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Construction of the video rig began in October 2002. My hope was to take it to KAPiCA/02 that started on November 1st. The existence of a deadline pushed the project along at a furious pace until, at last, it became clear to me that there was no way in the world it would be done in time. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image. |
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I made this drawing after mulling over the design of the rig in my head for a few months. This sketch is the only drawing I made. Most design decisions--width, height, length, etc.--were made on the fly at the workbench with work piece in hand just prior to cutting or drilling. |
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The four basic pieces of the frame. These were cut on the band saw from 1/16" thick, 3/4" x 1/2" angled aluminum stock purchased at Home Depot. |
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A few holes were drilled and the frame was assembled with 2 pop rivets in each corner. A needle file was used to tweak the holes before riveting to make the frame square. The width of the rig was determined by the length of the 8-32 bolt that the x10 CMOS camera will attach to. The small piece with 3 holes at the top of the photo will help support the pan gear. |
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The x10 CMOS camera was separated from the video/audio transmitter and attached to the 8-32 axle bolt. |
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The camera/axle assembly at the official weigh-in. Notice the power and RCA plugs soldered to the camera cable. These were to be plugged into jacks in the transmitter housing. I later abandoned this idea because it was bulky, added unnecessary weigh to the rig, and caused intermittent connections. |
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"What the hell is he making down there?!!" |
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A crucial feature of this rig design is the use of two 8-32 nuts tightened against each other in certain places. This is sometimes called "double-nutting". I searched for days for wrenches of the proper size that were thin enough to accomplish this. No luck, so I made these out of 1/8" thick aluminum cut on the band saw. |
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The frame with the camera, and the pan and tilt gears in place. |
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The pan gear shaft passes through the frame and a support piece held in place with 2 bolts. The tilt gear is attached to the same axle as the camera. For more information on these gears click here. To insure that the pan gear support piece was parallel to the top of the frame I measured and adjusted the nuts accordingly. |
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It's starting to look like a camera rig!! |