Nikon D80 AuRiCo rig

Once I knew my kites could lift the SLR it was time to add some AuRiCo.

This rig was to be another limited pan, manual tilt style, which involved some very simple shed tinkering.

Just had to bend up some aluminium as a pan bolt bracket and rivet it on to the top U. This bracket steadies the pan bolt which is no longer solidly fixed to the top U but rotates.

The bracket also acts as the pan servo mount so I had to think about how far away from the pan bolt the servo needed to be positioned. That distance depends on the thickness of the servo and which gear cogs are used.

Nikon D80 SLR AuRiCo autoKAP rig - 1195g

To keep the rig as simple and light as possible I used velcro and rubber bands to hold the AuRiCo and batteries on.

As the pan servo is only rotating the rig it doesn't need to be too big or securely bolted on. I started with a Futaba S3003 but ended up using Turnigy 380MG stuck on with double sided tape and cable ties. Although the servo is moving over 1kg of camera and rig there is a lot of give in the picavet suspension setup.

You can see in this video how the load transfer from servo to rig is quite spongey which reduces strain on the servo. The servo moves the picavet on its lines first then the rig swings around.

Nikon D80 KAP shots

KAP rigs - autoKAP

AutoKAP rigs move in a pre-programmed way without any input from the kite flyer. Unlike the RC rig you can fly the kite and just let the autoKAP unit control the camera movements.

There are a few autoKAP electronic modules available but I use AuRiCo (Automatic Rig Control) by Peter Engels, another clever KAP electronics inventor. Using 10 dip switches you can pre-program tilt, pan, shutter function (and CHDK USB input) The AuRiCo unit replaces the RC receiver.

In normal use you would need a continuous pan servo, a normal tilt servo and maybe a shutter servo (if you don't have an intervalometer) You can select the time of pan rotation (0.2 to 1.3 sec. Your gearing then determines the angle of panning) and the interval between movements (5 to 240 sec) and the number of tilt movements (0 to 4 tilts from 0º to 70º down)

So you could set the rig to - shoot, tilt down to 15º, shoot, tilt down to 45º, shoot, tilt down to 70º, shoot, pan for 0.4sec and tilt back up to 0º and keep repeating. This covers all angles but most of the time I like to target a specific view.

Canon S100 AuRiCo pan rig - 400g

So the way I use it is to plug an un-altered pan servo into the tilt socket giving me a 4 shot repeating pan. With 4:3 gearing the rig pans through 90º.

The chassis in this photo is 25mm x 1.6mm aluminium. I have since changed to 20mm al and done away with the AuRiCo case to bring the weight down to 400g.

I have found with my manual rig that aiming can be off and I often miss the target.

This panning rig gives me a much greater chance of capturing the intended target and allows the possibility of panoramas.