Submitted by Daniel2010 on Fri, 08/06/2010 - 14:02
Posted in
Hi there,
Im writing here because Im a complete newbie when it comes to programming. I wanted to ask if someone has already done such a project sketch for the Arduino or if someone could help me with that. I've built myself a camera dolly skater and want it to be motion controlled by 1 little stepper motor. I will only drive one wheel of the skater thats is sufficient. I will be using a Microstep EasyDriver v4 and the Arduino Duemilanove.
Hahaha... I've done already the basic LED blinking tutorial with the Arduino but it will take ages until I have the experience to write such a program.
I want to make some sort of remote control with pushbuttons for "rotating LEFT / RIGHT", a potentiometer for "max Speed" and one for "Speed Ramp". Also a great feature would be one button for saving current position and another one for driving back to this position. Or saving two positions and driving back and forth between these positions.
Such a program could be used for many projects like Dolly TimeLapse photography, Pan & Tilt Heads...
Here is my concept that I would like to implement:
And here are some pics of my DIY camera dolly skater:
If someone is willing to help me out, please contact me.
Big thanks
Daniel
Daniel, Very nice work! Did
Daniel,
Very nice work! Did you route out individual panels of wood, and then glue them together, or did you route a pre-composed laminate once? (Nice bits too, those from Onsrud? =)
For a sketch, have you checked out the TimeLapse Engine? http://openmoco.org/node/9
It has pretty much everything you need, except the UI elements. You could take three paths with the engine -- one is to run the engine as-is, and use a 2nd arduino or computer to send serial controls based off of your input elements. The second would be to take the existing engine, and since you only need one motor (instead of four), you can simply use those I/O lines to hook up your controls, and then modify the existing sketch to support them.
Of course the third is simply to extract the useful portions from the engine (motor control, ramping, timing loops, etc.) and then just place them into a new sketch so you only have to come up with your new parts.
!c
Thanks! It's one panel of
Thanks!
It's one panel of plywood (thickness = 20mm). (The bits are from Garant)
I have a small cnc-machine in the garage :-)
Extracting only the useful portions from the engine and adding the buttons is a great idea but my only programming experience with the Arduino is the blinking tutorial. I opened the openmoco sketches and I understand only a fraction of the lines. I can do everything else but programming is a mysterium for me.
Daniel
That is one slick looking
That is one slick looking skater you built there! :) I'm in the same boat as you with this stuff. I can build mechanical things in my sleep, but getting up to speed on programing is slow going.
What CNC do you have? I would love to get one someday. :)
Do you have any more photos?
Daniel, I would suggest then
Daniel, I would suggest then to try just using it first, and then I can help you start targeting where you need to make changes. Also, if you haven't read the tutorial on building intervalometers, I suggest doing so - the URL is here: http://openmoco.org/node/88 It will introduce you to the core timing concepts in use.
You can control it from a laptop or netbook using the Slim scripting environment, and it'll let you get up and running pretty quick. It'll also help introduce you to how the system works, so you'll be a little better armed when it comes time to make the changes.
We'll be happy to help you get up to speed on the coding part, but it will take a little time =)
Also, if you haven't dealt with potentiometers as inputs before, I have some example code here, although it's related to an input for a servo feedback mechanism, the act of reading a potentiometer and doing something with the info is the same: http://roamingdrone.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/diy-servo-with-arduino-dc-motor-and-potentiometer/
!c
Thanks bdodds, it's a small
Thanks bdodds,
it's a small tabletop cnc bought from ebay long time ago but I modified it to suit my needs.
I have some more photos on my blog here: http://www.danielschweinert.com/blog/blog.html
Chris thanks very much for the links, I will definitely take a look maybe I will understand more about the system.