I think that we need to restart the blog on this.
This guy built a 40 mm ball turret that would work great in small UAS's. He said that he would not sell it but i think having him post details of how he built would be nice.
Here is a video of tit working.
If anyone has other turret systems to share of Pan and tilt systems please post... I am looking for a good design to integrate into my UAS...
Comments
Monroe,
It would appear the demo sequence resulted in the lense pointing downward prior to retracting, then the camera was hoisted back in the fuse without fouling. It would need to be manually parked as part of the landing sequence or code written for same, that is the servo's natural neutral position. If you had the space available I would just make the hatch sufficiently large that the lens position was irrelevant.
@Seth,
Although I can only speak for myself, I don't think everyone is preoccupied so much with the design as they are the concept. If someone wanted a simple gimbal from HK they would have a simple gimbal from HK. This is not a simple gimbal. The satisfaction for me comes from improving on the design presented. How can I make it better, how can I make it work with the hardware I want to use and so on. This is the best part of this community, different ideas presented to aid in the formulation of your own. Cheers,
Rick
When I say 'usually useless' above, I mean technically useless. They are great for legally bullying people with, which is what happened in this case...
Most people don't wish to waste time in court to find out whether someone elses patent rights are real, or not, unless there's a bunch of money at stake.
For all those still arguing about the validity of the patent, you need to understand one thing about patents. The only legally useful thing in them is under the 'claims' section, where they say:
They then go on to claim a bunch of variations to this idea in claim 2, 3, 4 etc.
You must understand that it's the words contained within this claim that are the only legally binding part of the patent. The figures, diagrams, preamble etc. are all useful stuff but carry virtually no legal usefulness in defending an infringment claim.
In this case, if you were to make your tilt axis non-parallel to the base, your design would not infringe this patent. This is why patents are usually useless. Also, if you can demonstrate any prior art (i.e. stuff published anywhere before the patent priority date) that is similar to claim 1, the patent becomes worthless.
Seth, the point is that I don't feel the first blogger was copying anyone's design. You can see from the thread that the whole idea was threshed out in the group, with design suggestions from all members. You can't just prevent people from creating things, just because you have a patent that is similar. Like I said previously, you have to patent a particular invention, not a design idea. Camera turrets is a general idea, and you can't prevent others from making one.
I don't understand everyone's preoccupation with this one design. If you want a pan/tilt you can buy one from HobbyKing for like 23 cents.
Making a small gimbal isn't hard. Instead of just blatantly copying someone else's design, like this:
Imho, it's really too simple to be patented. Basically a sphere with a cutout to enable whatever degree of tilting and a hole for the lens. What size lens do you want to use? I'll put one up on Shapeways. It shouldn't take too long to make.
People have already hit the guy up for the specs. We'd either have to do brute force measurements off his diagrams and pictures or talk to someone else who has made one. The diagrams are apparently not going to be released. The RC groups guy also hasn't exactly sourced the parts for mass consumption, so we'd really need to source chains and such.
So basically it comes down to the idea that someone else has to make another prototype It's a job for someone I guess. I frankly don't want one of these turrets because I'm not going to use a head tracker, but they do look cool.
David, given the specs, I could probably make one of the turrets easily on a 3D modelling program, and have some printed on a 3D printer.
It's very possible that one of us could make about 20 of these using a laser cutter in an afternoon. There was some discussion on RC groups thread that some of the more exotic parts needed sourcing (the chain drive), but there is nothing truly exotic other than the sphere itself. Ping pong balls have be used for that, but the precise cutting requires a jig. You also need a camera that is fitted to the system, so this would have to probably come with a camera considering the number of different cameras we all use. It's not a particularly crazy challenge to produce a kit so long as the sourcing is sorted out and there probably would be a 20-70$ profit per unit. The guy that built it on RC group won't distribute his diagrams, but there might be some others out there.
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