ordered myself a GoPro Hero3 action cam

[Familyman67]

two days ago the heli-bug was stinging me again and also my wallet started to become "itchy" (if you know what I mean).
So I decided to sell off the key chain cam that I did not have so good experience with (MycroCam 720HD) and treated myself to a GoPro Hero3 (the "white edition", since there seems to be some tiny little portion of reason left in a distant corner of my brain )

I am looking foward to getting it mounted on my 550 and hope to be able to upload lots of nice in flight action videos over the course of the year. (and beyond).

Hey - I know this is probably not the right sub-forum to ask this question - but does anyone of you guys have experience with mounting a GoPro to a 550 or simmilar size heli.
I've been looking into the sub-forum for arial videography, and yes, there are a couple of suggestions but none of which really were "clicking" for me.

Thanks for your feedback in advance.

[Familyman67]

OK folks, I know this topic bores you to death. But I am going to post this anyway.


I have tested two different types of mount for the GoPro on my 550 - here is what came out.

enjoy (and turn up the sound)

filmed yesterday:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnDEyA982ng[/ame]

and this movie is from today:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52zypqQMn6I[/ame]

[automap2002]

Love the movies, look forward to many more! Great job on the mounts.

[Familyman67]

thanks - appreciate your comment
I knew someone would actually read this thread (eventually!)

[Ghostflyer1]

Nice Videos there bud.... maybe a layer of doublesided sticky tape between the mounts to help the vibration at higher RPM...

[Familyman67]

Thanks Ghost.

do you mean a standard double sided sticky or the foam version ?
With the foam sticky you have two choices - either you leave it "loose" (uncompressed) - this will increase the jello (tried that before)
or you tighten (compress) it then the dampening effect will be minmal, which is why I have preferred the hard foam and hard rubber dampeners over it. Both of wich I have tightened very strongly.
I think the vibration on the first video came from the fact that the entire construction is a bit loose and started resonating at a certain head- and flight speed.

[cyjonz]

Nice Familyman67! Showed my wife the video she thought it was very sweet. Now I can tell her I need one. Lol.

[Familyman67]

Originally Posted by cyjonz

Now I can tell her I need one. Lol.

...you're welcome. good luck with that project.

[Ghostflyer1]

thighten it down but enough for it to absorb the vibrations...
You saw mine, it has very little vibration and that is just strapped down with velcro and a battery strap.

[Familyman67]

OK - after the two first trials have gone ok, but not yet exactly what I had on my mind in terms of picture stability AND minimal impact on flight characteristics, I put a little more brain-juice into the project.
Out came this totally different solution.








it consists mainly of a relatively thick carbon plate, a distance-piece of plywood two layers of foam and a counter-plate again made from carbon.
I have mounted this to the bottom frameplate in my KDS 550 and it seems to hold pretty good. also used the sticky GoPro mounting foot. The 3M sticky is really brutal. But since I do not want to trust a 250€ cam to a simple sticky, I have added a screw to fix the foot to the carbon plate.

The whole thing weighs just a bit more than 100g which is about 40% of the weight of the first mount version.

here is a scaling comparison of the 3 versions.



On top of this I have ordered a DuBro true spin balancing device to fine-balance both the main- as well as the tail-rotor.

With that I hope to reduce overall vibes down to a minimum which should also have an impact on picture stability.

If this does not do the trick, then the next option would be to mount the camera without the (heavy) casing directly to the carbon plate.

The only thing that's missing is a testflight. Unfortunately I'll be flying to Sweden for the next 3 days, so I hope that the weather holds until the weekend.

to be continued...

[automap2002]

You come up with some very great ideas!!!

[Ghostflyer1]

Question ..... do they bottle that brain juice stuff and where can I buy some

[Familyman67]

No - sorry, they just stopped selling this recently. You gotta now squeeze it out of you own brain to get some.

[automap2002]

Originally Posted by Ghostflyer1

Question ..... do they bottle that brain juice stuff and where can I buy some

+1
If you ever feel you have some extra send it my way

[Ghostflyer1]

But But But I already donated mine for scientific expirimentation and testing. I wont get it back for another 5 years

[Familyman67]

Originally Posted by automap2002

+1
If you ever feel you have some extra send it my way

sorrry - need every little drop myself (there isn't that much available anyway)

Originally Posted by Ghostflyer1

But But But I already donated mine for scientific expirimentation and testing. I wont get it back for another 5 years

That explains a lot

[Ghostflyer1]

Yes the world will never be the same .....

[Familyman67]

by the way - the new mount is fantastic. almost no vibration or jello. I made a few nice shots with my GoPro - just didn't manage to cut the movie yet, but I plan to upload it tonight.
Something to look forward to.

[Ghostflyer1]

Hurry up would ya .... im waiting

[Familyman67]

OK - OK - Mr. unpatience - take it easy - ok ?

Here you go - enjoy!

GoPro - KDS550 proof of concept 03 (engl) (3 min 43 sec)