Kite Aerial Photography

Most of the rigs I have built up to now have been be-spoke. For RIG09 I wanted to build a rig from parts available for reasonable costs  from www.brooxes.com, www.kapshop.com, www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk, and www.gentles.ltd.uk. Initially I had intended doing this for the Nikon 8400 from RIG07 and RIG08, but since I had a functioning rig the incentive to dismantle it wasn't high.

When Ricoh produced the GX100, 24mm lens, 10Mpixel, and under 200grams that gave me the incentive to build the rig. All the features of the 8400 (although no fisheye) for half the weight. There is a 19mm converter though which should make things interesting!

So here is an opportunity to build a rig from scratch, up to now the electronics in the rigs has been mostly salvaged from one rig to another, and technology for RC receivers, video transmitters etc had moved on in the five years from 2002 to 2007!

Key components, in addition to the Ricoh GX100 camera, was this lightweight Blue Arrow RC receiver from www.micronradiocontrol.com, the R3P5-HT, 

Shutter release using one servo channel connected to gentLED-RICOH from www.gentles.ltd.uk,

360° servo control, altimeter and data logging products from www.gentles.ltd.uk,
this tiny video transmitter from www.kapshop.com, available in 10mW and 50mW for the 2.4G band,

and the highly recommended BBKK kit of mechanical parts that form the basic rig from www.brooxes.com. 

The completed rig, made from off-the-shelf parts is shown below, the table below details the parts used, and where they were bought, starting in the bottom left and working clockwise round the rig.

The 19mm wide angle adaptor fits on the front of the camera. Balance is maintained by moving the camera back, and to the left, within the bottom bracket. To facilitate this there are two holes in the bracket for the tripod mount (you can just see the white tripod screw in the picture underneath the camera), one hole for standard 24mm operation, and a second for 19mm wide angle.

part	details	from
Camera Trigger	gentLED-RICOH, connects directly between  the RC receiver and the camer USB port.	Gentles Limited
Video Transmitter	hidden on left side, but shown above	KAPshop
Altimeter and Logger	hidden on left side of rig	Gentles Limited
Battery & regulator	For compatibility with other rigs, a 5cell battery is used with a low-loss 5V regulator
Rig, Picavet & 5:1 gear	All metal parts, 5:1 pan gear reduction, continuous rotation servo, and gentX picavet cross.	KAPshop &  Brooxes
Pan servo anti-creep	gent360-PAN, Stops servo creep, & reduces speed	Gentles Limited
RC receiver aerial	Located to be as far from the video aerial as possible
Blue Arrow Receiver	35MHz RC receiver	Micron
Tilt Servo	Standard 90degree servo.

First flown in March 2008.

James Gentles May 2008 HOME PAGE KAP HOME PAGE