Public Lab Research note


Preliminary testing of small pocket sled kite for Mobius camera

by patcoyle | July 14, 2015 06:32 14 Jul 06:32 | #12059 | #12059

patcoyle was awarded the Basic Barnstar by warren for their work in this research note.


What I want to do

Explore smaller kites for use with Mobius camera. At 38 grams for the camera, smaller kites or balloons could be useful. Inspired by Jeff Warren's smaller balloon discussion, I picked up a small pocket sled from Into The Wind's store on Pearl Street, in Boulder.

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My attempt and results

I got the kite launched and attached a large binder clip as a test weight.

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The kite is small and a bit skittish as can see in videos below:

and

Questions and next steps

Try with camera, explore rigging options, evaluate where the small, no-spar, soft kites make sense.

Why I'm interested

Small portable mapping options could be handy.


5 Comments

Do you think if you moved the weight further down the line from the kite it would be more stable?

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Thanks, good question Dan. The usual guidance from the KAP community is more distance from the kite to the rig on the line is better, like minimum 60-100', enough so the kite is stable and in clean air before attaching camera rig. I shoot for this when I'm flying my other larger kites, so I'll fiddle with it for this set up as well. I did observe that the little kite seemed pretty skittish, even at altitude. Also when bringing it down, my video didn't capture it, but closer to the ground the kite started spinning - made several revolutions. Pretty scenic.

This was just a test, in the event of a real camera flight, ... :->

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sled kites have that characteristic skittish 'hunting' behavior. They stabilize well with a drogue on a long string that connects to a bridle on back two tail points. This pocket sled looks like it already has tails though.

this is an exciting setup! I love the idea of a completely soft kite kit with a small camera.

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+1 soft kite + camera! If we can find a stable tail/drogue situation, this'd be super, and easy to ship!

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I have a soft kite, i had forgotten about it. it's mega primitive though. will try this out!

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