Lets Make - A Motorized Camera Slider

hi everybody my name is Max and today I'm building an Arduino controlled camera slider there are many cheap sliders available but none that are motorized so I built my own using a stepper motor a belt drive and an Arduino you can find a link to the parts I used and all the technical details in the video description so let's get on with the build I started by adding the stepper motor stepper Motors are great for computer controlled movements since they move one step at a time you can change the speed of the slider by changing the pore between the steps this tape trick is very handy to transfer hold patterns between Parts the track of the slider was just about as wide as the motor so it was easy to join them the carriage of the slider had a really low profile so I had to drill large holes to lower the pulley into the track this is best done with a step drill bit they are fairly cheap and they can drill a variety of diameters you could also use a hle saw but then you would need one hle saw for each diameter whatever you use you should always use use a lot of oil there is something about chering that's just super satisfying I think because it gives you this instant finished look I drilled out the holes for the motor and they just barely went past the tracks I was only able to insert two of the screws but I think that's enough here you can see how the pulley is sunk into the track otherwise the carriage would collide with it and we're already done with the motor sight that was easy I bent this piece of metal to gain a little bit more distance from the track it already came with a rounded end I start off only with one hole to fit a piece of metal to the track then I drilled the second hole through both pieces to make sure they're perfectly aligned because otherwise the counter Tung screws would likely not fit [Music] correctly small details like rounded over edges give a much nicer finish at the end it was freezing cold in my workshop when I made this and the prime and the paint didn't really work at least it's black [Music] now before I could add the pulley I needed to modify the carriage a little bit my goal was to attach both ends of the timing belt by weding it down with a counter Sun screw I did not know the correct distance so I drilled a few holes for trial and error this worked surprisingly well now it was time to add the pulley it is very important that use lock nuts anything else will just be really frustrating in the long run when it comes loose overall the hardware part of this build was pretty easy and I think it could be done with most sliders available it was pretty cheap too I paid about $25 for the motor the belt and the pulley and the hardware is done time for the electronics and if you haven't worked with arino before don't worry this is really straightforward I put all the details into the instructable in the video description these are the basic components we've got a 12vt battery pack a giant switch a stepper driver an Arduino Nano and four small switches to change the speed of the sliding motion the uino and the stepper driver get solar to the breadboard I ended up having to do this three times because I messed up on the first time I broke the driver and on the second time I had a short circuit in the Arduino sometimes you just have to be persistent I find that assembling elonics can be quite relaxing if you have the right tools let's do a test run now that I knew the electronics are working I could design and print a custom case for it this print took 9 hours using a 3D printer is just much more convenient than making something like this by hand you can add as many details as you like and it comes out pretty much ready to use I also added labels for the four switches and I used nail polish to color them in the four switches act like a combination lock There are 16 combin ation and each one corresponds to an interval ranging from 10 seconds to 8 hours of course you can customize these intervals to your needs if you have no idea about programming I totally recommend you to get an aduino starter kit and just make an LED blink it will take you an afternoon and it can be frustrating at times but at the end it will open up a whole new world of possibilities to you these kind of Mounds are used for drones to isolate vibrations and they do exactly the same on the slider that's it the slider's done and it works perfectly so far it's been really reliable and I think that's due to the simple design it doesn't even have end stops when you flick the switch the motor starts turning it counts the number of turns and stops just before it reaches the end of the track here you can see how the combinations work there's a really wide range of intervals to choose from and you can change them on the Fly too this is probably more convenient than using a menu it can go pretty slow too I added a label with all the combinations on the back and here's some sample footage for you my name is Max and I'm a product design engineer I make all kinds of stuff so if you like this kind of content please subscribe to my channel I try to upload new build projects every month so thanks for watching and see you next time

Channel: Max Maker

Views: 666,117

Keywords: Motorized Camera Slider, Slider Motor, Stepper Motor, Slider, Time Lapse Slider, Arduino, Stepper, Stepper Slider, Timelapse slider, Motorized slider, A4988, Nema 17 Slider, Camera, Photography, Videography, Maker, DIY, Build Project, Neewer, Slider conversion, Video Slider, Slider Camera, Cammera Dolly, DSLR SLider, Cheap, Cheap Camera Slider, Cheap Slider, Diy Camera SLider, Diy slider motor, Motor Camera Slider, Caera SLider, video slider

Id: 1ki-vVdqjng

Length: 5min 20sec (320 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2017