Do i need to counter-balance my gimbal?

[windrockwater]

So i got a gimbal from gadgetsalon on eBay. Mainly because they had a pretty good description of it and that it could be not-too-hard to install. It came with everything in good order. No real problem installing it. I am using the 'extra' power cable from the phantom to power the gimbal. And i connected the supplied camera tilt cable to the phantom. I had to upgrade the Naza software in order to be able to 'enable' the gimbal control. All that went fine. The gimbal seems to balance itself nicely when turned on, and, the tilt control is working. Hooray.

My first flight with the gimbal was short lived due to pilot error and a slow crash into a bush. I took the gimbal off (which required taking apart the phantom to unplug the tilt control cable). So then i decided to make the gimbal more removable and i cut the gimbal control cable and made it a quick-disconnect. I make a couple flights without the gimbal to make sure the phantom is working fine. No problem. But before i did all this i had two messy crashes on take off which may have been cause by me being too nervous to give max throttle on lift off.

I feel like this gimbal is making the phantom a little front-heavy. If i pick up the phantom with the gimbal installed, it is noticeably front heavy. What that means is that i think i need to really 'punch' the throttle fully to get in the air? Is that right? Or, should I be trying to balance the phantom by adding weight towards the rear of the phantom (a spare battery or something)? The gimbal came with a mounting plate that uses the two screws on the bottom of the phantom, and, it also uses the rubber balls. There does not seem to be adjustment potential.

For others with a gimbal, do you have weight issues and flying or takeoff? Is the trick simply to gun it when taking off? Anyone esle using the gadgetsalon gimbal (or happy whatever its called).

 

[EMCSQUAR]

I think most folks here will chime in and tell you - yes most gimbals make Phantoms "front heavy".

On mine I went into assistant, up'd the idle speed one notch and increased gains (except yaw) to 135% and take offs are much smoother.

 

[Driffill]

I didn't make any changes when I installed my servo gimbal, that was very front heavy, it held the gopro out I front of the battery door. I did notice some more tipping to the front on take off etc, but I just controlled that with the right stick movements on take off.

If you want to change any of the settings in the naza software, I'd only change the Centre Of Gravity settings. I don't think the gains will do much and idle speed should be controlled by the phantom in the air while hovering anyway, upping the idle speed could make the phantom less stable on the ground when the props are spinning as they are taking more weight (if that makes sense)

 

[windrockwater]

Well i tried again today and even though it was quite windy, the phantom took off just fine with the new gimbal. I just made sure to get it up quick and in the air.

The gimbal itself works pretty good so far. I took some test video and everything remained level and some of the jello affect is better too because of the rubber balls. Overall for 200$ it seems like a decent gimbal. So for now I am glad i didn't rationalize the $700 Zenmuse. $700??? Seriously?

 

[mroberts]

I had the same issue on my first take-off massively front heavy. It practically tipped over onto the nose before it got into the air. Next time I'll try back stick to balance it. One other option is to hand launch it, but I have prop guards, so it's a bit safer.

What I found truly impressive was how stable the Phantom was once it was in the air, despite the massive cg shift.

 

[Maranatha Photography]

Don't know much about the Gimbal itself, but I would not recommend buying from Gadget Salon.

I tried to buy some CF props from them.

They advertised them as being "balanced".

When I got them, they were not only not balanced, but they weren't even matched.

The weight difference from the heaviest to the lightest was huge, and there was no way to make it fly stable even after balancing the props.

I requested a return but Ebay decided in their favor, and not only was I stuck with props I couldn't use, but the Ebay system wouldn't even let me leave Neutral or Negative feedback for the transaction because they had ruled in their favor.

(Remember when Ebay user ratings used to mean something....before Ebay started changing the rules to protect the sellers instead of the buyers?)

 

[Beagler]

Don't know much about the Gimbal itself, but I would not recommend buying from Gadget Salon.

I tried to buy some CF props from them.

They advertised them as being "balanced".

When I got them, they were not only not balanced, but they weren't even matched.

The weight difference from the heaviest to the lightest was huge, and there was no way to make it fly stable even after balancing the props.

I requested a return but Ebay decided in their favor, and not only was I stuck with props I couldn't use, but the Ebay system wouldn't even let me leave Neutral or Negative feedback for the transaction because they had ruled in their favor.

(Remember when Ebay user ratings used to mean something....before Ebay started changing the rules to protect the sellers instead of the buyers?)

" Maranatha " is an interesting word with an interesting meaning. ( Apologies if off topic).