Cheapo Leadscrew with minimum accuracy requirement!

Vikash the idea was not meant to be manual bu utilise a stepper at one end, the wire would be your leadscrew in effect

Just looked at hat link and the track they are using is 'IGUS' linear rail. You can use that and still use the wire method which would do away with the need to mount extra gearing and would run smooth.

hi vikash, not sure what happend to my post... 701HDV ill assume your using a pretty tubby camera on that, a builders level would be all over the place with that much weight on it, if you tend to film indoors then building a heavy rig isnt to much of a problem... if you go on solo missions out and about though i wouldnt right off the toothed belt or wire option, maybe even 2mm dyneema, it will help you keep the weight way down,, i was also thinking of rebuilding mine using two carbon tubes for rails (most of my stuff is in the mountains) maybe 15 or 20mm OD
ps: if you do give the rc servos a try you need to remove the feedback pot gear to get the servo to run endlessly in what ever direction or speed you dail in

have you got any of your work on vimeo?

A modification of the zazaslider shouldn't be too difficult or expensive. The major expense is the Igus guides
There's a vimeo group and youtube footage on this.

I have a Glidetrack which is based on the Igus slider. In short I'm here because of that - and the need of something sturdier with finer and repeatable control. I don't think it's worth hacking it to motorize it somehow, mostly because of its cost. And it does have a place where portability is a concern (and cost in the commercial world).

However I find it lacking for product shots where smoothness and consistent speed is more of a priority. It's not nearly sturdy/controllable enough for vertical sliding shots (when mounted as intended on a tripod).

I have since purchased a 16mm ballscrew/nut (5mm pitch), a (geared) 300rpm 12v DC motor, and a PWM control board to control it's speed and direction. I plan to make a MDF carriage (simple U shape) sitting on a narrower U shape guide for initial tests. I'm just trying to figure out how best to support the ballscrew. BK12 / BF12 supports are overkill.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Nothing on vimeo yet. I may upload some shots later on... I did toy with using RC servos as I have a few laying around. I didn't quite get my head around the controller required though and what it would allow exactly, although I might have another look into it.

What sort of weight constraint do you have?
(I'm assuming this is the major consideration for a portable device)

Well, we're not talking about time critical capture here, so the ease of moving it around is low in priority. As long as one person could move/set-up, I would guess up to 20kg wouldn't be unreasonable.

For any non-product or real-time videography where actual portability is required, like any social event or a wedding for example, it would be glidetrack all the way.