Holy Moses, talk about resurrecting the dead, just over 4 years ago, where has all that time gone, I see some of my previous images have had their link cut, sorry about that, all to do with my host not me, anyway
I thought it best to tag this at the end of my last DIY motorised slider rail than starting a new thread
Well I have been using the slide rail for some time-lapse and found it fun around the garden, I don’t think I’ve ever took the slider rail past my garden, due mostly to weight, DSLR + lenses but most of all the battery for the slider for location used is a right pain in the a$$ due to it’s weight
So taking out a full DSLR kit with lenses and the 12v DC battery was enough to put me off
For some time now I’ve been using my iPhone 6s for still, time-lapse and even movies, I find there are a few limitations with the iPhone but the weight I would otherwise be taking with me with the DSLR and the slider + battery I’ll put up with it, after all these images and movie clips are only for my pleasure not commercial
So to this end, I am now in the process of making a new motorised slider rail but from scratch this time
Right now I’m waiting for the postman to bring me orders I’ve made from Aliexpress:
The iPhone and one of my motorised panoramic heads are USB (5v) charged, I’m making this system run on 5v DC, the motor I managed to get is rated at 6v DC but this will work in my favour as it will slow down the rpm by around 16%
For the rail I’ve ordered a 1M length of black anodised 2040 v slot rail
The orientation of the rail is as shown in the 2nd and 3rd image, narrow (20mm) across and long (40mm) deep
Then a gantry plate with the wheels to be used on the 20mm side
One thing I had issues with on my old slider, was having to get out the screwdriver every n ow and then to tighten up the belt, so this time I’ve ordered an end tensioner for the belt so a turn or two of the dial is all that’s needed to tighten up the belt
As I could only find a tensioner for a 6mm GT2 belt I had to discard my left over GT2 10mm belt from my previous slider and buy a few more meters of the 6mm GT2
The 6v DC motor I bought is a 5rpm (-the 16%) in the blurb it says “Torsion Turbo Gear Motor 5RPM Micro Electric Gearbox Reducer”. What I gathered is that if the motor isn’t running, the belt isn’t going to move
I think for most time-lapse photography 5 rpm is way too fast so as before I’ve also bought a 5 volt PWM motor speed regulator to get repeatable results in controlling the motor speeds
The. Two motorised panoramic heads I already have and this first one is charged by USB, sadly the second one is powered by 12v DC only
And the 12v DC one, I have seen on Amazon there are these voltage converters, USB 5v to 12v step up, I’ll have to take a look at this if I plan own still making use of this 12v DC motorised panoramic head
I have around 5 or 6 10,000 mAh USB power packs
The final thing is the reverse polarity for the motor with end limiters, what I have now works great but as far as I’ve been able to find out so far (before I test it out for myself) my present relay is good 12v but not sure for 5v, plus it’s rather bulky
This time round not only keeping weight down but also the bulk of the total slider and accessories
I was thin king of replacing my old rely wiring for one of these smaller relays
And while at it I was thinking of doing away with the micro switches and replacing them with proximity sensors
I’ve read there are a few different types of proximity sensors but one that might fit my requirements is a capacitive proximity sensor. If I do do-away with the micro switches for these proximity sensors, I’m not been able to discover the wiring setup needed, any one here knows?
I’ll add more when the items arrive