Universal dampened camera mount

MonsieurAnon

MonsieurAnon

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On Wednesday I'm going to begin 3D printing parts at a community inventor meetup. I bought a Samsung NX1100, a 219g interchangeable lens camera, which I intend to take up for a fly, and I thought it would be helpful to try and make a camera mount that is adaptable to other people's devices.

I don't think that this is a final design at all ... I hope to figure out a way to use the stock P2V servo, while also hooking onto protective casings. I've also never held any of the other mounts, to understand how they work, so if you have any suggestions on what I can improve, before or after my first print, I'm more than willing to hear it.

The mount will require some basic 3mm screws and a tripod mount and will be adjustable for center of gravity / avoiding rotors in the frame / leg height.

yILhlF6l.jpg
 
You could make it so the 2 rear vertical posts (out of the 4) are shorter than the front 2, or adjustable (i.e. screwing a nut higher or lower would adjust the final angle of the camera)
 
I'm going to produce a variety of prototype mounts and poll you guys to see which ones are most likely to be useful. I've already made one for a goPro hinge although it might not be to spec yet since I used a 3D model for reference and while it looks great it's not highly accurate.

I may have mentioned that I was going to do some 3D printing on Wednesday. The Maker group that I went to was having technical difficulties, but was very excited about the drone and the project. I'm going to an all day session tomorrow at a more established group and I'm going to take my newly arrived nx1100 camera & the drone to fit the parts too. I'll post more renders before the day is out.
 
So it looks like the servo to tilt the camera is in the top part of the mount.
Instead of creating a new mount, why not create a thing that attaches to that servo so that you can tilt the camera?

I suppose this still a mount but uses most of the existing mounting system.
 


Click for larger image

I've mocked up a more complex design, that I'll be attempting to print tomorrow.

White parts (excluding dampening rubber) show the printable components, while red parts show screws and bolts that will need to be purchases separately.

A few changes from the original design, as well as mounts for goPros are here. Forum user gpauk suggested that dampening mounts are better off compressed rather than hung, so I made the design so that it could be mounted either way ... and added extra holes for dampeners to compensate for heavy loads. The central bracket will replace the piece that screws directly onto your Phantom ... and I'll be happy to accommodate Phantom 1 pilots if someone can provide me with completely accurate mm measurements of where the screw holes are.

The tripod screw design for larger / non-tilting cameras has had a brace added that is rather flexible, to ensure stability, although after some flight tests I might omit this.

The purpose of having dual GoPros is for any 3D video fanatics. I personally plan on trying to mount my freshly arrived Samsung NX1100 side by side with the FC300 P2V camera although this will be a stretch for weight.

On the subject of the servo; I will attempt to think of a design that can accomodate heavier cameras as well as goPros and the FC300. If any experts on wiring / electric motors are around, advice on using a stronger, off the shelf motor would be helpful.

Credits:

GoPro-hero-3 model; used my own materials

Sony Nex-5 model; also used my own materials
 
MonsieurAnon said:


Click for larger image

I've mocked up a more complex design, that I'll be attempting to print tomorrow.

White parts (excluding dampening rubber) show the printable components, while red parts show screws and bolts that will need to be purchases separately.

A few changes from the original design, as well as mounts for goPros are here. Forum user gpauk suggested that dampening mounts are better off compressed rather than hung, so I made the design so that it could be mounted either way ... and added extra holes for dampeners to compensate for heavy loads. The central bracket will replace the piece that screws directly onto your Phantom ... and I'll be happy to accommodate Phantom 1 pilots if someone can provide me with completely accurate mm measurements of where the screw holes are.

The tripod screw design for larger / non-tilting cameras has had a brace added that is rather flexible, to ensure stability, although after some flight tests I might omit this.

The purpose of having dual GoPros is for any 3D video fanatics. I personally plan on trying to mount my freshly arrived Samsung NX1100 side by side with the FC300 P2V camera although this will be a stretch for weight.

On the subject of the servo; I will attempt to think of a design that can accomodate heavier cameras as well as goPros and the FC300. If any experts on wiring / electric motors are around, advice on using a stronger, off the shelf motor would be helpful.

Credits:

GoPro-hero-3 model; used my own materials

Sony Nex-5 model; also used my own materials
Click to expand...
great job! How about a mount for the p2v vision.
 
Juan, if I do think about that, it will be a long way down the track. Samsung has a good history of releasing full source code for phones a little while after they are put on sale. They have already done this a number of NX cameras that use the wifi based remote viewfinder app. This means that it would be possible to hijack that communication and send it through some other system ... but until the nx1100 firmware is released there would be no chance of adding menus ... and of course we'd also need access to the source for the Phantom Vision app.

On top of this, the camera seems to have a much more limited antenna than the FC200. So you might need to do some physical mods to get similar range out of it. On most Samsung NX Cameras the antenna is plugged rather than soldered to the board, so hopefully it's the same with this camera!

For now at least I can get FPV to 30+m
 
Have you tried making a mount that attaches the stock servo?
In the image below on the right you can see the two pinholes where the current camera attaches.
If you could make a mount that attaches just like the stock camera that converts to standard camera plate screw, than you could have tilt control, with the 7th channel mod, you would not need the app to tilt the camera.


I don't own a 3d printer so if you make a working model I would buy one from you. Or I know a guy with a printer, I would also be happy to buy a file to print it my self.

I have this idea in my head but I don't know CAD :(
 

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ResevorDG; my plan is to eventually make a mount that uses the stock servo; but I'll need a 3D printer of my own rather than a community owned one to quickly push out revisions of the motor casing. The other concern will be (at that point) the strength of the servo motor.

I've had another test flight using this 125g Olympus camera and the vibration / jello issues are gone.



She flew like a dream ... perhaps even better than with the FC200, which makes me think that being able to centre the weight of your camera is very important.



I've got some more advanced designs lined up but for now I'm not going to be posting renders. I should have a printer within about 10 days and will be selling these mounts on Shapeways. What is the weight of the camera that you want to mount?
 
MonsieurAnon said:
Well, maybe my research can be helpful for you.

How much do you know about cameras? I've read a little bit about them lately.
Click to expand...

I know a good deal about cameras in general, but I need to brush up on what is available on the market in the small lightweight range.
 
To save you some time;

Sony has the best APS-C sensor lightweight interchangeable lens cameras; Nex-5n, A-5000 & others. They weigh as little as 210g, with 60g lens options.

Samsung & Ricoh are runner's up ... forgotten the Ricoh model, the Samsung is the NX1100. These are a little heavier at 220g. Samsung's lightest lens is 75g. The one that comes with the camera is 119.

1" sensor cameras become much more reasonable in weight. Samsung's upcoming NX mini interchangeable will be ~150g with 40g lens options.

Almost all of these come with wifi rangefinders. Samsung's does not allow video recording through this function unfortunately. Their antennas CAN be upgraded. Near IR camera mods that are documented online show a teardowns of Samsung NX & Sony NEX cameras that can be scoured for wifi antennas before you engage in this process yourself.
 
MonsieurAnon said:
To save you some time;

Sony has the best APS-C sensor lightweight interchangeable lens cameras; Nex-5n, A-5000 & others. They weigh as little as 210g, with 60g lens options.

Samsung & Ricoh are runner's up ... forgotten the Ricoh model, the Samsung is the NX1100. These are a little heavier at 220g. Samsung's lightest lens is 75g. The one that comes with the camera is 119.

1" sensor cameras become much more reasonable in weight. Samsung's upcoming NX mini interchangeable will be ~150g with 40g lens options.

Almost all of these come with wifi rangefinders. Samsung's does not allow video recording through this function unfortunately. Their antennas CAN be upgraded. Near IR camera mods that are documented online show a teardowns of Samsung NX & Sony NEX cameras that can be scoured for wifi antennas before you engage in this process yourself.
Click to expand...

Sounds like that samsung NX Mini is small enough to attach to the stock servo.
 

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