Vehicle mount Inspire 2

[flothepirate]

Thank you for your reply and tips. I like your craziness, for the lack of better description ,,, C'mon, it takes a lot of desperation to cannibalize perfectly fine bird, but it makes perfect sense to anybody who understand the advantages of X7 camera and CineCore system.
Anyway, standing ovation delivered, let's go back to the business of making crazy things ...

View attachment 24410

This is one of my creations, based on 1/5 scale LOSI Desert Buggy XL-E (electric, not gas). This vehicle is providing more than enough oomph to carry professional filming camera of any size, here with DJI Osmo Pro customized rig. Unfortunately WiFi video transmission protocol doesn't cut, hence my urge to follow your steps. Otherwise the system works flawlessly with Osmo in either upright or flashlight position. As you for sure know by now, the trick is to employ properly tuned vibration damping suspension, and this one is perfect. Needless to say, it took several hit-and-miss modifications to tune the suspension just right. Traxxas X-Max was considered as well as a vehicle, but Baja buggy style offered better options to modify drivetrain mechanism. To tame insanely furious speed and acceleration of this racing class I had to build custom gear box, reducing it by 50%. Recently working on much more portable dolly version for Osmo Pocket camera, but that's on the toy-ish side of this business ...

Here's another one ... Fully equipped Osmo Pro rig ... Without it the entire setup was PITA to carry. Well, almost obsolete anyway.

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looks great but i totally understand you want the x7 and lightbridge on there .... let´s tinker together !

 

[Black Sky]

Thank you for your reply and tips. I like your craziness, for the lack of better description ,,, C'mon, it takes a lot of desperation to cannibalize perfectly fine bird, but it makes perfect sense to anybody who understand the advantages of X7 camera and CineCore system.
Anyway, standing ovation delivered, let's go back to the business of making crazy things ...

View attachment 24410

This is one of my creations, based on 1/5 scale LOSI Desert Buggy XL-E (electric, not gas). This vehicle is providing more than enough oomph to carry professional filming camera of any size, here with DJI Osmo Pro customized rig. Unfortunately WiFi video transmission protocol doesn't cut, hence my urge to follow your steps. Otherwise the system works flawlessly with Osmo in either upright or flashlight position. As you for sure know by now, the trick is to employ properly tuned vibration damping suspension, and this one is perfect. Needless to say, it took several hit-and-miss modifications to tune the suspension just right. Traxxas X-Max was considered as well as a vehicle, but Baja buggy style offered better options to modify drivetrain mechanism. To tame insanely furious speed and acceleration of this racing class I had to build custom gear box, reducing it by 50%. Recently working on much more portable dolly version for Osmo Pocket camera, but that's on the toy-ish side of this business ...

Here's another one ... Fully equipped Osmo Pro rig ... Without it the entire setup was a PITA to carry. Well, this rig is almost obsolete anyway due to limited talents of X5 camera, at least in terms of modern filming industry ...

View attachment 24411

Ok here is my pics of my new build using an RC truck .
I am now using a Jockey fourth axis in the build. We can use it hand held,mount it on the RC truck in about 2 minutes. Mount it on a car with suction cup mount( I am now using more cups as per your idea) I will post pics of that soon.
We have used this rig handheld for a few jobs now and found as the camera rig holder I also need to use a screen so I have some idea of what my son,who is running the slave controller. We are using a crescendence and crystal sky) to do the camera movement. I use a RED Hydrogen phone( not set up as a phone as I like my I phone) to serve as a screen for me. It’s really bright and works well in the sun. This gear teaches us a lot every time we use it. We were on a boat out black fin tuna fishing about 30 miles south of Key West the other day and the hand held rig shot great footage on a rolling boat. We then put one of our inspire 2s up and shot some nice footage with the 50mm lense. Curious to see what you think.thanks to all.

 

[Dobmatt]

Ok here is my pics of my new build using an RC truck .
I am now using a Jockey fourth axis in the build. We can use it hand held,mount it on the RC truck in about 2 minutes. Mount it on a car with suction cup mount( I am now using more cups as per your idea) I will post pics of that soon.
We have used this rig handheld for a few jobs now and found as the camera rig holder I also need to use a screen so I have some idea of what my son,who is running the slave controller. We are using a crescendence and crystal sky) to do the camera movement. I use a RED Hydrogen phone( not set up as a phone as I like my I phone) to serve as a screen for me. It’s really bright and works well in the sun. This gear teaches us a lot every time we use it. We were on a boat out black fin tuna fishing about 30 miles south of Key West the other day and the hand held rig shot great footage on a rolling boat. We then put one of our inspire 2s up and shot some nice footage with the 50mm lense. Curious to see what you think.thanks to all.

Oh, so this is totally different approach than mine! This is Z-axis damper, correct? It's designed for mounting on full scale car or whatever vehicle. Still multi-axis dampening device of some sort may be required. On your Traxxas you may get shaky footage because there's no sideways dampening, again correct me if I'm wrong.

What makes me worrying is extremely high centre of gravity ... but at low speed and with gentle steering it shouldn't be much of the risk tipping this rig sideway ... which may be catastrophic.

Please see this YT video. It's miniature version of cable dampening system for DJI Osmo Pocket camera. Notice how shaky and bumpy is the ride on RC car. In you case X7 camera is also suspended on it's own damper, which will help a bit.

Osmo Pocket dolly

 

[Black Sky]

Oh, so this is totally different approach than mine! This is Z-axis damper, correct? It's designed for mounting on full scale car or whatever vehicle. Still multi-axis dampening device of some sort may be required. On your Traxxas you may get shaky footage because there's no sideways dampening, again correct me if I'm wrong.

What makes me worrying is extremely high centre of gravity ... but at low speed and with gentle steering it shouldn't be much of the risk tipping this rig sideway ... which may be catastrophic.

Please see this YT video. It's miniature version of cable dampening system for DJI Osmo Pocket camera. Notice how shaky and bumpy is the ride on RC car. In you case X7 camera is also suspended on it's own damper, which will help a bit.

Osmo Pocket dolly

It’s slightly like the z axis but way bigger.It can handle 14 lbs and is supper adjustable. It does have the 4 smaller shocks to allow for side to side tilt...and the drone Gimble handles this just fine. I only run it on a half power for most shots,so there is little chance of tipping. I will try to shoot some behind the scenes for you to see. It’s quite good. For straight line it’s fine to use full power. The added weight helps mellow it out some. The truck is huge that’s why I put in the coke can for size reference. I would never have even considered a smaller platform. This is just for more engenering fun and it was fun to make to use for some shots. I have used something like it for 360 view resort shots where you do not want a person in frame. I used a ocusinc system to see where I was driving when I did that one.
I mostly want to use the arm mount for hand held( stairs and jogging) smooth shots. Boat trips as well. Filming fishing shows. When I mount it to a my corvette or my wife’s Jeep is where it gets good. We are going to try the motorcycle agin in a few days on rough roads to see how the arm works in that application. This would work for car commercials or filming bicycle racing.....parades whatever. Yes this is a madness but I want to make it so it can go from one form to another quickly...all with the same look and lenses as we use in the air. What we have seen so far is an editors dream. It’s so easy to work all the raw files when there is not three different cams and codecs involved in a shoot. This system makes it simple......until I get Red Helium money anyway. Haha and the madness will continue. I really want that for underwater work we are doing as well. I have a Nikon D500 in a Ikelite housing for now and it’s good but not quite where we want to be.
I will share more soon. I have learned so much from this forum over the years and I think there is no better place than here. Thanks to all that have organized and contributed.

 

[flothepirate]

Ok here is my pics of my new build using an RC truck .
I am now using a Jockey fourth axis in the build. We can use it hand held,mount it on the RC truck in about 2 minutes. Mount it on a car with suction cup mount( I am now using more cups as per your idea) I will post pics of that soon.
We have used this rig handheld for a few jobs now and found as the camera rig holder I also need to use a screen so I have some idea of what my son,who is running the slave controller. We are using a crescendence and crystal sky) to do the camera movement. I use a RED Hydrogen phone( not set up as a phone as I like my I phone) to serve as a screen for me. It’s really bright and works well in the sun. This gear teaches us a lot every time we use it. We were on a boat out black fin tuna fishing about 30 miles south of Key West the other day and the hand held rig shot great footage on a rolling boat. We then put one of our inspire 2s up and shot some nice footage with the 50mm lense. Curious to see what you think.thanks to all.

wow ! this set up is amazing ! i love the z-axis dampening solution you came up with - it´s almost like a small black arm just missing rotational damping to the side !? what about combining it with a wire dampening system ? maybe underslung like I did on this setup .. might not be the perfect solution for the buggy but on the motorbike
a higher center of gravity would not be that bad !?

If you ever can get some bts footage for us to see would be awesome !

 

[Dobmatt]

wow ! this set up is amazing ! i love the z-axis dampening solution you came up with - it´s almost like a small black arm just missing rotational damping to the side !? what about combining it with a wire dampening system ? maybe underslung like I did on this setup .. might not be the perfect solution for the buggy but on the motorbike
a higher center of gravity would not be that bad !?

If you ever can get some bts footage for us to see would be awesome !

Yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about! There's nothing better than wire damper! And cable trolley application is equally brave! Kudos to you for fighting frostbites ...

 

[Black Sky]

Yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about! There's nothing better than wire damper! And cable trolley application is equally brave! Kudos for you for fighting frostbites ...

Haha frostbites! I am at our place in Key West. We are here for the winter. I am in upstate NY in the summer.

 

[Black Sky]

Yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about! There's nothing better than wire damper! And cable trolley application is equally brave! Kudos for you for fighting frostbites ...

I made a whire system for a osmo system I made for the truck previous to this.it was a simple system but I could fab up a far larger and more elaborate one if I need to.

 

[Dobmatt]

I made a whire system for a osmo system I made for the truck previous to this.it was a simple system but I could fab up a far larger and more elaborate one if I need to.

Yes, that's it! You wouldn't need anything else. Huh, electrical grounding clamps? I wasn't smart enough and used custom made ...

 

[Black Sky]

Ran this demo this evening,quick edit. Just to test. I used a GoPro on the back to watch how the suspension moved. Have not looked at it but I went back and ordered heavy springs. I was getting some tilt but not bad at all,it’s just the shocks are pre loaded to the max and a heavy spring would let me run them somewhere in the middle of adjustment.
The jet vid part was shot while driving on a narrow bank with 3 inches on each side and a 9 ft drop......haha what a challenge. Some of the ground was rough,did some adjusting of the cam arm and it was soooo good. Great fun. Stiffer springs should be even better. Set up the truck to run at half power.

 

[Black Sky]

Hand held video all x7 , nikon d 500 in Ikelite housing for underwater. This was our first time using our hand held rig . This was shot before I built my steady are setup. We should do far smoother shots now. This is my sons channel that we only use for demo and so we can show close friends.
The Jeep test vid was just a drone test, then a test of the motorcycle mounted cam to video the Jeep while moving. All bike shots were drone

 

[The Editor]

Hand held video all x7 , nikon d 500 in Ikelite housing for underwater. This was our first time using our hand held rig . This was shot before I built my steady are setup. We should do far smoother shots now. This is my sons channel that we only use for demo and so we can show close friends.
The Jeep test vid was just a drone test, then a test of the motorcycle mounted cam to video the Jeep while moving. All bike shots were drone

In future can you put YouTube vids etc in our Photos and Video section?
Thanks.

 

[Dobmatt]

Ran this demo this evening,quick edit. Just to test. I used a GoPro on the back to watch how the suspension moved. Have not looked at it but I went back and ordered heavy springs. I was getting some tilt but not bad at all,it’s just the shocks are pre loaded to the max and a heavy spring would let me run them somewhere in the middle of adjustment.
The jet vid part was shot while driving on a narrow bank with 3 inches on each side and a 9 ft drop......haha what a challenge. Some of the ground was rough,did some adjusting of the cam arm and it was soooo good. Great fun. Stiffer springs should be even better. Set up the truck to run at half power.

Surprisingly good, smooth footage. I was expecting some sideway shaking, but no such. Probably X7's damper helps a bit here. What lens you've used for this test? And, oh, are you getting warnings about NFZ on screen? Just curious.

 

[Black Sky]

Surprisingly good, smooth footage. I was expecting some sideway shaking, but no such. Probably X7's damper helps a bit here. What lens you've used for this test? And, oh, are you getting warnings about NFZ on screen? Just curious.

The lense was the 35mm. The 50mm would have worked better for jet shots but we just wanted to see the look.

In future can you put YouTube vids etc in our Photos and Video section?
Thanks.

In future can you put YouTube vids etc in our Photos and Video section?
Thanks.

Will do, how do I link them to this conversation? Thanks

 

[Black Sky]

Surprisingly good, smooth footage. I was expecting some sideway shaking, but no such. Probably X7's damper helps a bit here. What lens you've used for this test? And, oh, are you getting warnings about NFZ on screen? Just curious.

Hey check out the beach footage I posted over in pics and videos. I played on the beach with it and got some cool kite board shots. I just received and mounted stiffer shocks so I will do a test of that soon. On those beach shots I was going about 20 miles per hour at times.....it’s pretty good for that speed. Tell me your thoughts. Thanks

 

[Patscherpofel]

great stuff!
are those 2 cables from the gimbal to the core long enough to place the core horizontal above it? would make the whole thing more compact maybe?

 

[Dobmatt]

Hey check out the beach footage I posted over in pics and videos. I played on the beach with it and got some cool kite board shots. I just received and mounted stiffer shocks so I will do a test of that soon. On those beach shots I was going about 20 miles per hour at times.....it’s pretty good for that speed. Tell me your thoughts. Thanks

Perfect, that's where this rig will really shine! Reminds me fast and furious kite drivers at Oregon beaches and Columbia River I've seen last summer. The wind is usually around 50 knots there this time, prohibiting the use of even the mightiest drones. But gee, these athletes are literally flying over wave tops! BTW, did you try longer lens, like 45mm Oly?

 

[Black Sky]

Perfect, that's where this rig will really shine! Reminds me fast and furious kite drivers at Oregon beaches and Columbia River I've seen last summer. The wind is usually around 50 knots there this time, prohibiting the use of even the mightiest drones. But gee, these athletes are literally flying over wave tops! BTW, did you try longer lens, like 45mm Oly?

This was the 50mm lense. Changed the shocks to stiffer and I will lighten up the tension on the arm....can’t wait to try it again. I will post more. We only use an x7 so we have all the lenses and a Loawa 9mm as well.
That thing is super fast 40 plus and smooth as well. Starting to think this has real potential. Thanks.

 

[Black Sky]

great stuff!
are those 2 cables from the gimbal to the core long enough to place the core horizontal above it? would make the whole thing more compact maybe?

Thanks, this is version 2 I am using now. Yes version one can have battery remotely mounted up to 3 feet away. No the ssd and brain have to be close. Remember there are also cooling fans. The GPS needs to be intact so I prefer to orient it as it is on the drone.thanks it’s a work in progress. Look on the vids and pics page for test footage shots.

 

[Kapetown]

Hey!
I really appreciate all the info you've posted and I'm very impressed! I recently crashed my inspire 2 so i'm planing on doing the same thing. What do i need to know before? in the crash one arm got broken off just by the motor, probably cut off the antenna wire, will it still work? Maybe i can buy new antennas with the same connector?

Looks like you have just drilled two bolts thru the botton for mounting, is that correct?


Thanks in advance and keep doing what you're doing, i love it!

//Best regards Kasper