Hi Guys
Here is my home made dual axis time-lapse trolley.
All parts were from the local hardware store apart from:
Stepper motors from Bintel
Freds Time machine (exposure/stepper controller), a previous project.
Manfrodo camera gimbal mount.
Gears and battery from Jaycar.
The aim was to make a trolley that was totally self-contained, so that it could be used on the purpose made track, or any smooth surface without any external pulleys, wiring, batteries etc.
Just plonk it down and push go.
The track shown is fully collapsible and quickly put together with wing nuts. It has adjustable height adjustments on each leg to make it level on any terrain. Luckily, the track square section comes with a raised trim, which keeps the trolley on track. It can’t fall off.
The Horizontal axis is just a geared stepper motor driving the wheels, and the vertical axis is a sprung gate opener hinge used as a bearing loaded so that a stepper motor winds up a wire against the gate opener spring to adjust motion. It’s very smooth, despite the varying camera balance.
It’s not all that stable when it starts or stops (slight wobble), but it doesn’t matter, because a 1 second delay after a move before the next exposure gives it enough time to settle (the time machine operates in a move-stop-delay-expose-move sequence).
Ive taken some time lapses with it, and it works a treat. The photos don’t show wiring as that was untidy (long wires used on the EQ mount version) I will rewire to suit.
Your not allowed to laugh, cause it actually works .
Skill in producing awesome timelapses with it is another world of pain of course, thats proving to be the hard part .
Thanks Leon. Its together, just fiddly bits to do.
Cheers Malcolm. It has auto tilt (like a barn door), but not L/R, that would mean an extra axis (total 3), the Time machine is only 2. I use an EQ mount for dec/ra control.
Trolley motion gives a different kind of motion dynamic to EQ. A trolley allows forground movement over background. EQ is the reverse, the background pans, but not the forground so much.
Trolleys work best when there is someting very close object in view, say a narly tree sweeping against a slowly moving static view milky way.
I like the idea you have used the Steppers from Bintel, a nice easy way to get slow motion for the cart. Well done. Look forward to seeing the results.
Excellent ! Where do we send the monies for our orders ? Or can u put up how u did it with schematics for us not so handy manish men/women ? ( or to be politically correct i suppose handy person persons. )
Thanks guys. The trolley/track was about $150 all up I suppose (not counting time machine, steppers, gimbal). You could probably build it all from loose bits lying around an average well stocked workshop. The motors were from an EQ3 retro fit kit, about $295 I think, but im left with the controller that came with it.
The time machine controller was a lot more, I deliberately have no idea what that cost. It was made useing 3 PICAXE chips ( 1 master/LCD controller and 1 each per axis), 2 stepper driver chip sets, LCD and box/switches etc.the programing includes the pauseing between images and took weeks. It also handles exposing in bulb mode.
Pauseing is not required if you take say less than 20 sec exposures at a push, 10 secs would be fine. Then the whole project would be quite easy. Just get the EQ3 2 motor with controller kit from Bintel and use the controller that come with it (it even comes with a battery box, gears, clutches). Its a 2 axis drive with 3 settable speeds, no electronics construction, wiring or circuits required at all then. The trolley would be quite smooth too, without start/stopping. You would also need an exposure timer, but they are cheap now off ebay. All not that hard for a handyish handy person ;-)
Phil hart has taken many award winning timelapses with continuose motion like this.
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Or can u put up how u did it with schematics for us not so handy manish men/women ? ( or to be politically correct i suppose handy person persons. )
That looks great! Bring it to the next astro-meeting. With the remote. We'll take it for a spin in the car park. 
