ServoCity pan tilt assemblies-Anyone have experience?

[BrianMurphy]

http://servocity.com/html/pan_tilt_roll___accessories.html

I am looking at building a pan-tilt head for my recently acquired Kessler Crane and wonder if anyone has any experience with these pre-built units? I went there looking for motors and gears and saw the prebuilt unit.
Thanks
Brian

[NoNoob]

checked it out (on-line) and it looks pretty good.
for what you're getting at that price, it seems fair.

i wonder if it can handle the Kessler & camera weight though.
i don't see any links to further photos or videos.

*doesn't the Kessler tilt? I thought it did....

[BrianMurphy]

checked it out (on-line) and it looks pretty good.
for what you're getting at that price, it seems fair.

i wonder if it can handle the Kessler & camera weight though.
i don't see any links to further photos or videos.

*doesn't the Kessler tilt? I thought it did....

I don't understand .There is no weight from the Kessler on the pan-tilt no matter what type you use. As for camera weight I don't know, the specs are given for payload with the tilt at 30 pounds and the pan at 50 pounds.
Yes the Kessler tilts but it there is no pan and I would like a servo driven head eventually.
Thanks
Brian

[NoNoob]

sorry- i thought you wanted the PT unit to mount the crane to the support.
instead, you want the unit to mount on the END of the crane (which you didn't specify).

dunno that that unit would be much benefit. might be too heavy (with everything included.)
*although, please note, no practical experience with it specifically.

you could probably fab a stepper motor to your camera to crane mount, perhaps on a 'lazy susan' kind of arrangement.
way cheaper, and lighter.

you could use a potentiometer to control the circuit to the stepper- which would allow for pretty precise speed selection.

if all you need is the pan feature (which would be a big bonus, of course)- you could also rig up a simple pulley system (as seen on some of the other small cranes that are available).

having a more precise control (like the stepper/potentiometer) would be infinitely more exacting.

good luck with it. sorry to have confused you there.
my wife tells me i'm good at that....

[Jason Miller]

I use this one my moco rig, I works perfectly with the hvx, however with the M2 on it aswel it becomes a bit to heavey, it will still move it, but it struggels, however it can do some beautiful things. with the parallax usb servo controller you can run it from your pc as well.

[BrianMurphy]

Thanks for the input Jason. That is what I needed to know. I am not considering using a heavy rig on it and it would seem that the weight is not related to the structure but more so to the power of the servos moving it. So I would imagine that they could always be upgraded to heavier duty if needed in the future.
Did you go for the GDT785-8.00A or the GDT985-8.00A model? Meaning the six hundered or the eight hundred dollar model?
Cheers and say hi to my favourite city in the USA.
Brian

[Jason Miller]

I went with the $600 modle,oh and I said hi from you, but SF just stuck its collective nose up, and said um yea what ever Brian Murphy who?

[BrianMurphy]

I went with the $600 modle,oh and I said hi from you, but SF just stuck its collective nose up, and said um yea what ever Brian Murphy who?

Thanks again Jason, and as for SF I am hurt, but not discouraged with the response. I need to get back down and make amends as well as see all the folks I worked with for so many years.
Cheers
Brian

[donho]

Bought my Servocity PT2100 - remote head and still have not received any information about my order status. I had to call them to find out I would have to wait for my remote head longer than expected.

At purchase, they were not upfront about the long lead time I would experience when buying their product - but was promised that it would be sent the next day.

Still no news from them and it has been quite hard to reach them.

I have sent an email a few days back - no answer - and have tried to call them - they are unfortunately closed on Fridays.

I am starting regret my decision. Is this company any good?

[donho]

Servocity's latest answer



This is Brian in manufacturing. I am very sorry that your order did not ship on the 18th. The PT-2100 has been more popular than we imagined and manufacturing was behind schedule. We have upgraded the shipping of your unit so that you will receive it in the next 2 days in time for your testing. We have also included a free jib-crane mount....these units are brand new and not on the site yet.
I will send you a tracking number later today.
Once again, shipping delays are very rare for us and we greatly appologize about this delay.
If you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks again

Brian
ServoCity Manufacturing

[DaWolf85]

Servocity's latest answer



This is Brian in manufacturing. I am very sorry that your order did not ship on the 18th. The PT-2100 has been more popular than we imagined and manufacturing was behind schedule. We have upgraded the shipping of your unit so that you will receive it in the next 2 days in time for your testing. We have also included a free jib-crane mount....these units are brand new and not on the site yet.
I will send you a tracking number later today.
Once again, shipping delays are very rare for us and we greatly appologize about this delay.
If you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks again

Brian
ServoCity Manufacturing
(responding to the underlined part)
I call BS on that statement. From what I hear, shipping delays and other failures in customer service are all too common with this company.

[John Araki]

Wow.

Having dealt with them over a dozen times from the servo side of things (r/c), I've experience nothing but the best of service and follow up.

Sounds like they were pretty stand up & doing right by the customer - maybe donho will let us know if he gets it as promised.

[Jason Miller]

Have to agree with John on that, not only have I always had my order shipped fast, they are very understanding when dealling with someone who doesn't really know what they want. they spent a lot of time with me over the phon explaining the ins and outs of servos and steppers, what will do what and how it does it, and i don't mean 10 15 minutes, I mean several hours in total over about a weeks time. They Rock.

[MadHMC150]

This is the 1st one I have seen under $800.... There is a nice $800 one on ebay with belt driven motors...

I am wondering how these RC servos handle.. are they quieter then they use to be? When you let off the joystick will it go back to center (that would suck)?

[Tim Joy]

This is the 1st one I have seen under $800.... There is a nice $800 one on ebay with belt driven motors...

I am wondering how these RC servos handle.. are they quieter then they use to be? When you let off the joystick will it go back to center (that would suck)?

There are some quieter servos, but they still make about as much noise as they used to, and probably too much for use under a quiet dialog scene.

The ones that have potentiometers will go back to center when you let the joystick go, and the one in question is setup to work that way.
You can use a different servo that is modified for continuous rotation that will stay where you stop, the only drawback being that since it has no feedback of its position, the speed will depend on the load, and if the load is unbalanced it will go faster in one direction and can 'slip' down. Really only affects the tilt, since the pan will be naturally balanced.

[stevencampbell]

Did you ever get this rig in?

I am curious as to how sensitive the servos are once you stop the pan or tilt motion!

[nosys70]

DC motors are better, since you can drive them with small computer board and use ramp to start and stop them. You can also design the joystick control to be faster when pushing more and fault tolerant to small pushes. You can even design the program to manage joystick with different speed for pan or tilt,
or create profiles for speeds, depending the use of the head.
DC motor (with reduction) are as cheap as servos (about 20-30$), are silent and can stand/deliver a lot more torque and can be "blocked" with a simple short circuit (relay).
DC motor come with standard steel axis, so it can be easy to fix anything on it.

I found the OOPIC +magnevation H-Bridge to be a good solution, since no others components (except joystick and power) is needed.
The software provided with oopic is really great and allows to use "objects", among them some dedicated for motor control.

I got the motor from Jameco electronics, they got a huge choice of motors with high ration reduction (250:1) very suitable for this purpose.

[stevencampbell]

Thanks for your input.

I think the option to have it computer controlled is a big plus. That will allow for some nice pans while doing time laps shots. Also the adjustable joy stick sounds pleasant as well.

I am very intrigued with the 985 Series System because our last one had a big issues. We used a 1 arm pan tilt head fitted to the back of my friends car and it allowed the camera
to shake too much. I need to get the camera more stable than this last rig could handle. Pic of rig at bottom of the page.

The problem was the camera base would shake due to the camera weight only being supported by one side (Pan arm only on one side). The rig was Very Secure!
I think with a base plate secure on both sides (Two Arm Pan) of the camera it will make the video very stable.

So I think a dual arm rig is a must for what i am filming. What are your thoughts?

Camera in use XH-A1 with Wide Angle Adapter
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/oneaudivw/9428_277376000084_802540084_9420267.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/oneaudivw/8124_142705507860_507827860_2623926.jpg