Ronin on a Racecar, what about centrifugal force?

B

Bolo

New member
Hi guys

I do a lot of racing/drifting/car stuff. And as a russian arm on a Porsche Panamera is slightly too expensive for me I'm looking for a cheapo alternative.

My plan is:
Baseplate with magnets/suction cups on the car (RigMount XL, rigwheels.com for example).
DJI ronin on the Baseplate
FS7 on the ronin

I don't want to mount it on a real racecar. Just a quick cameracar to follow and capture some nice stuff on the track. But even a "normal" car is quick and has good grip on the racetrack. So i have no clue if this could damage the Ronin!?
As this is just my hobby i don't want to risk the FS7 and the ronin...

What do you think?
 
The ronin has no XYZ stabilisation on'y PTR (pan tilt roll)

If your camera car hits a bump (or even the engine vibrates the bonnet) all of those forces pass through the Ronin and in to your camera and shot.

The forces will both ruin the shot and could also damage the equipment.

I would therefore suggest that 'hard mount' of a ronin is a very poor plan.

It is important to realise a few things..

1) russian arms have XYZ stabilisation (consider them to be on springs or suspension) look at the design of http://www.chapmanleonard.com/remote-camera-heads/g3-stabilisedhead.html and see the shock absorbers at the top and parallelogram movement.

2) People who operate Ronins by hand from car windows or from the back are offering stabilisation and vibration control by using thier body.. flexible muscles around jointed bones, and complex stabilisation control system (brain)

I would suggest that the minimum to make a functional hard mount is to place the rig on a cushion (!) like a 'cinesaddle' you will see used on movie car shots. Of course introduction of a flexible item into the chain of holding the camera increases the probability of system failure (camera falling off)

Also it is worth noting that gimbal motors must fight against wind. My experiments with a cheap gimbal and an open top Ferrari driven by a loon the wind flipping the gimbal was the main problematic factor.

S
 
No idea where you are located, and I have never done any of this drift stuff, but have a racing history going back a very long time. I would first check with the track to see what they allow and what they don't. I know any time we have used a chase vehicle it has to be checked and certified for track use. You know little things like all antifreeze flushed and only water used. Proof of special insurance, cameras hard mounted so forth.
 
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Thanks guys.
@David - I'm from Switzerland. That's no problem. Here we have no racetracks, but we use to go do France, Italy, Germany. I do this with all required permissions. we have enough events going on where i could do this. but of course, normally only training, no competition :)
@Morgan- thanks. i forgot... between the car mount and the ronin i would like to have a damper. but since i read about your issues with wind, i have some doubts if the ronin would work. But a head like the chapman isn't affordable i guess !?
Any other ideas to keep it low budget? as i really want to have the 180fps in Full HD i don't want to go with some smaller cameras...
 
I've seen people mount a ronin on the back of vehicles on the trunk or hatchback to avoid wind and engine vibrations. On a track I think this would be useful but it wouldn't provide you with the shots of the back of the car towards the front. For drifting and because the most elegant part of the vehicle is the front and sides I think this setup might be the best if you choose to go this route.
 
morgan_moore said:
Did you make any progress?
Click to expand...

still not :(

but the ronin anyway would be a nice piece of equipment, i'm again thinking about getting one.
And to mount it this might be a solution:
http://www.stratus-productions.com/cvi-underslung
so i could build a platform on the front and rear of the chasecar to quickly switch between front an rear. As the racetracks normally are smooth i think this could work.... if I will ever try it i'll let you know if it worked or if i smashed 12k to the asphalt :)
 
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