Build A Motorized Slider With A Pen (And A Bunch Of Other Stuff)
Time lapse movies are getting more and more attention now. And as time lapse movies are getting more common, it takes more to create an outstanding time lapse. That more is moment. (There is a very good intro by Vincent Laforet on that).
If you want more control that what you get from a rotisserie grill or an egg timer, we have the project for you. Motorized sliders start at about $700, but if you have the spare time and solder mania you can get by at about $100 (and a pen) with a build guide from Jeff Tolentino.
But first here is a small glimpse of the capabilities taken with an EOS Rebel T1i:
The system is build from three main parts:
- A Slider
- A Dolly
- A Motor & gear box
If a you are just here for a cheap/sturdy slider/dolly combo, you can skip the motor part. But if you want to take those amazing time-lapse movies, and you are a soldering ninja, invest a bit of time with the motor and gear box. (Ok, you don't have to be a soldering ninja, actually, there is no soldering at all with the breadboard).
You would still need to get an intervalometer, like the Pearstone Jeff used, but if you are into time lapses you probably have one already.
Since this is something you would probably want to take out and print for the build, we got a nice downloadable PDF, with a complete parts list and full instructions.
Here is how the slider works when built:
This is the constructed dolly:
The motor:
And dolly on the slider
This makes me think... what other small rotating things can be used to pull a camera on a string?
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Comments
I love time lapse videos!
I love time lapse videos! One more thing to spend my money on and to invest some time in. One day, one day.
This makes me think... what
This makes me think... what other small rotating things can be used to pull a camera on a string?
A chopstick!
Sooooo Rad!
This is amazing. It made me think of about a million ideas. Very cool. Thanks!
I do have a questions, though. Where can you buy the screen door wheels? I did a bit of searching and all I can find are full assemblies. Do you know of a place to just get the bearing/wheels?
Using Terminal Ground Bar is brilliant.
Screen Door Wheels
I got mine at Home Depot. I just checked their website and was able to bring up the wheels by searching with the part number (D-1795). Comes with some screw already, but that was about it. Let me know if that helps.
Nice!
Thanks Jeff!
That worked great.
One more question, if it's not too much trouble. Are they pretty quiet when they're rolling?
Thanks!
Wheels Are Very Quiet
Yeah, the wheels are pretty much silent. The Tamiya make a little noise, but a little lube helps quiet it down. Time lapses on a DSLR are typically silent movies anyway, so you might not even have to worry.
Excelent! Thanks.
Excelent! Thanks.
Breadboard
Anyone get the breadboard to work? Jeff's been trying to help me but I'm afraid I'm useless when it comes to building electronics. Any tricks I should know?
Would be cool to make a steam
Would be cool to make a steam engine pulling this thing and make a timelapse of the process itself
Circuit problems...
I seem to be also having trouble with the circuit. When I follow the bread board diagram, it doesn't seem to work. Jeff, can you post more photos of your bread board? I checked the one on your Flickr stream, but it's hard to see where everything connects. Thanks!
I put up four more pictures
I put up four more pictures of the circuit. Note, when I built mine, I was a lot less organized. The PDF has a cleaner layout, but the basic circuit should be the same. You can try both ways though if you gets stuck. I also noticed that one of the resitors on my circuit is smaller than what I added in the PDF (I was following the afrotech schematic). There is a 100 ohm resistor between the 555 chip and the TIP31 (vs a 1k ohm resistor).
You can find the pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefftolentino/sets/72157627050867729/with/5...
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