As I wasn’t one of the early adopters of arduino or 3d-printing and always wonder what people would like to do with all those cups, yoda sculptures or blinkin lights stuff. This was just some years ago.
Now I’m pretty convinced in both and it’s useability for prototyping things. Happy to give a short view on one of our open-source projects at our all new #FabFarm Maker-Space in Düsseldorf germany.
We call it the #cable-cat and it is a camera mover, here’s a #GoPro -mount attached. It is remote controlled with a small control unit based on arduino. So you can move it on 3-axis, while one is attached to a cable.
Next-steps: programming a record mode for the movement.
Files will get available when we are happy with it to release them. Any critics or suggestions would be welcome!!
I’m working on a miniature version of this type of thing with a raspberry Pi and Pi cam for a chapter in a book project with Make. Using micro servos but when it publishes, it may be of interest. I run mine with Google coder, pi-blaster and a custom UI (thanks, Mick!)
Always wanted to do a cable camera system! Have fun with yours!!
@Brook_Drumm Your project sounds interesting, we first thought to make it usable for an DSLR, action cams and mobile phones.
We also realize that this is way to big So we decided now to make a big and also a smaller version.
We are buildng a controller right now with a cellphone clip so you would be able to stream the GoPro via WLAN and watch it.
@Mark_Rehorst Thanks, the design and the 3d-print actually was done by @Michael_Schwerin on an Ultimaker original. Forgot to mention him as we work together on it while i do the electronics and programming.
I’d be looking to replace the motors with brushless DC ones and include camera Stabilization with the IMU based electronics. It’ll also handle your pan/tilt and integrate well into a remote control. Should help when it’s swaying and moving in air on a cable.
Thank you for all the encouraging feedback! It gives me the “boost” I needed to take my Notebook with me and work on this and the smaller design while enjoying my Chai… (got three month off atm) ;o)
@Brook_Drumm I am really looking forward to your book! Sounds interesting!
@Mark_Rehorst & @Markus_Osmers_mo22 all those sculptures, cups and others actually helped me a lot to understand the art of 3D-Printing:
What are the DOs and DON’Ts
How does the material behave while getting printed and while cooling down
How do different materials or even different colors of the same material behave
How to design an object to make it printable and so on
(Still learning something with every new build, but now with actually usable objects)
@Bruce_Lunde thanks, but there is still some way to go to reach production quality - it is kind of “proof of concept” and something for @Markus_Osmers_mo22 to tinker with while programming.
It was important for us to build this prototype to see the potential for improvement of details and to come to the conclusion to build two different sizes as well. But yes, we can and will use it as is until we finish the second version.
@Sameer_Ansari_Sam thanks - I coundn’t think of another way to do it! :o)
@Electra_Flarefire that’s a great idea! We actually talked about including camera stabilization but I wanted to drop it (together with some other things) for this prototype because I didn’t want another “never finished” build waiting to be completed.
Thanks for the input, after this build it is time for us to talk about including it (again) in the smaller version (for this one we need some smaller motors anyway)! Would definetely be a nice feature!
Again: I am really thankfull for all the encouraging feedback - all of you!
Please feel free to give some more critical feedback and suggestions - be assured that we can handle it because we see it as the best way to “grow”!
I’m having a blast with my light weight gondola bot. I will have to scale it up to do a big version. I’ll be watching to see what you learn.
One trick thing I did was put the wheels on pivot bearings so it can turn corners. Brian did a sweet 90 degree turn printed piece and a 45 degree turn. I’m so jealous of his design skills!
The code we use is based on google coder for easy install and programming - it runs a web server and easy interface to edit html, css, JavaScript and node. After plugging in pi-blaster and a UI library, Mick did a killer interface based on drag dealer library for beautiful sliders and direction control.
The end effect is a wire-riding robot with pan and tilt Pi camera that you can control from your phone or any browser. I have endstops working too to reverse direction or control an action on any number of Servos. You can mid the UI, change the actions or behavior… All friendly to newbies like me. That code stuff is hard!
I’ll post more about it when the book drops, but it’s cool to see two different takes on a new printable robot.
So we decided now to make a big and also a smaller version.