Comments

farss wrote on 11/15/2010, 1:04 PM
That specific one, no. I've built a 2 axis robot.
I see nothing in the one you're interested in that's going to stop it from working as advertised. The only limitation you should be aware of is any kind of wheel drive that relies on friction will have some slip. unless it has positional feedback precise repeatability will be hit and miss. As this dolly only has single axis movement that's hardly likely to be an issue.
It does seem to be quite slow, perhaps an issue if you plan to use it tracking something natural (human) as it moves.

Bob.
Siby wrote on 11/15/2010, 5:55 PM
Interesting Bob. How do you made the 2 axis robot?. Do you have a snap that can share with us.
farss wrote on 11/15/2010, 9:01 PM
Sadly I built it almost 2 decades ago and never thought to take a picture of it.

It used a rather expensive lead screw driven by an expensive stepper motor to move a carriage along linear bearings. The other axis used pneumatic cyclinders to plug connectors in and out of the backplane under test. The whole thing was controlled from the Marconi automated test system using code I wrote in Basic.
Sure was fun and the best thing of all it stopped the women working on our production line from getting RSI! Of course I wasn't paying for the parts so I bought the best money could buy. The 0.001" resolution was overkill really.


If all you want is a mototised dolly and you have a tube dolly then a cheap cordless drill and a rubber wheel in the chuck can be pressed into service. Crude but probably good enough for the odd shot or two without breaking the bank. Heaps of 'how to" info on the web.

Bob.
im.away wrote on 11/15/2010, 10:52 PM
Not a bad effort. The Bluetooth controller is probably a bit of overkill for most of us. I got a heap of stuff (gear motor, shaft adapters, collets etc) from this site: www.servocity.com

I got a cheap PWM unit on the 'net to control the speed of the gear motor. It works well as a servo to steer the electric motor in my kayak, so I can't see why the same setup couldn't be used to drive a dolly. Might have a crack at it....

Cheers

Russ
farss wrote on 11/15/2010, 11:20 PM
If you want something already built and made locally checkout Robocampro.

Bob.