3 Axis Motorized Camera Slider/Dolly

Projects General Guidance
1

Hey All!
I am a Design and Technology student and for my final project I am going to build a camera slider, AKA camera dolly. The product is going to be used for both time lapses and for video production. This is where the issue is. I need to be able to control 3 separate motors and allow them to either rotate smoothly and constantly (for videos) OR to rotate in intervals, pausing occasionally for time lapses.

The three motors are going to control three different axis of movement:

  • Moving the camera sideways along the X axis
  • Rotating the camera horizontally on top of the slider creating a panning movement
  • Rotating the camera vertically on top of the slider creating a tilting movement

Another complication is that the camera slider needs to be programmable by the user so that they can change the movement, timing etc. The parameters that will be defined by the user include:

  • The time length of the final video
  • The degree of movement in the final video (measured in radians and millimeters)
  • Frames per second in the final video
  • Shutter speed of the camera (only needed for time lapses)

Unfortunately I have a severe lack of experience with electronics of this caliber and I have never coded using the arduino language.

If you kind people could please recommend what modules to use and how to allow the user to program the dolly that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all in advance for your help!

Johnson405

2

Ok, as I am unable to sleep, I might as well help.
The solution your looking for is Stepper motors. Steppers give you great control and with the aid of a stepper library, they can be controlled quite easily.

Hardware:
You want to look on either eBay, adafruit, or even RadioShack, and do a search for a 2 wire stepper controller. Each controls one stepper, so you'll need three. Also an Arduino of your choice, will of course be needed.

The video capture:
Note, an arduino can not do any kind of video capturing or video analysis. Either use a regular camera with a mount, or maybe look into a Raspberry Pi.

3

Thank you very much for your recommendations.

Would you please be able to recommend an arduous? I was perhaps thinking of the "Due" and an LCD screen of sorts.

My plan in regards to taking photos and videos is to use a DSLR and an infrared trigger controlled by the timing system.

4

What's the LCD screen for, adjusting the steppers? The Due is fine and you will want to go on eBay for the LCD, there are many to choose from. Make sure your LCD comes with a shield too.

5

Yes, the screen will be for adjusting the range of movement and the timing etc.

Apologies for my ignorance but what does the "shield" do in this case?

6

try this link here. Arduino mega with LCD + shield

The shield allows you to connect the LCD to the mega/due, it also allows you to have use of your PWM pins.

7

Wow, thank you that looks great.

Thank you for your help, I will keep you updated with progress when I begin building!