Just got done working out most of the bugs on this design, its a 3.5" ball turret (pan and tilt) for a uav/plane. Did the work for a plane I'm building someone and thought I'd offer up some on here.
Tilt is done via an internal 9g servo, pan is done by a connection via the base to a shaft and bearing mount or a direct mount to a larger (than 9g) servo.


Any interest?

Nice! How much?

I figure something like 25 shipped for the 4 pieces.

I can print the ball as a single part if you prefer not having to glue the ball together.

Everything fits very nice and moves smoothly. That doesn't mean you can't improve things with some fine sandpaper and a little moly grease on the bearing ring though.

I'm sanding down the one in the pics and going to spray with a few coats of white, but it looks pretty nice as-is...

I have white and black PLA+ (material I recommend using for this).

This product reminds me an old RCGroup thread on a retractable camera turret project which got killed by a potential patent infringement litigation.
At that time, the 3D printers were not on the horizon for most laymen.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...-camera-turret

Yea, I ran across that read a while back.

That was nothing but a run-of-the-mil scare tactic. Easier to scare the competition early than to have them as competition when they mature. Pretty crappy way to conduct a business IMO.

I'll be getting some small parts to finish the install (camera, rotating parts), and I'll post an update video.

I'm thinking I need to check the size of the ball turret on my B-17 kit! Hmmmm......lol

Let me know the size and I can try and resize the ball. If it gets much smaller I might not be able to get a servo to fit.

You may put a 5g tilt servo.
Any plan for a retractable camera turret?

I was looking at 5g servos. But I'm worried about the long term reliability of the super tiny servos.
I will be using metal gear servos and ball bearings to keep everything as "tight" as possible for the long haul.

I am playing with the idea of retracting the ball. My current opinion is that 100% retraction of the ball is not necessary. For increased aero or protection during landing/TO/crash having 80-90% of the ball retracted is more than enough.

I was hoping to get everything into a 3 inch diameter package but the physic's are just not letting that happen. Looks like 4" diameter is the smallest I can get it down to. Good news is that at that size we can have enough room for 2x cameras (on above the other) or some other device inside the ball.
The ball will have a removable flat lens. There will be threaded brass inserts for the lens capture bolts, I don't think plastic for the threads will last for many lens removals/installs without stripping.

Current design snapshots attached.

* I know the servo is sticking out the side, these were some quick snap shots as I was moving things around for measurements.

What is the limiting factor in making a 3" ball?

its basically the size of the camera.

The run cams are pretty tall, to keep the camera lens inside the ball (and behind the protective window) the ball needs to be larger.

Now, it is possible to put the servo for the tilt (of the ball) in the base. This will raise the cost and complexity as it will require a chain or belt system.

The main goals for this project are:

1. Low cost (target is about 50$)
2. Ease of assembly and limit post processing.
3. Fit a wide variety of cameras (Basically design around the larger runcams so it will fit the smaller models for sire).

With an enclosed ball you can rotate the ball upwards and it would then be protected when landing or takeoffs. With the protective window it will protect the camera from FOD and make it much more water-proof. I can supply packs of replacement windows so after a protective widows is scratched up enough, you just swap it out.

I see it’s been awhile since this last post but didn’t see anything about it being sold. Is it still for sale?

Still working on the design. Trying to transfer it over to a composite construction. So I've been slicing it up in different ways to make molds from.

I've been paralleling this development with a 7-8 foot wingspan flying wing that I'm almost ready to start making production molds for. Basically been working on a way to make it easily mate with my wing as well as mount up easily on other aircraft.

Maybe another month or two?

Taking preorders on the ball?

Originally Posted by The.Amazing.Rob

Taking preorders on the ball?

You got the balls to ask. Sure the OP has the goods to deliver.


Seriously, this is very nice. Hope to see more pictures.