F550 and Sony Nex5n

Topflight

Member
Anyone out there flying a F550 with a Sony Nex5n on a gimbal? Would like to know if the F550 handles this camera without any weight or flying issues. Flight time?
Thanks for any info.
 

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
An F550 on 4s will fly a 5N with a small lens but it will be on the edge of what it's capable of. The stock motors are not quite powerful enough, a swap to something better would be a good idea if you're set on flying a 5N plus a decent gimbal. I have an MK Hexa V1 which is pretty much the same size and the Roxxy motors a little bit stronger than the DJI, I have flown my 5N on it with Droidworx landing gear plus Photohigher AV130 and it did fly but it wasn't difficult to see that it was working pretty hard doing it. I did notice a definite decrease in flight time, something on the order of close to 2 minutes 5N vs. a GoPro, you can expect a similar decrease on a stock 550.

Without the Av130 and just an basic 2 axis gimbal and GoPro the Hexa easily gets 12 minutes flight time without going beyond 80% discharge on the the batteries. With the AV130 and 5N I found the packs at 85% discharge at just under 10 minutes so the extra weight is taking a toll. With the F550 I'd either change the motors or build as light as possible to fly the 5N and expect flight times of no more than 10 minutes on 4S 5000.

Ken
 

Topflight

Member
Thanks Ken. What motors would you use on the 550, have any suggestions, or should I think about using a different airframe? Which one would you suggest?
 

jamienz

Member
Hi Topflight,

I bought the F550 to carry the NEX 5N but found it lacking when I went to carry the Askman gimbal and a 4s 5000MAH battery. I tried all sorts of props and have ended up replacing the standard DJI motors with the Sunnysky 2216 motors from Foxtech FPV (really great motors btw, much more powerful and really smooth). This was better but I still wasn't getting the flight times I wanted so have ordered a couple of light weight Hexas to try (and will move the motors/escs from the F550).

The F550 is a great sport hexa, but is built really REALLY heavy (strong). You use up a lot of battery just carrying the airframe around!

My advice would be to look at a lighter hex a to carry the NEX 5n and get an ASKMAN or Photohigher Av130 gimbal (both work great with the NEX5n).

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions - I have been where you are now, and have gone through a lot of dollars trying to achieve it!

Jamie
 

GGoodrum

Member
I do not agree that you need to change motors on a F550 setup that carries a Sony NEX-5N. What you do need to do, however, is replace the stock 10" props with 10x5 Graupners. My F550 is a beast at 8lb 4.9oz/3766g, with our new TP550-NX 2-axis gimbal, the integrated landing gear, a NEX-5N/16mm lens combo and two 4s-3300 packs. I can fly for 10 minutes with this setup, and the motors barely get above ambient, which today was in the low 80s. With the stock props, the motors run hot as hell, with the weight at only 6lbs. This setup has plenty of power too, and will hover right around 50% in Manual mode.

We've been testing this gimbal for the last couple months, and it is very close to being released. We tested virtually every high-end servo under the sun, and have tested various belt drive ratios from 2:1 up to 2.8:1. What we are settling into as the most optimum configuration is a 2.5:1 belt drive ratio, in each axis, and MKS HBL950 brushless digital servos. With this setup, we can achieve a similar "Zenmuse-like" platform independence type of performance, with the right gimbal controller. Forget using the WK-M, or Naza gimbal outputs, as they have issues (90 degree limitation, slow 50Hz servo PWM rate and a very noisy WK-M GPS integration that causes twitches in the gimbal outputs around the neutral point...). Anyway, I'm currently using a v1 XA FC/AHRS combo as a standalone gimbal controller because it lets you set the PWM rate to 500Hz/2ms, open up the throws to a full 180 and because it doesn't have any noise in the outputs. My only issue right now is that the XA configuration software only lets you set the servo gains up to 255 and with our current 2.5:1 ratio, in order to get the gains dialed in perfectly, it would need to be 257 or 258. Being off this very small amount is enough to cause some small movements in the video below.

This first one is the raw video, right out of the NEX-5N:


As I said, with the gains being slightly off, there's a little movement in the video, while the WK-M struggles to hold position in gusty winds, but not much. I get pretty anal about these things, so it bugs me. :highly_amused: I then did a slightly stabilized version, with the settings at their minimums in the FCP stab function. You can see a small lens smudge in the left-center part of the picture. In the first video, it stays put. In the version below, you can see the smudge move around slightly, which is due to the corrections need by the gains being off a little. Anyway, this shows that the stab function is not having to work very hard.


I think we are done now, with the tuning and testing cycle on the gimbal itself. We will still need to do is finish testing our standalone gimbal controller, which is basically one of time cop's nifty little Naze32 board, with some special "tweaks". I actually have it working now as good, or better, than the XA FC/AHRS, but only on the ground. :) We have a weird twitch that occurs during flight, while hovering. We need to add a moving average filter to the raw accelerometer data, and we think that will take care of the twitches. At that point, we will be done with everything, and can concentrate on production, etc.

-- Gary
 

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m4rc0nd35

Member
I do not agree that you need to change motors on a F550 setup that carries a Sony NEX-5N. What you do need to do, however, is replace the stock 10" props with 10x5 Graupners. My F550 is a beast at 8lb 4.9oz/3766g, with our new TP550-NX 2-axis gimbal, the integrated landing gear, a NEX-5N/16mm lens combo and two 4s-3300 packs. I can fly for 10 minutes with this setup, and the motors barely get above ambient, which today was in the low 80s. With the stock props, the motors run hot as hell, with the weight at only 6lbs. This setup has plenty of power too, and will hover right around 50% in Manual mode.

We've been testing this gimbal for the last couple months, and it is very close to being released. We tested virtually every high-end servo under the sun, and have tested various belt drive ratios from 2:1 up to 2.8:1. What we are settling into as the most optimum configuration is a 2.5:1 belt drive ratio, in each axis, and MKS HBL950 brushless digital servos. With this setup, we can achieve a similar "Zenmuse-like" platform independence type of performance, with the right gimbal controller. Forget using the WK-M, or Naza gimbal outputs, as they have issues (90 degree limitation, slow 50Hz servo PWM rate and a very noisy WK-M GPS integration that causes twitches in the gimbal outputs around the neutral point...). Anyway, I'm currently using a v1 XA FC/AHRS combo as a standalone gimbal controller because it lets you set the PWM rate to 500Hz/2ms, open up the throws to a full 180 and because it doesn't have any noise in the outputs. My only issue right now is that the XA configuration software only lets you set the servo gains up to 255 and with our current 2.5:1 ratio, in order to get the gains dialed in perfectly, it would need to be 257 or 258. Being off this very small amount is enough to cause some small movements in the video below.

This first one is the raw video, right out of the NEX-5N:


As I said, with the gains being slightly off, there's a little movement in the video, while the WK-M struggles to hold position in gusty winds, but not much. I get pretty anal about these things, so it bugs me. :highly_amused: I then did a slightly stabilized version, with the settings at their minimums in the FCP stab function. You can see a small lens smudge in the left-center part of the picture. In the first video, it stays put. In the version below, you can see the smudge move around slightly, which is due to the corrections need by the gains being off a little. Anyway, this shows that the stab function is not having to work very hard.


I think we are done now, with the tuning and testing cycle on the gimbal itself. We will still need to do is finish testing our standalone gimbal controller, which is basically one of time cop's nifty little Naze32 board, with some special "tweaks". I actually have it working now as good, or better, than the XA FC/AHRS, but only on the ground. :) We have a weird twitch that occurs during flight, while hovering. We need to add a moving average filter to the raw accelerometer data, and we think that will take care of the twitches. At that point, we will be done with everything, and can concentrate on production, etc.

-- Gary

friend, where you bought this gimbal? Thanks.
 
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GGoodrum is correct. The F550 flys fine with a 5N.
We flys ours with a NEX7 and 18-55mm kit lens and get 6.5 min flight times on a single 4S 5800.
 

UAVproducts

Formerly DJIUSA
F550 carry's the Nex5n no problem. We fly it daily with the GP (Gary's mount) and a AV130 both with Nex5n and 16mm lens on 4s with 10" props. Graupners are the way to go for sure. Will try the Xoar also in the future.
 

remvideo

Member
Hey kids,

I've got a three axis NEX gimbal (rctimer asp) which seems to be too heavy with other items for my Y6 to fly. So I purchased the 16mm pancake lens and have cut weight wherever I can. I am wondering if someone can share the simple BGC settings with me for the nex5n with 16mm lens as when I power it on now, it goes absolutely nuts, flipping and spinning upside down, etc.
 

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