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jusolson

Modifying the pan function for a bullet camera

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Okay, so I don’t know where to start on this journey so I’m hoping somebody here can point me to some leads. A project I’d like to do.... I’ve got an ip camera system setup at a remote location using wireless acces points. I’d like to add a bullet camera but have it mounted to a rail of some kind so that using a ptz joystick I could make that camera slide horizontally across that rail. Maybe a length of 30 feet. Nothing seems to exist on the market so I’m wondering if I could fabricrate this myself. Seems like I should be able to hack the pan function/ programming of a ptz to make a small electric motor turn... any idea where I might look for additional information? Thanks in advance for helping me with this crazy dream!

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I would post this in the camera section for one thing. A while back a we were looking at building a plasma cutting table using alum rail and stepper motors. I would look into that tech as those units are controlled by PC software which you might be able to adapt to your use. The individual motors and rail are not that expensive. You might be able to use a rasberry Pi for your PC as it would only have to do a couple of things. Check out the maker sites as well

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Those google searches would be similar to what I want to do. Just with an ip camera. After I got to thinking about it, could a guy disassemble the camera and re mount the pan motor so that it turned a friction wheel to move along the track? All the programming/ software would be intact, and I’d have one interface to view and move the camera. Might have to solder longer wires to the motor, but should work in theory?

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You mention wireless APs. Would the IP camera also be wireless? Could the camera sled be self contained with a battery to power the camera? Probably not if this is a long term application.

I think you would be better off using another motor to pull the camera. Not sure if a built in panning wheel would be strong enough to pull the camera along the rail. Is this outdoors? Moisture could present a slippage issue using a friction wheel.

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