DIY 'robotic' rail for macro photographers

Craig Gerard · Post by **Craig Gerard** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:57 pm

DIY 'robotic' rail for macro photographers

First the video: (audio on! and loud)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeXjpZpaZns

Full story here:
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17248

Craig

corvus · Post by **corvus** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:36 pm

Very cool as well as inspirational. Thanks so much for posting!

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 6:40 pm

Excellent! Automated stacking with a re-purposed DVD mechanism -- clever!

--Rik

elf · Post by **elf** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 7:48 pm

That's funny. I just took my broken dvd player apart this past weekend to see what kind of interesting parts were in it. There is a very smooth working lead screw that would make a very good stage. Automating it would be even better, but not absolutely necessary.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 2:47 am

He talks about it some more, here.

dsvilko · Post by **dsvilko** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:57 pm

I have just found out about this forum from the POTN and decided to come here and also post the link to my new rail. Imagine my surprise when I saw that someone has beat me to it

I am glad you like it!
I had a quick (actually not that quick!) look around and the stuff members of this forum are doing is unbelievably amazing! My current macro photos don't even come close. Maybe with a new rail I'll have a chance

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 2:03 pm

HAHA, your pictures are better than some here, especially mine. You should post some.

dsvilko · Post by **dsvilko** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 2:14 pm

Hardly! My whole macro setup is worth maybe $20 (apart from the 1000D body) so it's not easy to compete with the 'big guys'

I also heavily lack experience in focus stacking, something that will probably soon change.
Currently I have a hard time finding subjects that look good @ 2-3:1 that I can test my rail on. Can't wait for spring to arrive!

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 2:53 pm

Didn't someone here try to do this years ago with a floppy disk drive mechanism? Same principle?

Nice idea and implementation though!

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:38 pm

I think floppy and hard drive ( and printer) mechanisms have been used for rather a lot of things since they first appeared - and failed in their thousands but with working mechanisms.
Who remembers 7 inch 100kB(?) floppies and 5MB hard drives?
Cognisys(sp?) ( the Stackshot people) use a dud Hard Drive as a rapid shutter.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:40 pm

Who remembers 7 inch 100kB(?) floppies and 5MB hard drives?

I still have a 6Mb hard drive on my closet shelf.

Craig Gerard · Post by **Craig Gerard** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:18 pm

dsvilko,

Welcome

I enjoyed reading the details of your project and particularly liked the results and the video

Craig

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 6:54 pm

dsvilko wrote:I have just found out about this forum from the POTN and decided to come here and also post the link to my new rail. Imagine my surprise when I saw that someone has beat me to it I am glad you like it!

Welcome aboard. We like it a lot!

This forum is a good place to learn about stacking. Many awesome images and people who are friendly & willing to help with technique.

--Rik

dsvilko · Post by **dsvilko** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 1:06 pm

lauriek wrote:Didn't someone here try to do this years ago with a floppy disk drive mechanism? Same principle?

Nice idea and implementation though!

Well, as there are broken CD/DVD drives everywhere and as each of them has a very nice rail I would be very surprised if someone hasn't thought of something like this before. On the other hand, I think I have built the cheapest and the easiest to build fully automated rail (runs on batteries, no computer required). Don't think it's possible to make it any simpler or cheaper. The nice thing is that even though the current resolution of 0.01mm is enough for my macro setup, I can easily go to to something like 3 microns simply by glueing a bigger wheel.

dsvilko · Post by **dsvilko** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 5:12 am

I have just thought of something that may not be obvious. A lot (most?) of people here already have some way of precisely moving either a camera or a subject. The 'electronic' part of my project is completely independent of the mechanics. You can use the same electronics and a stepper motor to make your existing rail fully automatic. You simply have to link the rotation of the stepper to the rotation of whichever part you need to rotate to slide the rail (even a simple rubber band may work). No modification to the micro-controller software would be required!