camera slider

Most accurate way - a Length of MakerSlide and a Carriage Plate with 4 V-Wheels (one of which is eccentric for tension adjustment), 2 GT2 Pulleys, and a stepper motor.  Then its a simple basic Arduino Uno or any AVR really to drive the stepper up and down etc.

http://www.makerslide.com/

Less reliable/accurate/stable versions would be the same methodology, but replacing the makerslide with a printer makerslide segment, the carriage with a printed carriage, etc etc.

There is plenty of how-to's on building Camera Sliders for TimeLapse stuff - any of these in a vertical orientation will function the same. You just need to make sure you have enough torque in the selected motor to support the Kinect.

Not really. There is a ton of camera-slider and/or tracker projects around that you could just repurpose using arduinos and makerslide... you could just piggyback onto their work.

Otherwise, its a straightforward Arduino problem. How do you want to control the camera ? have it start at the bottom, travel up to a limit switch, and then stop... its a couple of lines of code and using the arduino stepper library. Ton of useful info on arduino.cc - really all you want to do is drive a stepper and have it respond to the state of two limit switches, and some sort of 'go' button or command via serial.

Here  is an example of someone in the same boat - home built slider and their very first arduino project. They kindly stuck all their build details and code and software over at http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showt … hp?t=75956 .....

A google search of "DIY Camera Slider Arduino" should turn up about 101 projects... where its horizontal, you simply stand it vertical....

It wont have anywhere near the smoothness of a linear rail (will be jerky and cause alignment issues with images) - when taking images, even a small 'jerk' can change the entire image pain...
Its also pretty pricey for what it would achieve compared to using an arduino and your existing makerslide.

As far as I can tell - everything you need to know and do is right there in http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showt … hp?t=75956  - you dont even need to make the linear rail like he did since you have makerslide already ?

But if you are real keen to spend money, forget repurposing window sliders and the like (wont be anywhere near smooth enough) just step up to doing it properly. Igus sells these kits for a living, and they sell both diy kits and commercial kits. http://www.friedhelm-fischer.de/camera- … -tutorial/ .

Me personally - you have 99% of what you need already - all you need to do is spend an afternoon reading http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showt … hp?t=75956 and you'd have it built already

update
OK I have all the parts on order , arduino uno  , stepper motor driver and stepper motor.From this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCyGM2Tp37w]  I am going to use the same code as he did. I emailed the user and he replied with  the code so that I could just copy and paste it. Thanks adrian for the "Push"

Are there any Arduino gurus out there?  I am trying to  use this sketch

//. Motor driver shield- 2012 Copyright (c) Seeed Technology Inc.
//
//  Original Author: Jimbo.we
//  Contribution: LG
// 
//  This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
//  modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
//  License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
//  version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
//
//  This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
//  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
//  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
//  Lesser General Public License for more details.
//
//  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
//  License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
//  Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA

int pinI1=8;//define I1 interface
int pinI2=11;//define I2 interface
int speedpinA=9;//enable motor A
int pinI3=12;//define I3 interface
int pinI4=13;//define I4 interface
int speedpinB=10;//enable motor B
int spead =127;//define the spead of motor

void setup()
{
  pinMode(pinI1,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(pinI2,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(speedpinA,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(pinI3,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(pinI4,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(speedpinB,OUTPUT);
}

void forward()
{
     analogWrite(speedpinA,spead);//input a simulation value to set the speed
     analogWrite(speedpinB,spead);
     digitalWrite(pinI4,HIGH);//turn DC Motor B move clockwise
     digitalWrite(pinI3,LOW);
     digitalWrite(pinI2,LOW);//turn DC Motor A move anticlockwise
     digitalWrite(pinI1,HIGH);
}
void backward()//
{
     analogWrite(speedpinA,spead);//input a simulation value to set the speed
     analogWrite(speedpinB,spead);
     digitalWrite(pinI4,LOW);//turn DC Motor B move anticlockwise
     digitalWrite(pinI3,HIGH);
     digitalWrite(pinI2,HIGH);//turn DC Motor A move clockwise
     digitalWrite(pinI1,LOW);
}
void left()//
{
     analogWrite(speedpinA,spead);//input a simulation value to set the speed
     analogWrite(speedpinB,spead);
     digitalWrite(pinI4,HIGH);//turn DC Motor B move clockwise
     digitalWrite(pinI3,LOW);
     digitalWrite(pinI2,HIGH);//turn DC Motor A move clockwise
     digitalWrite(pinI1,LOW);
}
void right()//
{
     analogWrite(speedpinA,spead);//input a simulation value to set the speed
     analogWrite(speedpinB,spead);
     digitalWrite(pinI4,LOW);//turn DC Motor B move anticlockwise
     digitalWrite(pinI3,HIGH);
     digitalWrite(pinI2,LOW);//turn DC Motor A move clockwise
     digitalWrite(pinI1,HIGH);
}
void stop()//
{
     digitalWrite(speedpinA,LOW);// Unenble the pin, to stop the motor. this should be done to avid damaging the motor.
     digitalWrite(speedpinB,LOW);
     delay(1000);

}

void loop()
{
  left();
  delay(2000);
  stop();
  right();
  delay(2000);
  stop();
// delay(2000);
  forward();
  delay(2000);
  stop();
  backward();
  delay(2000);
  stop();
}

with a 6 rpm gear motor.All it does is move CW and CCW about a quarter revolution. I have read all the docs on it but can't  find what to change to make it run like I want (6 rpm CW and 6 rpm CCW. It's being used on an Adruino Uno and Seeed motor shield.

Oh man, that would bug me that speed is misspelled everywhere except for in the comments.

Find & replace all spead-> speed