Mode1Mike

Hey guys,

I'm having excellent luck with my pan/tilt arrangement...my question is: Does anyone know of a servo that will provide 180 degrees of travel?

I'm using Futaba 3003 servos, which have I believe have about 120 degrees of rotation. If I could get something with 180 degrees for the pan servo, I'd be able to get a much broader viewing option.

Any ideas???

Thanks,
Mike

danny03

I believe most if not all of the retract servos are 180 deg. and I saw on some video somebody was talking about hitec digitals being 180 deg. [link=http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-75bb_retract.html]180 degree servo[/link] $29.49 at Servo City

A10FLYR

My Feedback: (1)

Hey Mike,
How about a pic of Yer setup? Why 180°? Nothing but more cornfields anyways

Mode1Mike

Thanks for the tip on Hitec Danny...I'll check it out. I learned that Futaba makes a 180 degree servo, however for retract use only...it's not designed for proportional use.

Good point on cornfields A10. For really fancy scenery...I look for a tree. I don't have the technology to post pics and video yet...but will soon, stay tuned.

A10FLYR

My Feedback: (1)

Good one Mike. More trees and a windmill really add to the pic! A shot of the Platte would help!

I'm an ex Nebraskan just giving Ya a hard time

kd7ost

Airtronics used to sell a 180 degree (I think it was 170 degree) proportional retract servo. I own one so know it works well. I can't find one on the market anywhere now though. If you can fly a soldering iron, give this project a whirl. I've done a few of these and it works too. http://mypage.yhti.net/~dmcdnld/s148retract.htm

The only problem with any of these with the cheaper servos is they use three pole motors. When you're using them to pan a camera they aren't super smooth action. A 5 pole servo motor is better but a coreless motor servo is best. It's all about cost and your value though. Wide angle lense's, 70 degree and 90 degree are so wide angle they look smooth no matter what. Don't forget to check out http://www.servocity.com/ for other possible options.

Good luck.

I used to live in Bellevue just South of Omaha and North of Offut AFB. Yep, lotsa corn.

Dan

Mode1Mike

kd7,
I clicked on your project link...but it wouldn't take me anywhere.

Switching gears entirely...the weather here is brutal as we speak. High 90's with as much humidity...and getting hotter into the weekend. Colorado and Idaho sound like good places to be right now...count your blessings.

Back to R/C stuff...our flying field is next to the Papio Creek. Offutt birds are constantly coming and going over head. I've tried to catch some of them on video...but haven't been able to "lock on" to them yet.

Mike

A10FLYR

My Feedback: (1)

Negative there Mike...matched a 100 year record yesterday...105°[]....predicted 108° today!!! Worse than when I used to ditch irrigate my corn back in Columbus!

Ensignnolo

Here's how BYU implemented a gimbal for their UAV:
http://www.ee.byu.edu/magicc/images/...l_web_gallery/

Ensignnolo

A10FLYR

My Feedback: (1)

I have a friend who installs security cameras and he has a comercial unit like that with out the servo. I'll have to ask him about it. I do know cost is around $100 but good quality stuff. Trouble is I only see him about once a month. I just put two servos together, one mounted on the wheel of the other so I could pan double axis. Gointg to give it a try later next week.

kd7ost

Hmm, I just tried it and it worked. What if you try to copy and paste it into your browser address. It's a servo hack that cenverts it to a 180 degree servo. It's fairly east to do. Anyone else have trouble with that link?

It's 100 degrees here but arid. I remember mountain bike riding at Platte River State park out there in the summer. 95 degrees and about that much humidity. The Cicada's made a racket. If you let your immagination wander you would think you were in the Jungle someplace. I'll take this heat here.

Dan

Fubar-One

My Feedback: (1)

Link worked fine for me.
My father has done the 180 degree conversion and it works great.

Mode1Mike

This is exactly what I did...and works great.

kd7ost, I clicked on that link again...and got it, thanks much. My smallest iron is a 30 watt...a bit much maybe???


Radical heat you guys are getting...it's the humidity that bludgeons us here. Without a\c, I'm reduced to a shiftless, sloth like state. And so it goes.

uniquewon

I have a camera mount that swings through 180 degrees. I use a Hitec 225 servo and a doubler. The doubler came from roboworld or something like that. They have all sorts of stuff for robots etc.


Here's the link to the site:

http://www.robotzone.com/customer/home.php?cat=19

Mode1Mike

Thanks for the tip uniquewon!

I ordered the servo expander, which arrived today. I plugged it in a while ago and...it works great.

Thanks again to everyone for the input.

Mike

Pup Cam

Here's details of my home-grown 540 degree pan/tilt mount designed and built especially for perfecting air-to-air videos (OK there's along way to go until the results are perfect!).

http://uk.geocities.com/tulyar@btint.../PilotCam2.htm

The page that follows (Next button at the bottom of the page) has details of the mods to a standard Futaba 148 to get any rotation you require. The mod does require drastic surgery so it's not necessarily suitable for everyone.

An example of what it can do can be viewed at

http://media.putfile.com/Fokker-DR1-Attack62

Note the cameras auto-irs struggles a bit with changing light levels, the (onboard digital) low res recording at 320x240 and compression to get it on to the extremely handy PutFile site all conspire to make the image quality, shall we say less than 100%.