Controllable, motorized panning base

Hey folks,

for a special project I need a controllable, motorized panning base. With "controllable" I mean control over the panning speed directly during panning (by remote/smartphone). I thought about something like Edelkrone HeadOne, but you can only set the speed beforehand. Do you know any other, comparable product?

I thought about building one by myself, with the help of a modeller (who helped me a lot in the past), but maybe there is a buyable solution for me?

Thanks for your help,
Sarah

Do you already have a gimbal?

My gimbal has a remote app as well as mimic control using gyros on the phone.

There is the CamRanger PTHub and MP360. https://camranger.com/pt-hub-mp-360/

As noted on that page apparently the MP360 head is the same thing as motorized heads from Bescor and Hague.

robertfel said:

Do you already have a gimbal?

Click to expand...

No, none. What gimbal do you use? Maybe that's a solution for me.

Ellis Vener said:

There is the CamRanger PTHub and MP360. https://camranger.com/pt-hub-mp-360/
As noted on that page apparently the MP360 head is the same thing as motorized heads from Bescor and Hague.

Click to expand...

Thanks, but they look exactly like a head I used some time ago, with a different name, borrowed from a friend. It wasn't really satisfying, bulky and loud. I will take a look, maybe they changed some things. Thanks.

I use a Moza Air 2, it came with the Z6 filmmaker kit. It's been pretty solid for me, but I've seen lots of battery and firmware issues for other users, so I don't think I'd recommend it unless you had a really big setup. It can handle a lot of weight.

Check out their newer Moza AirCross 2 or others like the Zhiyun-Tech WEEBILL-S or DJI Ronin S or SC. Jump to 5:28 or open in a new window.

Saramarisu said:

Hey folks,

for a special project I need a controllable, motorized panning base. With "controllable" I mean control over the panning speed directly during panning (by remote/smartphone). I thought about something like Edelkrone HeadOne, but you can only set the speed beforehand. Do you know any other, comparable product?

I thought about building one by myself, with the help of a modeller (who helped me a lot in the past), but maybe there is a buyable solution for me?

Thanks for your help,
Sarah

Click to expand...

I use a Zhiyun Weebill S for exactly this purpose (does tilt too of course). You can use a Bluetooth app for smartphone control with feed from live view to frame up and control the camera. But I also added the Additional transmitter unit that shifts wireless control to over WiFi with low latency HDMI video and control over a 30m distance. I’ve had only one issue and that, weirdly, was lack of AF control. Solved it simply with a wireless remote control shutter trigger. That does AF and shutter so I use the App for viewing and exposure settings and the separate remote for AF and shutter. Works well for my needs and gimbals are relatively cheap compared with pro remote pan tilt heads.

HTH

Yes, the Weebill system is extensive.

OP--Check out this thorough video:

Hey guys,

I took a look at the videos, and searched for more information, these gimbals are really impressive. Especially the remote motion control is very nice. But I don't think the precision is good enough for what I need, and I have not seen a mode in any video, where I can set the panning speed manually during the movement, so that it fits exactly (and I really mean exactly with only a small error margin) with my target.

Imagine you are standing in the center of a merry-go-round, with every ride it has a new constant speed and you have to follow that movement. Doing it by hand, and it doesn't matter if directly or via remote motion control, isn't good enough. I know it is some kind of a weird problem, but hey, let's say it's art ;-)

Maybe these gimbals have such a mode, please tell me, because it is never mentioned in any video I've seen.

best regards and many thanks

Sarah

Saramarisu said:

Hey guys,

I took a look at the videos, and searched for more information, these gimbals are really impressive. Especially the remote motion control is very nice. But I don't think the precision is good enough for what I need, and I have not seen a mode in any video, where I can set the panning speed manually during the movement, so that it fits exactly (and I really mean exactly with only a small error margin) with my target.

Imagine you are standing in the center of a merry-go-round, with every ride it has a new constant speed and you have to follow that movement. Doing it by hand, and it doesn't matter if directly or via remote motion control, isn't good enough. I know it is some kind of a weird problem, but hey, let's say it's art ;-)

Maybe these gimbals have such a mode, please tell me, because it is never mentioned in any video I've seen.

best regards and many thanks

Sarah

Click to expand...

You might have build your own. Just remember you’ll be fighting some basic physics like the law of conservation of angular momentum. Precision gyroscopes do not take kindly to being being jostled or bounced around while they are operating

--
Ellis Vener
To see my work, please visit http://www.ellisvener.com
Or on Instagram @EllisVenerStudio

Saramarisu said:

Hey guys,

I took a look at the videos, and searched for more information, these gimbals are really impressive. Especially the remote motion control is very nice. But I don't think the precision is good enough for what I need, and I have not seen a mode in any video, where I can set the panning speed manually during the movement, so that it fits exactly (and I really mean exactly with only a small error margin) with my target.

Imagine you are standing in the center of a merry-go-round, with every ride it has a new constant speed and you have to follow that movement. Doing it by hand, and it doesn't matter if directly or via remote motion control, isn't good enough. I know it is some kind of a weird problem, but hey, let's say it's art ;-)

Maybe these gimbals have such a mode, please tell me, because it is never mentioned in any video I've seen.

best regards and many thanks

Sarah

Click to expand...

With these gimbals there is a degree of control on panning speed. The degree to which you shift the control determines the speed. It echos the control on the physical handset. Additionally, the speed of both response ('take-up' lets call it) and the max speed (within its physical limits) are preconfigurable before you use it. All that is 'nice' but there is a BUT. That seems likely it isn't quite the degree of freedom/ precision you might be after. For me, I'm fairly cool with it as I often dial the pan right down to make precise framing easier and not to scare my subjects (timid wildlife in my case) .

I think you might, as Ellis mentions, be in the world of custom build. Which, depending on your PoV can be interesting and fun or difficult, frustrating and expensive. I tend to fall into the first group and do a good deal of it but it always seems to end up in the expensive category as there's a fair bit of hacking about to get there. In truth, there are almost certainly commercial solutions out there but they are amazingly expensive and used in the commercial movie and /or law enforcement / military space. They include industrial robot that move fast and very precisely and kit that you would attach to helicopters. That's not where my wallet is by probably 3-5 orders of magnitude (think millions) so I don't really know much about them in detail except that it would be huge fun to have a play with that stuff. Me, I'm more about Arduinos and a few hundred bucks.

Have you looked at the Edelkrone HeadPLUS?

Ellis Vener said:

Have you looked at the Edelkrone HeadPLUS?

Click to expand...

Syrup have some similar products to Edelkrone, never used them, just read about them:

https://syrp.co/

For example, they have a pan-tilt kit that uses a pair of Syrp Genie II's.

Saramarisu said:

Hey guys,

I took a look at the videos, and searched for more information, these gimbals are really impressive. Especially the remote motion control is very nice. But I don't think the precision is good enough for what I need, and I have not seen a mode in any video, where I can set the panning speed manually during the movement, so that it fits exactly (and I really mean exactly with only a small error margin) with my target.

Imagine you are standing in the center of a merry-go-round, with every ride it has a new constant speed and you have to follow that movement. Doing it by hand, and it doesn't matter if directly or via remote motion control, isn't good enough. I know it is some kind of a weird problem, but hey, let's say it's art ;-)

Maybe these gimbals have such a mode, please tell me, because it is never mentioned in any video I've seen.

best regards and many thanks

Sarah

Click to expand...

Some gimbals have "object tracking" ability (for example, the Weebill-S). So if there was something they could latch onto, perhaps that might be made to work.

Richard B99 said:

All that is 'nice' but there is a BUT. That seems likely it isn't quite the degree of freedom/ precision you might be after. For me, I'm fairly cool with it as I often dial the pan right down to make precise framing easier and not to scare my subjects (timid wildlife in my case) .

I think you might, as Ellis mentions, be in the world of custom build. Which, depending on your PoV can be interesting and fun or difficult, frustrating and expensive. I tend to fall into the first group and do a good deal of it but it always seems to end up in the expensive category as there's a fair bit of hacking about to get there.

Click to expand...

My own movement isn't precise enough, otherwise I would have done it myself. So I guess a gimbal does not work for me for this project, although I had a lot of ideas seeing what is possible for even a relatively low price tag, so thanks for that!

I also couldn't imagine that a relatively small requirement is so problematic. I mean, I don't need some fancy stuff, just a rotating platform, which speed can be set stepless and on the fly.

My first though were astronomic mounts, as I have some experience with them. I even found one which is controllable via joystick and allows nearly stepless speed setting - but is much to heavy for what I want to do (cause you can't use it without a telescope). The smaller ones do not offer what I need.

The mentioned Edelkrone HeadOne would be perfect, but they don't support a speed setting on the fly. It can't be so hard to offer it technically, so I guess nobody wants that.

Anyway, I will try to figure out what I need to build one by myself.

Thanks
Sarah

Ellis Vener said:

Have you looked at the Edelkrone HeadPLUS?

Click to expand...

Yeah, but it has the same problem as the HeadOne, you can't change the speed setting on the fly (that's what the company told me).

mchnz said:

Some gimbals have "object tracking" ability (for example, the Weebill-S). So if there was something they could latch onto, perhaps that might be made to work.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that was already discussed earlier, but the precision isn't high enough. I took a look at the demo videos and contacted the companies, and they told me that it will not within the limits I need - it is more oriented for a smooth following, not an exact positioning.

But a gimbal is on my list for other projects, I had a lot of ideas looking into these things.

Regards
Sarah

mchnz said:

Ellis Vener said:

Have you looked at the Edelkrone HeadPLUS?

Click to expand...

Syrup have some similar products to Edelkrone, never used them, just read about them:

https://syrp.co/

For example, they have a pan-tilt kit that uses a pair of Syrp Genie II's.

Click to expand...

Thanks your this information, I will contact them and see if they can offer what I need.

Ellis Vener said:

You might have build your own. Just remember you’ll be fighting some basic physics like the law of conservation of angular momentum. Precision gyroscopes do not take kindly to being being jostled or bounced around while they are operating

Click to expand...

Gosh, I really don't understand what you mean by that? I just need a controllable rotating platform, don't want to launch anything into orbit. There is also no high speed involved, in fact the angular movement is pretty low. Maybe you can explain to me where I'm wrong thinking that it is a simple problem?

Thanks
Sarah

Have you looked into a PTZ? They're used for live event coverage and newsrooms all the time. They also have mounts where you can put your existing camcorder on them.

There are many different control boards, I'm sure one of them has programmable/recordable moves.

Edit: Here's a link with a very general overview. I've never used this brand.