Affordable Motion Control System - Motorized Pan Tilt Haed

mikenphx

mikenphx

Member
Hello all,

I have been around this forum for a while and love all that is done here. I have learned so much and see so many cool things done by this community. One thing I want to do is build a motion control system motorized pan tilt head that is joystick controlled and programmable. I have a buddy to help me with the electrical and programming aspects. The primary goal is to create a good solid system that is affordable. What is affordable? I would say sub $1000. Most out there are $3K on up. Is this possible? Well I am going to find out. I was wondering what people would like to see in such a thing.

My preliminary list:
Off the shelf parts (as much as possible)
Camera Crane and tripod mountable
USB joystick controlled
basic scripting programmable
handle up to 10 pounds
variable speed
horizontal offset mountable
handle a range of cameras (DVX100A/B HVX and others)

What else would you like to see?

I want to be able to sell to people in a community like this a good solid product that gives low budget producers a high budget tool. I hope I can. I like to figure things out like this.
 
I'm a little confused. Are you looking for just a pan/tilt head that is programable or a fully jib setup that is motion control programable. Unfortunatly, for either of these you are going to find yourself way above the $1000 mark. Even just a good pan tilt head ( like craig mentioned) is way above what you are looking to spend for everything. Do you have a crane/ jib already? Now if you didn't go off the shelf, you may just have a chance, but you had better know some great engineers. Good luck with what you are doing, I'd be very interested in seeing what you could come up with, but at the same time very surprised if you could keep the cost under a grand.
 
I built a jib already see here: http://films.mikenphx.com/superjib.htm. It goes about 22 foot high and I even found a motorized PTH on ebay but it is vary slow and only one speed. My buddy is the electircal engineer and programmer and I am the builder tinkerer. We built that jib which was my second version. Call it a challenge to ourselves and if we can do it, I would want to sell many more to those look for something solid and cheap(er) than others. I hope to get this project going pretty fast and will share what I can along the way. I am just looking for things or feature would like to see in one.
 
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