homemade camera motion control system

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

I have a three month break and am thinking big with what I want to do. I was wanting to make a budget homemade motion control system.

if you don’t know what one is

http://www.movieworks.co.nz/mcontrol.html

is just records the camera movements and then you can redo the exact movement.

The above systems cost $$$$$$ - I found this thing on the internet called the PCGadget which enables you to control things outside your computer eg- motors.

Basically I was wanting to know if anybody has any ideas - or keen to give it ago themselves. There are also the pic and micro controller things.

Just keep in mind that I mean budget.
cheers

2

You need to consider the inertia, this is one of the most important things in a motion control system.

3

I was thinking about doing the same thing! I was looking for my LEGO Mindstorms kit that I received a few years ago. I could basically build a sturdy mini-tripod that could control direction and pitch in a program that I would write in Visual basic and use the included OCX component to control the Mindstorm cpu through the infa-red thingy.

I made a remote controlled car that I could control from my computer from up to 15 feet away over a year ago, so I know it would work. I’d just need to write the program so that it would record the commands being sent to the mindstorm controller and replay them with the touch of a button.

I’m sure buying the LEGO mindstorms system would cost a lot less than most other solutions, unless you built your own hard-wired circuit board…

4

not so much a motion control system as an idea…

build yourself a steady cam.

Jsut get a big counterweight for the camera, and hold it mnid point.

makes the camera almost float. then the motion control system will be easy, could jsut work on symple pneumatics

5

a little example – I was thinking of something which actually moved aswell. Had some wheels and could move around.

something else I found–(?)

I think that I’ll try and find an electronics forum and ask a few questions-

http://steppercontrol.com/index.html

I tried making a steady cam ages ago- but it wasn’t that steady- I have changed it around a bit but now I have stuffed up the screw on top and can’t put my camera on it-- can you show me your design?

ta