Gyroscope stabilizer for binoculars

1 General

2 Project description

make.png

Problem with powerful binoculars is that they are almost unusable without tripod. High zoom factor also amplifies hand shakes.

Tripod is not convenient to carry around. Here is an attempt to design portable gyro stabilizer that has camera tripod interface. Therefore cameras and binoculars can be mounted.

make,%202.png

Old computer hard disk platters are used as rotating discs. They are attached to following disk mount:

disk%20mount%20body.png

Download:

Disk platters are fixed to disk mount using glued tightly fitting top ring:

disk%20mount%20top%20ring.png

Download:

Discs are rotated by electric motor. Motor is cooled by electric fan. Motor and fan are powered by 12V that is generated by 3 voltage upstep converters running in parallel.

schematic.png

Body: make,%201.png

FreeCAD model of the main body:

main%20body,%201.png

main%20body,%202.png

Download:

Rotating discs are covered and protected by top cover:

top%20cover.png

Bottom part of the main body has cover:

bottom%20cover.png

Download:

Camera/binoculars can be mounted on dedicated holder that is screwed on top of the cover:

binocular%20mount.png

Download:

Result:

make,%203.png

make,%204.png

3 Conclusion

Around half of the stabilizing effect already comes from extra weight that is added to binoculars by device itself. Rotating platters contribute also about as much. I had only 2 platters. I'm contemplating finding more weight to rotate, or even try with old CD/DVD disks.

Unfortunately symmetry is not perfect and small high frequency vibration is added because of that.