So here is what I’m trying to do… I want to make a motor control to zoom a Digital SLR Nikon camera lens. But I want to use a Lanc camera controller. I want to use the variable speeds. The lens only rotates a quarter turn to zoom all the way in and wall the way out.
Lanc uses a hex code. Here is a link to the sony version of the protocol.
boehmel.de/lanc.htm
This is the controller I have and plan to use.
16x9inc.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=50
This is a wireless version of what I want to make but it’s for really big movie camera lens
cameraaccess.com/camera/elec … motor.html
I will use a small rubber wheel to turn my lens, I don’t want to use gears unless I can come up with a way to set a limit on the motors rotations.
So these are the part’s that I’m wanting to buy, but I’m not to sure how to make the communications between the Lanc controller and the motor speed moves. And does anyone have any thoughts on running this off of the smallest batteries possible.
pololu.com/catalog/product/1120
pololu.com/catalog/product/411
Thanx a million for any help anyone can provide.
dan.
So you want to buy a motor and attach it to your camera, and then use the Zoe Zoom Control (which sends serial bytes using the LANC Protocol) to control its speed?
Are you trying to make this thing really small, or do you have plenty of space?
What voltages does the LANC data signal use?
You could probably buy a Baby Orangutan B-328 and program it to receive serial bytes, interpret them as LANC motor commands, and drive the motor at the desired speed. The Baby Orangutan has a built-in motor driver, so it can drive your motor directly without the need for our Micro Dual Serial Motor Controller.
-David
Hey David, You are correct, I want to control the speed and direction of the motor.
Size: I want to keep it as small as possible. I hope to make it 2"x.75"x1" or close to it… Not much space to work with.
Voltage for ZoeZoom: From what I have read about the standards & protocols for the lanc … i think it’s about 5.8 volts
So if I’m reading this right. I could use the Baby Orangutan B-328 to interpolate my commands from the Zoe Zoom to the motor it’s self.
I would program it to say if (this Hex Code) comes in from the lanc connection then Motor control do this else stop the motor???
Am I thinking about this correctly?
Would I need to some how jack the Zoe Zoom to read off the code that comes though… just to double check the commands it’s sending? Could I hook up some kind of LCD screen to read these out using the B-328?
Also do you think I could build in a button to start some kind of feedback to teach the B-328 the limitations of rotations of that lens?
Thanx a million for the help david…
A signal voltage of 5.8 V sounds pretty strange. I was expecting it to be either 3.3V, 5V, or 12V. According to chapter 28 of the ATmega328P datasheet, the maximum voltage allowed on any I/O pin is 5.5 V, so if the signal is 5.8 V then things will get a little more complicated because you will need to make a voltage divider to get that voltage below 5.5 V instead of just connected it directly to the AVR’s RX line.
Yes, you have the right idea.
Reading commands directly from the Zoe Zoom could certainly be helpful. You’re going to need an AVR programmer such as our Pololu USB AVR Programmer to program the Orangutan, and the USB AVR Programmer has as a built-in USB-to-Serial adapter so you could use it to read the bytes sent from the Zoe Zoom and look at them on your PC.
You can hook up an LCD to the Baby Orangutan and use the Pololu AVR Library to print to it. But it would probably be easier for you just to buy one of our Orangutans that has an LCD such as the Orangutan SV-328.
Is your goal to prevent the motor from destroying your camera? The simplest solution is to run your motor at a low-enough speed so that it is not capable of breaking the camera, if that’s possible. But if you want to add some kind of feedback to detect when the camera is getting to the end of its range of motion you could do that too. You would need some kind of potentiometer or contact switch that you connect to one of the Orangutan’s free IO lines.
-David
