#‎SOLOMOD - Reducing Solo Gimbal Vibrations (V1)

After much reading and thinking on how to solve this gimbal vibration problem that is so evident on so many published Solo videos, I decided to give it a shot to see if I can solve this problem. 

Most of the applied solutions here are not new and has been published many times in Solo forums. It is not my intention to repeat these instructions but instead compile a more comprehensive set of steps and share some of my personal modifications that hopefully, will help seekers achieve the much elusive stable shots that they had hoped for. This is my contribution back into the Solo Community from whom I have learnt so much.

Before I start, I want to highlight a few things. 

Firstly, I'm basing all my testings on a 5.4mm OST lens that is modded into my GoPro Hero 3+ Black. This means that the longer focal length of my 5.4mm compared to your GoPro's stock wide angle lens is bound to be more sensitive to vibrations compared to your stock GoPro lens. All my testings are done using this 5.4mm lens hence if you see 'smooth' cable cam shots in my published video(s), it should automatically mean that your stock GP lens will have even better stabilised shots.

(I published a test video on youtube to showcase the result achieved on my 5.4mm setup. Check out my #SoloTest - Vibration Dampening @ Punggul Park video below.)

Secondly, the vibrations on our Solo can be broken into two types... harsh/major and micro vibrations. We need to address both if we are to successfully tackle this problem.

In my view, all those attempts to mod the HDMI cable and Data Link cable is to mainly address the harsh/major vibrations. I have seen many videos where the users have applied these mods and yet, when examined closely, I still see micro high-frequency vibrations in these shots. 

To solve the micro vibrations, we will need to apply soft vibration dampeners. I have studied the different options and at one time, was about to use Sorbothane... until I discovered MoonGel!!! Based on a Youtube comparison by Dennis Baldwin, it was clear that MoonGel was superior to Sorbothane in absorbing vibrations. The only downside with MoonGel is that it is known to turn mushy and messy over time. I may want to try Sorbothane to try out in the future but for now, Moon Gel has worked very well for me.

Lastly, the tutorials here are all fairly simple but may require some soldering skills if you want to tackle the stiff Datalink cables.

With that... here we go.... Please follow the step-by-step pictures below.

PART A. MANAGING MAJOR VIBRATIONS (LOOSENING THE CABLES)

Firstly, let me introduce you to Moongel by RTOM. This product is commonly used by drummers as dampening pads and comes in 6 pieces of blue strips.

HDMI CABLE... Let's start with the Micro HDMI cable. As you know by now, the HDMI cable is fairly thick and a little stiff. As such, it easily transmits vibrations to the 'floating gimbal circuit board'. To minimise transmission of vibrations, I stripped the outer casing by 3 to 4 inches. I then wrap soft silicone tubing to isolate vibrations coming from contact with the body shell. For the micro HDMI contact head, I then applied 1/2 strip of Moongel to isolate vibrations coming from various contact points with the body shell.

Note: A closer look at the soft silicone tubing. I used thin red threads to secure the silicone tubes (which I had to slice it down in order to fit around the exposed cables).

IMPORTANT!!! Make sure you do not tie the threads too tightly. I only wound them lightly on both the silicone tube and the Moongel. Try not to overly compress these two materials as it is the softness that works to dampen vibrations. Tying them too tightly will be counter-productive.

Notice that the applied Moongel cushions are only applied on the bottom side and the back side of the head. Reason being that these are the two surfaces with highest chance to touching the body shell.

To ensure that the micro HDMI cable does not touch any part of the gimbal, I use a double sided foam tape to stick the ferrite ring part of the HDMI cable to the upper top of the body shell. I did this intentionally to 'lift' the HDMI cable from touching the gimbal circuit board hence preventing further transmission of vibration. (You may also use hot glue to do this but I prefer foam sticky tape as it also acts to isolate vibrations from the body.)

DATA LINK CABLE... In my opinion, this is the major culprit to vibration transmission... even more than the HDMI cables. It is extremely stiff. Comprising of 8 stiff wires, it is further locked down by a small zip-tie to the motherboard. I intentionally removed this zip tie and then proceeded to cut the cables at both end leaving only 1.5 inches of wires for me to solder a new set of softer and thinner gauge wires as connectors. If you are comfortable with soldering, you may want to try this which I think helps a lot. But proceed with caution as this will void your warranty. You may however choose not to replace the 'in-between' wires but instead just remove the net case and allow the wires more freedom of movement. 

Caution: You may try this first before the wire-transfer-operation. See if you're ok with the video quality within taking this step. You can always decide to do this later if the video quality is not satisfactory.

PART B. MANAGING MICRO VIBRATIONS (MOON GEL)

By now, you should now have 5 full pieces of Moongel + one half a piece of Moongel (the other half was used on the HDMI connector... see earlier posting above). Take 2 strips of the Moongel and we will use this on the GoPro.

GOPRO... The way I line up the 2 pieces is to have one laid horizontally and the other laid vertically. In the picture below, the piece on the left is placed in such a way that it 'wraps-out' so that a small bit of the Moongel extends out to the front of the GoPro. This will help reduce vibrations coming from the gimbal motor. The second piece is placed immediately after the first piece but perpendicularly. The idea is to try to 'isolate' the GoPro as much as possible from the Gimbal. This is not going to be 100% possible as it is still connected to the back connectors as well as clamped by the 'green' lock. The idea is to minimise vibration. Not eliminate vibration (which is impossible).

IMPORTANT! Do not line up the Moongel too close to the back connectors. There should be some space between the Moongel and the back connectors. For example, the picture below is wrongly placed. If the Moongel is too close to the connector, the GoPro will not be able to be inserted properly into the connector and may result in the following problems (no power to gimbal i.e. limp, unable to record i.e. the red button on your screen will disappear as it will think that it is an order GoPro e.g. GP3.). I made this mistake earlier and I got all the symptoms mentioned above. I then moved the Moongel further away from the connector and everthing then worked fine as the GoPro was able to be inserted completely with no problems.

One way to tell if your Moongel is preventing your GoPro from being inserted properly is when your 'green lock' has an unusual visible gap and does not lock properly.

SANDWITCHED SPACER... With only 3 and half pieces of the Moongel left, take each of the Moongels and fold them into a 3 layer fold along the shorter length. It should look like the picture below.

Carefully align the folded Moongel to one of 4 sides. The picture below is using a full length folded Moongel on the HDMI connector side. It is important to use the full-length Moongel and not the remaining 1/2 length Moongel as you want to provide maximum dampening to the HDMI and Data Link section of the circuitboard.

Using a small screwdriver, gently tuck the Moongel into the recess space between the circuit board and the bottom plate. Take your time. Don't rush. And most importantly, do it gently as you don't want to break anything at this point.

Repeat for all 3 remaining sides.

FINAL CHECK

You can now assemble it all back and test to make sure that you have full functionality over Gimbal. The checklist should look something like this.  1)Video Feed... CHECK! 

 1) Video Feed... CHECK! 

2) Gimbal Pitch Movement... CHECK! 

3) No Explosion... CHECK!!!!!

Fly safe and responsibly!

IF YOU LIKE MY TUTORIAL...

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