Originally Posted by pug398

I did mine last night (welded) and it turned out pretty good but noticed a slight cant to one of the tubes. Turns out one wall on the 90 degree vise is not cast perfectly straight up and down Got a milled vise with straight sides coming but the cost was more than the kit so there is something to be said for the ease of bolting it all together

The rigidity of the bolt together kit is very surprising. I didn't even have to tighten the bolts much at all and everything is very rigid. You can also crank on the bolt and the plates are so stiff they will not bend or bow.

The really cool thing about the bolt together setup (I am pretty much sold on that. Earlier I was dead set on drilling holes in the center and bolting through the aluminum tubes) is the ease of changing sizes. You can have a variety if tube sizes and you can make your gimbal any size you want by just swapping the three tubes.

This is the epitome of scalability. You can have one that is wide enough to fit a Canon 5D Mk2 then change the tube and have one that is narrow and deep to fit a PJ710V. The only issue is that there is a small size limitation on the side tubes. I found that you cannot go shorter than 3 inches or tilt servo mount will have a hard time fitting.

Excellent. Keep track on how you like each servos. I am a sucker for trying different servos.

Yes, I'm curious to see how the conventional Iltair servo works compared to the MI. I was playing with the MI the other night, and it has a very small deadband, very little backlash and very low to no jitter. I fired up a glue gun to glue a camera onto the servo horn and see if it jitters, but I got distracted by something else.

Point being, I wonder how much of the performance of these is due to the MI, or is it that their gears and motor are good.

I'm really itching to buy one of the $80 MI Brushless servos and see how it does direct drive.

I could see how maybe you could get less deadband and jitter with MI vs. a pot. With the pot, the precision in your measurement, and the deadband you want to control at is going to depend on how clean your power supply is. I'd think any ripple in the voltage would result in noise on the pot feedback. If you make the deadband too small, it will never stop moving. But with MI, that all goes away. You'd only have to worry about magnetic fields, which are easier to deal with I think.

Is there a parts kit available for this yet? I have the 10mm square aluminum and servos but just need the rest.

Originally Posted by f11music.com

Is there a parts kit available for this yet? I have the 10mm square aluminum and servos but just need the rest.

The plates and Delrin blocks are ready:

http://www.shop.aglhobbiesllc.com/Ca...Parts-Kit.html

Rusty ordered the pulleys and belts so the option 2 kit will be ready when he is ready.

Originally Posted by R_Lefebvre

Yes, I'm curious to see how the conventional Iltair servo works compared to the MI. I was playing with the MI the other night, and it has a very small deadband, very little backlash and very low to no jitter. I fired up a glue gun to glue a camera onto the servo horn and see if it jitters, but I got distracted by something else.

Point being, I wonder how much of the performance of these is due to the MI, or is it that their gears and motor are good.

I'm really itching to buy one of the $80 MI Brushless servos and see how it does direct drive.

I could see how maybe you could get less deadband and jitter with MI vs. a pot. With the pot, the precision in your measurement, and the deadband you want to control at is going to depend on how clean your power supply is. I'd think any ripple in the voltage would result in noise on the pot feedback. If you make the deadband too small, it will never stop moving. But with MI, that all goes away. You'd only have to worry about magnetic fields, which are easier to deal with I think.

My hands are full with getting a couple of these gimbals in the air. So I will let you test the Lontair. Where are you buying the Lontair?

I am just about ready to use a 180 degree servo for the tilt instead of the external pot. Maybe if I drop the ratio back to 2.5 to 1 and use a super strong servo will be good.

Just out of curiocity. I've been reading here and I didn't see anyone asking about the Savox servos. Why?

Ok....I just read through most of this thread, and I'm sold on the Option 2 kit once Rusty puts that on his website!

Hanson - a little off subject, but I was wondering how you like the new NEX-5R? Are you using it with the 18-55mm lens or the 16mm pancake lens?

Also, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to wait until the NEX-5R with the 16-50mm lens comes out?

Thanks, Ross

Originally Posted by SeismicCWave

I am just about ready to use a 180 degree servo for the tilt instead of the external pot. Maybe if I drop the ratio back to 2.5 to 1 and use a super strong servo will be good.

Exactly what I am going to try first with this little one, 180 servo, 2.5:1 and no pot. I found out what you mean by 3 inches is about as short as you can go so that is what the length of the arm will be. Most of the pulleys, shafts, bushings and belts came in. My first small step

Originally Posted by bcollydas

Just out of curiocity. I've been reading here and I didn't see anyone asking about the Savox servos. Why?

Limited travel and not programmable. I would like to try some of their mini servos because they work very well right out of the box.

Originally Posted by ross_badger

Hanson - a little off subject, but I was wondering how you like the new NEX-5R? Are you using it with the 18-55mm lens or the 16mm pancake lens?

Also, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to wait until the NEX-5R with the 16-50mm lens comes out?

Thanks, Ross

I am using the 5R with the 18-55mm lens right now. No difference between the 5R and the 5N as far as I can tell in video. I cannot read the RAW images yet because I am still on CS5. I have to wait for my CS6 to show up.

Originally Posted by pug398

Exactly what I am going to try first with this little one, 180 servo, 2.5:1 and no pot. I found out what you mean by 3 inches is about as short as you can go so that is what the length of the arm will be. Most of the pulleys, shafts, bushings and belts came in. My first small step

That is exciting. Nicely done. You put a gusset on it. I was expecting to see a nice bead down the 45 degree line. Well, this way it is very strong for sure.

Originally Posted by SeismicCWave

The plates and Delrin blocks are ready:

http://www.shop.aglhobbiesllc.com/Ca...Parts-Kit.html

Rusty ordered the pulleys and belts so the option 2 kit will be ready when he is ready.

Everything is ordered but the big pulleys. I've been trying to order them for a couple days, but SDP is in NY, and they were out for the hurricane. Of course now my internet is out, so I've been reduced to a 4G tablet. Hopefully it will be working by morning, or shipping will be on hold.

Rusty

Ok I refined the kit gimbal a little. I was trying to enlarge the pot plate hole to get the Bourns pot to stick the shaft out a bit more. Then I decided to drill the holes in the middle instead of using the holes on the side of the plates. That way I save 50% of the hardware. Then I started substituting the stainless bolt with aluminum bolt except for places where I don't have the correct length. FWIW the bulk of the bolts are 3/4" with about 8 each 1 1/4" mixed in plus a few shorter ones for the bottom of the camera tray.

On a totally unrelated note, I was not happy with the Tamron 24mm I was using on my Pentax camera to take these pictures. So I rummage around and found a very very old Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 35mm f2 screw mount lens in my stash. I rummage around some more and found a screw mount adapter to Pentax K and voila. I have the 35mm lens on The Pentax K200D digital. The lens has some radioactive stuff on it so it is turning yellow but oh the image quality is to die for.

Originally Posted by SeismicCWave

I was expecting to see a nice bead down the 45 degree line.

That was the plan but the saw would not cooperate After I test fit everything to this one the new corner vise should be in and I can do one up to make you proud 45 joints and everything