Skater Dolly Measurments and Calculations

[TroutPro]

i just finished watching all the P+S Technik videos on their skater dolly.

They talk about using a reference mark to line up the wheels. What relationship does this mark have to the center of the dolly and the center of the wheels. I'm making my own skater, but would like to be able to utilize their tables and programs. I don't own a palm but hopefully I can find something similar that will run on my iPhone.

Also, does the center of each wheel form an equal lateral triangle around the center of the dolly? That's what I assumed in designing mine, but I wasn't 100% sure.

Thanks!

[TroutPro]

Nobody has an educated guess? wow...

[Justin Kuhn]

I made one off of somebody else's design for like $40. I usually just eyeball the wheel positions. Adjust, test, adjust, test, shoot. ...Re-adjust. Works fine except that due to the design the wheel positions slip a little after repeated takes.

[mitmat4d]

I made my skater dolly based on the fact the the wheels form a equalateral triangle. and the centre of that triangle is where the camera is to be positioned. So far I just adjusted the wheels to change position of themotion of the dolly.
Havent yet figured out a calculation to precise adjustments for the dolly movement

theres a calculator for the adjusting wheel rotations on the p&s technik website, its a free download, in formats for excel and for palm

[dmc]

Yeah I was wondering the same thing. I posted a question quite a while back regarding the equilateral spacing of the wheel hubs with the assumption that the camera would be mounted dead center. I have to double check but I don't think that the original PS Technik design is.

It seems like the most simple way for finding the center point to focus upon is using some kind of laser pen that crosses the wheel axis a right angles - couldn't you just forget about all of the other calculations then??


dmc

[kestrel21277]

Hi, if You are interesting by the point coordinates of the P+S Skater dolly, then download this archive, please.

Please read my next message

[TroutPro]

I'm trying to figure the logic of those coordinates? Each one has a unique distance from the center. Do you know the coordinate of the mark you take distance measurements from?

[kestrel21277]

The Center point, and the Mark point are the same. From this point You must calculate the distances for Palm and Excel program.
I gived in this scheme the coordinates of the main pionts, which are necessary for your skater dolly work with program.

P.S. Sorry for my poor English.

[kestrel21277]

SORRY FOR ALL, but i corrected more precisious the coordinates of the C-point. It defers from the previous measurements only in 2 mm.
Now the coordinates are correct.

The P+S software and the image in JPEG and Corel Draw files are here: http://rapidshare.com/files/54545703/P_S_Skater_Dolly.rar.html (http://rapidshare.com/files/54545703/P_S_Skater_Dolly.rar.html)

http://rf.foto.radikal.ru/0709/dc/2f1f2c27665f.jpg

[dregenthal]

I would think that unless we are making ours to some exact standard, which would be difficult as mine is made of wood, the best formula would be trial & error, and practice. (but maybe that's just me).