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[DMC3551]

Sentinel Tilt Modifications

Please be forwarned, this modification is not supported by X10, at least not yet.

The way the tilt limit works on the Sentinel is as follows. As we know the head pivots up and down on the turret mounted to the base. Inside the turret there is a half moon shaped plastic gear that is actuated by a pinion. This pinion is meshed with the plastic gear to perform the tilt function.

On the side of the plastic gear is an aluminum piece of foil. You will also notice a sensor on the board right next to the pinion.  This is the tilt limit mechanism used by X10. Shorten the foil and you extend the degree of tilt. All I did was cut the foil just over a half lengthwise. This has afforded me an extra 40 degrees tilt.

The Fix:

[li]Remove the 7 black phillips screws from the bottom base.[/li][li]Once removed then find the four recessed phillips screws. Not the flat countersunk ones on the inner ring.[/li][li]Remove these screws and seperate the turret from its base. BE CARFULL TO NOT PULL THE TURRET WITH FORCE AS THE CAMERA WIRES ARE VERY TIGHT AND THEY WILL BREAK[/li][li]Turn the turret upside down and look at the half moon shaped gear. You should see the aluminum foil I mentioned before. [/li][li]Carefully remove the foil with a small, and I mean small, flat blade screw driver.[/li][li]Once removed then cut the foil, as mentioned above, and place it back. The piece of foil must be place towards the end of the gear. If the glue doesn't stick, you can also use a piece of aluminum foil duct tape cut to shape. This will actually stick a lot better than the old piece of aluminum.[/li][li]Now reassemble the unit, but do not power it yet.[/li][li]You must put the head in the 90 degrees position before powering it on. This way the sensor will pick up the foil and stop the head in the right position.[/li][/ul]

There you go, tilt is fixed. I did not look into the pan function as this was not a concern. My only concern was that I could not tilt past the 30 degree limitation. Also note that you willl still get some distortion because of the plastic dome mention in the previous posts by tjdavj.

I have done this and it works. This is not for the faint at heart as it requires a lot of manual dexterity to avoid breaking wires and postioning the turret for reassemby.

Hope this helps

DMC3551

[darkstarz]

  My first and foremost question is which direction of tilt will this affect, the upward or downward tilt? As you said, the pan function is fine, much better than on my Vangaurd even.
But my need is to increase the upward tilt by a couple of inches at the least.

  When you say to place the camera in the "90" degree position before powering it on does that mean having the lens arms straight up and down? If not could you state in reference to the arms on either side of the lens what their position would be?
  When it comes to the "glue" mentioned only at the end, is there any issues concerning the glue when removing the foil, and is this a specific type of glue in case you need to use for the foil to stick? I have not seen any foil glue myself to be honest, so I'm not sure it's something that I can find in my local area here.
  I really need to modify the "Tilt" on the camera and was hoping there'd be an easier answer to change it, but so far you are it. It's odd that I can easily move the lens up further past the set limit, use it in that position for a while, but once I tilt downward so far, then I can't go back up where I need it to go.

[Frank3d]

Larry,
I can attest to the fact that this Sentinel Tilt Modification, if done properly, works very well.  -:)I have done it on all three of my Sentinels. It raises the tilt limit about 15 to 20 degrees. The only drawback is at max elevation you will see the rim of the dome however this does not come into play if you zoom in. That's where I found this mod was most useful. When zoomed in I could not raise the tilt enough to see down the street now I can.

[darkstarz]

   I had to come to come back and get another copy of the directions, I misplaced my last copy, and yes, it does work, at least, I think it does. Hahahah! Right now I have no issues going up or down after making the "adjustments" even though I don't use the dome enclosure myself, I still needed that extra bit of height for security purposes, as well as bird watching and wildlife watching period. I have 2 camera's wired directly to the wifes computer, and a third on wireless, then I have 2 more seperate ones wired to my PC, as well as the wireless one.
   Big difference between using these and the Xcam camera's I started out with 10 yrs ago that's for sure.  These are definitely a chit load more costly, but for me and the wife, they do what we want for the most part. I just miss the sound is all.But thanks for the added positive comment Frank, it's good to see someone else has tried and had success with doing this procedure.

[petgroom]

It is a great fix, if you had taken pictures of the inside "works" it would have assisted all of us who attempts this repair.
Thank you.
 Bob

[danalee]

This works like a charm. I tried something a bit different, and I've attached links to pictures, as this forum doesn't allow direct attachments.

Open up the base of the Sentinel as mentioned with the seven screws on the bottom (Pic 1). Then you need to undo four more screws to release the base from the turret. You can only get at three of these via the access holes, so simply rotate the turret on the base to reveal the fourth screw (Pic 2). Pic 3 shows the turret separated from the base, and you can see the tilt gear in the head of the turret. Pic 4 shows the gear close up, with the foil. Instead of removing the foil, cutting it, and then replacing it, I used an X-acto knife to cut the foil while it was still on the gear, then flipped off the right half of the foil with the tip of the X-acto (Pic 5). Pic 6 shows the completed work.

I had a helluva time re-assembling everything, and I ended up cutting off the piece on the motor base that normally goes into the hole in the middle of the turret gear to get everything to fit back together, otherwise I risked damaging the photosensor that looks at the foil, which would *not* have been cool. Anyway, it all worked. Actually, I overdid it a bit, as to how much foil I removed, so I had to go back in and add about half of it back again (gluing it with a UHU or other glue stick [normally used for paper] worked like a charm.) Now I have all the tilt I need for my outdoor installation. Success!