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DIY Gopro 360 pole

frango

Turbo Monkey
Jun 13, 2007
1,454
5
So, after first attempt of building 360 GoPro pole, the time has come to create version 2.

What you need:
1. at least 100cm carbon fiber pole, diameter at least 12mm
2. some aluminum blocks
3. ball bearing
4. piece of 2mm aluminum sheet
5. some bolts and nuts
6. 2 similar GoPros or 1 camera and proper counterweight
7. old lathes
8. and what's most important, a friend who has knowledge how to use machines and how to put the thing together

What we did:
1. a socket with inner diameter of outer diameter of the pole, glued it the middle of the pole and drilled the hole for M5 bolt
2. simple mounts for GoPro and counterweight (or 2 GoPros) with stripes of 2mm aluminum (It will most probably improved. Maybe some kind of more universal mount). We've put plastic plugs in both ends of the pole to strengthen it up
3. a modular rotor, which consists of (from top to bottom):
a. pole mount made with stripe of 2mm aluminum. Final version will probably have this part machined.
b. top part of the rotor with M6 bolt hole in the center
c. bottom part of the rotor with M8 bolt hole in the center
d. GoPro standard mount screwed into the bottom part of the rotor. Such design allows to interchange mounting part for different standards
4. two special flat/concave washers that allow keeping the pole at certain angle. We also made 2 very thin teflon washers for free up and down movement.

You can attach pole to the rotor in 2 slightly different ways:
1. almost fixed angle - probably better for road motorcycling or more stable shots
2. crazy free movement - very dynamic shots, very well stabilized view

The weight of the pole+rotor+mounts is about 165g. Entire unit with 2 GP3 or GP3 with counterweight is below 500g

If you use counterweight, you have to make it not only weighs as much as GoPro you use, but also look similar, because at certain speed wind drag steers the pole. You may end up with camera in front of your face or behind your back all the time.

Some pictures below













And a movie


It is possible that small batch of these improved poles will be made for sale.
If you were interested, just PM me.

Cheers, enjoy!

[x-post from MTBR and PB]
 

frango

Turbo Monkey
Jun 13, 2007
1,454
5
My first 360 pole has been made with kółko obrotowe, kolego Troy ;)
Believe me, it's not the same ;>
 

frango

Turbo Monkey
Jun 13, 2007
1,454
5
That's pretty awesome, love the narcissist pole :D
Doesn't it strain your neck?
Pole mounts are all about narcissism ;)
No,, thanks to 360 horizontal movement and about 50-60* vertical movement, cameras are isolated from your head. Yes, it's additional 500g on top of it, but you don't feel it very much. For sure less then unicorn style pole mount ;)
 

frango

Turbo Monkey
Jun 13, 2007
1,454
5
I've got friend who has got knowledge and access to materials and machines :)
 

frango

Turbo Monkey
Jun 13, 2007
1,454
5
Sweet, what's inside the spinny portion? Just regular bearings or a thrust bearing or something?
It's regular bearing. We thought about building in some kind of friction "unit", so the rotor would not spin like crazy, but we gave up ;) we wanted to keep it simple.

while i applaud your ingenuity, the videos from them are the most ridiculous looking things. shit makes you look like you never rode a bike before in your life...
Hahahaha, it's partly because it was one of the first ride of the season ;)
Additionally, the rotor smooths up every bump, so there no POV drama experience ;) It's very "FX" kind of shot. You can't use it for entire vid. You cut a 1-2s parts out of it.
 

jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
16,628
12,922
Cackalacka du Nord
that floaty feeling seems like it works better with ski vids. I can see how the 360 mount might be nice to splice into mtb vids every once in a while.

reminded me of one of my fav ski vids. although not using the 360 helmet mount, it just has that groovin' feeling