Programmable Pan & Tilt - Anyone interested?
 

After having spent days on researching various Pan and Tilt devices I've concluded that they don't quite do what I'm looking for.

Essentially, what I need to be able to do is program the pan and tilt (start, end and how much time to do the moves in) operation such that it is repeatable.

On location, I should be able to use either a PC or a Pocket PC/Smart Phone to controll and/or program the pan and tilt.

So now, I'm seriously looking at building one. I've researched the servos and gear mechanisms required for the weight of the XH-A1 and am pretty sure I could build one in either Flash/Flex (so it's cross platform) and/or .NET C# (PC only). Both are tools/languages I use everyday.

I was wondering if:
1. Anyone knows of a device that meets these criteria
2. Anyone would be interested in such a device. I could build these at cost (plus S&H) for those interested.

Shiv.

Shiv,
Have you checked these?

http://www.telemetricsinc.com/html/prodPanTilt.html

Seem to do what your asking.

I would be very interested if you could build one for fairly cheap. Let me know what you decide to do and I will look for some information.

Josh,

I've seen this website but I didn't see a price to their products. Do you happen to know the prices?

Trent,

I'm on the "pretty cheap" myself :). However, from the looks of it, due to the weight of the camera (I'm using 7lbs as the weight for good measure) the torque the servos need to have (in order to hold the tilt position) needs to be pretty high. For the pan the servo needs to be able to handle the weight of the camera along with the weight of the tilt servo, plus metal gears will be needed (again due to the weight of the camera). All of this adding to the cost.

Then there is some electronics between the PC/MAC/Handheld and the servos that controls everything. The software is the only thing I don't need to buy. :)

All in all I estimate the cost to be about $300-$350 or so.

No I haven't. But they look pricey.

Josh,

Yea, they look like the kind TV stations and the like could afford :)

powerfull servo
 

Hi Shiv

http://www.milinst.com/ (link to servo electronic) (robotic Servo Motor Driver Board)

http://www.pololu.com/ (link to drive the electronic USB interface) (Pololu USB 16-servo controller) servo controller

http://www.mfacomodrills.com/motors/motors.html (gearbox and electric motors) (975D SERIES (45mm DIA) PLANETRY (EPICYCLIC) METAL GEARBOX)

you add a precision potentiometer for the feedback, a servocontroller between the computer and the servo card and you obtain a powerfull servo with a torque of (30 Nm at 17 rpm), the electronic card can drive the motor in position like servo and in speed all is in the notice.

Sorry for the english i'm French

Gilles

I'm getting very close... My software needs a little more development but if you don't need to support a lot of weight and you want to do it on the cheap I've got just what you need!

the head

software tests

i choose oopic processor board together with the sister board for DC motor from magnevation. the full assembly is as large as card deck, can drive 2 motors from a joystick from a 12V battery.
http://www.oopic.com/ (oopic II board)
http://www.magnevation.com/ (dual PWM board)
you just need to add 2 DC motors (tons are available at JAMECO, with lots of different speed and for cheap)

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/sto...oductId=153437

and a joystick

the advantage of going with such microprocessor board is you can program exactly the behavior for your needs, eventually add other features.
you can have several modes (like a fast one and a slow one).

then you can build your head for any camera size or weigth and for different settings like crane or flying cam.

Pan and Tilt
 

Hi Shiv et all,

Did you complete this Pan and Tilt project?.
I am very interested on what you decided.

Thanks.

Van