More progress on the new rig

Another hour or so work this afternoon on the new KAP rig. Today, work centred on forming the lower U.

For those not familiar with the terms, the upper U is an inverted U made out of aluminium strip in this case. The upper U is suspended by an axle at the center of gravity from the kite line. Gears and a modified servo are used to allow the rig to rotate continuously around the axle, giving the rig a pan capability. The lower U is again made from aluminium strip in this case, and sits within the upper U. It is not inverted and incorporated a hole through which a tripod bolt can be screwed into the camera's tripod mount holding the camer in place. The lower U is fixed via an axle to the upper U. At one end the axle is formed by a servo, giving tilt capability. At the other the axle is allowed to rotate freely within the upper U.

Well today the strip for the lower U was cut out of the aluminium stock. All was going well until my nibbler gave up the ghost!, so rather than spend time tryuing to fix the problem, and as its work was largely done, I resorted to a junior hacksaw to finish the job.. With the strip cut and cleaned, holes were drilled to take the axle and camera fittings, and cuts made to allow a lip to be formed to add rigidity. Then the strip was bent to shape and the lips formed. Finally a trial fitting of the camera took place, just to be sure that it would all fit together nicely. Fortunately it worked!

So there is now lots of finishing to do, cleaning up rough edges, knocking off sharp corners, adding all of the electronics, fitting everything together, finishing off the picavet cross, etc., etc. But with a bit of luck, if I get some good time next weekend, I think I should have the servos fitted, the rig parts assembled and tested. I just need to source a Lipo battery, a battery saver, some boxes and make a voltage regulator and sort out some switches and I'll be done!