Timelaps Panning device

I am a hoby phothographer for a while now and i want to start with timelaps phothography. The basic proces of making timelapses is to just take pictures over a long period of time in always equal intervals.

For this I am curently making a device for my camera which triggers the shutter every 5 seconds using an arduino but having time lapses which always pont at the same spot is boring so I want to build a panning motor, which rotates my camera after every picture a little bit.
Why am i building it and not buying? Because it is freaking expensive! → https://syrp.co.nz/products/genie-mini

The dificulty of this project is that it needs to be sturdy. If this shakes or the rotation is not smoth it will riun the timelaps.
I thought about using a stepper motore which is conected to the remote control for my cammera i am curently building so that the pictures and movment are synchronised in a way that whenever the camera takes a picture the motor stops moving.

But here is the first proplem:
I have no experience using stepper motors. And I need to my camera to reliably rotate a 1/4 of a degree after each picture. Can I make the motor directly move the camera using micro steps? Or do I need a gearing?

Proplem number two:
I need a pretty strong case so that nothing can shake and that it can suport my DSLR I thought about usig the lasercutter to cut aluminium base and top plates and use standoff screws, or solder aluminium plates together. But I have no experience with laser cutting and need some one to teach me.

I hope that you can give e some advice on how to solve my two proplems. Right now Im thinking more abot the stepper motors since i need to know that to at least get a design down.

Btw this is my fisr post here and I am just became a member a week ago.

6 Likes

Cool idea for a project. I built a simple manual pan/tilt mount for doing panoramas a few years ago - motorizing it has been on the backburner for too long.

Have you done any research for similar DIY projects? It seems like someone out there must have built something similar. Like this, for example: 360° pan 180° tilt head for webcam and small DSLR by hollerer - Thingiverse Might be a good place to get a head start on what has worked for others.

You could certainly use a stepper motor, and there are other members at VHS that have a lot of experience doing so. However, depending on how much you’d like your camera to rotate, you may be able to use a servo motor instead. A servo motor would be quite simple control from an Arduino. Getting the 0.25 degree resolution with enough torque to rotate the camera may require gearing, yes.

As for materials, the laser cutter at VHS isn’t able to cut aluminum, and we aren’t currently setup at the space for welding aluminum either. You could still use aluminum, but you’ll probably have to use different construction techniques, or have it watercut externally. Alternatively, the laser cutter cuts acrylic and plywood, and cardboard/cardstock for prototyping.

1 Like

Thank you for your reply.
I didnt knew that i cant cut Aluminium with the laser cuter. The case is still my biggest proplem and I have only a few ideas but no destinct plan.

I went and searched through all the scrap parts at VHS and found this stepper motort which hase a gear system what turns the 48 steps per rotation from the motor down to 1200 steps per rotation. That is even enough with micro steping to make timelapses while tracking slow moving thinks like the milkiway. (15 degree/hour)

I also began to built the control using an arduino pro mini. The arduino can run on 12V which makes thinks easy since I can now use the same power suply for the motor and the arduino. I still have to solder a few conections and to add the shutter controll for my camera.

But i still have to figure out how i want to build the case. I can 3d print a few parts, like the mounting platform for the camera but I am a bit clueless for the rest.
I know that I need a strong bottom and top since the botom is where the device is mountes to the tripod using the 1/4" screw and the top plate is where the motor and the mounting for the camera using the same 1/4’ screw is.

All in all: I still have much work in front of me and I dont even know what that work will be.

If you have any ideas how to build the case please let me know. I can also post more detailed pictures if you want.

1 Like

It might be worth prototyping your case with either acrylic/wood with reinforcements. I think you’ll find if built right you might not actually need aluminum. I imagine a wood-constructed box could do well if braced and jointed properly.

Either way, I’d suggest coming up with a design so you can think about it; if you haven’t used Fusion360, its my design software of choice (even for hand-built projects). I’m holding a Fusion360 event on this Wednesday night if you’d like to check it out!

Nice work so far, exciting work!

You aren’t the only one to sugest using acryl. I think if I use a thick enough material I might be able to get away using acryl for a final design.

I contunied with the electronics today. I made the last conections and added the Mosfet for the shutter control. This was my first time creating a circuit on a pcb and using Hookup wire to make all the conections was a bit messy and as expected I made a mistake somewhere which causes the whole think to not work. But this is mostlikly just a short circuit or somethink which is easy to solve.

I will also ad a lcd display and 4 buttons later to make it easyer to change the settings like rotation speed.

1 Like

You may want to look into using an optocoupler (between your camera and your device) to control the camera shutter…
This will lessen the chance of you accidentally zapping your cameras shutter control circuitry…
Not sure of you camera but here are some sites with generic info:
http://www.martyncurrey.com/activating-the-shutter-release/

Another option; that would function as an optocoupler is that most cameras have an IR reciever for activating the shutter; you could send control signals over an IR LED.

1 Like

Thanks I will look into that. That looks way saver.

My camera has two pins, one for the autofocus and one for the shutter, both pins are high 3.3 volts and are puled down to Gnd to activate them. With this when a mosfet works than an octocopler should work as well.

Edit: I just read through the first article you linked and I can directly copie that since it is the same for my camera.

Learning how to laser cut and work with acrylic is a great skill that you
should totally learn!

It is a nice material to work with - Even 6mm thickness will be more than
strong enough, probably. It’s very strong in one direction, but very
brittle in the other. This can be solved by slotting in two pieces at right
angles.

Like this:

http://store.curiousinventor.com/media/images/tips/custom_laser_cut_boxes/main_400.jpg

3 Likes

Ok here is a new Update.
I didnt do anything physikal I only did some planing and designing and made some changes to my design.

I found those gears in the 3d printing scrap box and they are perfect! They fit together perfectly and have absolut no shaking. I wont use those but i decide that i will 3d print my gears


2.
I found a diferent stepper motor which has 200 steps per rotation than 48 the old one had. This motor is quit a bit bigger than the old one but that doesnt matter much with my current design.

I still havent figured out whats wrong with my wiring so I will redo it and this time make one connection at a time and then test itbefore i go to the next one.

4 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.