DSLR Camera Slider

[theyangster]

I concur as well! were you thinking about releasing this as a kit?

nvm, I see your other thread now, my bad!

[kitsu]

I got my slider kit from Bart last week, and not yet having an Arduino or stepper driver, I was forced to use the only other motor and control I have - a Lego NXT.

Quick video showing the result and the clunky motor attachment bracket:

http://vimeo.com/34545513

No Lego parts were modified, other than shoving a few washers between the motor plate and Lego pieces to eliminate some play. The Technic axles are just shy of 5mm, so with a wrap of scotch tape they fit snugly on the pulley.

For the initial 'down' movement I had the control program at 35% speed, and I think it was 100% coming back. I believe the tension the V-wheels was a little tight causing the motor to not run smoothly. Next up is to add some means to set start and stop positions and speed.

[Seshan]

So I want to make a camera slider, or buy the one in the store, I'm not sure which way I want to go yet. Anyways, I have some questions.
1. How much weight can be put on the carriage with out it coming off the v-rail?
2. Is there hardware that can be used to connect rails end to end? I'm thinking of ordering 2 1 meter lengths so I could have a short slider and a long slider by connecting the two.
3. How strong is the rail? would there be a lot of sag in the middle of say a 2 meter rail supported at both ends with about a 6 pound camera in the middle?

I think that's all for now.

Thanks for any help

[bdring]

1. The carriage will take a lot of weight before it actually comes off. I am sure it could take well over 100 lbs. Other parts will start to become quite distorted first.
2. The material is t slot so there are a variety of ways to join it together. I would suggest using the central 4.2mm holes as alignment pins to join two sections together. Drill bits might work well for that. I would think there would still be a visible bump on live shots, but less likely to show up on a time lapse.
3. I tested a 2 meter section with 6 lbs supported only at the ends and it sagged about 2.5mm. This was tested on dowels. It is likely to be stiffer with a ridged support on the ends.

[Seshan]

Thanks for that info.
I thought of the bump in the track problem, but I will mostly be using it for timelaps so it shouldn't be a problem. I'd rather get a 2 meter length and a 1 meter length, but I fear the shipping to Canada would increase to much.

[theyangster]

Bdring,

Just curious if you plan to release some parts from your camera slider kit as individual pieces? I bought a 4 feet section and didn't see those accessories I would really like to purchase those tripod mount end plates, I do have an extra tripod plate that I plan to epoxy into the middle for general usage, but having endplates would even better!

Also was wondering if you had any plans to start incorporating adjustable table top legs into the design, the design I like is from an existing slider design seen here

http://www.dslrfilmnoob.com/2011/02/05/ ... er-update/

[ecurtz]

There was a nice Arduino controlled system posted on AdaFruit today.

Arduino Motion Control

[quadmasta]

Mine's a hell of a lot less refined than that one but it gets the job done. Ignore the extra 10-15' of wire and the complete arduino crammed in the project box. I had to get it to where it's robust enough to where a non technical user can use it to test it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2VT64YUF6I

Missle switches are for power. I'm running the stepper driver off of a 12V SLA and the 'duino off of a 9V. Other switch controls direction. First pot controls acceleration. Second controls max velocity. green = go I've not yet incorporated the limit switches.

[jpmurph]

I wonder if anybody in the forum has experienced the problem with the makerslide having a slight wobble as evident by the video below.

I'm not sure if it's out of alignment somehow or if the eccentric spacers are not adjusted properly but it seems to be a vertical wobble every so many frames. Everything visually seems to look good on the setup it's only during the playback of time lapse videos that I noticed the slight wobble. Any advise on how to fix this issue?

[bdring]

First, those are pretty cool shots.

I have seen some wobble in my shots and in my setup it appears to be at the tripod mounts. Slight external forces caused the rail to move at that point. It could be a lot of torque. Try to get the setup as balanced as possible with respect to the center of the tripod mount so there is no initial torque on the setup.

I have also seen where people put extreme pressure on the wheels and cause a flat spot, but that would repeat at a higher rate. The eccentric spacers can put as much force on those wheels as a bench vice.