What I want to do
Not break my camera when it crashes to earth, especially on a rough landing from a kite mission.
My attempt and results
I've been playing with a couple variations on rigs, as part of designing a pendulum rig kit for the store.
After toying with the soda bottle rig, I wanted to try to make a simple rig that created a postive mechanical lock to the camera, using the tripod mount, but still had the give of rubber bands to protect on impact.
I came up with this basic idea:
Then I had the brainstorm of using stick legs, but asymetrically to allow the camera to "roll" and transfer energy to horizontal motion. So I stuck the dowel legs in, and played around with rigging until it also was tied in to the main suspension to give more rubber resistance and give. (that makes no sense, I know, but you'll see in a second...)
And that's it. The legs spring a bit, the camera slides down a bit, but not enough to cause impact, and the sticks transfer force back to the rubber bands at the top of the sticks. Then the whole thing rolls back and onto its little "butt" piece before rolling over.
This was a free-fall test from ~5':
Questions and next steps
Feedback please! @cfastie @pcoyle @mathew
Why I'm interested
Want to have a good model to demo before shipping the pendulum kits.
5 Comments
That's an awesome crash test. I think taking advantage of the tripod socket is a really good idea. The little tripod head you use is more than you need, but it should work well (all you need is a plate with a hole or a coat hanger wire with a loop). The leg system looks pretty effective. I would immediately add two more legs. Kites can drop and let the camera hit the ground, but more often a much safer landing can involve the camera being dragged over the ground. You can't predict which way the camera will be dragged, or even whether it will land hard at an odd angle. I have never flown a camera with so little protection, but many people do. It's probably a good idea to give beginners an easy way to surround the camera with protection.
Chris
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Tony, I looked at the note in email before I saw the comments from Chris. I like the innovative thinking. The drop test is cool
I'd second the point on using 4 legs, or camera enclosure, for the reasons Chris noted. I recall some years back Brooks Leffler of http://www.brooxes.com/newsite/HOME.html, commented on our protective measures for cameras, something like "... just learn to fly so don't crash..." Some of the KAP crowd fly cameras with little or no protection.
As alternative to the wooden legs, if wanted to surround camera with protection, looks like a juice bottle enclosure (opened up at the top) could be added to the basic idea with a hole or slot to accommodate the tripod socket screw.
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