Going to attempt a DIY gyro stabaliser...

[hoarp001]

So I have my crane head now which is fine, but the crane its attached too wobbles a bit, so I was wondering if it woudl be possible to make a gyro stabaliser...

As far as I am concerned, there are two ways that this could work, and I am hoping its the simpler of the two. Way 1: some kind of electronic gyroscopic sensor linked to motors and actuators that compensate for the heads movment. Way 2: Two or three spinning flywheels which produce a gyroscopic force and the head is then attached with a universal joint so the gyros keep the head level.

If its the second one then it would be fairly easy to turn up some big steel fly wheels and spin them round with some motors. Have one on the Z and one on the X or Y axis and maybe two flat disks that are contra-rotating. The head would then hang on a universal joint so it could in effect swing anywhere it wanted. When the disks spin up, the gyro force keeps head steady....

If anyone knows how a real gyro head works id quite like to know....

I dont think anyone has attempted a DIY gyro stabaliser yet so it would be good to do some experiments.

Thanks.

[CharlieG]

Looking forward ot seeing what you come up with. We used to have a Schwen gyrozoom where I worked... and that and interesting lens to work with but it bit me a couple of times too....

[alekstef]

Hahah so you decided to go for it. Yeah well. Good luck. I think you can do it :)

[hoarp001]

Well I dunno yet it all depends no how gyro units actually work....

[Attic6]

There are gyro units available commercially, but i'm also wanting to build my own one. The guys who are selling them reckon they can get perfect 1/2 second exposures with a stills camera! If i ever get around to a functioning prototype i'll send some pics...

[Tim Joy]

I've tried this myself before, including having $250 in custom machining done to make the 2 gyros. If you use only one big one it will stay level with the universe... not the earth. 360 degrees over 24 hours turns out to be 15 degrees an hour, so once you level your head and spin up the gyro it will want to "correct" itself and in 15 minutes it'll be 3 1/4 degrees off level...if it's working properly.

The REAL ones use evacuated chambers with two mechanically-linked gyros to counter the earths rotation. There's quite a lot of wind resistance when you get something spinning in the order of 22k RPM. The bearings are a whole other issue. The two gyros I made were accurate to the .0002" and STILL were not balanced and caused vibration, and they were only spinning at 10k RPM.

Unless you are a precision machininst and can balance those gyros I would recommend beefing up your crane with some big aluminium or steel. It will be a lot easier. Trust me.