- Joined
- Oct 1, 2016
- Messages
- 1,520
- Reaction score
- 664
- Age
- 65
Greetings all. As a bit of background, I got bitten by the flying camera bug with the Blade 350. I’ve been chasing steady video through many GoPro and gimbal set ups with a Chroma. When Yuneec took over the quad line with the Q500, I stubbornly hung onto my Chroma and feiyu Tech gimbal and Dx9 and my own set up for tilt and pan. I bought my first 480 after nearly killing myself in a weird accident and realized life’s too short to wait for what you want to do. The 480 was a dream come true and delivers steady reliable shots 99% of the time. I now own three.
Recently, I took a shot to an extreme and ended up dragging the camera along a road for about 5 seconds. It rolled the whole camera up and around and completely reversed it in the gimbal. That tore wires to the side motors and now that gimbal is in for repairs with Vertigo Drones. I purchased a brand new CGO3+ from Vertigo and started testing it. I noticed a shake in my shots I have never experienced before. It’s like the gimbal is bouncing up and down so you see shake in the picture especially during hover holds.
I decided to swap cameras and sure enough, no problem. Now I decided to take both cameras and gimbals and compare them. And lo and behold, the mount on this new CGO is different then the original. I know there is the longer dampeners and set up sold for the CGO for the Q500 (camera more in nose and different flight characteristics allow for looser and longer dampeners but this in my experience causes jello on CGO3+ on a 480) which people have used on the 480 and that makes for two different mounting plates.
Well now, there is a third design and that’s the current OEM part sold as I bought a spare mount from Vertigo for field repairs. I checked that package and confirmed new design of top mount plate...it’s got double arrows now and they put a slight depression in the back to help ease the sliding into the hot shoe.. and it’s dampeners and two safety hold pins.
In comparing dampener stiffness, it did seem the old dampener was stiffer then these new ones and I still had a set of the original top plate and dampeners. So, I swapped them out thinking I had recreated the same set up I’ve always had that always worked and did another test flight but still saw that shake.
The only thing I did not change was the pins. The new ones use more of a plastic “Jesus” clip set up and the old ones had a smaller washer that pressed over a flared clip end. I put in two of the older original holding pins to make their set up 100% the same as what was on it originally - no new parts - just the ones I salvaged from my first major crash and camera destruction- and the images are back to being solid again.
I have experienced this before with trying different pins and observed that created camera shake. The pins for those longer dampeners for sure cause a problem when used with the shorter set up but I was surprised that the new pin design was the culprit but it is!!! I put in my old style smaller washer pins and the problem is gone.
When I get my third camera back, I’ll try the new set up but I’m not confident that it’s right and as solid as the old design. For sure the rubber dampener resistance is less on theses new ones. I’m very concerned Yuneec created a new problem with this redesign and change in manufacturing.
So, fellow forum members, especially those with newly purchased 480s, what Gimbal mount do you have? The easiest way to tell is the original had only one arrow in the center of the back of top plate for install indication and was flat all the way back while the new plate has two arrows on either side of center and a tapered back. The old set up has the two pins with the push on washer and the new is the clips.
If you are seeing shake with the new set up, try taking out those pins and see if it goes away. They are for assisting install of TH dampeners and keeping your camera attached on a bounce landing which if hard enough, breaks those mounting rails and leaves the camera on the ground. With a close flight for observation only, you’d be safe to take the pins out to test.
I have videoclips to back this up also as I’ve spent hours staring at monitors in HD and this is real.
Who else has observed this?
Recently, I took a shot to an extreme and ended up dragging the camera along a road for about 5 seconds. It rolled the whole camera up and around and completely reversed it in the gimbal. That tore wires to the side motors and now that gimbal is in for repairs with Vertigo Drones. I purchased a brand new CGO3+ from Vertigo and started testing it. I noticed a shake in my shots I have never experienced before. It’s like the gimbal is bouncing up and down so you see shake in the picture especially during hover holds.
I decided to swap cameras and sure enough, no problem. Now I decided to take both cameras and gimbals and compare them. And lo and behold, the mount on this new CGO is different then the original. I know there is the longer dampeners and set up sold for the CGO for the Q500 (camera more in nose and different flight characteristics allow for looser and longer dampeners but this in my experience causes jello on CGO3+ on a 480) which people have used on the 480 and that makes for two different mounting plates.
Well now, there is a third design and that’s the current OEM part sold as I bought a spare mount from Vertigo for field repairs. I checked that package and confirmed new design of top mount plate...it’s got double arrows now and they put a slight depression in the back to help ease the sliding into the hot shoe.. and it’s dampeners and two safety hold pins.
In comparing dampener stiffness, it did seem the old dampener was stiffer then these new ones and I still had a set of the original top plate and dampeners. So, I swapped them out thinking I had recreated the same set up I’ve always had that always worked and did another test flight but still saw that shake.
The only thing I did not change was the pins. The new ones use more of a plastic “Jesus” clip set up and the old ones had a smaller washer that pressed over a flared clip end. I put in two of the older original holding pins to make their set up 100% the same as what was on it originally - no new parts - just the ones I salvaged from my first major crash and camera destruction- and the images are back to being solid again.
I have experienced this before with trying different pins and observed that created camera shake. The pins for those longer dampeners for sure cause a problem when used with the shorter set up but I was surprised that the new pin design was the culprit but it is!!! I put in my old style smaller washer pins and the problem is gone.
When I get my third camera back, I’ll try the new set up but I’m not confident that it’s right and as solid as the old design. For sure the rubber dampener resistance is less on theses new ones. I’m very concerned Yuneec created a new problem with this redesign and change in manufacturing.
So, fellow forum members, especially those with newly purchased 480s, what Gimbal mount do you have? The easiest way to tell is the original had only one arrow in the center of the back of top plate for install indication and was flat all the way back while the new plate has two arrows on either side of center and a tapered back. The old set up has the two pins with the push on washer and the new is the clips.
If you are seeing shake with the new set up, try taking out those pins and see if it goes away. They are for assisting install of TH dampeners and keeping your camera attached on a bounce landing which if hard enough, breaks those mounting rails and leaves the camera on the ground. With a close flight for observation only, you’d be safe to take the pins out to test.
I have videoclips to back this up also as I’ve spent hours staring at monitors in HD and this is real.
Who else has observed this?
