this might be a dumb question but here goes. im working on a project that needs a specific thermal sensor, not the Zenmuse lineup, like a different manufacturer entirely. the payload specs on the Inspire 2 are what they are and i know DJI's ecosystem is pretty locked down but ive seen a couple of videos online where people have done custom mounting solutions and i cant tell if they were actually flying stable or just making it look good for the camera.

the vibration dampening on the stock gimbal mount is pretty good but if im bolting something else on there im worried about jello and also just the CG shifting enough to cause issues. has anyone actually done this or am i going down a rabbit hole that ends in a crash and a voided warranty

yeah its a rabbit hole but not an impossible one. i did a custom mount for a multispectral sensor for an ag client a while back, ended up using a third party vibration isolation plate and just hard mounting the sensor. the CG thing is real and you do have to rebalance carefully, the Inspire 2 is actually more tolerant of payload shifts than you'd expect as long as you stay within the weight limits and dont put anything weird way off center. jello was manageable after we tuned the mount material. it wasnt pretty but it worked for what we needed which was just data acquisition not cinematic footage so the bar was different.

warranty is basically already a moot point once you're talking about any kind of custom integration on a platform like this lol. but the bigger issue imo is that the Inspire 2 wasn't really designed with open payload integration in mind the way something like a Freefly or a proper mapping drone is. for thermal specifically you might actually be better served looking at whether a Matrice platform fits your use case, the M300 or even M30 series are way more payload friendly and DJI actually supports third party integrations through the payload SDK. just a thought, might save you a lot of headache.