Hoverfly Camera Servos with Hoverfly Pro

[mbsteed]

I took my Hoverfly Pro setup out for a bit of test with my Canon Vixia G10 on a MKTR Pro Gimbal and the footage was really jerky. It was not the jello you get from motor vibrations - I have two levels of vibration dampening between the frame and the gimbal (one level of sorbothane). I have gotten smooth video in the past. I got thinking about this and decided to do a bench test and noticed one of the servos was quite noisy. The servo in question is a Hitec HS 7985MG for the roll. I felt the camera with my hands and you could literally feel the vibration coming through. I happened to have a spare 7985 so I took the gimbal apart and replaced the servo and all is good again. I have the servo directly connected to the Hoverfly Pro board. My question is why would an expensive servo like this go bad (I have probably been using it for just over a year - not even used once a weekend). Do I need something between the servo and the Hoverfly Pro board?

I suspect many folks fight with vibration dampening when really the problem is jerky servos.

 

[mbsteed]

I have also heard people using Savox servos - what would folks recommend with a setup like the MKTR Pro with a Canon T2i or Caonon Vixia G10?

 

[Bartman]

what size servos are you using Marlon? Go to the Savox site and match the servos you have so the new ones will fit. then try to get the most torque and highest speed you can in that size.

The MKTR isn't the greatest mount for video. there's a thread i did in the archives about modifying an original MKTR and some of the suggestions might help with the MKTR Pro.

Bart

 

[mbsteed]

Here is the servo for the roll we are currently using:

http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-7985mg_servo.html

Yes, I agree probably not the best gimbal for video - we upgraded to the gear drive tilt option (using the servo for tilt that came with that option) and 2nd roll servo arm and we have done a number of tweeks to provide better vibration dampening.

 

[kloner]

is it perfectly balanced?

 

[mbsteed]

The last time I check the balance (between the camera, gimbal and ship) it was close - may not be perfect but close. That is something I could revisit. ...so are you suggesting if it was out of balance that it may have stressed the servo and caused it go bad?

 

[kloner]

very possible. You want it exact, close aint enough

 

[mbsteed]

...so I checked the ship is pretty much perfectly balanced. The camera is perfectly balanced - the hole for the screw lines up with the cg point and I use that hole to screw into the middle of the gimbal platform and when I do a finger balancing test with the entire ship it seems perfectly balanced.

 

[kloner]

hmmm, hard to say. As a general rule i've found the hitec tend to break from time to time. Did you ask them about a warranty?

 

[mbsteed]

It has been so long I can't remember where the servo came from - I don't think that was the original servo. ...so probably no warranty.