Rotorpixel gimbal for Phantom Vision

[DKDarkness]

Re: RotorPixel 3D gimbal comming up?

RotorPixel also announced a switch to lighter thinner motors. The motors have a bigger diameter, so they would block more wifi signal. So why switch to a thinner motor type? Space.

No, not for space but for weight.
The new motors have 25% less weight.

Geert./.

Yes, and they are shorter (the body is shorter). And that space you need to fit a 3D gimbal between the legs of the P2V

 

[DKDarkness]

Re: RotorPixel 3D gimbal comming up?

Yes, and they are shorter (the body is shorter). And that space you need to fit a 3D gimbal between the legs of the P2V

That is not announced yet, we will see about that. Is possible though.


Geert./.

Hence the "wild speculation" part of the post?

 

[Soundguy4987]

So I just placed an order with rotor pixel.... Did I just throw away $400 or do you guys think I'll actually get a gimbal sometime soon? Most of the posts I see about people waiting are dated back to 2013.... Has anybody received a rotor pixel recently? What was the wait like?

 

[Soundguy4987]

The waiting list at this moment is long but Keri announced that he will get through this long back order list in just a few weeks.
The bottleneck until now were the 3D printed parts but with the new injection moulded parts that problem should be in the past.
Hope you will get yours soon.

Geert./.

Cool, thanks Geert. I was very hesitant to take the risk but I'm not impressed with the other gimbals on the market. I'm going to Hawaii in October so I just hope It gets here before then! YOUVE GOT 3 MONTHS ROTORPIXEL! YOU CAN DO IT!

 

[Flintstone]

The waiting list at this moment is long but Keri announced that he will get through this long back order list in just a few weeks.
The bottleneck until now were the 3D printed parts but with the new injection moulded parts that problem should be in the past.
Hope you will get yours soon.

Geert./.

Cool, thanks Geert. I was very hesitant to take the risk but I'm not impressed with the other gimbals on the market. I'm going to Hawaii in October so I just hope It gets here before then! YOUVE GOT 3 MONTHS ROTORPIXEL! YOU CAN DO IT!

I would not hold your breath. I cancelled and got my refund. There is something very strange about the way they do business....mainly communication or lack thereof. In all my life I have never ran across a company with this poor customer care and satisfaction. I am trying the Aerial-Freaks Cyclops Vision Gimbal if it does not work out I am putting my money into a Vision 2+ and eliminating the gimbal nightmare. I shutter to think of the interest they are making on the money people have committed if they are not putting any of it into the cost of development/production. 1000 gimbals at $400.00 = $400,000.00 my estimated sales quantity may be low. I hope you have better patience than myself....5 weeks with nothing on the horizon from Rotorpixel but vapor promises.

 

[Pull_Up]

Just a little comment about the build-quality and strength of the Rotorpixel gimbal and the Phantom 2 Vision... The other day my Vision got stuck in the top-most branches of a 90ft tree (if you want the whole story, I posted about it on my YouTube channel - no footage from the Vision, though, as I wasn't recording, just testing some mods). To cut a long story short the wind picked up and blew enough to shake it loose where it promptly fell 90ft through the middle of the tree, smacking into branches all the way down and dropping clear down the last 15ft, landing in a patch of nettles at the bottom - I watched it do this with a heavy heart.

I walked over and picked it up (still powered up) to see 1 broken prop and... that's it. No other damage to the Vision body OR to the Rotorpixel, which was merrily stabilising the camera as good as ever as I walked the aircraft back to my launch point, wiggling it back and forth amazed.

Pretty sure a Vision Plus 3-axis gimbal would have been snapped in two (let's face it, users have reported much lesser impacts snapping that gimbal), one of the all-plastic Chinese gimbals would have been toast and I'm not sure how my Zenmuse H3-3D would have fared, either. Well done DJI for building a tough airframe in the P2 line and well done Rotorpixel for designing a tough, capable gimbal. Glad to see they are about to restart production again with enough new plastic parts to clear the whole backlog.

 

[Geoelectro]

Yesterday my P2V dropped out of the sky with no power from 80'. It landed upside down. The RP gimbal popped off and the camera went another way. As for gimbal damage the camera shell broke into three pieces. The main arm going from the top plate to the roll motor was bent. The bending pushed the arm into the housing that covers the circuit board fracturing the housing. So I have three broken parts. I was able to bend the arm back and glue the plastic parts back together. It still works.

The reason for the crash seems to be battery data pins. I got an error saying battery communication error - fly carefully.

Geo

 

[EricT]

Yesterday my P2V dropped out of the sky with no power from 80'. It landed upside down. The RP gimbal popped off and the camera went another way. As for gimbal damage the camera shell broke into three pieces. The main arm going from the top plate to the roll motor was bent. The bending pushed the arm into the housing that covers the circuit board fracturing the housing. So I have three broken parts. I was able to bend the arm back and glue the plastic parts back together. It still works.

The reason for the crash seems to be battery data/power pins. I got an error saying battery communication error - fly carefully.

Geo

Interesting....today when I was flying my son was holding my Android Smartphone next to me and said he was getting a battery communication error.....as I brought it back to land (he was concerned because the remaining battery charge was not displaying of course), he suddenly said the battery was communicating again. I landed anyway and recycled the P2V battery power up sequence and all was fine for the remainder of a 10 minute flight. I wonder if it is time to clean the data pins on all of my batteries and the connectors in the P2V?

 

[EricT]

Just a little comment about the build-quality and strength of the Rotorpixel gimbal and the Phantom 2 Vision... The other day my Vision got stuck in the top-most branches of a 90ft tree (if you want the whole story, I posted about it on my YouTube channel - no footage from the Vision, though, as I wasn't recording, just testing some mods). To cut a long story short the wind picked up and blew enough to shake it loose where it promptly fell 90ft through the middle of the tree, smacking into branches all the way down and dropping clear down the last 15ft, landing in a patch of nettles at the bottom - I watched it do this with a heavy heart.

I walked over and picked it up (still powered up) to see 1 broken prop and... that's it. No other damage to the Vision body OR to the Rotorpixel, which was merrily stabilising the camera as good as ever as I walked the aircraft back to my launch point, wiggling it back and forth amazed.

Pretty sure a Vision Plus 3-axis gimbal would have been snapped in two (let's face it, users have reported much lesser impacts snapping that gimbal), one of the all-plastic Chinese gimbals would have been toast and I'm not sure how my Zenmuse H3-3D would have fared, either. Well done DJI for building a tough airframe in the P2 line and well done Rotorpixel for designing a tough, capable gimbal. Glad to see they are about to restart production again with enough new plastic parts to clear the whole backlog.

Today when I was flying, my son was also flying his Flame Wheel F550.....he was in attitude mode and came back towards us and because it was in attitude mode, the forward momentum didn't bleed off the approach speed quickly enough and he went into a tree about 20 feet above the ground. It snagged branches, and then tumbled to the ground.....he has a Zenmuse 2D gimbal and GoPro camera, and the only damage was three of the jello mounts had popped loose (thank goodness for the zip ties). No damage to the Zenmuse gimbal or camera or the bird.

 

[EricT]

The waiting list at this moment is long but Keri announced that he will get through this long back order list in just a few weeks.
The bottleneck until now were the 3D printed parts but with the new injection moulded parts that problem should be in the past.
Hope you will get yours soon.

Geert./.

Cool, thanks Geert. I was very hesitant to take the risk but I'm not impressed with the other gimbals on the market. I'm going to Hawaii in October so I just hope It gets here before then! YOUVE GOT 3 MONTHS ROTORPIXEL! YOU CAN DO IT!

I would not hold your breath. I cancelled and got my refund. There is something very strange about the way they do business....mainly communication or lack thereof. In all my life I have never ran across a company with this poor customer care and satisfaction. I am trying the Aerial-Freaks Cyclops Vision Gimbal if it does not work out I am putting my money into a Vision 2+ and eliminating the gimbal nightmare. I shutter to think of the interest they are making on the money people have committed if they are not putting any of it into the cost of development/production. 1000 gimbals at $400.00 = $400,000.00 my estimated sales quantity may be low. I hope you have better patience than myself....5 weeks with nothing on the horizon from Rotorpixel but vapor promises.

I would "shutter" or should I say shudder to think of the interest if I did not pay off my credit card balance each month and was paying interest. Given current world wide interest rates, the foregone interest income on $400 is paltry. I was order #621 and have had my RP since early April and love it. No more headaches watching my videos!

 

[Flintstone]

So I just placed an order with rotor pixel.... Did I just throw away $400 or do you guys think I'll actually get a gimbal sometime soon? Most of the posts I see about people waiting are dated back to 2013.... Has anybody received a rotor pixel recently? What was the wait like?

There seems to be some people getting these but their wait time has been long...long...long I'm sure. I was looking on YouTube for videos searching under Rotorpixel. I was surprised to see there were only 11 individuals who had posted a video/videos (as of last week). I would have thought there would be more....strange. I waited 5 weeks and finally got a refund. From what I can tell they make a good product but until I see it in a dealer store, in stock and ready for prompt shipment I am not trying ordering one again. I just got the Aerial Freaks Cyclops Gimbal today. It was in stock, $299.00 and arrived 4 days after ordering. I will test fly it tomorrow or Monday and post a video...if it is good. If not, I am heading for the P2V+ to get away from the gimbal nightmare. If you can handle the wait and put up with the sporadic/nebulous comments from RP on their Facebook site you just might get one...this year I hope. Best of Luck...let's go flying.

 

[Bunyarra]

Rotorpixel problems <sigh>

Well, after waiting 2 months for shipping .... got the Rotorpixel installed and thought it was working.

Balanced it with the filter kit ... but the camera stutters when pitching down. Tried rebalancing but no joy.

WiFi signal erratic .. more than a few hundred feet and it now disappears. Never reconnects

One wire from the connector to the Phantom slipped out of the plug .. pushed it back in but worried the quality is very, very poor indeed.

Sometimes it will just roll around on it's own hitting the limits of rotation. If I turn the Phantom off/on and ensure it is perfectly level for a bit then all is ok for 5 mins then the problem starts again.

Really regret buying this .. a shame as I love supporting new startups.

Anyone any ideas?

 

[gpauk]

Email Keri -- usually he replies quickly to advise with problems...

 

[Bunyarra]

Re: Rotorpixel problems <sigh>

but the camera stutters when pitching down.

What you can do is check the cables. Power down your Phantom and try to turn your camera/gimbal in all directions while checking if some wire block it. Stuttering is usually caused by this.
Did you also changed the pitch gain in the Assistant Software?
Geert./.

Hi Geert,

Thank you. Yes, Indeed I have checked all cables. Nothing snags - a bit of rubbing but not possible to route then to avoid it. All cables checked. Assistant s/w was changed as per the instructions.

The lack of range for WiFi is very concerning as the unit was perfect prior to the gimbal. I will re-check everything again as I know bad fingers probably cause more issues than bad design.

I will be emailing Keri but my last communications took 4 weeks to get a reply

Thanks,

Mike

 

[EricT]

So I just placed an order with rotor pixel.... Did I just throw away $400 or do you guys think I'll actually get a gimbal sometime soon? Most of the posts I see about people waiting are dated back to 2013.... Has anybody received a rotor pixel recently? What was the wait like?

There seems to be some people getting these but their wait time has been long...long...long I'm sure. I was looking on YouTube for videos searching under Rotorpixel. I was surprised to see there were only 11 individuals who had posted a video/videos (as of last week). I would have thought there would be more....strange.

I can only guess you searched YouTube with Rotorpixel in the search terms....I know I don't put Rotorpixel in my description so probably that is why you don't find many RP based videos.

 

[jadebox]

Re: Rotorpixel problems <sigh>

Yes, Indeed I have checked all cables. Nothing snags - a bit of rubbing but not possible to route then to avoid it. All cables checked.

Even the slightest bit of rubbing can interfere with the operation of the gimbal. With the power off, you should be able to move the camera to the full extent of the gimbal movement with only the slightest touch and no sign of interference. You may need to reroute cables to avoid interference with the gimbal.

Also, check for anything else that may interfere. In my case, a screw attaching the camera mount to one of the servos was too long and kept the camera from moving. All I had to do was loosen the screw a bit.

-- Roger

 

[Flintstone]

So I just placed an order with rotor pixel.... Did I just throw away $400 or do you guys think I'll actually get a gimbal sometime soon? Most of the posts I see about people waiting are dated back to 2013.... Has anybody received a rotor pixel recently? What was the wait like?

There seems to be some people getting these but their wait time has been long...long...long I'm sure. I was looking on YouTube for videos searching under Rotorpixel. I was surprised to see there were only 11 individuals who had posted a video/videos (as of last week). I would have thought there would be more....strange.

I can only guess you searched YouTube with Rotorpixel in the search terms....I know I don't put Rotorpixel in my description so probably that is why you don't find many RP based videos.

What do you put in? If not Rotorpixel? I am looking for people talking/showing about the product they just bought for $400.00 and received. When I post my videos I describe the product making the video (P2V) to help others make a decision.

 

[EricT]

What do you put in? If not Rotorpixel? I am looking for people talking/showing about the product they just bought for $400.00 and received. When I post my videos I describe the product making the video (P2V) to help others make a decision.

I understand.....if you cull back through this forum there are a number of initial Rotorpixel videos RP buyers posted. I guess after having the RP for a while, I just tend to post the topic of my YouTube video(s) as opposed to the equipment I used. My son flys a DJI Flame Wheel F550 with a Zenmuse gimbal and a GoPro Hero 3 camera, so our videos tend to be an edited composition of that flying day/location.

 

[RCRookie]

Re: Rotorpixel problems <sigh>

Yes, Indeed I have checked all cables. Nothing snags - a bit of rubbing but not possible to route then to avoid it. All cables checked.

Even the slightest bit of rubbing can interfere with the operation of the gimbal. With the power off, you should be able to move the camera to the full extent of the gimbal movement with only the slightest touch and no sign of interference. You may need to reroute cables to avoid interference with the gimbal.

Also, check for anything else that may interfere. In my case, a screw attaching the camera mount to one of the servos was too long and kept the camera from moving. All I had to do was loosen the screw a bit.

-- Roger

Absolutely right about the gimbal wires and touching or rubbing. I've had to rework one cable to the front side of the arm to alleviate a tug point. Seems fine now. It really does take fine tuning and rechecking regularly to keep it working well.

I flew both the 4th and 5th of July over water where I live, several times (3 batteries) (will post a vid)...Lots of boaters, jetskiing kids tubing. And I don't have any recovery system should it drop in the drink. I clean my battery contacts every third flight with deOxit and a Q-tip as well as lightly exercise the data pins. Mine are the newer (4 pointed) and so far no battery errors or crashes. Had my Vision since early March. This Gimbal makes this machine. I just hope Keri continues his development, i'd like to see the improvements he has posted on Facebook.

Be Patient, your Gimbal will come. To give reference, I bought mine the first day at the END of the day when RotorPixel went live sales,..approx. 5:30 or so Central US time.
Pull_Up bought his early on the same day when it went "LIVE"
He received his Gimbal over a Month before I got mine, and his was about the 3rd or 4th off the assembly line, I was #462.
So, you'll have to give Keri time,..I don't think he will disappoint you. I know the Gimbal certainly hasn't disappointed me.

 

[theSelf]

Hi everyone- I purchased my Rotorpixel Gimbal (in white) April 27, 2014- over 9 weeks ago- (Order Number: #1402073200) and have sent several messages over the last few weeks to them /Keri just to get a simple quick message back to find out what the approximate status of when my gimbal will be shipping- and haven't had a single reply- not cool considering they have our money upfront- just common courtesy to keep people who have been patiently waiting 'in the loop'- maybe I'm using the wrong means of getting touch with them (the main website's contact page- http://www.rotorpixel.com/contact/) - however what's the current average wait time for receiving the gimbal and also what is the best way of contacting Keri/Rotorpixel directly and actually getting a reply?

Thanks for anyone's feedback

Justin