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Home→Techniques→Making Creations→Building a Merlin or Orion Motorized Pano-head - Page 5

Building a Merlin or Orion Motorized Pano-head

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5. The TeleTrack Panoramic Head in Operation

Mounting the Camera and Setting the NPP
If you are going to use the Orion TeleTrack for high
resolution
gigapixel images of far away objects parallax won’t be as crucial an
issue. I hope to take pictures of closer objects with a wide angle
lens, so I have to get things lined up as well as possible. My first
thought was to attach my Really Right Stuff hardware. I use a
MPR-192 multi purpose rail
and mini clamps for manual single row panos and macro photography.

Aligning the camera

You
can see that it
didn’t quite line up with the axis of rotation of the head. I tried a
couple of other things, and finally mounted the camera directly to the
bar.

Aligning the camera

It clamps securely enough, but I will probably look into making a
dedicated mount once I have a better idea of my needs. I used a manual
method of NPP determination with tape on a
window, versus a
distant
house, and was ready to go.

Taking a Panorama with Papywizard
The Orion TeleTrack head gets its power from 8 x 1.5V AA batteries, or
an external 12V power source. Reportedly it will also run on as low
9 volts. A future project will be creating an external battery
pack.

Here is my checklist for taking a panorama:

  1. Orion batteries charged and installed
  2. Camera battery charged and memory installed
  3. Nokia batteries charged
  4. Tripod leveled
  5. Camera in NPP for lens
  6. Wired remote plugged in
  7. Orion turned on
  8. Camera turned on
  9. Nokia turned on
  10. Nokia bluetooth turned on
  11. Papywizard started
  12. Confirm that correct camera and lens are in Papywizard
    configuration
  13. Papywizard connected to BT device 
  14. Set starting position in Papywizard
  15. Set finish position in Papywizard
  16. Start shooting

I really do have to use this list right now, as I have forgotten each
one of those points, except 16.

I may write up something specific on Papywizard, but for now, I suggest
you rely on the official documentation. I currently use the mosaic
mode, where the software calculates the number and position of the
pictures based on the lens, start and stop points, and selected
overlap. The most awkward part of the experience is having to move the
head to set the start and stop points. It is a slow process. However,
we can save our settings as presets for use in the future. I plan on
saving a single row 360 panorama for each of the lenses I use. I can
then set up the head at the starting point and pause or cancel when I
get to whatever stopping point I feel is appropriate. This will be
faster than programming for example, a 220 degree sweep.

Chinese gardens

Still, the device is great. I was able to take several panos of 30 to
50 pictures while standing around talking to a friend. They stitched
without difficulty in AutopanoPro, allowing me to zoom and zoom into
the detail. I’d have to say that this is a very useful,
affordable platform that will only improve as it matures. My heartfelt
thanks to the folks who helped move this project to a point where even
those like me who are functionally illiterate in electronics and
computers could pull it off. For those who are even more timid than me
about taking up a soldering iron, there is hope, as a turnkey
controller is under development.

UPDATE: (November 18) The next stable version of Papywizard should let you choose your start and stop points without panning the head. You just make sure that you have set an appropriate “home” position, and go.

Resources

Comments

Building a Merlin or Orion Motorized Pano-head — 22 Comments

  1. Pingback:Cool Vid–I think this is what I’m looking for… « Cycling Experiences…

  2. I was thinking i would use my laptop be cause i want to use remote contorl software for the rebel xsi. would it work if i used a usb to ttl converter cable into a usb server on top of a 50′ pole with a usb router on the ground?

    usb server http://www.silexamerica.com/sx-2000wg.html

    usb to ttl cable http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TTL232R&Redirected=Y

    router http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1065011&CatId=2667

    would appreciate your thoughts on this

    thanks,
    chris blake

  3. This is amazing! I have a question. If I used a fish eye lens with this setup wont the shots have a portion of the orion showing in it?

  4. Milo – I use a 10.5 mm fisheye and it doesn’t catch any more of the Orion than anything else, if you have it set up correctly. Any lens setup will show the bottom (nadir) if you shoot 360 degrees. People either crop it out or shoot a nadir shot by hand and stitch it in separately. Though you might suspect that the upright would show up when using a fisheye, it doesn’t, at least for the 10.5mm. There is an example with of a stitched panorama with the Orion showing here. I use a method where I take 6 shots around at -15 degrees and the zenith or top shot.

  5. Chris – I like the pole setup idea. My main concern is Papywizard being able to resolve the Orion through the complexities of the hardware and the control software possibly conflicting. Some users are direct wiring a laptop to the orion, while others are using a bluetooth antenna to boost range, so those are also possibilities. I think you should go to the source for answers, as Papywizard v2 may have camera control, or at least picture acquisition features. Head over to the Merlin/Orion forum on Autopano.net. There are more folks over there thinking about this stuff. Also check out this thread discussing the version 2. Panning time lapse panography is another potential feature.

  6. Excellent review!

    Your trigger cable is not defective, mine is also non-conductive in the left signal section. It’s made especially for Canons though.

    I am beginning an experiment with a “Wi-Fly” wireless to serial adapter component, which will (hopefully) allow control of the Merlin over a standard WiFi network. What’s nice about the Wi-Fly is that it contains a voltage regulator on-board, so no need for power supply electronics. Together with an Eye-Fi memory card I would be able to drive the Merlin from across the street and see all photos the moment they are shot.

    Now that would be geeky, don’t you think?

  7. The cable is not defective, just a PITA. I need to have it shorted for use with the Merlin, but stereo for use as a “normal” remote. I am trying a stereo to mono 2.5mm adapter at the moment, and it seems to work. Otherwise I was going to add a switch.

    I love the “Wi Fly” possibilities! The new Papywizard has some tethered shooting functions best utilized with a PC. The only issue is that it is still focused on bluetooth. I am not a huge fan of the Eye Fi cards, since last time I looked they transmitted images to your computer via their server, which means you need internet access, not just your local network for it to work.

    I’d love to hear what you come up with.

  9. Thanks DrSlony for the Autopano link note- while I had the right link in the Resources list, I have now corrected the link in the article.

  10. Hi,

    great review and thanks for sharing.

    I am interested in how you have attached your camera, and if you indeed, managed to use your Arca-Swiss mounts (I use RRS gear as well). I am thinking of using a slightly larger camera, either Canon 1D or Nikon D3. Do you think this will pose a problem with NPP?

    thanks

    Henrik
    A Dane Down Under

  11. Thanks for the feedback. I used my RSS MPR-192 and some mini clamps for a while, but ultimately went back to using the bracket that came with the unit. In future I will need to get something machined. (A crown that I can bolt a miniclamp to and a thinner rail perhaps.) The orion/merlin has enough clearance for a D80, but getting a good NPP set up for larger cameras is impossible without major modification of the crown. If you are doing gigapans with a telephoto you can mount the camera in landscape orientation and have better luck, but you will still have issues with clearance. Anything with a vertical grip would be a headache. My recommendation would be to find a used consumer body to use for this project. Less to carry and less headaches trying to set it up.

  12. Amazing! I have been doing pano work for a couple of years and learning it all alone! so good to hear the experience of others.
    I have a Milapse head and also a mechanical pano head (Panosaurus) I waant to go robotic though because I want to do some stop motion and other things like that.

  13. It has been very interesting to watch the growth of interest in these motorised heads. While the Orion/Merlin is a good value – I have several friends who are looking into building their own machine for better accuracy and function. I think they have more fun making the contraption than taking the pictures.

  14. Hi, this is great,
    Thanks BeeZed and everybody.
    Could please please someone help me regarding the Merlin?
    I’m new to this and would like to try to remotely control the Merlin mount, on a first instance via Ethernet, then with the bluetooth.
    Can I use a simple RJ11 cable connectors and put a RJ45 to one end?
    Which connectors/colored-wires should I connect on the Ethernet plug?
    Thanks

  16. Bruno – I have no experience conrtolling the mount beyond using papywizard. AS long as you can generate serial commands, you can probably get it to work.

  17. The best information is on the Autopano forum devoted to this head, listed in the post. The commands are summarized on the Papywizard wiki. The whole point of the project is to remotely control the robot head. With a little extra hardware connection you can control the camera as well.

  18. I’m putting together one of these units, and I’ve been checking all over the place, but I haven’t been able to find out what value resistors I should use, and where they are connected on the BlueSmirf board. I know that the TX/RX pins are tied together on one side (I can see that on your picture), but are the resistors connected to the board at another point near the other end (a ground)? I sure could use a better picture!

    Thanks for all the other information. I was ready to pull the trigger on a GiggaPan and try to work around the problems. This is a much better solution (and it lets me find a use for the N810 sitting in the closet).

  19. One resistor is soldered to the RX-0 pad on the blue smirf, and the other to the TX-0 pad. They are only bent to run parallel to the board because of size constraints in my project box, so that is a little confusing. This picture does show the connection to the board (click to enlarge). The resistors are 220 ohm as listed on page 2. I hope that helps.

  20. Does anybody have a list of all the MERLIN Commands ?
    Looking for this desperatly !
    Havend found them in the Papywiki.

    Thx neix

  21. Hi, i scanned the web for a cheaper telescope head and i find this seller:

    MERLIN Panoramakopf mit Motorsteuerung

    that sell this prodoct at 159 euro.

    So i conctaced them to ask some information about it. This the reply:

    “Yes, we have Merlin for 159€ (only head, without tripod and without L-Shape).
    It is the NON-GOTO Version, you can move with 3 differently speeds, but you can not make automatically object-position.
    It is optimal as panorama-head for panoramaphotography and works together with papywithard software and BLTm-Modul. ”

    Inconclusion i would like to know if this product can be used like a teletrack orion.

    Will

    p.s. what’s it mean “non goto version”? is it compatible with this modify?

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