Hello everybody! Hope everyone is enjoying their last bit of summer and are out flying. Sorry that I haven’t participated in the group lately, but I have been reading the forum daily. Scott the 10 things I love about the Draganflyer was very good, and 100% correct! I like to add that the DF inspires me to use my imagination and creativity. This story is a recent example of what I mean.
Ever since 1videoman1 came onto the forum, he raised the bar for us who do the wireless video. I don’t think there wasn’t anyone who didn’t sit-up and take notice, that was amazing! So I wondered why no one ever tried to make one of those vibration isolation mounts? I wondered how it worked, how it moved and mostly how was put together? The only thing I had to work with is the posts here on the forum and 2 pictures and the videos from his webpage. Things that make you go HHMMMMM? Now mind you this started months back. I have tinkered with the idea on and off through this time frame. And it wasn’t till last week, when I was watching his video; I got my first clue on how this mount works. The clue came in the form of a lens flair that was present in an ascending shot over a new home construction site. I could see how it swayed and bounced as the DF flew. It was then I had the EUREKA moment! It all made sense to me, and that fired me up to really try and duplicate this mount. I also found this article on the net, which explained vibration isolation: http://www.flyingsites.co.uk/feature.../vibration.htm

Armed with hardware and paint stirring sticks and a long weekend I hit the workbench! Just a note: it is at this moment my wife becomes a DF widow! She lost me again to the other woman! Anyways, after hours of cutting and drilling I came up with a working model. It looked pretty large and sloppy; it weighed in at 1.5 ounces, YIKES! I could see room for improvement already. I was experimenting with how to mount it when I broke the main mounting arm with a tie-wrap, cinching it down, BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD! []

I then realized that I have a large sheet of .100” sintra plastic that I bought and never used. 5 minutes with a band saw and I had a dozen 3/8 strips to work with. This time I pulled out the stops. I would learn from the first and improve on it. I replaced parts several times till I was satisfied and happy with the results. At the end I wasn’t totally happy with the action of the rubber bands, it was a little bouncy. I had then replaced the rubber bands with 1/16” o-rings. Now we’re cooking with fire! The final weight was .4 of an ounce!
Once mounted, I needed to confirm if it indeed works. Problem is, my DF is crippled right now, and I’m waiting on parts from RC Toys (there’s a surprise). My base plate is broken, 1 vertical riser is cracked and all for motors are at the end of their life. But, in the best interest of this project, IT’S LAUNCH TIME!!! I lugged out my video equipment, (that’s about to be upgraded), and set it up. I had about a 5-minute flight and it was cut short by a squealing and chattering motor. The video was improved by 100%, very still and NO VIBRATION! Damn, all dressed up and no place to go! Grounded, (heavy sigh). I’m very happy with the results and here are some pictures for all to see. Also a video of the action of the mount. Sorry, I didn’t transfer the flight video, because I had a bad interference problem and I got to figure out where it’s coming from. I thought I read in the forum, that people were getting video interference if they mounted the camera below the motors? Could be the transmitter is doing it. Could someone with the extreme cam tell me if they’re happy with its performance? I asked RC Toys about their upcoming 520 lor wireless camera that I read about here in the forum. They could not deny or confirm the camera, saying that they might be offering something in the future, but that’s not certain, so watch the web page. I’ve been looking at a system from Black Widow AV; they have a 480-lor camera for $199, couple that with the 100mw transmitter package and patch antenna, you can have the entire system for $390. HMMMMM? [link=http://www.blackwidowav.com/kx141.html]480 lor Camera[/link]

And so, that’s my story on how this over-priced toy inspires me to challenge my ability to help design and build a workable vibration isolation mount for the DF, I find the whole process very fun and rewarding. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
[link=http://media.putfile.com/action34]Mount action[/link]