Rotorpixel gimbal for Phantom Vision

pyrophantom · Mar 1, 2014

Regarding the "minor stalls in the video signal"........I wonder if Keri would elaborate on the extent of testing on this issue, and the instances of signal drop out, and the potential frequency and conditions in which this is most likely to occur ?

It was always going to be an issue with this particular camera design that some part of the gimbal would act as a signal dampener no matter what design companies come up with, and the potential trade offs between materials vs weight, but it would be nice to see some data with regard to the phenomena as pre warned is pre armed so to speak.

I also don't think I have seen a gross weight for the gimbal yet unless I missed it somewhere ??

Extensive and meaningful data will no doubt be gleaned by those folk who get their gimbals first and put them into operation so some early functionality can be put into the public arena, so no doubt some interesting comments to come and maybe Keri could shed some light on their product testing in relation to the signal issue ?

We need something to discuss properly until they start dropping into peoples greasy palms !

PhantomDave · Mar 1, 2014

Rotorpixel said:
Yes, we have obtained a license from Aleksey Moskalenko/Basecam Electronics to produce the boards, but for the time being, we have to purchase them in bulk from Viacopter/Flyduino/E-Copter. This increases our costs for now, but we know that using these high quality boards will be appreciated (by some).

We have tested thinner motors, which are a little lighter, but more importantly, results in a shift of the camera in the direction of the motor... this means that the camera will be more centered, allowing the vertical arm to be made shorter, giving more ground clearance. However, we decided against these motors (for now) because we like the possibility of upgrading to larger cameras down the line, so you'll be able to save a lot of your investment.

We have shipped units out already, but the first batch was very small, and shipped out to 10 lucky individuals. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that every step of the manufacturing/assembly process is nailed down tightly before bulldozing through serious bulk production (there are more than 30 processes involved - soldering tiny wires, testing continuity, polishing, tapping holes, printing/dissolving 3D parts, making custom connectors, and the list goes on and on and on...). I know that everyone wants their gimbals immediately, but we have to be sure that everything works as intended coming off the current assembly line, before we can move forward with larger numbers. This is in the best interest of everyone, since we are trying to provide you with the highest quality product possible.

Regarding emails, and unsatisfactory customer service - I've been answering as many as possible, but there is simply no way at the moment to keep up with them. As production gears up, and manufacturing issues all sort themselves out, we're confident that we'll eventually be back on top of the pile of emails, and will be able to give everyone the support that they need and deserve.

This forum, Youtube, and Facebook have been the best places to communicate with customers until now, because they allow us to get particular messages to dozens of people at a time, so we will continue to monitor these communication avenues and will do our best to answer questions/comments in a timely manner, as we have been doing thus far.

Thanks for the incredible patience and positive feedback from many of you on here, and those that we've disappointed - I'm truly sorry that we weren't able to satisfy your needs, and realize that we have room to grow in terms of business management.

Let me know if you have any questions, or if I haven't addressed anyone's specific concerns/questions (So. Many. Pages...).

Thanks,

Keri

gfredrone · Mar 1, 2014

Bravo Bravo

MattOlieman · Mar 1, 2014

Keri, thank you for your elaborate response, it helps restore my confidence in RotorPixel.

tizzl10 · Mar 1, 2014

hopefully some of those 10 lucky people are on this forum..

iResq · Mar 1, 2014

Nobody so far has come forward with a tracking number.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

grochester · Mar 1, 2014

It occurs to me that actually receiving my gimbal may be a bit anti-climactic. The soap opera that has been the Rotorpixel Thread (The Gimbal Gamble) has been highly entertaining through the coldest, longest, crappiest Canadian winter in 20 years. If you can't get out and fly, this has been the next best thing. I suppose though, given the nature of some of the participants, the bitching will continue when they realize that the P2V and Rotorpixel combo doesn't perform as well as a Cinestar 8 with an Epic Red. This too will be Keri's fault. Could be entertaining, but I hope to be too busy flying.

Pull_Up · Mar 1, 2014

Thanks again, Keri. And thanks to the Rotorpixel ground troops in less-than-sub-tropical Toronto for making sure things are done right on the assembly line. Bearing in mind they are the most important people, and I'm the only one to acknowledge all their hard work (twice now) I'm sure they can squeeze another one out on Monday and send it in this direction... <cough>

DKDarkness · Mar 1, 2014

grochester said:
It occurs to me that actually receiving my gimbal may be a bit anti-climactic. The soap opera that has been the Rotorpixel Thread (The Gimbal Gamble) has been highly entertaining through the coldest, longest, crappiest Canadian winter in 20 years. If you can't get out and fly, this has been the next best thing. I suppose though, given the nature of some of the participants, the bitching will continue when they realize that the P2V and Rotorpixel combo doesn't perform as well as a Cinestar 8 with an Epic Red. This too will be Keri's fault. Could be entertaining, but I hope to be too busy flying.

Nah, RotorPixel will the announce their 3-axis gimbal, and the frenzy will start all over again

gfredrone · Mar 1, 2014

I'm looking forward to camera expandability. Love to send my RX-100 up. Rotorpixel is the value play long term.

Venom93corba · Mar 1, 2014

I agree I'd love to send up my RX-100 M3 as well.

Keri any chance on this happening?

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2

tedw123 · Mar 1, 2014

Certainly not complaining but at the rate of 10 a week, could be more like 8 - 10 week lead time. Hopefully the pace picks up. Ordered mine the day site went active.

Flighttime · Mar 1, 2014

Rotorpixel said:
Let me know if you have any questions, or if I haven't addressed anyone's specific concerns/questions (So. Many. Pages...).

Thanks,

Keri

Thanks for the clarification, it makes us all the more excited.

Just the one burning question from me...is there a tentative timeline for the fulfillment of orders? I'm sure you've given the outsourced manufacturing/assembly team a performance target, no? At least I hope you did, otherwise...that just says it all

Pull_Up · Mar 1, 2014

They're in-house, not outsourced...

cavaleiro01 · Mar 1, 2014

pylon said:
streetcreep said:

I hate that last statement by the way ..

So you would personally wait to see the product but professionally send caution to the wind and schedule a project based on availability and not having it in your actual hands as you said to see if it will work for you .. Weird .. if you worked at my company you would be fired for sure .

Click to expand...

Lets not get carried away. They built a gimbal that fits an odd ball camera. Nothing more. There are many products already on the market that do the exact same thing, they just fit a different camera. This isn't rocket science, the thing is basically a Zenmuse knock off for all intents and purposes.

I do all of our company photography, and I thought it would be a fun project to film our building, campus, and do a company group aerial photo on my own dime. There is some prep that will be required with parking, building maintenance and staging before I start on what is ultimately a freebie for my employer, but I need to know when to have everything ready, and when to let everyone know when to be prepared. The future of our company in no way hinges on something I am planning to do ultimately for fun.

However, rotorpixels very future relies on providing good customer service, regardless of how mundane the enquiries are. And they have provided exactly zero to me at this point in time. Their current service, is the equivalent of me walking up to a Bestbuy till with a wad of hundreds in my hand and a 50" TV in tow, and the cashier refusing to cash me out.

For aerial photo, you have everything you need, with the P2V. You don´t really need a brushless gimbal in a P2V for aerial photography.

cavaleiro01 · Mar 1, 2014

gfredrone said:
Calibrate X1 and set gimbal to 1000 0 -800. This gives me full range and a perfectly level camera angle at the top position.

RemE, JustJames, Skipholiday, gfredrone, thank you very much for your support! I'd forgotten to recalibrate! The lever I mounted on the controller it's working like a charm, now!

I bought two levers: one from Helipal.com, http://www.helipal.com/phantom-24-phant ... fgih96a7a2, which is the one I'm using (but I replaced the bolt for a slightly longer one, from the other lever package) and another one from http://www.ebay.com/itm/281237758098?ss ... 1497.l2649. This one "hurts" the controller cover slightly.

cavaleiro01 · Mar 1, 2014

As a reminder - although this was already written several times before, in different threads - doing the 7th channel hacking, you can tilt your camera from the controller (although you will stop doing it from your iPhone/smartphone app) with or without a gimbal mounted on your camera.

This is why I decided to do it right away, even before getting my Rotorpixel gimbal. It's so much easier to tilt the camera from your controller, compared to tilting it from the DJI app! This way, you don't need to take your hands from the joysticks.

JustJames · Mar 1, 2014

cavaleiro01 said:
gfredrone said:

Calibrate X1 and set gimbal to 1000 0 -800. This gives me full range and a perfectly level camera angle at the top position.

Click to expand...

RemE, JustJames, Skipholiday, gfredrone, thank you very much for your support! I'd forgotten to recalibrate! The lever I mounted on the controller it's working like a charm, now!

I bought two levers: one from Helipal.com, http://www.helipal.com/phantom-24-phant ... fgih96a7a2, which is the one I'm using (but I replaced the bolt for a slightly longer one, from the other lever package) and another one from http://www.ebay.com/itm/281237758098?ss ... 1497.l2649. This one "hurts" the controller cover slightly.

No problem. I probably didn't help as much as the other guys but glad you got it working..pretty sweet huh? I am using the exact same lever (the carbon fiber one).

JJ