So it’s time for me to confess and say that on top of the original Vision with Rotorpixel (love it) and F450 ARTF kit (slowly building with my 7 year old son) I’ve recently acquired a Phantom 2 with H3-3D. I’ve also put a few extras on it, and I’ve flown it three times now so here’s my experience with this setup. I’ve tried to deal with it as it would be for a new user, so I haven’t changed into NAZA mode or done any tweaking or changing from defaults.
First, the equipment list:
Phantom 2;
Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal;
GoPro Hero 3 Silver Edition;
DJI AVL58 AV tx with supplied antenna;
DJI iOSD Mark 2 (not mini - yeah, I know - I was going to put it on my F450 build, but I’ve got it so…);
DJI FPV Hub (those of you who know me know I avoid soldering if I can);
Black Pearl 7” FPV diversity rx monitor;
Rave Creative monitor mount (
http://uav.ravecreative.co.uk/);
(Note - I don’t have the anti-interference board fitted to the gimbal)
Weather conditions for my flight test were fine, surface winds light and variable, some thermal activity, air temp 14 degrees C.
I set-up the P2 and Zenmuse H3-3D as per instructions, using default dampers and all default settings in the Assistant - but I upgraded everything to latest firmware using Assistant 3.0.
I fitted the iOSD, AVL58 tx and FPV hub on the underside using the cables and sticky pads provided in the FPV Hub pack - it was VERY easy once I’d worked out a good arrangement for the components on the back, and using the AVL58 meant I could keep the soldering iron in the cupboard. It was a 10 minute job. Flying weight of this setup is 1315g
Flight experience is what I’d come to expect from 6 months of flying a Vision, and after an initial compass calibration the GPS hold was fine (if perhaps not quite as tight as previous firmware, but maybe that’s just me?). This P2 holds it’s position during fast yaw pirouettes a lot better than my Vision for some reason, but that’s not a move I perform in real flying very often. The climb response is still quite punchy, especially with a fresh battery. Coming to a halt in GPS mode uses a bit more real estate thanks to the additional weight and if you’re operating close to nasty, evil trees then I’d give some opposite stick to make sure it stops where you need it to.
For these early flights I left everything in standard, out of the box P2 mode not NAZA mode so I didn’t have atti or manual or IOC available. I wanted to try it out as a newcomer to the Phantom range would find it.
Now I am totally new to “traditional” FPV using A/V tx and monitor setup, coming from the Vision with it’s very polished app and wifi downlink. The iOSD gave me some of the features I’m used to like battery level, satellites locked, height and speed readouts, bank angle, etc. The Black Pearl monitor is EXCELLENT. Great picture, works flawlessly with the AVL58, good stock sunshade, and it’s light enough so it doesn’t unbalance the tx (I used it without a neck strap - because I forgot to take it off my Vision controller! - and didn’t find it a problem, even hand catching for landings and having to hold with one hand whilst holding down throttle to stop motors).
So what about this shiny gimbal, then? Well I’m very, very impressed. I’m running the GoPro at 1080/24 (I like the look of 24 fps - shoot me) and I’ve just put the gimbal on as it came out of the box and I get fantastic stable video. The only time I notice any jello at all is during fairly hefty descents with some right stick input to keep out of rotor wash - and that’s only because I’m looking for it. Props are in view when the GoPro is tilted fully up, but judicious use of the 7th channel lever to drop the camera gets them out of shot (easy to see with the excellent Black Pearl).
Hard right yaw brings the can-bus port on the left skid into shot, hard left yaw is clean. With the camera tilted fully down you can see left skid if the craft is correcting for drift in that direction in GPS mode. Given the offset lens on the GoPro this is always going to be the case. Judicious use of atti mode should help.
Flight times with this setup were 14-15 minutes, but i was doing a fair number of high speed runs, climbs, fast descents and aggresive maneouvres to test out the gimbal. For a standard aerial videography flight profile I think 15 minutes is going to be where it’s at. This compares to 17 mnutes with a Vision and Rotorpixel.
So compared to the Vision with Rotorpixel: there were more props in shot with the H3-3D when the GoPro is horizontal - this is due to the Rotorpixel bringing the Vision lens further forward. Stability in the yaw axis was impeccable, something the Rotorpixel can’t compete with until they bring out their 3rd axis upgrade. I do miss the convenience of the app on the Vision. By the time I’ve set up my screen, put the AV tx antenna on and set the GoPro running I’d already have been up and flying for about 4 minutes with the Vision. The other thing I miss is the ability to start and stop recording in the air. It was easier for editing to have a memory card full of clips already, rather than one long clip. Because of that shutter control I will probably use the Vision/Rotorpixel combo for aerial stills purposes more than the P2 and GoPro. Having said that there’s no doubt that the GoPro has better quality video and the H3-3D is a very, very nice piece of kit that was easy to install, pre-balanced, and worked very nicely indeed straight out of the box even with my additional hardware mounted just behind it. In places the footage is so stable it looks like a still - I tried to have movement in the clips below to make sure it doesn't look like a photo! Now I’ve got two aerial platforms I can use in different scenarios and I don’t think either one will gather dust at the expense of the other.
Here’s a video showing some of today’s flying - straight from the SD card, cut and rendered, no post-production or stabilisation. It’s not meant to be pretty or tell a story, it’s to show some high- and low-energy manoeuvres, some hovering shots, crane-type shots, etc. Original video was shot 1080p/24. Sorry about the prop-shadow in places - any tips on avoiding it when shooting with sun between rotors and camera?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40xj_NgluNA[/youtube]
