Comments on: DIY Motion Control Camera Slider

By: Florin Giurgiu

Florin Giurgiu — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 07:41:41 +0000

Hello Scott. I found your video slider project and i made’it too. For me was too expensive to buy a slider but i have made one.
I used the same stepper driver like yours and a NEMA23 stepper.
Is working perfectly, but please help me to modify the code to work with 32 microsteps. Now is working with 16 microsteps but if i set the driver to 32micro, calibration ends’up ok, but on very low speed when i do timelapse, is not working corectly. it moves forward just a bit and then starts to go backwards, hit the end of the slider and keep pushing. It stops only if i reset the arduino.
My track lenght is 35.55inch between the limit swiches.
What i have to modify in the code to make’it work with 32microsteps?
Please help.
If you want to see my work i can send pictures, or a video, just give me an adress where to send.

By: Kris Duthie

Kris Duthie — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 21:35:24 +0000

Hey Scott this is an awesome project. It’s something I’m considering doing for my kessler Cineslider. The slider itself already has a belt driven carriage but the motor systems Kessler sell are far too expensive for what they are.

I hired the Second Shooter for a weekend and ended up having to disassemble the motor enclosure because it wasn’t working but I learned something quite clever, they had a stepper motor with a rotary encoder allowing the system to know exactly where it is if the motor skip steps. Also rather than using limit switches as your stops you could use the position being recorded by the encoder.

Also John Heinz has built a parallax style camera panning attachment for his DIY slider which looks like it could be a good addition to your slider.

Sorry for ranting I’m just collecting ideas at the minute and your videos are the best I’ve seen on the subject of DIY motorized sliders. Great work man!
KrisD

Links:
Kessler’s Parallax: http://www.kesslercrane.com/parallax/
John Heinz Version: http://www.ibuildit.ca/other%20projects/camera-slider.html

By: Zsolt

Zsolt — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 13:06:44 +0000

Hi Scott
i am trying to make a slider as you`re, but i have a problem.
I buy another lcd (http://www.robofun.ro/lcd/lcd_20x4_i2c_negru_verde) wich use this library (https://github.com/adafruit/LiquidCrystal)
can you help me to make the changes in you`re code to can use this lcd?
Thanks ZSOLT

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 03:32:57 +0000

Hey Ian,

Sorry for taking so long in getting back to you. Thanks, and that’s really awesome that you’re using my controller. If you use the same basic wiring schematic — as in you’re connecting the same components up to the Uno on the same IO pins that I used — then you should only have to load the contents of MCSliderController.ino (from the file s.co.tt-mc-slider-v0.2-src+libs.zip, above).

Just make sure that the libraries are somewhere that the Arduino IDE can find them.

If you’re using different IO pins or different stepper controllers and/or LCD then you’ll need to tweak things quite a bit. I can’t be more specific than that without knowing exactly what you’ll be using, though.

Anyway, I hope that helps.. Let me know!

Scott

By: Ian Manuel

Ian Manuel — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:45:49 +0000

great slider, i am new to the programming side of things and while i am competent at most things this seems to be above my ability. i am in the process of building a slider too and have set it upon myself to use your controller with a slight difference in the hardware slider setup. Could you please if you have the time tell me what files and code i would need to put onto the uno for the slider to run as well as your finished build.

thanks in advance

Ian M.