DIY Time-Lapse Turntable...

[motleypixel]

DIY Time-Lapse Turntable



System Photos

Bill of Material (BOM):

Core components (must haves):

qty 1:  Worm Drive Gearbox, Vertical Shaft

qty 1:  .5 or 1 RPM 3-12VDC Gear Motor (comes with mounting HW)

qty 1:  Standard Gear Motor End-Cap (not absolutely necessary but highly recommend)

qty 1:  3/8" set-screw hub (part# 3468H)

qty 4:  5-40 Flat Head Machine Screws 3/8" long for the set-screw hub)

Flex components (system parts that can vary in design):

This would be the most ideal battery to use.  You can go even smaller on the mAH if you can find one.  I would stick with 3-cell to achieve close to 12VDC which is what most DC gear-motors of this size are rated at.

You'll want to vary the speed of the motor to suit your needs.  There are a ton of choices out there and the one I chose (to keep cost down) was this one which much be assembled by the buyer (soldering experience is needed):  12V 60 WATT DIGITAL PWM DC MOTOR VARIABLE SPEED CONTROL KIT

Battery to drive the PWM speed controller which drives the motor which drives the gearbox.  I chose a 1000mAH 3-cell 11.1VDC LiPo hobby battery, it's pretty small and light-weight, about 2/3rds the size of the battery shown in the video.  To my surprise this battery is way more then enough to drive this system.  I put a fully charged battery on the system and ran it for 1 hour and only 35mAH were consumed.  So with this knowledge you could eaisly use a smaller pack in or around the 300mAH so long as you choose the 3-cell option which is 11.1VDC (if you want to drive the motor at near 100% rated speed).  These motors are 3-12VDC motors which run at the rated speed @ 12VDC which doesn't mean you have to run it at 12VDC.  These LiPo batteries read about 12VDC no-load.  You could certainly opt. for the 2-cell LiPo and save weight/size/money but realize that a 1rpm motor will run somewhere in the neighborhood of .6 rpm instead of 1rpm.  Again, use your imagination and design the power system to suite your needs.  CAUTION, LIPO BATTERIES HAVE SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS.  READ HERE FOR FULL PRECAUTIONS.  Never let the per-cell voltage drop below 3VDC per cell.  For example, never let a 3-cell LiPo battery drop below 9VDC or the pack may become permanently damaged and/or become unstable and catch fire.

You'll need DC connectors, they don't have to be rated for much current.  Just be sure to use polarity safe connectors on the battery and power-supply side of the PWM controller.  I chose to use simple non-polarity connectors on the load side of the PWM controller and motor (so I could reverse the polarity to change direction of the motor, which is needed depending on which way you need the camera to rotate.

Next, you want to build up a base for the gear-box which will support the GB with motor, battery, and speed controller.  I chose a 4" X 5" X 1/2" thick 6061T AL plate.  You can use whatever you feel works best for you so long as it's sturdy enough to support the system.  

I tapped two holes under the base plate and inserted two 1/4" X 20 Keenserts.  I chose the steel 1/4" X 20 inserts because tapped AL just won't last very long.  

For the upper plate which will be mounted to the output shaft of the gearbox and will support a tripod head, camera, and intervalometer, I chose 1/4" 6061T AL plate and the dimensions are ~ 6" X 6".  Again, use your imagination and do what works best for you.  

The mounting of the tripod head was accomplished by drilling a 1/4" hole in the center of the plate and countersinking the hole on the underside of the plate where the 3/8" set-screw hub attaches.  I did have to turn down the pan-head 1/4" X 20 screw I used to screw into the tripod head because the 1/4" thick AL plate just wasn't thick enough for the screw head to sit flush on the underside of the plate which was required to let the hub rest flush.

Drilling the 4 5-40 3/8" mounting machine screws for the set-screw hub into the underside of the AL plate took precision.  I used a drill press and tapped the holes for the mounting 5-40 machine screws.

In my case I used some AL tubing as a riser on the top side of the upper plate to raise the tripod head up so that the ball-head setting lever could be rotated to loosen and tighten the ball head.  

The All Up Weight of the system w/o the camera, as I've constructed it, is:  TBD

[DigitalScape]

Pretty impressive, Roy.  Looking forward to seeing some images captured with your set-up.

[motleypixel]

Thanks John, there's sample footage at the end of the video.

[motleypixel]

Some testing results.

I know I mentioned that those bulls eye sight levels aren't required in the video and I added a notation in the video stating that they are and boy is that a fact.  Here's the deal.  If you upper plate AND your tripod head isn't level, then the resultant pan/rotation will "wobble".  Trust me on this, just try to get the upper plate and the tripod mount/camera level and you should get a pretty level 360 degree pan.

[motleypixel]

Ran into Gary Fong (the nice one) and Kevin Vandivier at the office again today.  I first met them a few months back, really nice guys and from a professional photography perspective, at the top of the game.  Kevin runs this local Austin photography service:  http://www.kevinv.com/  and Gary is out of the Bay Area and is affiliated with http://www.wearephotographers.com/

Any way, they reminded me to update this thread.  The system is rock-solid...took it out to Pedernales Falls one late night/early morning and had no issues with it what-so-ever.  I ended up buying another battery (7.4V 400mAh) pack which works great (half the size and allows for a little slower speed controller tuning).  I'm also going to re-do the video and cut it back to only about 5 minutes and replace the one above.

ONE MAJOR ISSUE!  Any shutter longer than 2 seconds, even with a rotational speed of only 1 RPH (revolution per hour) of the camera (that's pretty slow) the system moves enough to cause motion blur and renders those frames unusable.  Lessons learned...a great process to work and live.  So now it's up to me to engineer a function circuit to momentarily cut voltage to the speed controller during the time the shutter operates (at start of open and at close).  Using the Little Bramper (which I have):  http://www.thewhippersnapper.com/LittleBramper/Site/Home.html  and leveraging the signal sent to the green LED (which energizes only while the shutter is open) I think I can work something out.

Stay tuned to samples from that Pedernales Falls outing both so-so (during fast shutter speeds at sun-set) and not so good during shutter speeds in excess of 2 seconds (~ 30 minutes after sunset).