Home Built Motion Control Systems.

MDKfilms

MDKfilms

Well-known member
This may be of interest here, maybe not, been awhile since I have posted anything here. My career as a cinematographer is done but I still maintain an interest in moco systems. Have a few examples over at my VIMEO and Youtube channels. Anyone else interested or if you are building your own maybe these videos will spark an idea.

Cheers,
Doug.
 
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Doug, they look very interesting. How about some more pics and a good description of what you did. I think it may inspire more people to make or experiment with this kind of stuff. I take it you have access to a machine shop.
Nice looking equipment for sure.

BillWojo
 
Yep - What Bill said. I'm interested in the camera head. More pictures and a description of the motors, gears, control, software.

How much noise does it make?

Nice.
 
Hey Jim, long time. You still building a rig? I don't check into the Stopmo forum much anymore, mostly over at the http://forum.timescapes.org/phpBB3/index.php forum where there is a healthy moco section. All kinds of people from pros to DIY'ers like me. If any of you want a lot of info and people willing to share tips, tricks and some software/programming ideas check it out. As for myself, I started off with a rig controlled through the DragonFrame animation software. Inside their program is a powerful motion control interface that allows shoot/move/shoot for stop motion. The ARC moco software which is included in the price of DragonFrame, is an amazing deal. There are many different ways to build a rig when it comes to the hardware. Another good place to start is http://www.servocity.com. They carry pre built sliders and all the bearings, belts and pulleys you need to get a custom rig going. My rigs including the crane started off being built out of a high quality plywood usually known as Marine Ply. It is quite dense and given the name resists warping in damp weather. I paint my rigs so that isn't a problem anyway. If you go the DF route they give you the code needed to install on the Arduino and instructions on how to setup the board to drive stepper motors. Today the electronics needed to build motion control rigs is almost plug and play. No need to get an engineering degree or a programming degree! Just follow the diagrams and away ya go. I'll see if I can post the diagram of my controller here which will give you 8 channels of SMS control. This is not however realtime motion control. In order to achieve real time you need to invest in a better controller like the MANTIS. The cost of which is quite reasonable considering it is a full on controller capable of realtime professional motion control, with all the bells and whistles! Gerald Thompson over at www.bfg-motion.com can give your more info and pricing details. For more info check out a few of my vids and leave some questions and I will do my best to answer them. If my new day job allows:)
Here is the controller diagram.

Paul: They do make quite a bit of noise, so you couldn't use them on a set where you are doing sound/voice work.
Bill: Nope, no machine shop. Just a drill press and some hand tools.

The red squares are BigEasy Stepper drivers. As I said this is a controller that you can use with the DragonFrame software. The software sends step & direction signals to the motors via the Arduino. The software also allows you to set keyframes so the rig has a start and an end point. Really cool of the people at DragonFrame to include this software.
 
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Here is a video of the 3 axis head.

This is the rig that I am playing around with at the moment.
 
MDKfilms said:
Hey Jim, long time. You still building a rig? I don't check into the Stopmo forum much anymore,
Click to expand...

Yes, when I have time... in fact, you will enjoy (and recognize) the selection of steppers I've got just waiting for me to get moving again... I'm going to crib your design as much as possible, certainly in the pan/tilt/roll aspects... I'm only really needing stop action motion control, as I've got a pretty good method of adding rotational motion blur in post that's very accurate. Plus, I've got a good home brew live action motion tracking to DragonFrame pipeline just waiting for me to have hardware underneath it...

RIG_steppers.jpg
 
Oh my god!!! Jim, that is really a thing of beauty! And Wood! You have out done me with this one. I see even chain drive! Are those bike or real timing chain? Look like timing chain from where I am sitting. So so cool Jim. I really am impressed with the look and the build quality. Funny, I am moving towards working in aluminum and you show me this. Well please keep me updated and if you can post the video over at Vimeo and I will add it to my moco channel, which showcases rigs like this. Keep up the good work.
cheers,
Doug.
 
Thanks Doug... heaps of fun, but that design would not exist if I hadn't poured over your previous builds. Ironically, I STARTED with aluminum and moved to wood when I saw your success. Yes, all Servo City sprockets, hubs and locks... .25 timing chain from some place I can't remember, the only deviation from your wood head was I used 1" thrust bearings instead of another Lazy Susan set to transfer pressure. Some more fun in the works... I've written a simple plugin to transfer Lightwave 3D camera motions into Dragonframe... hence the need to be on nodal with all axis. That opens up a world of targeting options.

Regards,

Jim Arthurs
 
Hey Jim question,
do you find that the gear on the tilt axis comes loose due to all the weight that is put on it? I ask because when I had a chain drive there and I was loading heavier and heavier camera rigs on there, the gear would slowly work it way loose. The tiny little allen screw would work its way loose. I gotta say again, a thing of beauty! A piece of art! I think I am gonna go back and see about building another head out of wood again.

I am playing around with a simple dolly/pan/tilt/focus head right now and it works like a charm. I have finally made it portable! So I can finally get it out of my basement for some fun! Cheers Jim.

Hey DPStewart,
it doesn't take that much nowadays to build this stuff. It really is almost plug n play with the electronics. The construction part is tricky sometimes, but if you are good with even hand tools it is not too hard. Just jump in and learn to swim.

Hey Matt,
my question is did your buddy build that arm, or just the dolly base? If he built that arm, I know a certain gang of people who are going to be very very jealous!
 
Hi Doug... I was concerned about that as well, but no issues so far. There's room to drill/tap a second set screw 90 degrees to the first, which would probably be the prudent thing to do next when I have some time. The tilt axis will "lock" and hold in place the moment the motor is energized. I used some Chinese stepper drivers, not the good old BED's, and at 20% hold power they keep everything locked up nicely for (at last count, 24 hours) without warming up, or anything. Turn off the power and the tilt axis will drag down from 90 degrees until the motor's gearing finally stops it.

A bigger problem is backlash... not on the tilt (the constant down weight takes care of that) but on the pan axis. I haven't yet dialed in some backlash compensation, which is the next task on the list. I do find that the amount of backlash is pretty variable between all the geared steppers I have.

I envy your new build... be nice to take things outside! I can mount over or under-slung on my big old K-Pod Hercules system, but it's decidedly NOT portable. Please update when you can. I probably would not have kept pushing without your progress videos! I will get this over to Stop Motion Animation . Com next... they'll like it.

Regards,

Jim Arthurs
 
Hey Jim,
i started a FaceBook community page about motion control. I have uploaded hundreds of photos of my various rigs and other stuff. I also grabbed some stills from your above video and posted them. Hope you are cool with that. If not I will remove them. If I could I would love to post the above video. Can I copy the link and post that?
almost forgot the link to the page,

www.facebook.com/motioncontrolcamerasystems
cheers,
Doug.
 
Hi Doug, that's a fantastic resource you're putting together over there, and I love the photos. Absolutely, count me in and grab whatever you like! I'm not actually on Facebook for a variety of reasons, but I will certainly keep track of what you're doing there. I'm already doing some "upgrades" on the head like replacing the camera support with standard 15mm rod/rails for better alignment/adjustment to nodal.

Regards,
 
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