DIY Motorised Camera Slider With Object Tracking

In this video, I'll show you how to build your own motorised camera slider which can pan, rotate and track objects for some really cool shots and time-lapses. It can lift a mirrorless camera like the Canon M50 vertically, can be mounted onto a tripod, and works in any orientation, even upside down. A rotary pushbutton lets you input data on an OLED display to set the parameters for each movement. The motors are driven by two TMC2208 silent stepper motor drivers for smooth and quiet operation.

What You Need For This Project - Links from Amazon

What You Need For This Project - Links from Banggood
Rotary Pushbutton – Not Available

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If you've got any ideas for Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other Electronics projects or tutorials you'd like to see, let me know in the comments section.

[hadjsaidahmed]

Thank you for sharing this project with us I think adding a timelapse mode will be a big improvement for this project

[sharadjadhav]

that is one best camera slider video i seen out there....


very simple detailed and all information needed is in comments....


awesome !!!

[ernielazdins]

Hi Michael
Thanks for the reply and making time for me.

I placed my order yesterday with the help of the online Help.
PCB Way is a great company.
As a retired engineer I have looked at all the YouTube makers and what they have to offer in the way they make their sliders
and yours is the best.
At 68 years old I have recently fallen in love with electronics,
Some of which is a bit overwhelming.
Thank you for producing a great video on the slider and all the files.
Looking forward to getting all the parts delivered so I can try the slider for my Ender 3 Pro.
Also looking forward to the Raspberry Pi version you intend producing.
Thank You again for your reply.
Keep up the good work.
Stay safe and healthy.
Regards
Ernie from Australia

[ravkhangurra]

Great Video as usual. Always look forward to your projects, keep up the good work!

[rpespep]

Amazing and halpfull job! Ceep going :)

[CrAzYDrveR]

wanted to do semething like that for years after i saw the diy sentry tower, all it needs is a webcam to follow objects :)

[andi]

Real nice design! The only thing I can think of to add would be an energy chain. There are a few on thingiverse. Really liked the countdown feature!

[Lechnology_Engineering]

Thanks for sharing! I built my camera slider when COVID first hit. I released the video less than a year ago too! It's always nice to see what others did! Ours had a lot of similarities, especially with the motor driver selection. I like that you made a PCB, this will make things far more robust. I used an old telephone cable for the pan stepper motor so that it stays nice and compact. Check it out! I plan on upgrading my camera slider to an STM32 based design where I can take advantage of its hardware features. I will find myself coming back to this video for inspiration about the object tracking! Thanks again, subscribed!

[MehtabSinghEdhan]

on point.. described neatly..thank uh

[camshand]

Far out mate top effort! I just dropped a grand on a new slider (Shark Nano), and you're pushing for the same functionality. I don't know how they do it but you can physically move and point the camera to set point A and B, and then just set a time to get between the two distances. For me that was the big selling point as has made production so quick with sliding shots. But to see you're able to pull off the same "tracking" shots with $100 in 3D printer parts, very impressive and inspiring! Chuck some warp stabilizer on your shots and you'll have an even smoother pan too

[SqueakyNeb]

I haven't checked the maths on paper, but I'm pretty sure you can do that trigonometry backwards to save on measuring. Travel to one end and pan to the target, save the position, repeat for the end movement, and you should be able to solve backwards. Or at least, you can triangulate the distance to the target and use that as the input for your existing maths instead of a manually measured distance.

[VmA]

A option to trigger the camera would be a great addition. For time-lapses with panning for example.

[CoyoteFPV]

Brilliant project ! I think I will strip down my own and modify it to this. I however have limit switches on both ends which I would like to incorporate, and I would like to run the pan stepper via a 5.18:1 planetary gearbox to take the rough steps out of the motion. Not being a coder, what would I need to change in your code to compensate for the gearbox reduction ? So the degrees match on the OLED to the actual output.

[crixi__]

you could put a laser on the rail which puts lines on the ground in 10 cm steps, so you can quickly gauge the distance from the rail to your object :D

[digimaks]

Complex project.
I wish there was a way to create camera movement, and then make the panner do that movement frame by frame by clicking through and it makes one step movement.

[DeonMitton]

Great ! I created a very similar project - not as neatly assembled, but pretty much the same concept - minus the oled . Will have a demo up on my feed soon.

[aspmos]

I would like to order the PCB, is this file ok? Shall I make the order?
Maybe a better version available?

[HromoffWoodwork]

Огромное спасибо!!! Очень крутой проект!!!

[epatal]

I already know this is gonna be good.

Edit: What language did you program it in?

[jupiterjs]

Hi. A 12V voltage was connected to the PCB board. But More than 8.9V flows inside. Where does the DC Stepdown take place?