Servo Strain With Camera

[DanDon]

We just received a pan/tilt servo mount. After making sure that the servos worked, we secured the camera onto the mount. After trying to move the servos,, we found out that the camera was putting too much strain onto the tilt servo. Has anyone experienced this problem? If so, how did you counteract it? Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you,

[Al Skierkiewicz]

We just received a pan/tilt servo mount. After making sure that the servos worked, we secured the camera onto the mount. After trying to move the servos,, we found out that the camera was putting too much strain onto the tilt servo. Has anyone experienced this problem? If so, how did you counteract it? Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you,
What do mean by "strain"?

[Dave Flowerday]

We just received a pan/tilt servo mount. After making sure that the servos worked, we secured the camera onto the mount. After trying to move the servos,, we found out that the camera was putting too much strain onto the tilt servo. Has anyone experienced this problem? If so, how did you counteract it? Does anyone have any ideas?
Can you post a picture of how you have the camera mounted? That would make it easier for others to diagnose the problem.

[DanDon]

Here is a link to the mount that we're using:

http://lynxmotion.com/Product.aspx?productID=288&CategoryID=

By strain, I mean that the tilt servo, is straining itself (exerting too much power).

Hopefully tis helps,

[Dave Flowerday]

By strain, I mean that the tilt servo, is straining itself (exerting too much power).
Can you describe how you attached the camera to it? For example, did you mount the end of the camera box (by "end" I mean the side of the box with the least amount of surface area) to the bracket in the picture? The problem may just be that you have it set up so that the weight of the camera is too far from the pivot point for the tilt servo (which increases the force that the servo must exert to counteract gravity).

If you did mount the end of the box to the bracket, you might be better off mounting the bottom of the box (by bottom, I mean the largest side, opposite of where the lens sticks out) to it. That would at least pull the center of gravity in closer to the pivot point.

If that still doesn't work, you might have to find/build a different mount. I saw one available from the CMUcam website that might work for you - http://www.roboticsconnection.com/catalog/item/988888/1004018.htm. Since the pivot point would be centered more within the camera's body instead of behind or below it it would probably work better.

[DanDon]

Thanks for the reply Dave. We have the mount on the side opposite the lens of the camera. It is mounted using some parts that came with the EDUBot (Some steel sheeting with square holes in it. Thanks for the link to that other mount, but

NOTE: FIRST ROBOTICS TEAMS - This turret only works with the CMUcam2 cameras purchasd from Seattle Robotics (http://www.seattlerobotics.com/) or Acroname (http://www.acroname.com/robotics/parts/c_Sensors.html)!
We just learned that First Robotics is distributing a custom version of the CMUcam2 with their kits, which isn't compatible with this turret.
We are currently trying to obtain dimensions to determine if you can use the "Generic" turret version for these custom CMUcam2s.

[Dave Flowerday]

Yeah I know it's made for the original CMUcam design and not FIRST's modified one, but it looks like you could still make it work.