My Cousin just ordered a Tarantula and I told him NOT to get the camera as I'll give him my old stock one for now and he can get a Runcam or Mobius later. But, no camera, no anti vibe mount! So what if you didn't get the stock camera with your tarantula? they don't sell the mount separately. Well I've figured out how to mount the WLtoys v262 camera mount, that I've been using rather successfully on my FrankenSpider for some time now, and attach it to the Tarantula,..rather easily! So I built this for him and made this tutorial as I went, (sorta, I jumped around building, but wrote this in a better order of operations to save you some of the supid frustrations I encountered)
There is some minor cutting and you'll need a few extra screws and it's probably a good idea to have some glue or epoxy to strengthen a few spots, but generally it's a simple setup and makes for the best I've found mount for a camera to the Tarantula (or FrankenSpider, which it bolts right to ;) )
Here's how I did it. I'm sure someone will come along and figure out how to improve it even more!
You'll need to have
- WLtoys V262 camera or shock mount. Do a google search for best price and location to buy.. seen it for around $5 bucks and no more that $10
- WLtoys v262 battery holder (can just use a strip of something instead)
- A Spare Battery Door for the Tarantula. Can just use the one you have but I always prefer to mod extras so I can return to stock if I want.. they are usually under $2 bucks.. shipped
- Some extra screws. Again do a google search for WLToys v262 spare screws.. many of the Chinese retailers will have it, stock changes so search around for availability and price.
- May want some epoxy or similar glue/filler
- Super Glue or similar
- Old Mouse Pad or other rubbery material
- Tiny Zip Ties
Step One - Cut a small hole in the Tarantula's battery door, it needs to be just big enough to get the power cord out the front. DON'T notch the door as you need it to be structural, if you cut that edge lip it can actually let it flex during flight and the front tabs to the body can pop out! Been there, done that, not pretty!!
hole in battery door - leave edge lip for structure!
Step Two - Mount the WLToys mount's flat plate to the battery door. This is probably the hardest part as it's kinda difficult to locate the tiny screw holes.
First off, cut off the 4 mounting legs from the WLToys flat plate. they just don't line up anywhere that is useable that I could find.
WLToys mount legs cut off
Line up the door and plate.. NOTE THERE IS A FORWARD-SIDEWAYS DIRECTION! if you turn is sideways the battery will end up sideways, the mount is NOT SQUARE but a rectangle. The notches or indents in the plate need to be on the sides.
Note: notches in plate need to be on sides
Now you need to locate the studs on the battery door. and punch holes through the plate.
(Note- if using a Runcam or Mobius you can probably cut them off, and lay the door and plate flat together, screw through pretty much anywhere, but if using a Tarantula Stock Cam you'll need the height clearance to get the wires and plug in the body of the quad)
They need to be small holes, I have a rotary tool with extra tiny bits, but a hot pin or needle will do the trick too. The two upper screws you may notice are right up against the rib in the plate, they actually line up right UNDER THE RIB, but, there is enough flex in both the plate and battery door studs so you can flex them over and not cut the structural rib. I did add some UV Glue to make the area stronger, just cuz! (UV glue is just UV light cured epoxy, regular epoxy would be fine too)
touch of glue or epoxy for added strength
Step Three - Now you have the plate mounted you just have to do minor mods to the lower plate.
There are built in "safety catches" with the WLToys mount. basically there are 2 stud in the flat plate that stick through larger holes in the lower plate , you put a screw with a larger washer in the stud and if the balloons ever ripe or pop free the screws catch the plate and keep your camera from falling to the ground. GREAT idea.. but, I found during flight the weight of the battery and camera moves the balloons more than the holes allow, so you end up having contact between the upper and lower plate and all the vibrations transfer right through, honestly I think it makes it worse as when they hit you get an obvious jolt in the video. So I cut them off and make my own safety catch out of zip ties. Cut off the stubs to their safety catch then stick the balloons through and mount the flat plate with the lower plate.
Cut studs
Now you can just use the WLToys battery box, but I found that it's not the greatest as I have many batteries that are slightly different sizes and some are way too tight, while others are so loose that they fall right out. Plus it's hard to get somewhere to attach anything to hold the camera. So... I knocked out a chuck of the battery box and made a place for a velcro strap to run through. and screwed it in place.
Cut out chunks of battery box - and mount to lower plate
Now, glue little pieces of rubbery stuff to the mount and the bottom of the camera. not so much for anti vibration,though I'm sure it helps a little, it's to keep the battery and camera from slipping around during flight. I just use pieces of old mouse pad and rubber floor mat and glued down with a few drops of crazy glue
Rubbery grip padding glued to mount and camera
Step Four - assemble the upper and lower plates together.
Simple pull the balloons through the holes and seat. I do take some little zip ties and run them through the balloons and around for protection so if the balloons pull out or rip then the camera and battery aren't lost. you need the one running through the balloon to be nice and straight so it doesn't bind the movement, also make it a bit long as when you add the battery weight and camera the balloons stretches out a bit.
zip ties kinked to prevent binding the balloons movement.
Lastly, mount up the battery and camera... Slip a velcro strap through the cut battery box mounts, slide the battery in and get the velcro up and over it. When you tighten it up it'll actually press the battery down and into the mount, place the camera on top and tighten up the velcro over it.. done!!
Velcro needs to go over the battery not under!
All strapped in!
Run the power cable out through the battery door hole and slide the whole assembly onto the Tarantula! Plug her in and go fly!!
Oh, and
**PUT THE BATTERY DOOR SCREW IN!**
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