has anyone made a cablecam

futureman

futureman

Active member
I have been wanting to do some shots with a camera flying through the forest, and over building and such, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas. I was thinking that an old rc car could be used as the drive system, eliminating a lot of trouble working propulsion out, and the rest could be mad out of plywood and other stuff available at a home store.

Any ideas or success stories with this type of DIY project would be much appreciated.
 
I'm working on one right now... nothing to report yet though.

I'm looking at airplane speed controls... and radios. So far the hardest part is finding a good PRECISION pully to use fore and aft... for the drive system I'm testing drive wheels like "Lite Flite" foam wheels. At this point I'm leaning towards a two-cable (or rope) system... since wobble has been a factor in the one cable systems. I built a rig to run a single cable... and it would steady itself within about 10' of run... but over longer runs wind could start a wave which would ruin the footage... of course that's part of the R&D part.

The best pullys are made by Petzl... I have a "Rescue" pully... which was high $... and other CRI pullys (pullies?)... but the Petzl one is by far the best... a sheave is no good... you need BEARINGS on the pully.

Today I may see if I can put a rollerblade wheel on the lathe and carve it into a pully shape... I already tried putting two rollerblade wheels together to create the pully "tracking groove" but the cam could jump the wire... that's no good... you need the cable or rope to be TRULY captured.

What I really want to make is a dolly not unlike the skater... but have it modular so you can do a quick change to run it on two cables.

If you choose a 2-cable setup then use a bar to set the width of the two cables (or ropes) at each end... then use a hand winch to tension your runs... finally... I'd TEST it with something OTHER then your DVX!
 
needless to say i would not be putting any multi-thousand dollar cams on a first run...lol. is the power from an rc motor sufficient to run it along a level line, this is my biggest concern. keeping the weight down would put less strain on the motor, i think the extra drag from a two cable system may also add to the need for a bigger motor. have you tried possibly attaching a stedicam type system to the bottom of the sled for stability? for the wheels, i was thinking of simply removing the rubber from an rc cars wheels and replacing it with cork, cut with a groove in the middle for the rope, and use wing nuts to sandwhich the rope between two sets of wheels, for extra traction and tension.

just some thoughts, i think i may just have to get out the dremel and start tinkering, i am not profficient with metal working!
 
a big brushless motor on a gearbox would be plenty of power. especially if you had a smooth pully system going. not much effort required i would think.
 
I'm pretty sure there was a topic on this a while back. I put up pictures of mine on there, just search and u'll probably find it.
 
yeah, i saw that other thread... but no one had written to it in months, so i thought i would bring it up again!
 
It's a lot harder to make a cable-cam that works worth a sh*t then you think... I've been trying... I think you'll see my point when both THAT thread AND this one fade away again.

Hopefully I can get this crap figured out in such a way that the footage is actually usable... and if I do I'll post the pics and video. The biggest hurdle for me is getting it motorized in a super-controllable way... To try and control it with a rope is futile... and to let it run on gravity is even worse. You would be so limited by your shots that it's a one-trick-pony at that point.

Another thing I think everybody should take note of... in the general dolly department... is that MOST dolly shots are slow and only move about 5 FEET at the most! If you can work in a dolly of even 3 lousy feet you will wow most audiences with the polished feel of that scene. The clincher is this... a good dolly shot does NOT draw attention to itself! That means it's gotta' be smooov boy... otherwise forget it.
 
Smoooov, that ir for sure. i saw a video on some other forum that showed a cable cam shot flying through the forest with people... needless to say it looked like a million dollar production. they had a quick shot during the credits that showed the rig, and it looked pretty simple, maybe there is a gyroscope in there.

anyway, there is no better way to impress a client than a 500 foot super smooth, super fast cam run.
 
I have built a few cable cams with RC cars and they work pretty dam good. I have 3 different versions described on cablecam.org - click here to check them out in more detail. http://www.cablecam.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

The RC car works for lighter cameras like my sanyo HD2, but I dont think it will work very will with a professional grade camera..

Here is the latest Model I have been working on, fully variable forward, reverse, continuous variable speed camera rotation (until the cable gets wound up), and tilt (which makes the image way too bouncy, but good for setup)

cablecam4DSCF5730.JPG
 
hadnsup thats an interesting idea... I've been toying with a two line system myself, but I'm not settled just yet.

I've been throwing designs and drawings around and have come up with two or three possibilities. I'll post pics later.
 
I nearly built one oft hese. I still might do, but having done my research and little experiments, I think the biggest breakthrough I made is using two cables rather than one. Using one cable is just asking for swinging and, that leads to wobbly footage and the pulley jumping off the cable. Two cables means you dont need to ballence it, its stronger and more secure (if one breaks it can hang on the other one etc etc).

As far as power is concerned, a big 7.2v motor will do it fine. Maybe a 100tooth gear on the driving wheels and a 10t gear on the motor will give you enough oomph to move it along.

My cablecam was quite beefy though, designed it to carry my full 35mm adapter rig with the remote head, whole lot with the battery and control for the remote head was about 20kg.
 
Ok, so here are the sketch my dad and I threw together, he is on his way to pickup the parts right now.

The top thing isnt going to be square and non of that is true scale, but you get the idea. All of the material is PVC 1inch pipe.
 

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well had another think today about the controlles for moving the cam pan.
well u could use a Martin Mac or simaler brands moving light fixture.

all you would have to do is remove the light unit between the tilt legs and build a unit to hold your cam in place. get a dmx light controller to controll the movment of the cam. plus the motors in these lights are quit quiet

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The main issue with the two cable cable cam is the spread od the cables. both will have to have the same tightness, both will have to be the exact length apart at begining and end, It will reduce of sway, but it will add to the wobble if it isn't perfect.

as far as the added feature of having an extra safety line, you should haqve that anyway, most systems use two cables, one supports the camera and one travels above it with a floating strap attached to the camera, if cable one breaks, cable to is still hanging onto the camera.
 
had the thought of a light like that for a head a while back. put a post up and had no real interest. Used them in a theatre, amazing
 
Jason Miller said:
The main issue with the two cable cable cam is the spread od the cables. both will have to have the same tightness, both will have to be the exact length apart at begining and end, It will reduce of sway, but it will add to the wobble if it isn't perfect.

as far as the added feature of having an extra safety line, you should haqve that anyway, most systems use two cables, one supports the camera and one travels above it with a floating strap attached to the camera, if cable one breaks, cable to is still hanging onto the camera.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Good thing I'm not an idot and know how to use common sense tho, right?:2vrolijk_08:

Plus, the added surface area allows for the addition of a pan/tilt motor later on.
 
its not a matter of being an idiot, I thank you'll find that unless you have premade structures on both ends, this will be much harder than you think. you could make something that hooks up like a hammak, but then you may end up with both sway and wobble.


I would recommend a single cable system with a triangle support, this will add weight for steadiness, and allow the surface area for you pan tilt.
 
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