Dec 13, 2013  The Bescor MP 101 is now one of my key pieces of equipment in my video and audio arsenal. It provides really smooth pans and helps me set up my shots much quicker than before. The Bescor MP-101 Motorized Pan & Tilt Head attaches between a tripod and camera and enables remote panning and tilting of the camera. Two independent motors smoothly operate horizontal and vertical motion at adjustable speeds.

The pan tilt head is a simple device with two geared DC motors and a remote control for moving the camera up and down, and from left to right in a fixed position. The remote only allows movement of one axis at a time, and the speed control is a slide potentiometer with a narrow range. Jai shri krishna flute melodies download for windows 10. It moves a bit too robotically for my liking! My immediate goal for this project was to have control over these motors with MIDI, so I could use Ableton Live to automate motion in both axes simultaneously in a precise and predictable fashion (hopefully). This is an important requirment for a miniature music video I'll be shooting in my studio the next few weeks. I also have a 3D mouse (3DConnexion SpaceMouse Wireless) that has 6 axes of control, which struck me as being the ideal controller.

Thankfully, a program called exists which converts data coming from the mouse directly to MIDI, so communication with Ableton Live is trivial. For the bridge from computer to motion control, I used a Arduino. Having spent quite a lot time messing around with hacked USB-MIDI cables and ATMega328 chips, this thing is so easy to use. It has a native USB-MIDI mode so sending or recieving MIDI over USB is very quick to implement.

Also, the Teensy is very small, so will comfortably fit into the enclosure in place of the original PCB. I'll be CNC milling a PCB to the same dimensions to securely fasten the DIN socket, Teensy, and deal with connections to the motors. Some advantages and disadvantages to taking this approach: Advantages: - precise motion control of both axes of the pan tilt head, with independent variable speed. - wider range of speeds by using 7.4V instead of 6V, and using PWM - MIDI control allows movements to be stored as MIDI Continuous Controller data in Ableton Live or other DAW - by automating the process, I'll be able to get exactly the frame I want, so will be able to concentrate more on what's in front of the camera than behind it. Disadvantages: - bypassing on-board battery / mains power in favour of using a high capacity Li-Ion battery pack or mains means the unit will no longer be stand-alone. - the use of Pulse Width Modulation has inherent audible noise at lower speeds.

While this won't be a problem as long as external mics are used, in some situations the sound could be an issue. - by hacking the unit, its resale value could be greatly reduced, but I think it'll actually be far more useful this way! More information and documentation of this hack and my motion control rig next week.