Quanum Q-2D Brushless GoPro 3 Gimbal Test

Gimbal Mounted on S500 Quadcopter

Attached a 2D camera gimbal to the drone and did a quick test flight with my Gopro Hero3+ Black.

The included Gimbal mount on the S500 frame was not useable as there was only about 1-2 cm of clearance between the bottom of the gimbal and the ground and I was sure that the gimbal would be damaged in a hard landing (see previous review of the S500 frame).

The gimbal is the HobbyKing Quanum Q-2D Brushless GoPro 3 Gimbal.  I could not get it to work attaching the gimbal controls to the Pixhawk so I connected the servo cables to the FlySky i10 receiver directly.  The only adjustment was limiting the maximum throw on the transmitter for the gimbal controls to +/- 30%.  This makes the gimbal less sensitive to the movement of the rotary controls on the transmitter.

Successful indoor Test Flight is shown below:

Unsuccessful outdoor test flight (gimbal worked, quadcopter not so much) is also below:

Mission Planner, Google Earth, and Logs

A plot of a drone flight over my house

I am starting to play with the Mission Planner software which allows you to program your drone-quadcopter, read logs, and program autonomous "missions".  One of the interesting aspects is the ability to download logs from the flight controller and plot your flight paths on google earth.  Mission planner outputs a KMZ file which can be read by Google Earth and viewed in the application.  The roller-coaster-like plot in red above shows my flight of November 29th over my house.  The video from the onboard camera was posted in a previous blog entry.  You can see the takeoff from the driveway, flight over the house, then back climbing, then doubling back, followed by a collision with the roof and a crash landing in the bushes.

Review: Veho VCC-005-MUVI-NPNG Action Camera

For those of us who are cheap, the GoPro action camera is a bit rich at $200 to $400 US.  I decided to try an alternative, the Veho VCC-005-MUVI-NPNG action camera package which costs about $90 to $150, depending on where you buy it.

This package called "No Proof No Glory" (NPNG) includes a lot of mounting and other accessories as shown in the photo.  A waterproof case and remote contral are noteworthy.  The camera itself is compact and light, and records in HD format at 30 fps with a fixed lens.  Controls are pretty basic, but the touch screen LCD covers most of the rear of the camera, leading to inadvertent commands if you mishandle the camera.  A standard screw tripod mounting is on the bottom of the camera.  Documentation is quite good as the company is based in the UK.

Video quality is very good and sound quality is good in my opinion.  Battery life is good and recharging is done through a USB cable.  MicroSD card is used for storage.

I have tried the camera in fixed mode on a tripod and mounted on a drone.  It worked well in both cases and successfully survived hard landings (crashes) of the drone.  Although downloading the video is a little slow, it is bearable and I was able to edit the video using Imovie on a MAC.  I would recommend this camera for those who don't want to fork out for a GoPro.