PILOT REVIEW I DYS SMART 3-AXIS GOPRO GIMBAL control to the side levers on my Futaba 8FG and used one three-position switch to select operating profiles. I set one profile with motors off (great if I need to reset the gimbal or push buttons on the GoPro), one profile with third-axis follow-only and tilt controlled in stick rate mode and one with pan and tilt controlled in stick position mode. A buzzer can be connected to the board for the gimbal to give audible signals (low battery, profiles) and a small push-button can be added to switch between profiles and other user selectable options. It is possible to easily switch between single and two-operator setups. Encoder joysticks can be plugged in to give tilt/pan/roll control if the gimbal is used as a handheld. After close to 15 hours of tuning, wiring and six-point calibrations, I had the gimbal tuned to the point where I was reasonably happy with it. The gimbal is fairly well built, but they do seem to come from a few different “sources” and user experiences vary (beware that there are also some low-grade counterfeits on the market). The gimbal uses compression vibration dampeners between two nicely cut carbon fiber plates and features nice fit and finish on the arms. The wiring is pulled through the hollow shaft of the third axis motor, but the absence of the slip ring and the fact the GoPro video/power cable is not pulled through this ring means that the third axis is not quite a 360-degree free-spin. With a bit of a stretch, it may do one 360, but it won’t do two full rotations. A separate low-profile GoPro cable is needed to power the camera and transmit the video. I installed the gimbal on my DJI F550 with Aero-x-craft landing gear. I brought the gimbal forward and hung it as low as I could to get the gear and props out of the view. Flying with the third axis in follow mode is great as it smoothes out the side-to-side “wobbles,” but takes some getting used to when framing the shots because of the delay it causes to the pan motion. I am still learning how to account for this “delay” in different situations, as it actually makes it a bit more difficult to hold the shot when I need to follow a moving object while panning the copter around it. I discovered that the dampening blocks were a bit too soft, allowing gimbal to “float” a little too much, causing the image to shake. I used a set of dampeners from my old Tarot gimbal and that seems to
have corrected this issue. So far, I have about five hours of flight time with this gimbal and am very pleased with the results. The footage is very smooth and I’m able to do long, sweeping shots without annoying side-to side wobbles. My next project is fitting this gimbal on a Tarot T680 with retracts, so I can take even more advantage of its 3-axis control capabilities. The DYS Smart 3-axis gimbal is a well-priced option for advanced (and very patient) hobbyists or professionals who are looking for the ability to tune the gimbal to their liking or a two-operator control. If set up correctly, it will reward you with silky smooth footage that will make you forget about that “stabilization” check box in your editing software. I would like to thank my friend Mike Kraus for his guidance through the set-up process. = CONTACT HOBBYKING hobbyking.com NOTADRONE notadrone.com For more information, please see our source guide on page 89.
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