Got my hands on the Quark!

[fedecossu]

Its a difficult one, or maybe very simple in fact.

The Quark is apparently the only digital gyro that works just perfect

My friend had a REVL too, but it can not hold the horizon (and now they are apparently out of business)

But we all know now, that the Quark isnt fully watertight.

The same as watertight pocket cams, you will sooner or later get water inside, as just a teeny weeny sand grain in the sealing, and the camera is toast - thats how it is, we all know that.

I've had mine (Quark) in the water a couple of times, and rinsed sand many times under the tap, and it still works.

But I KNOW, if I get it down for a longer period, it is toast.

Thats just the way it is, quite inexpensive (quarter the price of a good kitecam) so not that bad really.
The worst thing is the long waiting time

So I see it like this, we know it isnt fully watertight, and take a chance every time out - but it is worth it when looking at the video and pictures, nothing comes close in terms of stabilization

I had a kite with a repaired front tube - it suddenly blew up in the air, and my (watertight Sony) kitecam went down 1 m under the water while I was swimming ahore.
It did not survive, almost expexted, 50 50 chance.

The memory card worked, so could see the explosion afterwards, quite funny.

These cameras are a "wear" thing in my experience, after many years with action and kitecams, its just the way it is.

Peter

Hi Peter, I don't agree.
Before getting stuck and stopping working completely, my Quark didn't work that well: it had issues with both the time lapse function and with the high frequency vibrations in the stabilization mode.
Second, it is not inexpensive, considering that I paid hundreds of dollars for using it just a few times (until it failed). I didn't pay for a disposable device, I paid for something that was supposed to last.
Third, my Quark was never submerged but it failed anyway because apparently it couldn't handle water splashes when it was mounted on the nose of my SUP. This legend that it fails only if submerged must end. Moreover the company claims that it can handle submersion in shallow water for a limited time (which of course is not true).
The fact that other users had it submerged and it is still working could mean that some of the Quarks were made more properly than others and could handle the environmental conditions for which it was originally designed. The defective Quarks that had issues should be replaced as defective under warranty... in theory, but we all know that's not going to happen
I wonder how many returned Quarks are already sitting on the Noirmatter desks ...

[Peter_Frank]

My buddy has a Quark too.

He thought it didnt work, but it turned out there was a bit of sand in his.
When you rotate it turned off, it should turn smoothly.

He rinsed the edge and since then it has worked awesome.

Dont let it sit in the sand on the beach....
It can be rinsed yes, but always a risk.

Timelapse - I have no idea, dont use it.

I bought mine after having read in here that it isnt fully waterrtight - so I knew that beforehand, maybe thats why I find it okay, and truly the best stabilizer yet.

Peter

[SaulOhio]

The problem I have now is that the kite line mount keeps breaking. This first time I just chalked it up to flying in sub freezing weather. Saturday it broke on my in warmer weather.

So I am building my own out of old windsurfing battens.

[innovader]

Following this thread, it seems that the Quark gives you really nice footage, however, it won't last long even if carefully rinsed after salt water usage and the provided line mount has a weak point where the heavy gimbal is attached and often breaks. This really sucks as a 200$ investment for the gimbal is lost or even worse you dump your Gopro on the ground of the ocean. Since after some waiting I received the Quark I decided to not give it a try as it is but look into how to improve it. The obvious solution is to build some lightweight housing which prevents water and sand from getting in contact.

This came out:

It consists of the supplied line mount with the gimbal/camera fixture cut off:

and a beaker out of acryl glass with a bottom which holds the gimbal and the Gopro:

I built the bottom parts in a negative mould out of carbon and glass fibre epoxy with nuts (for fixture, no through holes) included. Two O-rings serve as seal. It turns out that the whole assembly is so leak-tight that without having an additional hole in the acryl beaker which can be closed afterwards by the black screw the beaker cannot be slid on due to the resulting overpressure inside. As a result, once the beaker is on the gimbal can be turned on by means of a tooth stick and the beaker will not come off when the screw is inserted.
I decided also to redo the mounting of the Gopro to the gimbal (now just fixed with a rubber band) because then the rotation axis can be put closer to the off-centered camera objective. In addition the camera can be taken out more easily for e.g. charging. In order to mount the gimbal to the bottom I had to build some adaptor plate and after removal of the motor housing I used the original threaded holes. Here are the two 3D printed parts:

These are the obsolete parts from the original Quark:

The weight of the whole assembly is now 490g (including a Gopro 7 black) which compares to 225g if you use just a Ugo mount and no gimbal. If you use the Ugo mount, gimbal and Gopro 7 black you end up at 371g. Consequently I was worried whether the whole thing would not be too heavy. So I tried it at my stay in El Médano last week on a day with little wind (had to take a 12 meter kite and just got going on the surfboard, beginning of the video) and on windier days when I used the 8m (rest of the video). It turned out that the weight in both cases was not a problem at all. The weight might even help to prevent excessive shaking of the whole thing. Here comes the link to the video since I am unable to upload a movie:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3xy8w5li0y5d8 ... g.mov?dl=0
The nice thing about the whole assembly is that it also floats in the water. Fully assembled it fits perfectly in the provided box:

Also for that reason I painted it orange. Some more details:

With respect to weight it is probably possible to save some 50g which brings it closer to Ugo mount solution mentioned above. I doubt whether I want to do that because the acryl glass tube with 3 mm wall thickness is really rigid and easy to glue to the acryl lid, but maybe 2 mm would do as well.

Enjoy Werner

[Peter_Frank]

Amazing work Werner

It could be a bit of a "reflection" and condensation game to avoid this when sunny, but apart from that it would solve the limited waterproofing issue indeed

Dont think any other stabilizer comes near in terms of how well they perform, so good job

I will take the chance and see how long mine will last.

Peter

[innovader]

Thank's Peter :
Since you bring it up and I completely forgot to write about the condensation issue. When I first tried it, I mounted the whole thing together in my warm and probably humid hotel room. As soon as I was at the beach everything covered up with condensation, but not the part in front of the lens (I assume it is the heat of the camera, I noticed that the Gopro 7 gets quite warm and the distance to the acryl is just 2 mm or so). If you look carefully in the first part of the movie you actually see sometimes kind of a greyish area coming into one of the corners (which of course moves as the camera rotates with respect to the housing). In a second try I left the whole thing open on the balcony and put some of those moisture absorbing straps in before closing. Then there was no condensation at all. Reflection didn't seem to be a problem although it was sometimes quite sunny.
Cheers Werner

[Foxi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsjqyEhY-bQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drWSQP2qvbw

Peter, can you please confirm that the issue on the second vid has been resolved by Noir Matter with the latest line mounts ?

I´m a satisfied Beastmount V1 customer and wonder if not to go Beastmount V2 as I like its quality - rounded smoothly with adjustable leg angles rather than the edgy NM shape ..

thanks for any inputs !

[Peter_Frank]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsjqyEhY-bQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drWSQP2qvbw

Peter, can you please confirm that the issue on the second vid has been resolved by Noir Matter with the latest line mounts ?

I´m a satisfied Beastmount V1 customer and wonder if not to go Beastmount V2 as I like its quality - rounded smoothly with adjustable leg angles rather than the edgy NM shape ..

thanks for any inputs !

I dont know when, I got the mount that came with my Quark november 2018, and it slides on one side as it should (like written earlier 6/12 on page 6), so it must have been changed somewhere in or after the summer 18

Usually I use the UGo mount though, offset like shown below so I dont have my lines or stopper ball in front of the cam - and if not using offset (for the bars with no stopper), I can use the Noir Matter line mount so I dont have to change many screws and position at all.

Turned upside down of course, and cam SW 180 degree, as this gives you even more offset for free, and Quark can hold in 8 positions so easy to set it upside down:



A bit higher risk that a rear line can get caught, but most often only when hydrofoiling and getting really slack lines, it can happen now and then.
I just go ashore and put the kite on the side, and it usually tangles itself out so I can just go out ride again

Peter

[fedecossu]

I´m a satisfied Beastmount V1 customer and wonder if not to go Beastmount V2 as I like its quality - rounded smoothly with adjustable leg angles rather than the edgy NM shape

Have you read this topic about Beastmount yet?: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2398737
Another company whose products are not so well designed ...

[Foxi]

I´m a satisfied Beastmount V1 customer and wonder if not to go Beastmount V2 as I like its quality - rounded smoothly with adjustable leg angles rather than the edgy NM shape

Have you read this topic about Beastmount yet?: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2398737
Another company whose products are not so well designed ...