niente qui

I finally got the nerve to stick a GoPro on the outside of my plane. I was worried about it falling off too. Heard lots of stories about people attaching the tether to a screw and they end up with the camera beating the crap out of the wing when the mount gives out. I stared at it for a while and came up with this:

PilotMike - I like your addition of safety wire. Seems like a lot of exterior mounts assume 'that which goes on the wing (strut, whatever) stays on'.

This is what I ended up building.

Liabilities:

o It's kind of a hassle to put on and take off
o It can only point the camera perpendicular to the strut
o You need access to a 3d printer to make one

Advantages:
o There is no moment arm to add wind vibration
o You can rotate the camera box to, at least, have the image parallel to the horizon
o There is no vibration ground to transmit aircraft vibration to the camera
o Anyone with access to a 3d printer can download (or modify) and print this design

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/5857d ... f070c5863a

niente qui

All of these fancy (read expensive) clamp and ram style mounts... I've had plenty of success with the plain simple 3m taped mounts that come with the gopro itself. Little to no vibration, and over a year of use with no sign of peeling off.

jlacharite wrote:I've had plenty of success with the plain simple 3m taped mounts that come with the gopro itself. Little to no vibration, and over a year of use with no sign of peeling off.

I use those a lot also. Love them.

I will say that I've noticed the glue degrading over time and it becoming progressively easier to pull them off. So now I replace them every year or so. But, equally, I've never lost a camera - so maybe I'm being overly paranoid.

Don't know if you've seen these: https://flightflix.net/product/rock-ste ... all-mount/

They have a number of mounts and they claim to use a vibration isolating gel. I might pick one up used. They're a little pricey for someone who isn't sponsored by Red Bull.

PilotMikeTx wrote:Don't know if you've seen these: https://flightflix.net/product/rock-ste ... all-mount/

They have a number of mounts and they claim to use a vibration isolating gel. I might pick one up used. They're a little pricey for someone who isn't sponsored by Red Bull.

I spoke with them a couple times and they absolutely refused to do a money back guarantee. That was a deal breaker for me, given the number of mounts out there that don't really work. I'd try the Vibe-X version tomorrow if they would be willing to take it back if things didn't work out. It's a conceptually similar design to mine (see above, you can download the model and 3d print it yourself if you want), so I think it should work, but that they aren't willing to stand behind their product and the fact that much of the stuff sold into the market are two giant red flags for me.

rw2 wrote:

PilotMikeTx wrote:Don't know if you've seen these: https://flightflix.net/product/rock-ste ... all-mount/

They have a number of mounts and they claim to use a vibration isolating gel. I might pick one up used. They're a little pricey for someone who isn't sponsored by Red Bull.

I spoke with them a couple times and they absolutely refused to do a money back guarantee. That was a deal breaker for me, given the number of mounts out there that don't really work. I'd try the Vibe-X version tomorrow if they would be willing to take it back if things didn't work out. It's a conceptually similar design to mine (see above, you can download the model and 3d print it yourself if you want), so I think it should work, but that they aren't willing to stand behind their product and the fact that much of the stuff sold into the market are two giant red flags for me.

As you probably understand, it's a pretty tough gig to provide the same guarantee a mega company can, when you're counting profit on just a few orders a week or month. I'm not defending it, but a guy can go upside down pretty quickly, so it's tempting to make a policy like that when there are tire kickers out there. In an ideal world, your product is always so good and bug-free that no one in their right mind would consider returning it.

Sometimes, you buy something and play with it, get your stink on it, you keep it.

Zzz wrote:As you probably understand, it's a pretty tough gig to provide the same guarantee a mega company can, when you're counting profit on just a few orders a week or month. I'm not defending it, but a guy can go upside down pretty quickly, so it's tempting to make a policy like that when there are tire kickers out there.

I guess I understand that at some level. But Plane Perfect is hardly a mega company and we've had a money back guarantee since bottle one.

Returns haven't been an issue at all in our case, and I know for a fact that we've pushed some people over the tipping point by making them aware that option was available. And our product is consumable, any return is a total loss. Their's simply gets sent to the next buyer after being inspected and repackaged. But, whatever, I'm really not trying to get up in their mix. Selling into the aviation market is really hard and, mostly, thankless. I'm just saying that I've had problems with tons of mounts and am not going to spend $100+ on yet another one if I can't return it in the event it doesn't work out.

Look for alternative sources on the vibration isolation cam mounts. I did some digging for a thread like this about a year ago, it turns out you can source the mounts from a couple other resellers (one direct, one selling on eBay if I recall) with return policies. These other places probably move enough other product that a return here and there isn't a big deal.

I know of many people who use the sticky mounts just fine, but I've heard of a few that didn't go so well. I prefer something strapped or screwed to the airplane in some way, or at least stuck to it with more than one piece of 3M tape. Obviously anything suction-related is a non starter.

To the OP, I like that fabricated tip mount, plus how it uses several screw points for stability. That 3D printed one is a neat idea as well. I have a WingIt mount for my strut which works well, and gives me 3 cam positions. The one directly in front approximates that 3D mount as it's directly in line with the airflow, but the ones on top and bottom are well into the slipstream. The shots work but are a little bouncy between the vibration and wind blast. I am somewhat hesitant to put a bulky vibe mount on there with it, it's just more stuff hanging in the breeze.

I am still determining how I'm going to mount one on the vertical fin. I don't see any screw-based method working where I can still reach the thing unless I install a rivnut into a rib, and I don't want a single-piece adhesive mount up there just out of an abundance of caution. I'm probably headed towards a custom CAD design / printed object that can stick in multiple places and streamline the flow a bit for less drag.

colopilot wrote:I'm probably headed towards a custom CAD design / printed object that can stick in multiple places and streamline the flow a bit for less drag.

FWIW, my mount is probably as draggy or more than using a sticky, but I found the moment arm was far more important than the total drag. Because mine essentially has none, the drag doesn't have anything useful to act against.

When I have access to a printer again my plan is to go a very different direction and create a mount sufficient to hold a small gimbal with an acrylic dome over the whole thing. Then I can get stabilization and the ability to change what the camera is pointed at in-flight.

On the cheap side of the equation, people should keep in mind that gaffer tape makes it possible to put a camera pretty much anywhere. I've used this a few times to put a camera on a tail strut with great results. Point the ends of the tape opposite the airstream or otherwise guard them.

A warranty should be non-negotiable with any product. If you're selling a legitimate product that works as advertised, then you'll never need it except for the .01% that are never satisfied. If you're a big company, you get what is basically warranty insurance. You pay someone like AIG to cover your replacements and refunds (think AC 10 year warranties). Anyway, I'd probably choose to use my credit card purchase protection in that instance.

As far as the Rock Steady mounts go, what I like about the surface mount is the 2 points of attachment. You could replace your 8-32 (or similar) screw with a socket head drilled screw and safety them together. I'm also kind of obsessed with vibration isolators so I'm really curious about their special gel. I see mounts for drones with vibration isolators and I'm tempted to jack something together for the airplane. BTW, Grainger has all the vibration isolators that you need. I've used them for instrument panel shock mounts, clothes dryers and air compressors. Love me some vibration isolators.

PilotMikeTx wrote:I'm also kind of obsessed with vibration isolators so I'm really curious about their special gel. I see mounts for drones with vibration isolators and I'm tempted to jack something together for the airplane. BTW, Grainger has all the vibration isolators that you need. I've used them for instrument panel shock mounts, clothes dryers and air compressors. Love me some vibration isolators.

Their gel, from what I could tell handling it at their booth at Osh 2017, seems pretty legit for the purpose. As is their approach to eliminating vibration grounds.

I've also tried to do stuff with RC style approaches, but so far haven't arrived at anything notable. Would love to see your solution on this, if you try. FWIW, I've had no luck using these approaches on external mounts, but did have some limited success with internal mounts. Externally the loads from the wind were just way higher than anything the RC stuff was designed for. I did not go the next step to more industrial supplies. I started looking at those and the multitude of options quickly overran the time that I had available.