Intermediate Electronic Wall Mounted Easel

Machine Type:

Other Machine

Software:

Arduino

Electronics:

Other Controller

Materials:

V-rails, Nema 23 high torque motors, Nema 17 motor, stepper motor controllers, 24V power supply, gantry plates, gantry wheels, roller chain, sprockets

This is a wall mounted Easel, electronically controlled by an artuino and a Nintendo 64 controller. Using the joystick on the controller, the user can move the easel about, positioning the painting or artwork where they want. This is meant for art capture studios that do a lot of repro work. The lights and camera remain stationary and the painting is moved vertically and horizontally in front of the camera. Works well for multi-shot art capture and image stitching. We are using PTGUI for image stitching complex images that have more than a few shots. Images are captured with teathered capture using Lightroom or Capture One Software and the photographer can move the painting into position without getting up from the computer station.

The easel can also be controlled with the Dpad. Different from the joystick, a push in one direction moves the artwork a set distance. This is very useful for multishot photography and stitching as each move of the image is a set distance.

Challenges: Our biggest mechanical challenge was the vertical lift. We used Nema 23 high torque motors, but the belts we found weren't strong enough. We ended up using #25 roller chain and sprockets. We found this to work perfectly. We also found the Nema 23 motors were getting quite hot, and found a way to turn the holding current down. The system is counter balanced with weights, but the roller chain and motors will still sometimes hold 50 lbs of weights, moving it about and holding it gracefully.

Attached: electrical diagram, parts, arduino code.

Possible improvements:

1) kill switches: so user can't push the rails beyond where they can go physically. Currently there is no stop mechanism. User must be careful.

2) Fire the camera: Currently the camera is triggered from Lightroom, not the controller. This is more manual but allows the user more control. If the arduino/controller control the camera then you can't view the results until the job is over and images are imported. So there is a downside to that. Ideally being connected to a computer and initiating F12 (our hot key in Lightroom for press camera shutter) from the controller would be ideal.
3) Fully programmed: much like the Gigapan worked before going out of business, user would set all parameters and then tell the system where top left and bottom right are, and it would initiate a sequence of the rail moving in increments and the camera automatically taking all the shots and handing them over to PTGUI for batch stitching.