[Konvas] off-topic -- motorized heads

[H. W. Stone]

 The mechanicals were Off The Shelf geared units that were made for CNC mills.

The 'added feature' of the laptop is that you can "hand move" the camera, recording it on the laptop, then having it reproduce it time after time after time-- and save thousands of moves.


 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean McVeigh <konvas at smallpony.ca>
To: Konvas Discussion List <cinema at konvas.org>
Sent: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 4:21 pm
Subject: Re: [Konvas] off-topic -- motorized heads









Thanks H.W. I'm more concerned with the mechanical resolution right now, 
if you have any insight on that front.?

The controller has plenty of processing power, and I know he doesn't 
want to lug a laptop around all the time, so I'm thinking something on 
the order of 10 pre-programmed moves, plus a manual setting. It'll have 
a tiny LCD and a keypad or dial or something similar for manual setup. 
ie. set it to 5 degrees-per-minute speed and just let it go. I should 
reiterate of course, that he's more interested in very slow moves rather 
than snappy ones :) Like doing a panning coastal sunset in timelapse, or 
similar.?
?

Cheers,?

Sean?
?


H. W. Stone wrote:?

> The people I have talked to recommend running it via a laptop-- not 
> directly. They also recommend MAC over PC, and that you use Firewire 
> to connect it instead of USB2, but USB2 "will normally" work fairly 
> well. That apparently keeps the problems to a minimum, and allows you 
> to upgrade joysticks, controllers, and store moves to use in different 
> locations weeks later, too.?

>?

>?

> -----Original Message-----?

> From: Sean McVeigh <konvas at smallpony.ca>?

> To: Konvas Discussion List <cinema at konvas.org>?

> Sent: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 2:49 pm?

> Subject: [Konvas] off-topic -- motorized heads?

>?

> I'm building a motorized pan head for a friend for xmas... was 
> wondering if anyone has any experience with such equipment. I'm using 
> a stepper motor coupled through a worm gear to drive the plate... does 
> anyone see any problem with a 0.025 degree/step (90as/step) final 
> resolution on the output plate? He mainly wants to use it for very 
> slow pans and timelapse type work, so I think it'll probably be fine.?

> I'm probably needlessly concerned, as I've maybe been paying too much 
> attention to astrophotography-related websites while trying to spec it 
> out, where the requirements are more like single-digit arc-seconds per 
> step.?

>?

> Anyone want to recommend some features for such a head? Since it's 
> going to have a microcontroller brain, I can probably do things like 
> re-play moves for green-screen matching. Going to make it programmable 
> off-line so that you could draw curves for it to follow.. heck could 
> probably even take a dump from a tracker so you could match-move new 
> shots for compositing.?

>?

> I guess next, he'll want a tilt head so he can stick the two together 
> and plug a joystick into it :) oh.. there's another feature!! DB-15 
> connector :)?

>?

> Cheers,?

> Sean?

>?

> _______________________________________________? 



 

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