3D-Printed Gimbal Pan/Tilts Cameras and… Lasers?

Florian Hu has decided to experiment with time lapse photography, and while he could simply buy a gimbal for those sweet pan/tilt shots, what fun is that? Instead he wanted to build his own, designing the pan/tilt assembly for his DSLR on Fusion 360. Since ordering parts takes time to arrive, and working with a lathe or CNC can be tedious, he chose to design everything in such a way that it could simply be 3D-printed.

So “just like that,” after 100 hours or so of printing, he had all the gears and fixturing needed to properly move his camera using a pair of Nema 17 stepper motors. Homing is provided by a pair of inductive proximity switches. The assembly is reportedly quite quick and strong, perfect to point his DSLR in the right direction. Control is accomplished via a Raspberry Pi, along with an Arduino Nano running GRBL.

At the moment, his project documentation simply features a few snapshots of him setting things up on the pan/tilt head. He’s planning to update the build log once he has added a linear rail, which should take this device to an entirely new level. For now, you can see it in action in the demo video below where he pans it around with a laser attached to shoot paper pirates!