GoPro Hero Camera Mount Assembly Manual Introduction Thank you for purchasing the GoPro Hero Camera Mount for Mikrokopter Quad, Hexa and Okto. The Camera Mount is provided as a kit and requires assembly. The assembly of the mount can take up to 25-35 minutes for an inexperienced builder. Before starting to assemble the kit, please examine your kit that is has all the necessary parts and nothing is missing. Please see the list of the items on the next page to make sure everything is in the bag: Page 1 of 12
Content: 2 x camera tray side mounting plate 2 x tilt frame side mounting plates 1 x camera tray bottom mounting plate 2 x roll cage mounting servo plates 1 x camera tray back mounting plate 1 x camera mounting plate 1 x tilt frame top mounting plate 2 x HS65HB Hitec Servos 1 x 1 inch 6-23 plastic standoff 2 x 6-32 plastic screws 1 x 1mm piano wire pushrod 1 x 3mm plastic screw 1 x washer 1 x 3mm plastic nut 1 x Valcro hook strip (not on the picture above) If any of the above is missing please contact us at customerservice@nghobbies.com for replacement parts. Items required and not supplied: - Camera - 1 or 2 strips foam or thin packaging sponge Tools required: The following tools will be required for assembly: Philips and flat screwdriver Hobby knife Wire cutting pliers Medium CA and Accelerator Small Hammer Wire bending pliers Sharp utility knife Rubber gloves when working with CA Page 2 of 12
Step 1: Before you start gluing the camera cage together there are several steps which has to be completed in order to make the assembly easier. If you do not follow these steps in order it may be difficult to complete the camera mount. For the following steps is recommended to use the rubber gloves as the CA will cure fast and one might glue its hands to the parts. We have to prepare the Tilt frame top mounting plate. Please take out the following parts from the bag: - Tilt frame top mounting plate - 1 inch plastic standoff - 2 mm plastic tube Please place the parts on your workbench just as on the picture 1 below. Use the thin tip applicator on the medium CA to try to control the flow of the CA and to apply only small amount at one time. Glue the plastic tube in place with the top sticking out 2-4 mm and the bottoms is flash with the plate. You can additionally secure the plastic tube by using thin thread and applying another layer of glue on top of it just like in picture 5. When finished with the plastic tube glue the standoff in the prepared groove. The standoff is about 1-1.5 mm larger than the plate, make sure it stick out on both sides, this way ensuring that it will give enough clearance for the plate to roll without a glitch. When satisfied with the position apply some accelerator to cure the CA faster. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Step 2: Assemble the tilt and roll servos. We need to install the servos before we glue the mount together, otherwise there will not be enough space to screw the screws in. If you choose you can install the servos after the mount is completed, however in that case you will need to glue the servos in place with CA. Find the 2 parts which is illustrated on picture 7 below. With the hobby knife enlarge the servo mounting holes just enough to make sure the screws will still fit in tight, but it will require less effort to screw them in (Picture 8). Page 3 of 12
7 8 9 10 11 12 The mount has been designed so the servos do not have much space around them. If you find that it is hard to push them in place, slightly enlarge the opening with the hobby knife, then push them in place just like on Picture 9. You notice the servo on the left is above the place, on the piece on the right is below the plate. Picture 10 shows the same thing from a different angle, so you can see better how to install the servos. Use the screws provided with the servos to tighten the servos in place. You notice the screws are coming out quite a bit use the wire cutter to cut the long excess off, you should leave about 3-4 mm hanging out for each screw. Do not over-tighten the screws! If by any chance you already did, use a drop of CA to secure the screw to the servo. Step 3: Install the servo horn in place. Use the screws provided with the servos to install the servo horn just as it is in the pictures below. Again after finished cut the excess portion of the screws off so it will not interfere with the mount operation. Page 4 of 12
Step 4: Assemble the bottom and the back of the camera tray. There are two things to watch out for: make sure the back plate comes to the middle of the bottom plate meaning if there is a little difference in size from manufacturing, the bottom plate hangs out the same distance on both left or right side. The second thing to watch out for, is to make sure these are assembled and glued in 90 degrees to each other, otherwise there will be an issue assembling the side plates. The parts are designed to fit snag, use the small hammer to hammer the back plate in the bottom plate. Use the small square to line up the two parts 90 degrees to each other then use a single drop of glue to secure the two parts. Check again the alignment and if satisfied with the results glue the two plates to each other, use accelerator to cure the CA faster. Step 5: Just like in step 4, use the hammer to secure the top tilt plate and the side tilt plate together. Use the small square to assure these are 90 degrees and secure the two parts with CA. Make sure the standoff is toward the inside and the plastic tube is toward the side plate. When finished put it aside for a few minutes and work on step 6 till the CA cures. Step 6: In step 6 you will glue in place the right camera tray plate. Since we already made sure in step 4 that the bac and the bottom plates are square, and aligned, all you have to do is to hammer the side plate in place and secure it with CA. As a tip, use the below picture to align the parts and use small hammer hits to position it in place. Then turn it around and hit the side plate with the hammer so you do not deform the grooves on the bottom and back plate. Page 5 of 12
13 14 Step 7: Use the already prepared tilt servo and plate to complete the tilt cage. The procedure is similar to before, hammer the servo plate in place and secure it with CA. Make sure you wipe off any excess CA, as we do not want the CA to flow over the servo or in the servo. Make sure the servo point inwards. Step 8: Finish the camera tray by installing the left side plate. Make sure the servo horn is on the outside of the tray and the head of the screws are toward the inside. Hammer it in place and make sure you secure it properly with CA. When finished put it aside for a few minutes to cure. Page 6 of 12
Step 9: Assembling the roll cage will require some effort of cleaning or enlarging the groove in the two roll side plates. Take the two parts from picture 15 below. Use the hobby knife the clean the groove and perhaps to slightly enlarge it so the front roll plate will slide snag on to the top roll plate. The milled channels should be on the top side of the top plate. Use the milled groves as guides. The camera can be installed either on the center of gravity in this case you will need to slide the front plate into the second groove. We believe the front as in the picture 17 below is a better position because this will put the camera more forward, diminishing the possibility so see many parts of the Mikrokopter in the picture caused by the extra wide angle of the GoPro Camera. This will also allow to add an additional FPV mounting tray which will be later available from our store. When finished sliding on the front roll plate, secure it with CA and make sure it is perpendicular to the top plate. When satisfied with the results use plenty of CA on the top side to secure the plate in place. Put it aside for a few minutes than repeat the same with the back roll plate which already has the servo installed. Use thelarge picture below as a guide for how to position the back roll plate. When securing this with CA, use small amount so the CA does not flow in the servo. Use the square to assure these are perpendicular to each other and then use plenty of CA on the top side. Accelerator will help the CA to cure much faster. 15 16 17 Page 7 of 12
Step 10: If you followed the previous steps properly, then you should have 3 pieces which look like the ones on the picture below. Now all we have to do is to mount it all together to finish the camera mount. Before fitting it all together you should connect the servos to a receiver and make sure the servos are centered. Insert the 3mm plastic screw in the right side of the camera tray just like in the picture below. Add the supplied washer from outside, this will ensure that there is no friction between the side plates and the tilt is nice and smooth. When this is done install the camera tray on the servo in such a way that it is pointing about 45 degrees down. Please note on the picture below it is looking straight ahead, not 45 degrees down. Install the plastic 3mm nut on the outside and use the screw which came with the servo to secure the servo horn to the servo. If in the previous steps you installed the side parts 90 degree to each other, you should have no touching or friction between the side plates. After you are satisfied with the results tighten the 3mm nut just enough to make sure there is no play and there is not much resistance when moving the camera tray. Secure the nut to the plastic screw with a drop of CA. Page 8 of 12
Step 11: Install the servo horn on the roll servo in horizontal position, this should be parallel with the top mounting plate. Use the largest servo horn from the servo package. Do not yet secure the servo horn to the servo. Slide the camera tilt tray in between the front and back roll mounting plates. Use the provided 2 x 6-32 plastic screws to secure the camera tray to the standoff on the bottom of the tilt tray. Make sure when moved with your hand there is no friction. If you detect friction use a hobby knife to clean the affected areas perhaps from CA residue so the roll assembly can move freely around the 6-23 screws. When satisfied with the results use a drop of CA between the head of the screw and the mounting plate to secure the screw to the mounting plate ensuring that it will not shake loose in flight. IF you mounted it correctly, you should have an assembly just like on the picture below. Step 12: Use the image below as a guide on how you need to bend the provided 1mm pushrod. Start with the servo end, make the Z-bend. Insert it in the servo horn, position the tilt frame parallel with the top mounting plate and mark the 1mm wire with a marker on where it should be bent to properly fit in the plastic tube. Use a strong set of pliers for this, the piano wire is steel, cannot be bent easily. When you are sure you marked it in the exact position where it should be bent, take it out from the servo horn and use the pliers to make the second bend on it. Please make sure you measure it properly otherwise when installed it may come short or too long, causing the tilt tray to sit sideways. When satisfied, remove the servo horn from the Page 9 of 12
servo carefully so you do not move the servo out from the middle position, insert the Z-bend side in the servo horns outer hole. This will give you the largest movement, later on when testing it you may want to move this closer to the center to ensure smoother roll compensation but with less range. Once the Z-bend is in the servo horn, insert the free end in the plastic tube. Cut off the excess with the wire cutter and install the servo horn back on the servo. Secure the horn with the screw supplied with the servo. Step 13: You will need two pieces of thin sponge. Cut these to such dimension so it fits on the bottom and back side of the camera tray. Use a few dots of CA glue to glue these in place. Now your mount is ready to accept the camera. You can use the 8 valcro hook and loop provided to fix the camera in place. You will need to route the valcro through the holes in the bottom and the back camera mounting plates. If it is properly installed you will have access to the memory card slot on the GoPro without removing the camera from the tray. Also on the right side of the camera mount there is an opening provided so a video cable can be plugged into the GoPro and the output can be used for FPV flying. Step 14: After you installed the mount under the Mikrokopter, you will need to plug in the servo cables to in your flight controller. You may have to use servo extension cables because the original servo cable is not long enough to reach these connectors. 6 servo extension should be plenty enough. See the pictures below on how and where to plug the servos in: Roll servo location Tilt servo location Please make sure the orientation of the servo cable is correct and as you see on the above pictures, these both connect to the bottom row. Step 15: When you finished plugging in the servo cables, it is time to set up the MK to control the tilt and roll servos. Several people have trouble setting this up correctly. On the demo video we demonstrated that these functions can be connected and controlled by sliders and knobs on the RC transmitter. See the video here: http://www.vimeo.com/17240183 In order to set the controls up in such a way you will need two available empty channels on your RC transmitter. One channel will control the tilt, the other the roll. Let s assume for this exercise that these are channels 6 and 8. You can substitute these numbers with your channel settings. Make sure you select two channels which are not in use by any other functions on your Mikrokopter. Page 10 of 12
On your RC transmitter assign these channels to controls like a knob or a slider. When done, connect the Mikrokopter to the computer and start the MKTools. Click on the Flight controller button and then on the Settings button, this should bring you up the settings window. On the top click on the Channels tab to bring up a window similar to the one below: As you see in the above picture we assigned Channels 6 and 8 to Poti3 and Poti4. Now it is a good time to move the sliders and knobs assigned to the channels you selected and verify if the controls are working properly. You should see the bar-graph change accordingly on the selected channels. You can use other potis as well, you do not need to stick with 3 and 4 selected in our example. Just make sure you do not erase any previous settings o functions on your Mikrokopter. Make the necessary changes then click on the Write button to save the settings to the Mikrokopter. You should hear beeps as confirmation. Now, click on the Camera Tab and set the values to be similar to the picture below: As you can see Poti4 is selected for controlling the Nick (tilt) servo and Poti3 is the Roll servo. The compensation is set to 40 by default, this value is ok, if you go higher you may notice a bit more nervous response from the camera mount. You will need to check or uncheck the invert direction according to your particular case, for Futaba transmitters we have to check Page 11 of 12
these, just as above. The servo minim and maxim settings are left on default because we set the travel on the RC transmitter using the endpoint or travel adjustments. When finished, click on write to save the settings to the Mikrokopter. Now you will need to do a level calibration on the Mikrokopter throttle stick on the top left corner. After you heard the MK beeping, you should see the mount jump jerk as the servos are initialized. Now you can use your controls to center the servos and the settings on the RC Transmitter to set the correct range and endpoint adjustments. If all set correctly the camera has to look straight ahead in the horizontal position and from there you still should have enough travel to make it look vertically down. Warranty information: New Generation Hobbies warrants the parts of this kit to be free of manufacturing defects at the time of purchasing. Since these are assembly kits, defects caused by incorrect assembly or improper use, crashes are not warranted. However if you require spare parts please contact us and we will provide you with parts contra cost. Disclaimer: New Generation Hobbies provides this kit As Is for assembly by the customer. The kit was designed and manufactured to be strong, sturdy and snag fit to provide protection for your camera in case of crashes or hard landings. However this by no means is a guarantee that your camera will survive such event. Be safe and operate safely is the motto avoid crashes of flying over others properties. Please note New Generation Hobbies cannot be held responsible for operating these products improperly or operating them illegally if you have laws and regulations against Aerial Photography. It is the responsibility of the operator (pilot) to obey the rules, laws and regulations of the area, country, state or municipality where the craft is operated. Copyright @ 2010,, New Generation Hobbies. Page 12 of 12