Simon in Hong Kong send me his FlyPro gimbal for a test. here is some of my thoughts after a few flights with the FlyPro gimbal.
Click through for the full review, flight VIDEO and virtual object movide of the gimbal.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
The FlyPro gimbal stands out in a couple of ways. at only 150grams it is maybe the lightest brushless gimbal I have tried so far. Also notice the cable next to the camera frame, Simon ship the gimbals with a GoPro3 USB video out cable included. And finally the unconventional suspension is incredible effective. the loose O rings with a foam filler permit the gimbal to float without starting to rock, I had a chipped prop on the quad when I flew the FlyPro gimbal but had no vibrations or jello at all in the video.
Overall this is a typical Martinez board gimbal, the IMU is on top of the gimbal. Simon made a uncommon choice by using one pancake motor and one regular size, Im sure this contribute to the light weight of the gimbal.
CONNECTIONS:
There is both roll and pitch cable attached to the board and also a plug for dedicated power to the GoPro camera.
The gimbal come standard with a JST cable for power, and like all Martinez boards can feed directly from a 2s or 3s battery. I have a JST power out cable on my quad so it was litterally plug-n-play.
SETUP:
I installed the top part of the mount to the Phantom with two screws, then looped the O-rings over the hooks. took about 2 minutes.
For my video I zip
HOW DID IT WORK:
The gimbal seems very well balanced and put together out of the box. as mentioned before the suspension is maybe the most effective I have tried and the video was perfectly free of jello.
There is no "slob" in the gimbal, everything feels firm and solid.
Pitch control was spot on at all times, like other Martinez board gimbals it tend to start to shake if a cable is snagged or if its running into a piece of grass while sitting on the ground, but as soon as its in the air things are smooth.
The camera frame works well and hold the GoPro3 firmly, the gimbal came with a velcro strap, but my GoPro fit so tight in the frame that I actually flew without the strap and did feel very happy with the setup.
CONCLUSION:
I really liked flying this gimbal, to be honest, it feels a little "messy" at first because there is a bunch of cables and I would probably have arranged the cables differently. but the fact is, in only 150grams, Simon have included both pitch and roll control cable and a GoPro cable, so this is a LOT more cables installed "out of the box" than most other gimbals I have tried which either did not have any control cables or only pitch cable installed.
After Simon balanced the gimbal the roll performance was also spot on, so concerns with that part.
I would have prefered if he had wired the GoPro cable to a FatShark / Immersion RC vtx plug, so the camera would power from the clean 5v power from the vtx, but I am told you can ask him for that option when ordering.
Hello Mark, mine was bone-stock I never edited it at all.
Posted by: Bo Lorentzen | 01/28/2016 at 11:06 PM
What PID settings did you use? And what software? Please help, mine is not working.... When i turn it on, it goes haywire (rolls and pitches) like its possessed...
Posted by: mark | 01/26/2016 at 09:18 AM
@ Lee, google Hummer brushless gimbal, it can be found by several suppliers. it normally come fully assembled, all inclusive and ready to fly. obvious, also consider the awesome xAircraft STELLA brushless gimbal which is the best I have tried.
Posted by: Bo Lorentzen | 03/12/2014 at 08:36 PM
where can I get one of these? Does it come with all mechanical parts, motros and contorller?
Posted by: Lee | 03/12/2014 at 01:46 PM
Hey there....great video by the way. I bought this gimball last year from simon. I took it out for one test run and it worked great. Then the weather got bad and the snow came. So I never used it for the past few months. Now I go to use this gimbal and its not responding. I have tried the reset button and its drops dead for a few seconds and then it tries to re-calibrate itself. But it doesn't seem to. I can't seem to get a hold of Simon. Any ideas???? Can I manually recalibrate it.
Posted by: Chad | 02/25/2014 at 05:30 PM