How to do it and some examples

General

The airborne system must be light and rugged and reasonably waterproof. The frame provides some protection to the camera, notice my frame is bent! Fixings are riveted where possible and screws are glued or locktited in place. Shafts have end nuts in case a screw comes loose so the frame doesn't plummet to the ground. Further Construction details can be found on the References page.

Camera Cradle and Elevation Servo

This shows the camera held in its original foam packaging, as there was no tripod mount to hold the camera. The foam is held in a open box held by Velcro straps so the camera can be removed to load and unload film.

A servo on the right-hand side tilts this box in elevation. The servo did directly drive the camera holder but was moved and operated via a simple wire spring to reduce shock which would easily damage the servo. The servo was also mounted inside the frame.

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Azimuth Servo

The camera system weighs 1.2Kg so a powerful servo was required. This is based on a combo drill motor which has a 360:1 gearbox. The drive is further reduced to 4:1 to the output shaft. The feedback to the servo electronics is geared down by a factor of 3:1 again so the frame can rotate nearly 360 degrees. The cogs are Meccano parts and the electronic board is based around the ZN409CE servo chip built on a small piece of Veroboard. The servo takes about 30 seconds to do a full rotation.

The battery pack is positioned to counter balance the weight of the motor

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Shutter Servo

The shutter uses a standard servo mounted on the rear of the box holding the camera. This operates a beam that presses the shutter button. This is controlled by a on/off switch on the R/C transmitter.

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Want to get in touch remove SPC and copy and paste into e-mail program?
[graham_wise2SPC@hotmail.com]