Rotating Tripod Head

Hey everyone!

I have been getting into time-lapse photography lately, but I have grown tired of plain old still time-lapses. I have been brainstorming a design for a dirt-cheap rotating tripod head.

However, I have run into a dilemma: I can't find anywhere a small, inexpensive (I'm talking less than $10) DC motor that is slow enough (<1RPM) for my needs. The motor will be driving a single wheel on the end of a shaft in a circle, which will very slowly rotate my camera on a bearing. I'm hoping to rotate my camera about 2-8 degrees per minute.

Anyone know of an inexpensive smallish DC motor with <1RPM or how I could utilize gears? The torque/power doesn't matter too much, but more would be better (I think).

Thanks!

JesseM said:

Anyone know of an inexpensive smallish DC motor with <1RPM or how I could utilize gears? The torque/power doesn't matter too much, but more would be better (I think).

Click to expand...

just get a gearbox and use any cheap motor ... check out the SparkFun Electronics - Robotics

think also about SparkFun Electronics - Servo - Large (note that servo is not "continuous rotation" but you can precisely control the position using micro controller)

arhi - thank you for your reply! I have been searching for a gearbox that would sufficiently slow down the speed of the motor, but none of them seem to slow it down enough. I am not very experienced with motors/gearing, so I don't really know what to look for.

As for the servos, I'm not quite sure how they work. How do I power/control them? Not sure if they'd work for this application, but I really appreciate the input!

the servo you control using some micro controller or similar device, you send it a pulse, and the "size" of the pulse defines "where" the servo will point, so by sending a proper pulse you can move the servo to a predefined location (usually from -60 to +60 degrees).

you have on sparkfun 200:1 or ever higher transmission rate gears. If you need even slower you can make a motor speed controller with a simple PWM circuit (you can make one with ne555 or again use a micro controller). Search the forum for pwm dc motor speed and you will find bunch of threads that cover it... here are few:
https://www.electro-tech-online.com...ple-dc-motor-controller-torque-is-lost.42370/

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/simple-pwm-motor-controller.33974/

I need a motor that is going to be able to continuously rotate 360 degrees, so a servo won't work.

A motor speed controller would not be ideal for this project, since this all has to go on a tripod.

I did find a 1 rpm dc motor that I could gear down. However, I don't know enough about gear ratios and gearboxes to get the desired speed. Is there some type of gear kit that I can play around with?

A servo is not going to work because the motor will be driving a wheel, which needs to rotate 360 degrees.

A motor speed controller also won't work, because it will take up too much space on the top of a tripod.

I did find a 1rpm dc motor that could be easily geared down, but I don't know anything about gear ratios. What gearbox/ratio could I use with this motor to get out ~0.5rpm?

Servo motors and motor controllers will not work for this project.

I found a 1rpm dc motor, but I do not know what gearbox I need to use to get an end speed of ~0.5rpm.

Also, this motor is fairly expensive. I'd love to have just a cheap dc motor and then gear it down with worm gears or something else, but I just don't know enough about gear ratios. Can someone please help me to find a dc motor + gearbox with an end speed of ~0.5rpm? I feel limited by my knowledge!

Thank you.