A Quick And Easy DJI Ronin M Setup Guide!
[the_ad id=”20″]Welcome to our post where we will be going over what we feel is the quickest and easiest way to set up your DJI Ronin M. Although the actual gimbal itself is an all in one unit that does not need to be put together, the supporting items for the Ronin M do take a little effort to build and get the rig ready to go. That said though, once you have gone through this process a few times, you should be able to build the rig and have it ready to go to support your camera in no time.
That said though, there are different debuild states that you can use with the Ronin M that can drastically change the amount of time required to build it. For example, if you are doing any type of air travel with your gimbal stabilizer, you may be required to fully debuild the gimbal to its individual component parts similar to how it will initially come when you order it.
Building the gimbal from this level will often take around 10-20 minutes depending on how many times you have gone through the process and how confident you are in completing it. If you are just traveling via a car or something you may not have to debuild the gimbal at all. If the car is pretty full though, you may remove the handles or the tuning stand to ensure it fits safely. This type of build can literally be completed in minutes when you get to your destination and have you ready to go with your gimbal quickly.
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Getting Started With The Build
We would always recommend that you start with the tuning stand when going any type of full build with your Ronin M as it serves as the main support for the majority of the other items allowing you to quickly and easily mount them as required later in the process.
Get the tuning stand and check that the finger screw is tight if it has come loose during transit tighten it up for now. Next, move down to where the support legs of the stand meet the central column, press the angle adjusting buttons and then fold the legs out until they are in place. This is usually around a 90-degree rotation and when they are in place they should face outwards from the central column with around a 90-degree angle at the connector of the leg and the central column.
The next thing that you will do is the exact same process you have just fone from the legs of the Ronin M but this time you will be going it for the upper arms of the gimbal. Again, this is usually a 90-degree rotation and the arms should face outwards away from the central column when complete with a 90-degree angle at the connector.
Now that the legs and arms of the gimbal are in position, you need to adjust the central column to the length that suits you best. To do this, firmly press on the steel button on the central column of the stand and extend the central column as required.
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Attaching The Handle Bar
Next up you are going to take the two side handles and mount one of them to each side of the horizontal bars that you have just screwed into your top handlebar. A quick and easy way to ensure that you are putting the correct side handle on the correct side of the horizontal bar is to make sure that the red tightener is facing the same direction as the one on your actual top handle.
Once you have mounted the two side handles, use the red tighteners to secure the side handles in place but be sure to quickly give both side handles a quick pull once tightened. This ensures that they have been mounted correctly and are secured in place and will not give way during use when your camera rig is mounted potentially causing it to fall to the ground.
Mounting Your Gimbal To The Handle Bar Rig
Keep in mind, the safety button should be located on the opposite side of the red tightener on the top handle too. This will ensure that you get optimal performance out of the gimbal during use as well as ensure that everything works as it should and that your camera rig is safe and secure once mounted. Once you see the safety button pop out, you can now tighten the red tightener at the front of the top handle.
At this stage, we would highly recommend that you quickly check that all of the red tighteners are correctly fitted to their various frames. To do this simply pick up the Allen key that is included with the Ronin M and give each of the red tighteners a quick twist with the key. Remember rotating the key left will loosen the fitting and put your gimbal at risk so always rotate right to tighten any connectors that have come loose.
Another thing that we would recommend that you do at this stage of the build process is rotate the actual gimbal through a full 360-degree rotation to ensure that it is able to freely rotate without bumping into any handles and does not have restricted movement. That completes the build of the actual gimbal body but there are two sections remaining that people usually end up coming up with their own way of doing.
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The Gimbal Battery And The Quick Release Plate
The official DJI battery is easy enough to mount on your Ronin M and it simply slides on and you then clip it in place to secure it. The thing where some people choose to customize this stage of the build is if they have chosen to purchase some third-party battery pack for the gimbal to increase its battery life.
Although these battery packs are popular, each of them work slightly different to each other so we would recommend that you check the manual that the battery pack came with. Most of them work in a similar way to the official DJI battery but some do require you to take additional steps.
Next up, we have the quick release plate. Now, technically this is not part of the gimbal build as you just mount the plate to your camera rather than the gimbal but there are a few things that people customize when it comes to their quick release plates that change what you will need to do.
Some people choose to pick up something like a Smallrig adaptor (Click here to check for product prices and availability) for their Ronin M. Others choose to jerry-rig an Arca Swiss Plate (Click here to check for product prices and availability) to their Ronin M. Each method has its own specific way to mount the quick release plate.
Balancing The Ronin M
It offers a great insight into how you are easily able to balance the Ronin M quickly without having to waste your time. We would recommend that you rebalance the gimbal if you switch between cameras that are vastly different weights during use too. This will ensure that the gimbal is working optimally and reduce the chances of the gimbals motors overheating during use.
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