1) I believe telemetry can only operate at 5V, so you'll need to power that from your FC. Is it an APM system? If the gimbal can operate on 12v then you can just solder wires on top of the 12v battery leads so the same pad essentially powers both the flight system and your gimbal.
2) I used something called zeal which dampens vibrations to the flight controller. There may be cheaper alternatives if you search around.
3) With the gimbal and the 5200mah battery I was looking at around 8-9 minute easy going flights. I've since removed the gimbal and converted it into a LOS basher. The flight times are much better and much less stressful without the gimbal and camera.

Thanks for this input my quad is almost successful!

However, i am stuck and envy of how your footage is huge difference of mine. T_T
I tried to balance everything to reduce vibration as much as i could but i have a little bit of shuttering here and there in my footage.
Gimbal works good when not in flight.
My vibration level is within acceptable range according to APM log.

Can you tell me what am i missing ?

That's really the challenge in designing your own gimbal'd rig. I never could completely eliminate vibrations or wiggles from the video. I think the key is to use a good gimbal like the Tiny2. I never graduated from budget gimbals, so I can't say this from experience. What gimbal are you using? It might be a good idea to post your rig.

I use HAKRC storm32 gimbal bought from gearbest. Just found out that 2nd imu on the storm32 is not enabled by default. I enable it and i can now have the gimbal rotate to extreme angle. but still the vibration still exist. I really need to focus on eliminating vibration more!

and oh, i see that in the picture, you camera is balanced on the gimbal, mind sharing how you do it?

Yeah, i will post my rig here. I'll do it once i have the free time this week!

The best way to balance is to position the camera so it stays level with the power off.

I haven't really pushed the limits, but my problem is trees. The tree line interferes with my signal before I can get very far. I know everybody likes the Aomway antenna, so you might want to get that.

Man, smooth video!

Thanks to a little iMovie magic and lots of editing! Unfortunately I didn't have a whole lot of usable, wobble-free video.

I finally figured out the problem! It wasn't an autotune or my props, it was my VTX antenna getting under my prop wash. This was causing my entire rig to vibrate. I realized the problem when the antenna vibrated right off and it started flying smoothly. It's great to be back in action once again!

Interesting. It does make sense though. The antenna must have been going crazy to be causing the whole rig to vibrate.

I think I had my VTX so firmly attached to the leg that the wind current was causing the VTX unit itself to shake my rig. When I point the antenna another direction it flies just great!

It's not as nice as some of the builds here, but it's adequate.

I'm getting about 6 or 7 minutes on these little 2700mah batteries.

Sorry, missed your edit. That's a tough one. I'd probably have to invest in lower-kv motors, upgrade my ESCs and switch to 4S. At this point I'll live with the flight times as that would be quite an expense.

The lower plate has a built in PDB. I just needed to use a power module to drop the voltage to 5V for the FC and RX.

It uses proprietary software available at the StorM32 website. It's very well done and the developer is very active in supporting it.

I've got it somewhat balanced because I have the battery in the back, but I'm sure I could balance it a bit better by adjusting the gimbal position.

PS you have your GPS very high, not sure I love that. Any sats below the horizon are invisible so it only really needs to see clearly out to the horizon, nothing below. Any thoughts?

I wasn't a big fan of the CX-20 "eggshell". It's far too fragile, very limited in space and difficult to open up. It was a breath of fresh air to switch over to the F450 form factor. And yes, my GPS pole is too tall. I may just cut it down an inch or two.

Wow!! Good to hear form you, it shows the weight of your rig is perfect for the thrust. Recently I am searching for much lighter frame to achieve more flight time and your rig proves it is possible, Can you share PID settings of your APM too !!

I'm still working on the PIDs, but I'll share them once I've got them where I like them.

Wow, nice upgrade, can you share your PID settings and also your new setup Pics,

Which PIDs? I haven't updated the gimbal PIDs lately, but I have been fine tuning my rig PIDs. I'll be sure to take some pictures soon!

Nice. I have a GLB 2-axis gimbal. The video is a little jerky, as in, some side to side quick movements. I wonder if a 3-axis gimbal will fix this.

It'll certainly iron them out, but a finely tuned rig is still important. If it yaws outside of a 5 to 10 degree window during forward flight you'll still see it. That's my current battle. I'm fine tuning my Yaw PIDs to see if I can eliminate that.

Mine does yaw a bit sometimes, but it is a very slow gradual yaw. I don't think the gimbal should be jerking around because of that.

Perfect weather for it today and through the weekend, it seems!

Yep, hoping to take it up this afternoon to autotune. Going to Wintergreen for the weekend, so I might just bring it along for that.

My APM 2.6 quad heading keeps changing during auto tune, is this normal ?

Alpha, what does that mean? Heading as in compass heading? I can't say I've paid too much attention to that. When I do an auto-tune, I launch to an altitude of ~15 feet, switch to AltHold, and then engage the switch for autotune. It pitches to and fro for a few minutes, then rolls. When it drifts away further than I like I fly it back, but the yaw position, and hence the heading, doesn't change.

Yes, the heading shouldn't change during Autotune. It'll just pitch and roll for a few minutes.

Quieter sometimes means less vibration, too.

Yes, but I'm still getting a little jello, but it's very subtle.

Your latest video of Wintergreen looks nice! Just pulled over at the observation areas and launch? Did those people stop to talk to you? Just curious about other folks' interaction with the public... all of my experiences have been very positive.

Yep, just used the observation areas. Those were a couple friends that came along, but most people I've encountered have been very curious and positive.

How about that! I had forgotten to add my battery. It's not the greatest, so I don't necessarily recommend it. I only get about 8-9 minutes flight time running both the quad and the gimbal. I'm not sure about the total weight but I know the gimbal and camera are around 280g. What sort of rig are you flying?

Parts List

Q450 V3 Glass Fiber Quadcopter Frame
Multistar 2212 - 920KV
EMAX Simon Series 30A ESC
Gemfan 9047 Carbon Nylon CW/CCW Propeller For DJI - 40grams each prop
Turnigy 5000mAh 3S 25C Lipo Pack - 430grams
APM 2.6 + NEO 6M GPS with foldable stand + 433Mhz Telemetry Module
universal tall landing gear - 75 grams
3-Axis Brushless Gimbal Camera Mount with 32bit Storm32 Controller - 220 grams
Monitor Alarm 1S-8S - 10 grams
Xiaomi Yi camera - 70 grams
Futaba 10j Tx and Rx

Weight of my whole setup (motors + ESC + frame + propellers+ APM 2.6 + NEO 6M GPS with foldable stand + 433Mhz Telemetry + futaba10J RX + battery + GLB storm 32bit gimbal + camera + landing gear+ Monitor Alarm) is about 1680 grams and it was not able to take off and
Without Gimbal and camera ie., about 1390 grams I get about 15 minutes flight time.

You should post those as a build here. Got all the links?

Ok then i will Post, and are you sure the motors in your pic are sunny sky 980kv ?

Nope, those aren't SunnySky's. Those are the original motors that came on my CX-20 before the transformation. I didn't want to list them because I plan to upgrade to SunnySky's next.

Can you suggest problems in my spec that is inhibiting my quad to take off

What is happening when you try to take off? Why not ask on your build page. I think it would be a better place to discuss it.

Why that high kv.I think this would be stabilier and more effecient 720kv sunnysky motors and 11x5.5 carbon props.Though you will want 4S

It's a matter of cost. 720kv's would cost a great deal more plus I'd have to upgrade my ESCs and buy 4S batteries. I'm on a pretty tight budget with this rig.

Gotcha!

Dear WhiffleX, I changed my battery from 430 grams 5000mah to 200 grams 2700mah, now my quad is able to take off but it is leaning front while taking off, I think I need to adjust the center of gravity. How did you manage the center of gravity problem?

I still need to fine tune my center of gravity. I usually just take off quickly to avoid tipping.

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