In reply to DocBrown:
This is awkward...Looks like you are the original DocBrown (no space). My sincere apologies for accidentally steeling your screen name. I see that you have already changed your ID, but I would be more than happy to chose another ID and let you keep your original ID. I bow to the man who actually owns a Berkeley.
Progress....
Cambot gets a pro camera mount for larger cameras.
Cannon HF11 sits a little high in the mount, looks like I need to get out the hacksaw.......
The limit switches were finally connected and some code was written to utilize them.
With the IR-Lock kit, the Pixy video feed is pretty much obscured due to a heavy filtering. Here is a diagram of what the video feed looks like. You'll notice the target in the upper left hand quadrant, the pixy will pick this up and spit out the coordinates. After some simple calculations the pan and tilt are sent commands to try and put the target in the center of the screen. It only takes a few lines of code to access the data from the pixy, normally this sort of thing takes thousands of lines of code to do. High tech gizmos like the Pixy make this sort of project easy to do.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh! wires!
Schematic updated.. The only real change is the addition of the limit switches and the micro computer was upgraded to a Mega2600.. The Pixy is plug and play with the Arduino and comes with a pre-built ribbon cable.
source code for the nerds...... New Arduino code with Pixy commands
.. WE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/2HuBG24tXpk
Stay tuned!
RossD wrote: In reply to Doc Brown: With the object being farther away and the problem being lessened, I'd guess that you have a maximum degree/sec before starting to get the tripod vibrating. You could add mass to the tripod; an old dumbbell solidly mounted perhaps. Or have a 'soft start' to the pan motor.
Hi 'ya Ross,
Sorry I missed your comment. Indeed, adding weight to the tripod helped with some of the vibration issues. I also reconfigured the stepper controllers for micro stepping... sort of softens the start and stop of the pan and tilt. Overall I'm making progress sorting out the minor issues.
Cambot gets a friend! ... well sort of.
Figured it was time to do an update. Lately this project has focused on software development and the camera now has fluid movement... sort of looks like its alive.
In order to develop the software I used a crappy DIY automated camera slider that Cambot could lock on and track. The slider worked well but it was time to upgrade to a larger and smoother slider.
In this update we will take a look at the old and new slider. I'll do an actual Cambot update soon.
The old slider was made from electrical conduit and some pipe clamps. It used a NEMA 17 stepper motor and had some cool features.... but it also has some bad features. This slider was set up with an infrared beacon and cambot was tasked with trying to follow it. As far as a moving target the slider worked perfect. For actual camera use, it was a bit sloppy.
The old slider used a cable to move the camera... this works but causes a lot of vibrations to reach the camera.
A motorized linear rail system was purchased off the net for about $140.00. This will be the base for the new slider.
Some assembly required
Having no idea how to put this thing together, I cheated and checked the vendors web site. After some digging I found what I was looking for.
Fast forward a little bit and the slider is coming together nicely.
A vibration dampening camera mount was ginned up using some fiberglass and drone camera isolator thingys. These are a little soft and I'll probably add two more.
The next step was to connect the stepper motor to my home made controller.
The controller uses an Arduino NANO and a medium power stepper motor controler. The whole things runs off a 3 amp, 12v power supply.
The knob at the bottom controls the travel and direction. The knob on the top left controls the speed. The button on the left sets audible cue points within the travel and the button on the right is the easy button. Once everything is set up, press the easy button and the slider will reset to home, wait a few moments and start moving. If any cues were set the controller will give a audible beep to let the operator know the camera is framed up for the shot.
Canon HF11 set up to shoot. This is a heavy camera when compared to a GoPro but the new slider handles the weight perfectly.
New slider and old slider....
No update would be complete without a crappy video. This was actually shot with the old slider and you can see how wobbly the action is on start and stop. Although you cannot hear the cues, I used several automated cues to help sequence the action. Its hard to fly a helicopter and keep an eye on where the camera is. The cues sort of let me know when to do certain things. enjoy!
All that fancy electronics and a crt tv? You sir are quite the interesting man, in a good way of course. I think you should be the new spokesman for dos equis
In reply to chiodos:
Haha!
Im curious what the code for soemthing like this looks like, could you give me a snippet?
Here 'ya go, I simplified the code to just show how the stepper motor and speed stuff works. In reality there is a E36 M3load of math and formulas to make the stepper accelerate and decelerate smoothly.
This is the raw code, incorrect syntax and non declared variables. In this example the variables are written in all caps. This code wouldn't work as written but is a guide on how the program flows. "//" are comments and not code. Analog voltages are not converted to engineering units, they are manipulated in their native format (counts) for example 0 volts = 0 counts. 5 volts = 1023 counts
The code sort of functions like a servo feedback loop. Any unbalance created by moving the travel knob will cause the stepper motor "IF" statements to try a return balance. The motor will move in a direction that the knob indicates and the feedback is provided by increasing or decreasing the CURRENTPOSITION value.
EDIT...
on the second "IF" statement there should be a "-" in front of DEADZONE. The deadzone is a nominal value such as 50. This keeps the stepper from twitching. Without a deadzone value the two "IF" statements would constantly try to correct due to electrical noise in an imperfect world.
Nice work bro! That's where the gift card went to! Doh!
Atomictaco wrote: Nice work bro! That's where the gift card went to! Doh!
Hey bro! Thanks for camera and gift card! Cambot version 2.0 is going to be epic!
Very interesting that code is...random question is all arduino code similar to that? Im sorta fluent in g code (first code ive learned) so im curious of other stuff, expecially arduino cause i think that could be useful to me at some point.
Keep up the great work, cant wait to see this puppy doing work
In reply to chiodos:
The previous example is a nearly functional main loop. I didn't include the setup code that configures the Arduino's I/O and identifies the variable types.
The good news is, an Arduino Nano or UNO can be had for less than $20.00. The software environment is free. The Arduino IDE includes a bunch of examples. The simplest example is called 'blink' If you can master blink then chances are you will be able to teach yourself more complex code. The Cambot projects are my 6th or 7th projects from when I learned 'blink'. Although I have evolved quite a bit, I do have 20+ years in writing in BASIC.
All this stuff is setup code. This somewhat sloppy example configures the Arduino I/O and declares a bunch of variables.
Wow it doesnt seem as bad as i thought it would be (i was expecting something like c++ or some E36 M3). maybe i should just get one and play around with it. Thanks for further sparking my interest in electronics, i usually like fixing things with hammers instead of wrangling pixies but who knows? Maybe i can adapt to technology haha
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