llenta
Professional Newbie
My goal was to build a gyro mount for my Contour camera. I search around and noticed that the only way people had achieved this (MotoGP) effect was to edit their videos afterward. I didn't like that idea because it took time afterward and you end up cropping out your video just to get that gyro effect.
So I started off and ordered up a servo that had a gyro built in and thought that this was going to be a walk in the park...but I was wrong. After hooking it up I realized that any normal gyro just would not work. It did well at holding the camera steady during left and right movements, but hold a direction for more then just a second and the servo wants to recenter itself. So any long sweeping turns and the gyro would quickly lean into the turn with your until you stand up again, then it would follow. This just would not do.
I went to an RC helicopter store and talked to the guys there and told them about my project. He said I needed a specific kind of gyro and he happened to have one in stock. Here were the components needed:
First you need a single channel heading hold gyro. This differs from a normal gyro as you set a heading, and it will hold that heading no matter how long you push it off axis. A normal gyro will be pushed off axis, give enough correction to correct itself then stop correcting. So it will not be able to hold itself in sweeping turns.
Next you will need a driver for your gyro. This is the mechanism that will tell your gyro what the neutral position is. Or you can use this mechanism to correct and help center the servo.
Third you will need a servo. This is the thing that will eventually have a camera mounted to it and it will compensate for the movement of the bike with the help of the gyro.
Last it all needs power. Instead of wiring it to the bike, I picked up a little battery pack so that I have to option of putting it on somebody else bike (depends how nice they are).
I put it all together last night and it seemed to function well. I still need to adjust the sensitivity on the gyro as it still seems a little nervous, but that's easy. I took a little teaser video with my phone because my Contour wasn't charged up.
[youtube]kqeyQJo0dnM[/youtube]
Next step for me is to put it all in an inclosure to hold all the pieces together. None of them are really all that big, so it shouldn't be too hard to mount it on the tail. Then I'm thinking of putting a RAM mount on the servo so that you could attach any kind of camera to it (see I'm thinking of other people too). I only have a Contour, but there may be a time when a GoPro may want a ride
I should have it all together in the next day or two and will go for a test ride. I will update when I have more.
Hopefully many videos to come
So I started off and ordered up a servo that had a gyro built in and thought that this was going to be a walk in the park...but I was wrong. After hooking it up I realized that any normal gyro just would not work. It did well at holding the camera steady during left and right movements, but hold a direction for more then just a second and the servo wants to recenter itself. So any long sweeping turns and the gyro would quickly lean into the turn with your until you stand up again, then it would follow. This just would not do.
I went to an RC helicopter store and talked to the guys there and told them about my project. He said I needed a specific kind of gyro and he happened to have one in stock. Here were the components needed:
First you need a single channel heading hold gyro. This differs from a normal gyro as you set a heading, and it will hold that heading no matter how long you push it off axis. A normal gyro will be pushed off axis, give enough correction to correct itself then stop correcting. So it will not be able to hold itself in sweeping turns.
Next you will need a driver for your gyro. This is the mechanism that will tell your gyro what the neutral position is. Or you can use this mechanism to correct and help center the servo.
Third you will need a servo. This is the thing that will eventually have a camera mounted to it and it will compensate for the movement of the bike with the help of the gyro.
Last it all needs power. Instead of wiring it to the bike, I picked up a little battery pack so that I have to option of putting it on somebody else bike (depends how nice they are).
I put it all together last night and it seemed to function well. I still need to adjust the sensitivity on the gyro as it still seems a little nervous, but that's easy. I took a little teaser video with my phone because my Contour wasn't charged up.
[youtube]kqeyQJo0dnM[/youtube]
Next step for me is to put it all in an inclosure to hold all the pieces together. None of them are really all that big, so it shouldn't be too hard to mount it on the tail. Then I'm thinking of putting a RAM mount on the servo so that you could attach any kind of camera to it (see I'm thinking of other people too). I only have a Contour, but there may be a time when a GoPro may want a ride
I should have it all together in the next day or two and will go for a test ride. I will update when I have more.Hopefully many videos to come
arty
