Azimuth over Elevation Differential Pan-Tilt

thingiverse

This was a proof-of-concept for a pan-tilt system. My goal was to have all the motors fixed in place, eliminating the need for slip rings altogether. I also wanted to leave a hollow central shaft to accommodate any cables running up its center. It operates using a pair of affordable 28BYJ-48 geared steppers that can be easily sourced from banggood or other Chinese exporters at a low cost. While it functions as intended, it requires significant refinement to be truly useful. Following the completion of this project, I realized that a conventional Elevation-over-Azimuth pan tilt was what I really needed, and I eventually abandoned this design in favor of a more suitable approach. I have since developed a differential drive version of the El-over-Az system, but its files still require some work before they can be shared publicly. The gears used in this project were sourced from thingiverse.com/thing:3575. A spiral bevel gear is now available at thingiverse.com/thing:1604369, offering smoother performance; however, it occasionally produces non-manifold STLs.