- Joined
- Oct 29, 2012
- Messages
- 1,328
Thought you guys might appreciate this:
It's an automated inspection camera I'm building to document the interior condition and cleanliness of tank railcars. I needed a PTZ camera that takes high resolution stills with enough clarity that dust specs can be clearly seen on the walls. I couldn't find what I needed so I made it.
It's in a test stand that simulates the top hatch of a tank railcar. Imagine a manhole in the street. Take the manhole cover off, place this dummy cover which has the camera mounted underneath it, and press the button. Then it follows a programmed sequence taking pictures every few degrees for 360 degrees, top to bottom.
I bought this:
PROAIM Junior Motorized 2-Axis Pan Tilt Head w 12V Joystick Control for DSLR Camera Jib Crane. 360° Pan/tilt Moves, Remote-Precise Control on Moves. Quite Operations, 5kg/11lb Payload + Bag (PT- JR) https://a.co/d/cm7dlJw
Ripped the motors off and replaced with these (had to modify the motor mounting plates in a lathe):
Usongshine Nema 17 Geared Stepper Motor Gear Ratio 5.18:1 Planetary Gearbox for 3 D Printer DIY CNC Robotics https://a.co/d/dEkC5PO
Slapped this hobby CNC/3D printer controller on it:
3D Printer CNC Controller Ardiuno CNC kit with for ArduinoIDE,Longruner GRBL CNC Shield Board+RAMPS 1.4 Mechanical Switch Endstop DRV8825 A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Nema17 Stepper Motor LKB02,Black https://a.co/d/99Qb1eJ
Installed GRBL CNC in the controller:
github.com
Installed reed switches and magnets to act as homing sensors:
Gebildet 10pcs Plastic Reed Switch Reed Contact Normally Open (N/O) Magnetic Induction Switch (2.5mm×14mm) with 10pcs Small Multi-Use Round Magnets https://a.co/d/0Gc1wdq
Installed slip rings inside the rotary tubes (had to machine bushings to make them fit the tubes):
Taidacent Small Slip Ring Conductive Ring Miniature Rotating Conductive Slip Ring 2 4 6 8 10 12 24 Road Cap Slip Ring (24 Wire 2A OD 15.5mm Plastic) https://a.co/d/5bZW8O4
At this point the thing thinks it is a CNC machine. It responds to G-code. For example the code that made it do what you see in the video was G91 G0 x360 y360 (from current position, make coordinated relative move at max speed 360 degrees in X and Y axes). You can send the commands from any CNC GUI (GRBL Controller, Mach3, Slicer, whatever) or even just a Putty terminal. I will be sending the commands from a Python script running on a Raspberry Pi. The script will be power on the controller, perform homing operation, then begin sending G-codes to it for a desired search path and stop points, and trigger the camera and retrieve pictures over USB using Gphoto 2:
Then it compress the images and upload the .zip file to a server off-site.
It's an automated inspection camera I'm building to document the interior condition and cleanliness of tank railcars. I needed a PTZ camera that takes high resolution stills with enough clarity that dust specs can be clearly seen on the walls. I couldn't find what I needed so I made it.
It's in a test stand that simulates the top hatch of a tank railcar. Imagine a manhole in the street. Take the manhole cover off, place this dummy cover which has the camera mounted underneath it, and press the button. Then it follows a programmed sequence taking pictures every few degrees for 360 degrees, top to bottom.
I bought this:
PROAIM Junior Motorized 2-Axis Pan Tilt Head w 12V Joystick Control for DSLR Camera Jib Crane. 360° Pan/tilt Moves, Remote-Precise Control on Moves. Quite Operations, 5kg/11lb Payload + Bag (PT- JR) https://a.co/d/cm7dlJw
Ripped the motors off and replaced with these (had to modify the motor mounting plates in a lathe):
Usongshine Nema 17 Geared Stepper Motor Gear Ratio 5.18:1 Planetary Gearbox for 3 D Printer DIY CNC Robotics https://a.co/d/dEkC5PO
Slapped this hobby CNC/3D printer controller on it:
3D Printer CNC Controller Ardiuno CNC kit with for ArduinoIDE,Longruner GRBL CNC Shield Board+RAMPS 1.4 Mechanical Switch Endstop DRV8825 A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Nema17 Stepper Motor LKB02,Black https://a.co/d/99Qb1eJ
Installed GRBL CNC in the controller:
GitHub - grbl/grbl: An open source, embedded, high performance g-code-parser and CNC milling controller written in optimized C that will run on a straight Arduino
An open source, embedded, high performance g-code-parser and CNC milling controller written in optimized C that will run on a straight Arduino - GitHub - grbl/grbl: An open source, embedded, high p...
github.com
Installed reed switches and magnets to act as homing sensors:
Gebildet 10pcs Plastic Reed Switch Reed Contact Normally Open (N/O) Magnetic Induction Switch (2.5mm×14mm) with 10pcs Small Multi-Use Round Magnets https://a.co/d/0Gc1wdq
Installed slip rings inside the rotary tubes (had to machine bushings to make them fit the tubes):
Taidacent Small Slip Ring Conductive Ring Miniature Rotating Conductive Slip Ring 2 4 6 8 10 12 24 Road Cap Slip Ring (24 Wire 2A OD 15.5mm Plastic) https://a.co/d/5bZW8O4
At this point the thing thinks it is a CNC machine. It responds to G-code. For example the code that made it do what you see in the video was G91 G0 x360 y360 (from current position, make coordinated relative move at max speed 360 degrees in X and Y axes). You can send the commands from any CNC GUI (GRBL Controller, Mach3, Slicer, whatever) or even just a Putty terminal. I will be sending the commands from a Python script running on a Raspberry Pi. The script will be power on the controller, perform homing operation, then begin sending G-codes to it for a desired search path and stop points, and trigger the camera and retrieve pictures over USB using Gphoto 2:
Then it compress the images and upload the .zip file to a server off-site.