Any way to speed-up Ninja Pan?

[steinie]

Is there any way to speed-up the pan rate
and scan rate of the Ninja Camera mount? It
is too slow for me Would like about 1 or 2
seconds to turn 180 degrees.

[tom]

I believe it is slow so as not to show the
inhereint lag of the cameras.

[diane]

Camera lag doesn't matter if you're
panning and/or tilting 180 degrees in 1 or
2 seconds! Video at the stop positions is
the video of interest. Anyone, help us
speed these mothers up!!!!!

[Tuicemen]

Increasing the voltage to the pan&tilt will speed it up!

Problem is the pan&tilt uses the same power supply as the cam!

If you ran a different supply to your cam you could find another walwart with higher voltage output for your pan&tilt which would speed things up!

If someone has a variable power supply and willing to test they could experiment and post results of different voltages!

Warning: to high a out put will fry the motor!

[Brian H]

Another thing is the plastic gears in them. More speed may strip them as some have reported stripped gears with even normal speeds.

[tjdavj]

steinie:

Would like about 1 or 2 seconds to turn 180 degrees.

I haven't even seen $3000+ PTZ cameras that could pan 180 degrees in 2 seconds! Power and control requirements for this would be extremely costly to implement.

What is the output voltage of the the Ninja power supply, or does it run off of the camera's supply?

The Ninja base looks very much like the VK77A Vanguard base, although they may be different internally. It would be interesting to find out if they are the same.
I have some pics of the P/T assy. of the Vanguard , and will post them if anyone is interested in comparing it to the Ninja internals.
The VK77A Vanguard's power supply is 15vdc @ 500ma.

[BFD]

Another thing is the plastic gears in them. More speed may strip them as some have reported stripped gears with even normal speeds.

I don't know about stripped gears.  That seems highly unlikely.  Broken gears, yes.
See From http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=11186.0 for a solution.
You can find replacement steel gears at http://h1071118.hobbyshopnow.com/services/advanceresultsDetail.asp?strProd=RRP0120&strSearchType=ALL&strInCategory=ALL&strInManufacturer=ALL&tag=qsrch

[TrinityEB]

steinie:
The Ninja base looks very much like the VK77A Vanguard base, although they may be different internally. It would be interesting to find out if they are the same.
I have some pics of the P/T assy. of the Vanguard , and will post them if anyone is interested in comparing it to the Ninja internals.
The VK77A Vanguard's power supply is 15vdc @ 500ma.

I would like to see the P/T assembly pics of the Vanguard if yo still have access to them.  I'm planning on dismantling mine so I can see about modding the internal antenna that receives RF signals from the CR15A remote.  Are there any concerns or "gotchas" that I should know about before attempting to dismantle my Vanguard?

BTW:  Pics from the Ninja assembly can be found here:  http://www.lunaseamedia.com/upload/x10-mods/ninja_base.html

Thanks,

Frank.

[enauman]

I looked at the motor manufacturer's website and the part number on the Ninja motors indicates it is a stepper motor.  Increasing the voltage would only fry it.  There are 2 basic ways to increase the speed of a stepper: 1.) change the software or 2.) increase the clock speed of the microcontroller.  Increasing the clock speed can affect the timing of the x10 message decoding scheme at some point.  If someone at X10 is willing to give up the software in the microcontroller, I can write a modified program that will speed up the scan rate.  If you can talk someone at X10 into giving out the code, I will write a program for you for free.

Ed

[dellzip]

I believe it is slow so as not to show the
inhereint lag of the cameras.

Thats what I had thought, if its to fast it will show lag