Featuring DMX-512 controllable pan/tilt, zoom and focus, the EVCMH can. By Elation Professional is a unique DMX-512 controllable moving video camera.
You are here: PTZ Camera Controller Setup Installation Methods and Pan Tilt Zoom controls for CCTV and HD PTZ cameras.Not long ago, the only way to operatewas via a that was hard wired to the camera. Installers were required to run additional cable to communicate PTZ commands via RS-485 or RS-232 protocols. The RS-485 or RS-232 cable was required in addition to the coaxial cable (for video) and power cable. RS-485 requires a pair of cable and is still a very popular installation method.Although RS-485 is still very reliable, UTC technology was recently introduced. UTC technology (Up the Coax) allows PTZ commands to be sent over the same coaxial cable as the camera's video signal.
Here are the parts you need: 4 x 1/4 Nylon washers 1 x 8-32 x 1/4 Chicago screw set (it is a 2 part set that screws into itself see pic) (Poulin #222-269) 1 x 3' Swivel or lazy susan flat ball bearing. In this step we will mount some screws to the servos to make it easier to figure out where to drill the mounting holes in the brackets and enclosure. Mount the rubber shock absorbers that come with the servo into the 4 mounting holes in the servo. Use 4 x 4-40 x 3/4' machine screws and 8 x 4-40 nuts for this step. Put a nut onto each screw and thread it as far as you can.
Mount the screws in the shock absorbers so that the threaded end is sticking out on the same side as the servo shaft. Thread another nut onto the screw to hold it in the shock absorber. Repeat with the other servo. Now fit the large servo to the longer bracket. The 1/2' hole should fit around the shaft collar and the metal should be flush with the servo body. You will probably have to adjust the nuts on the 4-40 screws so that the metal will sit flush, just be sure that the screws are still in contact with the metal of the bracket. Position the servo so that the body points towards the center of the bracket and so that the short side of the servo body is parallel with the bend line nearest to it.
Mark the mounting holes by tracing around as much of each of the 4-40 screws as you can. Remove the servo. Drill 7/64' holes at the center of the locations you marked. You will have to guess a little bit at where that center is, but as long as you are very close everything will be fine.
Dry fit again. Place the servo in the 1/2' hole and see if the screws will go through the holes you just drilled.
If not you can 'adjust' the holes as needed (as in redrill them). Determine the center of the servo.
There are a few ways to do this. The best way is to connect the servo to the controller that you plan to use, power it up and set your control to its center position.
Then remove power to the servo, thus leaving it set at the control's center position. Mount one of the servo horns (plastic parts that come with the servo) to the servo shaft so it will be easy to mark where center is. I like the circle one for this step. Now make a mark on the horn perpendicular to the short side of the servo. You want the mark to be close to the short side. The drawback is that the servo is 'calibrated' to this controller and may not work with another controller. The following method will find the true center of the servo's travel.
Fortunately most controllers allow you to adjust where they think the center point is, so this method should work for almost all controllers. Servos only rotate 180 degrees, so if you mount one of the servo horns (plastic parts that come with the servo) to the servo shaft it will be easy to see where center is.
I like the circle one for this step. Rotate the shaft by hand as far to one side as it will go. Mark a line on the horn perpendicular to the long side of the servo. Now rotate it to the other extreme. It should have travelled 180 degrees. Rotate the servo shaft back 90 degrees and voila you have the servo centered.
Note where the mark is and carefully remove the servo horn from the servo. You do not want to move the shaft at this point. If you do, simply repeat the above steps to find center again. Sadly your link was blocked. I think if you simply added a platform (or maybe an L bracket) to the camera end of your jib you should be able to mount the bottom of the gray box to it. This would give your camera excellent left to right movement and from straight up to straight down (Depending on your camera size.) Not quite what a commercial unit is capable of, but not teh same money either. Check out Blue Point Engineering, they have some playback servo controllers (4ch servo record/playabck) and computer controllers(SV203 interface board) with software(VSA) available if you want to be able to do the same shot over and over (Like the really high end movie jibs can).
If you get a chance, I'd love to see the link, maybe email me at typatrick at hotmail. HI Jack Yup, I am a theatre tech, although my specialty is sound, I also do lighting. The DMX unit I am using is a Sidewinder from Interactive Technologies.
It is much like a lighting desk but it's operates on a Palm Pilot. AS far as the interface for the servos go, I bought a DMX to Servo board from Northlight DMX which can control up to 8 servos. Basically from a DMX standpoint, the console thinks the motor is a dimmer. As far as MIDI goes, there's no reason you couldn't make something work. There's lots of MIDI stuff out there, check out or google MIDI circuits.
Hi.To do the demo video I used a palm pilot running some software called figment and that was connected to a sidewinder DMX unit that outputs a control signal called DMX (Total cost of that stuff was about $500. It was not bought for this project.) Then the DMX was converted to the signal needed for the servo by a converter board from Northlight systems.I assume that you would have no other need for DMX, so I don't think that is the route for you.It would be quite easy to use an RC controller to do what I did. You would need a battery pack (or adapter), a receiver (2 channel minimum) and a remote control. I am not an RC guy, so this is only my thoughts, please check with someone who is an RC person. I would think that you want an aircraft RC because they generally have 2 joysticks. You might want to build the hardware and then take it to a hobby shop.
I bet they would love to let you try out some controllers and see which one works for you. I hope that helps.