Simple Printed Motorized Camera Slider

thingiverse

There are plenty of camera sliders to find on Thingiverse, but none fit my needs perfectly. I had some parts on hand, including a motor, Arduino, switches, aluminum rods, screws, bearings, and wanted to print the rest, including the sled itself. The legs I designed have threads so you can mount it onto a tripod. See it in action: https://youtu.be/kDJ_6ikYeX0 The delivered Arduino sketch is very straightforward. It simply manages the speed of the sled by turning the knob (potentiometer) and reverses direction when an endstop is reached. You can define the range the sled goes just by moving the endstops - it's incredibly simple! Upgrade: If you want a more advanced sketch with a touchscreen and many features, especially for timelapse, check out this thing: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2166008 UPDATE: I made a case for the Arduino Mega with display: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3080693 Here's a video of the latest version: https://youtu.be/y6CyFwhTeEA Instructions: - Use epoxy to glue the two gliders to the plate, ensuring the rods stick out while doing this, so everything is straight. - Mount the toothed belt by clipping it to the plate. - Mount the motor and pulley to the right foot. - Mount the roll (or bearing) to the left foot using a 5 mm screw with the toothed belt wrapped around it. - Mount the left foot to the rods. - Mount the right foot. - Tension the toothed belt by pulling the feet apart and securing them with screws. Part list: 2 x 12 mm aluminum pipes, up to 100 cm long 4 x Screws 3x10 mm, with nuts and washers 4 x Screws 4x40 mm, with nut 1 x Screw 5x50 mm (approximately) for the roll 1 x Toothed belt, about 2m long 1 x Pulley (or print it: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:133918) some glue (epoxy) Electronics: 1 Arduino 1 Stepper Motor Nema17 1 Stepper Driver 1 Shield and/or grid-style PC board 2 Switches as Endstops 1 Potentiometer (I use a 3k poti - but better will be up to 10k) 1 Resistor 1k some wires As a battery, I use a 2S-Lipo. 3S will be even better. However, I ran into an issue after assembling everything together. The Arduino now requires some extra 5V to start up reliably. The simplest solution is to use a power bank and an USB-cable as a second battery. Another possibility is a step-down module that delivers 5V.