Halloween 2018

My eyes based on the adafruit LED Eye Prosthetic Cyborg Eyewear. Soldering the leds onto the wire was a bit fidgety. I have to say the LED's and doll was a big hit.

Doll from my post on Halloween 216 - Baby Dolls.

Here is our three clown setup - two in flower pots by front door and one in trash can next to sidewalk. Not a lot different from last years Halloween 2016 - Jumping Clowns  but did add lights inside the trash can and pots so the clowns are lighted up at night.

Canon VIXIA HF R50 and R600 Zoom Hacking - Part 1

I was unhappy with my attempt to control zoom with a servo - so lets directly control it.

You can see the small servo attached to a screw - the lens has a bracket that attaches to the screw.

The bracket is able to slip when it hits the end points of the travel - so this limits the worry of damaging something with missed steps.

I found more then a few of these servo-screw combinations on ebay all rated at 5-volts; the camera looks to be using 3-volt signals



At the far end of the camera is an  IR Emitter Detector that the Lens assemble trips when it reaches the end of it's travel. As an added bonus the camera lens (as it powers up) always returns to this end point - so the lens position on startup will be at zero.



Here are the pads to the IR Emitter Detector but fried it while testing with the voltage meter - oops!



Attached wires to the servo.



Hot glue for wire support



There are two other servo's on this assemble: focus and aperture. But not planning on using those at this time.

Using an Ardunio Nano with servo code it moves the lens - \0/

Update 20180301

I replicated this to a working camera  - so the zoom does work but focus is now an issue - I was hopeful that it would auto-focus - so that was a big fail :-( 

I haven't really tested with an infinity focus point - so there might still be hope!

The backup plan is to hack the focus stepper ;-)

Tear down of a Canon HF R50

More for the assemble (updated 20180301)

Pan Tilt Feedback Control for a Bescor MP101 Video Motorized Pan Head

Tilt Feedback Control




So this first test works! Get a range of about 100 analog readings for the 30 degrees of tilt.

Hot glued the potentiometer directly to the head

On to Pan Control - what kind of analog potentiometers have multiple rotations - I want to stick with analog as I don't want to count pulses or worry about location on startup - hey these cheap 10-turn rotating ones might do it! Hope the gear size for 1:10 can be worked out.





I did a few quick test prints to workout the smallest gear teeth that would printout correctly.

Love first print designs that are 95% working!

This 1:10 ratio is going to work great for pan control!

More Analog Please
Lets try to get more range out of our analog potentiometer



This gear was a pain to design. I tried to work out how much gear was needed.

The top bracket ended up being too flexible and the gears don't stay connected - fail!





Inside gear and smaller B103 wheel potentiometer





Seeing full range of analog values with this 1:10 setup - but this small 10,000 Ω B103 is a fail!

Hot melt glue got inside the wheel while gluing on the gear - there's a small hole in the wheel and hot glue flows nicely into it as you press the gear on.

  potentiometer + hot glue = wheel doesn't turn

Tried a second time using tape to cover the small hole - it's still a fail!

Also See the not so nice tilt on the gear - these small pot's are easily damaged... This one turned into a 5,000 Ω.

Inside Gear it Is




A few issues with tilting:
 - arms a bit too long
 - arms a little bendy
 - alignment of top and bottom bracket












Control Center - found these cute joysticks for control - nice wiring...



And it's Done!

- The servo on top is for zoom control. - The potentiometer holder still gets directly glued to head unit arm. - If the glue doesn't hold - I've included holes to screw the holder directly into the arm. - Advantage of using the holder with the flipped potentiometer is that the gears are closer to the unit (keeping the gears aligned) and helps keep all the mess centered. - Fixed: length and bendiest of tilt arms; added guide for alignment of top and bottom tilt bracket.
PAN - Needed to add a cutout for the power feed into the camera. - A wider camera would likely need a bit of a redesign with the top tilt bracket, add a spacer between to raise up the cam and change out the mounting screw or another option would be to print a drop-in replacement for the top plate. The existing plate is held in place with four screws. TILT - Once I thickened up the 10-Turn potentiometer base, had issues with screwing it into the base. - The potentiometer uses a M8-0.75 thread. - Not having that tap, completely destroyed one potentiometer trying to force it into the PLA holder. - Now I heat up the PLA holder and busted up potentiometer threads and tap. - The base still has enough flex to account for any misalignment's with the gears.
- Used existing screws from the unit. - These screws are long enough to hold the new printed part and existing bottom plate in place. - The pan gear slips/presses onto the fixed pan/mount base.

Up NEXT
- Field testing
- Code Control
- Upgrades

References:

3d Parts and Design for above:
  Tilt Pan Position Feedback for Bescor MP101 Video Motorized Pan Head
  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2241863

my zoom control:
  http://pantonvich.blogspot.com/2016/07/canon-vixia-hf-r50r600-cam-recorder.html

parts:
  Bescor MP101 Video Motorized Pan Head
  http://smile.amazon.com/Bescor-MP101-Video-Motorized-Head/dp/B008T17W9O

  WXD3-13 10K Ohm 2W 4 mm Shaft Diameter 10-Turn Wire Wound Potentiometer
  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CDXMC34

  Adafruit Panel Mount 10K potentiometer (Breadboard Friendly) (10K Linear) [ID:562]
  https://www.adafruit.com/product/562

  Dual-axis XY Joystick Module For Arduino Joystick Module
  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D83B2G6

these parts didn't work out:
  B103 10K Ohm 5-Pin Dual Linear Dial Wheel Potentiometer
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013FPKCMM

additional:
  Cut your own gears with profile shift - OpenSCAD library
  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:636119

  Bescor MP-101 Hack Part 1
  http://protechy.com/bescor-mp-101-hack-part-1/

  Bescor MP-101 and Arduino v3.0
  http://protechy.com/bescor-mp-101-and-arduino-v3-0/

  Hardware @ Lab
  http://hardware.ideaslab.mk/

  PJON - Arduino compatible Communications Bus System
  https://github.com/gioblu/PJON