RotoMax Time-lapse Camera Rig
Quick Facts:
20 lbs
$300.00
Slowest
speed: 1 revolution per week
Motivation
We
wanted to make a device to rotate a SLR camera around a fixed point really
slowly, like 1 revolution per week, while snapping hundreds of photos. These
photos are later stitched together to create cool time-lapse videos.
Design
Using
scavenged parts and materials we designed a simple drive unit consisting of a
DC motor coupled to a shaft through a chain drive. The drive unit is used as an
attachment point for a boom arm fabricated from 80/20 aluminum extrusions. A PA
speaker stand was modified to act as a big tripod to support the RotoMax.
RotoMax Drive Unit
Fabrication
We drew
up plans for most of the part of the drive unit in cad and then CNC’ed them on
our Tree Journeyman 325 CNC milling machine.
http://flickr.com/gp/andreasmb/QUDe9T
Electronics
A quick
prototype was made using scrap electronics to control the RotoMax. An atmega168p is used to control the dc drive
motor and camera. An optical encoder is affixed to the dc motor’s output shaft
for position feedback. The position feedback from the optical encoder is used
to create a simple PID controller loop in software to control the rotation of
the drive unit. The PID loop makes it possible to spin the RotoMax at very slow
speeds.
The
electronics also allow us to control the shutter on the attached SLR camera to
create time lapse photos.
A
Bluetooth link allows us to set up time lapses shoots wirelessly.
Testing
We are
still dialing in the system but have created some pretty cool rotating time
lapse videos on the Stanford campus.
SLR Riding RotoMax
RotoMax in Action
And some time lapse
tests