Here's a new camera mount that I am working on for my SW. I wanted to PT the HD cam and keep my good 420 cam for flying. I think flying from the fisheye of the GoPro would be a pain. So, here is the first version of what I came up with. Since this I have cleaned up the mount quite a bit and will probably get rid of the geared pan mechanism and get a normal servo. Too much slop in the gear train:
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That looks good, albeit draggy, but that is hard to avoid. On my SW I plan on the Gopro being static and the flight cam on P/T. Kinda like Ian's setup.
The drag is one reason I want to get rid of the geared pan mechanism. With a servo instead, I can lower the whole deal about an inch.
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There are quite a few guys flying through the GoPro - the latest firmware seems to suggest that the latency is negligible. If I ever need a GoPro on a plane I'm def gonna fly through it to save the weight.
"I Like Waffles" : FPVLAB on Facebook
The ONLY reasons I am aware of not to do this are:
1. The gopro has a battery. If it goes dead, you lose it. There are mods for this to run off the plane power system via USB though.
2. the gopro has poor response to light changes, or in paticular darkness, backlight compensation, err etc...
Guys, I did a couple flights with the GoPro recently as primary camera and it works fine but IMO the depth perception (if you can call it that) is not as good as what I get out of my other camera. With my normal FPV cam I feel like I can put the plane within inches of where I want it but with the GoPro the fisheye and light response made it more difficult. I think you could change to a flatter lens and it might be better but what I have for a flight cam is a known quantity for me so that's what I am going with.
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Check out the mounting for my GoPro on my Skywalker....
After a bit of trial-and-error, R&D, sweat, blood and tears...I have finally completed my custom PAN mechanism for the front of my Skywalker. Most of the pan kits rely on mounting directly to the top of a servo. The main problem I see with this is I am NOT comfortable with a TINY LITTLE screw holding down a heavy mount + a really heavy camera to the top of the servo. This is just a disaster waiting to happen in my book. I did not need a tilt since it has such wide-angle lens. Although the Hitec DS-811 servo only has ~160 degrees of travel, the device I built can see wingtip-to-wingtip. The GoPro is mounted directly to a gear that is mounted directly to 2 pieces of G10 fiberglass plate There are thrust bearing from a Trex 450 on top & bottom. These are sandwiched around a piece of 3/16" plywood shaped to fit the front of the Skywalker. The GoPro gear gear is then driven by another gear directly mounted to a servo.
I went to my local Hobbytown and told the RC guy I need two gears about "this" big (holding up my fingers in a circle about 1.5" dia). So he hooked me up with two 88-tooth plastic pinion gears used in RC cars. They were perfect! Next I cut, drilled, bolted screwed various bits of G10 fiberglass plate, and 3/16" plywood and alot of left-over bits from my Trex450 helicopter (mainshafts and thrust bearing assemblies).- THIS is why I never throw ANYTHING away.
It is VERY solid and is a very simple design.
BTW- there is a lens mod for the GoPro to change it from a "wide-angle fish-eye" to a flat 16:9 aspect ratio:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...1366306&page=3
GoPro has also released an extended battery:
http://gopro.com/hd-hero-accessories/battery-bacpac/
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Looks really good. I would like to try this. What servo are you using for pan? I tried this before but it seemed choppy.
Derek,Originally Posted by Derek_S
I am using a very simple Hitek DS-811. I think I only paid something like $9.00 for it at Hobbytown in Kennesaw.
It must have been a gearing thing, I cannot remember the gears I used, but my servo went from standard travel (45*?) to about 180, but it was jumpy, like low res. Maybe it actually was the Rx.. I will have to re-look again.
Are you going to the meet in Griffin? It should be a great way to connect us here in the 'souf'-east! Didnt you ask me a long time ago if we might fly together? Seems like I remember, but been a while. I suppose I flaked out and forgot due to school. We all (Sentry, You, etc) should try to get down to the PPatch soon and do a pre-meet. Actually next week is Spring break so I was hoping the weather would hold out but htis weekend looks busted.
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