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RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 3:40:58 AM

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It just gets better and better! It's not necessarily your DF that needs that much nose trim. I think it's the location. I have had huge differences in calibration with two different locations 50 feet apart and miles apart with 5 minutes and 15 minutes of changing locations. In other words not necessarily different days. I would go to an open field like a pasture or football field and see if it still needs that much nose trim. I quit trying to figure out why along time ago.

_____________________________

Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead!
Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!

(in reply to Old Man Mike)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 4:23:22 AM

BB_DF

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Old Man Mike

I flew the camera with TI ON this evening!

...Once set, it flys wonderful...

...Amazing stability...

...I can now see how you can be comfortable flying at the 300 foot level when in TI mode.

Jeez. You just wouldn't believe us, would you?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Old Man Mike

I am puzzled why so much trim (almost 100) is required in TI mode. It also feels like I am flying it in training mode even though the active switch is up. I can now see how you can be comfortable flying at the 300 foot level when in TI mode.

Just to add a little to what Sky said. Don't worry about the trim - just do whatever you need. What happens is when you set the level (Throttle Down/Right) on the ground, it's almost impossible for the Ti to not be affected by something nearby. For instance, the afternoon sun could heat up a wall quite some distance away, and the sensors will pick it up easily, and skew the horizon. To test this theory, just set the thing down and set the level again in the same place on the ground, but facing in the opposite direction. You'll probably need just as much trim in the other direction after that.

I'd suggest you change the Expo in the Normal mode to 20%. I think you'll like it a lot better in Ti Mode. Some people fly it with no Expo in Ti. I fly 20% with Ti on and 30% with it off. It also comes with D/R set to 50%, 50%, 80% for training mode, and I set them all to 100%.

Good goin', Mike!

(in reply to Old Man Mike)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 4:46:56 AM

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I had an interesting time with extreme trim when shooting this AP video. I got good Ti in the center of this huge concave field which as you will see was in the shade because the sun had just sunk below the treeline. So, when I calibrated Ti and thermal level in the center of the field which was in the shade, after climbing out into the sun the DF suddenly leaned way back like a stallion raring up.

I quickly reacted by inputing full forward stick and eventually had to apply full forward trim because if I had let off the stick too much too fast it would have lunge backwards. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Ti is a great lowcost solution to help fly this machine but it's just too conditional and unpredictable for consistent results.

_____________________________

Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead!
Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!

(in reply to BB_DF)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 5:11:34 AM

BB_DF

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Sky High

I had an interesting time with extreme trim when shooting this AP video.

That's nice clean video, though. Did you run it through Adobe Premier? I think there might be something wrong with my hardware. Does Spectrolutions work on the video circuits, too?

- BB

(in reply to Sky High)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 5:42:11 AM

BB_DF

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From: Eagle, ID, USA
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Old Man Mike
Both LEDs were lit during the arming but unlike previous attempts, this time I gunned the motors and tried to do the trimming in the air. I guess the whole problem is that I expected the trim to be about the same as with TI OFF.

I usually pop it up to about 10', and trim it out, then up to 20' and trim, then up to 50-75' and trim. I try to get it to hover pretty well at that altitude before flying off to do whatever.

Self-leveling is a tough problem to solve. Horizon-sensing is probably the simplest, and therefore maybe the best overall scheme. However GPS/barometer/magnetometer works better near the ground. HERE is a product that uses the same patent design as the DF Ti, that you can put on other models.

-BB

(in reply to Old Man Mike)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 5:46:38 AM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: BB_DF

HERE is a product that uses the same patent design as the DF Ti, that you can put on other models.

That IS the Ti circuit. FMA licenses it to DFI & Spectrolutions.

_____________________________

Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead!
Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!

(in reply to BB_DF)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 6:40:21 AM

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Sky High: That was a nice smooth video. How high were you at the highest lpointl?

By the way, the little Panasonic camera I've been using also has the a real time video connector that could feed the SAVS transmitter while it is recording the video. Also, power could be supplied via another connector which would elimination then need for the Camera battery and reduce the system weight by almost 1 oz. The only problem is finding the connectors to mate. I've checked Digikey and several other houses with no luck yet. I may have to buy the external power supply unit just for the connector.

I still think there could be improvements which would provide additional suppression of vibrations to the camera. If the light level is low enough, the vibration effects are still visible. Maybe a foam ball inside a plastic ball with the camera foam enclosure hanging at the end. I'm going to invite an aerospace mechanical engineer over to see the system in the next few weeks and hope to get some advice from him on alternate approaches.

Let's hope there is little to no wind tomorrow. I'm ready to do some TI flying.

Mike

(in reply to Sky High)

RE: Another Custom Camera Mount - 6/11/2007 7:20:57 AM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Old Man Mike

Sky High: That was a nice smooth video. How high were you at the highest lpointl?

I'd say at the most it was about 125-150 ft.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Old Man Mike

... Maybe a foam ball inside a plastic ball with the camera foam enclosure hanging at the end. ...

Now that reminds me of something but I can't quite remember what it is ...?

_____________________________

Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead!
Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!

(in reply to Old Man Mike)