Back-Bone Dead Weight for Solo Gimbal

SurfnSkate81 · Feb 10, 2016

Is anyone using one of these?

BACK-BONE » DEAD WEIGHT BALANCE KIT FOR 3DR SOLO

pyrate · Feb 10, 2016

Not yet but it is on my list, many people who's opinion I trust swear by them

brunoferreiro · Feb 10, 2016

i receive mine yesterday, tomorrow i will test it, looks great and very easy to setup

Troiano27 · Feb 10, 2016

Have it siting on my work bench. Ordered it, then had a solo malfunction. My replacement solo arrived to my work today. I'll be picking it up tomorrow. I like the idea of this, because I'll be able to run my polar pro filters with the gimbal balanced.

SurfnSkate81 · Feb 11, 2016

brunoferreiro said:
i receive mine yesterday, tomorrow i will test it, looks great and very easy to setup

Troiano27 said:
Have it siting on my work bench. Ordered it, then had a solo malfunction. My replacement solo arrived to my work today. I'll be picking it up tomorrow. I like the idea of this, because I'll be able to run my polar pro filters with the gimbal balanced.

Let us know how it goes? If you guys think its good I'm getting one.

brunoferreiro · Feb 11, 2016

Yesterday I installed and tested with different filters and is very stable and wonderfully fast to calibrate any different weight in seconds! I still could not taste in flight because there is bad weather over here.

Ian [P13] · Feb 11, 2016

Easy to install, light weight and works a treat. It's a simple concept but genius!

twitchyzero · Feb 11, 2016

i can see the purpose of this if you own aftermarket lenses, but the balance instructions using stock gimbal weights works well for SRP filters...saved me $50

pyrate · Feb 11, 2016

Not on mine, those stock weights made mine go limp when pointing straight down

twitchyzero · Feb 13, 2016

i meant to say the instructions on peau productions website.

Trevor · Feb 13, 2016

just ordered mine. should be good.

erikgraham · Feb 16, 2016

Just got mine today. Having a bit of trouble getting it to fully balance. I'm close, but it's not perfect.

In this instance I'm trying to balance a Hero 4 Black with a Peau Productions 3.97 lens and a BlurFix Air ND8/CP.

I can get the pitch balanced easily, but it still rolls a bit (away from the motor - to the right if your looking at the Solo, which would be the left from the Solos perspective). To balance the roll I tried sliding the sleeve all the way over (toward the motor). It can't go any further. I have to add another little weight to balance the roll, but then that throws off the pitch. I'm still thinking I can get it perfect, but it hasn't been as easy as some have described.

If I'm missing something, please let me know.

XperienceVisuals · Feb 17, 2016

Have had good results here. Also using a Peau 3.97 with one of their nd4 filters. Took a couple trys with different weight configurations but had it dialed in under 5 minutes. Waaaay cleaner than the velcro and nickels 8 was using before.

pete · Feb 17, 2016

twitchyzero said:
i can see the purpose of this if you own aftermarket lenses, but the balance instructions using stock gimbal weights works well for SRP filters...saved me $50

how do you balance gimbal with stock weights ? the instructions only tell me how to balance the gimbal for Hero 4 silver and Hero 3+ and no balancing required for my Hero 4 black, where did you get instructions on how to balance gimbal when using filters ? I'm using Blurfix Air ND/CP filters, should I worry about balancing and how do I do it ?

pete · Feb 17, 2016

twitchyzero said:
i meant to say the instructions on peau productions website.

ok, should've read the rest of the thread before replying, ignore my previous question, cheers

franknitty69 · Feb 20, 2016

erikgraham said:
Just got mine today. Having a bit of trouble getting it to fully balance. I'm close, but it's not perfect.

In this instance I'm trying to balance a Hero 4 Black with a Peau Productions 3.97 lens and a BlurFix Air ND8/CP.

I can get the pitch balanced easily, but it still rolls a bit (away from the motor - to the right if your looking at the Solo, which would be the left from the Solos perspective). To balance the roll I tried sliding the sleeve all the way over (toward the motor). It can't go any further. I have to add another little weight to balance the roll, but then that throws off the pitch. I'm still thinking I can get it perfect, but it hasn't been as easy as some have described.

If I'm missing something, please let me know.

aside from not being able to perfectly balance yours, how do you like it? do you think its a placebo or a must have accessory? i currently use srp blurfix filters and do not balance anything.

erikgraham · Feb 20, 2016

franknitty69 said:
aside from not being able to perfectly balance yours, how do you like it? do you think its a placebo or a must have accessory? i currently use srp blurfix filters and do not balance anything.

Haven't flown it yet. I've always questioned the need to balance perfectly. I mean once its up there in the wind, there are a lot stronger forces trying to knock the camera askew than what little force is exerted by the additional weight of a filter. You can blow a solo gimbal out of wack with your own breath. Imagine how hard it has to work in a constant wind. What's a little extra weight?

BUT, I finally broke down anyway and got one of these backbone things. This morning with fresh eyes I got it balanced pretty easily. Unfortunately it's raining now, so no flying. I'm hoping it helps with vibration, but the Solo has been smooth enough as is (especially since I stabalize in post), so I'm still dubious as to what good this will do. We'll see. I'll post back if I notice a major difference.

Ken Jupiter · Feb 20, 2016

Do most folks have a case that keeps the gimbal secure when transporting? I do not have and just use the block that came with the gimbal, which appears unlikely to work with this kit.

erikgraham · Feb 20, 2016

Ken Jupiter said:
Do most folks have a case that keeps the gimbal secure when transporting? I do not have and just use the block that came with the gimbal, which appears unlikely to work with this kit.

I cut down the foam block and it works fine with the backbone.

erikgraham · Feb 21, 2016

franknitty69 said:
aside from not being able to perfectly balance yours, how do you like it? do you think its a placebo or a must have accessory? i currently use srp blurfix filters and do not balance anything.

Okay. Just completely ignore my whole theory in the post above about wind and forces, etc, etc. Total crap.

I just flew with the backbone counter weight thing today and wow. The footage is much, much, more stable than what I normally get in those kinds of conditions (5 to 15 mph winds). I did not have time to do a side-by-side comparison of the same mission in Tower, with and without the backbone thing. None-the-less, the footage I got today is the smoothest I've gotten in a long time (other than when there is zero wind). Suffice it to say that I'm going to balance from now on.

This thing is pretty good because you can adjust for the weight differences between different filters.