Camera Guard

Phantom_Menace66 · Jun 2, 2014

Hate to be the voice of doom & gloom, but the integrity of the upright supports on the landing gear is the weak link. They will crumple (see pic) and the camera/gimbal will be driven into the camera guard then the ground, causing it to break anyway would it not?

pyrophantom · Jun 3, 2014

Should be the legs that are made of carbon fibre and that wouldnt happen !

plasmo · Jun 3, 2014

Putting a guard on to protect the camera is probably better than nothing at all. Plus it may be that attaching it to the legs may support the legs better to prevent a crumple?
Hurry up and make the guard before I snap my gimbal!

povlhp · Jun 3, 2014

Depending on price, I am in as well

fastsmiles · Jun 3, 2014

Phantom Menace66

Looks like a really bad crash, not sure anything could have saved that one. If the legs were solid, the force would have been absorbed by the body resulting in a broken lower body shell. Looks like the vertical gimbal arm took a lot of force also.
Could you send me the vertical arm? I am looking into making a titanium replacement arm and need one to measure and experiment on. It seems to be a weak part also.

Thanks

fastsmiles · Jun 3, 2014

Maybe some type of shock absorbing material between the camera guard and the legs would help in a hard crash.

pyrophantom · Jun 3, 2014

fastsmiles said:
Phantom Menace66

Looks like a really bad crash, not sure anything could have saved that one. If the legs were solid, the force would have been absorbed by the body resulting in a broken lower body shell. Looks like the vertical gimbal arm took a lot of force also.
Could you send me the vertical arm? I am looking into making a titanium replacement arm and need one to measure and experiment on. It seems to be a weak part also.

Thanks

Good point actually ! Suppose a crash is a trade off for what bits are more easily replaceable.

denofr · Jun 3, 2014

I think you may be able to eliminate a good percentage of the gimbal failures by using the longer legs and replacing the two gimbal safety pins with some sort of spring absorbing bolt. figure out what the right size bolt would have to be then add a washer followed by a small spring followed by another washer then take that and feed it through both halves of the gimbal add another washer followed by a nylon self-locking nut. make the bolt just long enough so that the spring only starts to take weight after the gimbal leaves the four rubber bumpers. If the Phantom hits hard enough to dislodge it from the rubber bumpers it will bounce on the springs taking up most of the energy hopefully saving it. Right now the safety pins are too strong and transferring the energy back to the gimbal.

Yaw Master · Jun 3, 2014

Nice idea! Did you produce this part in quantity? Are they for sale? How much?

Mako79 · Jun 4, 2014

denofr said:
I think you may be able to eliminate a good percentage of the gimbal failures by using the longer legs and replacing the two gimbal safety pins with some sort of spring absorbing bolt. figure out what the right size bolt would have to be then add a washer followed by a small spring followed by another washer then take that and feed it through both halves of the gimbal add another washer followed by a nylon self-locking nut. make the bolt just long enough so that the spring only starts to take weight after the gimbal leaves the four rubber bumpers. If the Phantom hits hard enough to dislodge it from the rubber bumpers it will bounce on the springs taking up most of the energy hopefully saving it. Right now the safety pins are too strong and transferring the energy back to the gimbal.

Use a cable tie and don't tighten instead of the safety pins??? maybe that would lower absorption??

caprob · Jun 4, 2014

fastsmiles said:
Pays to be resourceful, but I wanted something a little stronger and it needed to look professional since I use my P2V+ for business and my clients often like to watch.

Be aware that the FAA requires you to posses a "comercial" pilots license to use a drone for commerce. They , I heard, are very stricken and fines are large. You cannot even give away pics & bids if the end user is profiting, I was told.

fastsmiles · Jun 4, 2014

There are no enforceable laws or rules governing the flight of RC models according to the latest rulings.

Haneelam · Jun 5, 2014

Hi, I am very much interested, the camera and the gimbal can easily be damaged even in a small crash. Actually it happened to me at the first flight. This is the Achilles' heel and the BIG problem of this amazing drone. Anyway sth to protect the camera is a must for the PV2+. I welcome any offer/proposal/idea for a solution.

fastsmiles · Jun 8, 2014

I've started a Kickstarter project for the camera guards. I will submit it for approval today and hopefully anyone that wants one will be able to order it next week. Suggestions and corrections are welcome.

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/33 ... n=7d9beb62

rrhansen · Jun 8, 2014

Great idea, thanks for your generous offer to share and do the R and D.
Yes, please put me down as interested. Thanks

rrhansen · Jun 8, 2014

caprob said:
fastsmiles said:

Pays to be resourceful, but I wanted something a little stronger and it needed to look professional since I use my P2V+ for business and my clients often like to watch.

Click to expand...

Be aware that the FAA requires you to posses a "comercial" pilots license to use a drone for commerce. They , I heard, are very stricken and fines are large. You cannot even give away pics & bids if the end user is profiting, I was told.

I am sure that Fastsmiles donates the use of his drone as a public service to enhance the perception of drones used for good. I would guess he does charge for his consulting and video production time however. Correct?

fastsmiles · Jun 8, 2014

Fly friendly

Mori55 · Jun 8, 2014

Bad link ? Getting 404 message

saphotoexpress · Jun 8, 2014

fastsmiles, if you haven't started production yet, I'm wondering why you don't shorten it a bit and notch the middle of the end sides so it will insert into the legs rather then be attached under the legs? I have a laser cutter at work, so I took your original dimensions and made one out of acrylic. After I attached it, I thought it would be better if it fit into the legs instead of under so I'm going to make another on Monday or Tuesday and see if I like it better. What do you think?

fastsmiles · Jun 8, 2014

That's a great idea, I'll try one with a notch as well.
It will actually prevent the zip ties from deforming the landing struts and should still strengthen them.

Updated link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/33 ... n=7d9beb62