cable cam DIY? anyone?

i've been trying to get some sort of rig built that has two grooved wheels that ride on top of the cable and then a somewhat softer rubber wheel, but not too soft with a tensioner that pushes against the bottom of the cable and that wheel drives the unit. but still a lot of different ideas bouncing around, and i doodle about a page a day at work waiting on renders.
 
I'm in the middle of making a cablecam myself... Take a look here: http://hbsboard.com/index.php/topic,2854.0.html (would recommend to read the whole thread, I show a new version later in the thread).

What I'm looking for now is remote controlling possibilities of a preferably homebuilt pan/tilt head and a motor for moving the rig. Any ideas?
 
Which make/model cable puller (come-along) is everyone using? and is anyone using "static rope" vs. steel cables for their runs?
 
im not quite sure what it's called but it may be what your talking about.
its a 2 ton web coma long ... it uses sort of a rope idea and its not cable
 
Hey guys, just wanted to pop in and say hi.

Please do everyone a favor and do lots of homework about tension, and the strength of the cables you are using. While flying cameras are amazing, they are quite heavily engineered.

Over-tension a steel cable, and it snaps, and heads are rolling... quite literally.

I know I may sound ridiculous, but there is a reason that there are very few flying camera companies out there.
 
joshbender said:
Hey guys, just wanted to pop in and say hi.

Please do everyone a favor and do lots of homework about tension, and the strength of the cables you are using. While flying cameras are amazing, they are quite heavily engineered.

Over-tension a steel cable, and it snaps, and heads are rolling... quite literally.

I know I may sound ridiculous, but there is a reason that there are very few flying camera companies out there.
Click to expand...

is this The Josh Bender?

and yes i made sure i got a cable strong enough to support the weight of my camera, the box holding the camera
and figured out how tight i need to make it before it gets dangerous
 
I'm guessing you are referring to the BMX version of myself. Unfortunately I am not said BMXer but I am the one who worked for a prominent flying camera company.
 
Josh is right (be it the huckster himself or otherwise). Be REALLY careful when flying a 2000+ camera that fast through trees. I am experimenting with a setup now and I am trying to find some type of rope that is cheap, thin, wont stretch and that i can get in 1000+ foot lengths. Any re
recommendations?
 
I would try to get static rock climbing line, it wont stretch and is extremely strong depending on the size you get... Thats what i have used for Zip lines and the cable cam i played with.

Like the others said when the cable is horizontal the load of the cables is extreme.

I just came by a treadmill motor and controller so i might if i get time play with this some more this time using the treadmill motor to drive the camera back and forth.
 
Hey all, jsut thought I'd throw this out there, I picked up some parachute cord pretty cheep off of ebay and I'm going to experement with it tomorrow. I'll post up some footy when done.
 
cool

I keep telling myself im gona work on one but i keep spending my money in other places (more gear) and just bought a new camera yesterday to.

But i do have the metal to make a non motorized one so i might build the frame for it and get it started at least...
 
Id quite like to have a go at making a cable cam but I keep putting it off as I can never garantee that there will be somewhere to tie the lines to at either end.

With the weight of the camera (about 5k) plus the weight of my remote head (about 4kg) plus battery (about 2kg) plus all the electronics including the video sender and everything else I need it will weigh about 15kg... your going to need a 400 year old oak tree at either end of your run to support that...
 
Here's version 1

cablerig.JPG



Version 1.1 has some larger 6" diameter clothesline pulleys with cartridge bearings. I can adjust the bearing tension to vary the descending speed. Don't have any pics of that one yet but the chasis is still the same.

Gravity fed, bungee brake stopper, on a 200' climbing rope. Going to buy some static line to try to get rid of some of the bounce.


Some quick and dirty, 'let's see if this works' footage


http://kidwoo.com/images/doc/cablewmv.wmv
 
Footage looks nice, would be good to stop that swaying though. could you add some antlers that stick out either side with weights on the end? Or add some weight on top of the cable and adjust it so its only slightly bottom heavy so it wont start swaying like that...
 
I'm thinking of hanging a container of fluid off the bottom which should damp the motion a little better than something solid. I'll probably try one with water and one with some kind of oil.

I got some shots yesterday with the line slacker and having it sag more gets rid of some of the resonance from a tensioned line. I'll be playing with it a bunch more this weekend. Like I said, I'm also going to try a non-elastic line and see how that works out.
 
Try mounting a solid wight so that it sits ABOVE the line oposite the camera - this will counterbalance the camera and reduce sway. (Without counterweight, the camera is simply a pendulum that swings below the track. Adding more weight below will only increase this swinging.)


- Mikko
 
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