Homework 5: Packaging Specifications and Design
September 30th, 2004
Group No. 1
David Recktenwald
Introduction
Our group’s project for this semester is an infrared tracking camera. Upon completion, the camera will have the ability to track a moving object using an infrared camera and a mount that has the ability to pan and tilt. The device is made up of six major physical components: two servo motors, a camera, a microprocessor, an image grabber card, and a power supply. These components must be packaged in a manner that is useful but also appealing to the “consumer” that this product is being targeted towards.
The most sensible way to package this product is in two separate parts: a mount that can tilt and pan for the camera to rest upon, and a circuit box which will shield the microprocessor, image grabber, power supply, and all internal wiring. Research was done on existing commercial products with packaging similar to ours, and after carefully examining the products strengths and weaknesses a unique package of our own could be designed.
Analysis
Since the design of the circuit box will be fairly trivial, the main area of research was finding a suitable design for the pan/tilt camera mount. Two commercial products similar to our needs were analyzed: the WC-003-000 Camera Pan and Tilt System(1) and the Lynx A - Pan and Tilt Kit (2). Each kit was designed to be a platform that will pan and tilt a small PCB camera or webcam.
The WC-003-000 Camera Pan and Tilt System was the first kit analyzed and fit our needs very closely. The unit consists of two small servo motors (the sub-micro HS-55 and the Deluxe HS-322) and aluminum brackets. The more powerful of the two motors acts as the base and on it rests a bracket that can pan side to side. On top of the panning bracket rests a smaller servo connected to yet another bracket that can tilt up and down. The construction of this mount is very sturdy, yet simple. Due to the larger size of our camera (4) the top platform must be larger in our design (about 4” x 6”) and a stronger servo motor for tilting must be used. The WC-003-000 Camera Pan and Tilt System is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: WC-003-000 Camera Pan and Tilt System
The Lynx A - Pan and Tilt Kit is a smaller kit and the platforms are constructed out of Lexan. Two small hobby servo motors are also used for the movement of the platform. The area of the mount on this unit is much too small for our application (about 2” X 2”) and therefore the design would need to be changed drastically to suit our needs. The Lynx A kit is much more visually appealing to the eye than the WC-003-000 kit but its small size makes it highly impractical. The Lynx A kit is shown in figure 2.
Figure 2: Lynx A - Pan and Tilt Kit
Our final design for the pan/tilt mount for our camera closely resembles the WC-003-000 kit due to its ease of construction and sturdiness. The servo motors we are using are higher torque models (Model CS-59) with a low profile package, which is beneficial is making the size of the mount as small as possible. The top platform will be expanded to 4” x 6” to accommodate our larger camera. The aluminum bracket construction was chosen over the Lexan due to the ease of construction.
The camera mount should be fairly simple to construct. A small sheet of 0.25” aluminum (about 1’ x 1’) is all the raw material needed to build the brackets. The aluminum is easy to cut and drill, and with the tools available to us in the Mechanical Engineering labs construction should only take a few hours. Small nuts and bolts purchased from a local hardware store will securely mount the motors to the brackets and the motors themselves come with some simple mounting hardware. Our design for the tilt/pan camera mount is shown in figure 3.
Figure 3: Our tilt/pan camera mount
The last major part of the package to be designed is the circuit box. Our image grabber card (6) and microprocessor (3) would take up a large amount of space on the camera mount, and therefore need to be stored elsewhere. An external box aides in keeping the camera as low-profile as possible, a necessity for a device used in some sort of security application. The box will be fairly simple: constructed of the same aluminum as the camera mounts and just large enough to hold the image grabber, microprocessor and power supply. At the time of this report the power supply had not yet been designed and therefore the actual size of the circuit box has yet to be decided. If a 2’ x 2’ sheet of aluminum is purchased, it should be more than enough to construct both the brackets and the circuit box. The circuit box is shown in figure 4.
Figure 4: Circuit Box for Infrared Tracking Camera
The final package weight and cost are calculated in figures 5 and 6, respectively. It is important to note that the power supply is not considered in the weight and cost calculations due to having not been designed yet. The power supply should not be too expensive to construct, and its weight is not generally a problem as it will be stored in the external circuit box, separate from the actual camera mount.
The weight was somewhat difficult to estimate due to some of the smaller circuit components not having a listed weight in their data sheet, so each were estimated at a few ounces. The final weight came in at 27.2 ounces, just under two pounds. The light weight of our design makes it very practical, especially since the camera/mount itself will weigh under one pound, therefore making it easy to mount just about anywhere.
The final cost of production will be about $300 with all packaging included. This seems very expensive, but similar products to our infrared tracking camera sell from about $500 to $2000. Once complete, our fully functional infrared tracking camera will be a novel idea at a novel price; imagine being able to track an intruder moving through your house for around $300.
Major Component List (Weight)Part / Vendor / Part Number / Unit Weight / Quantity / Total Cost
Microcontroller / RABBIT / RCM3100 / ~ 2 oz. / 1 / 2 oz.
Infrared Camera / Circuit Specialists, Inc / LEE162AAL / ~ 6 oz. / 1 / 6 oz.
Servo Motors / Hobbico / LM2806 / 1.24 oz. / 2 / 2.48 oz.
Image Grabber / Digital Creation Labs, Inc / uCFG / $149.00 / 1 / 2 oz.
2’ x 2’ Sheet Aluminum / AircraftSpruce.com / 03-27760 / $8.38 / 1 / 14.72 oz.
Total / 27.2 oz.
Figure 5: Package Weight
Major Component List (Cost)Part / Vendor / Part Number / Unit Cost / Quantity / Total Cost
Microcontroller / RABBIT / RCM3100 / $65 / 1 / $65.00
Infrared Camera / Circuit Specialists, Inc / LEE162AAL / $29 / 1 / $29.00
Servo Motors / Hobbico / LM2806 / $24.99 / 2 / $49.98
Image Grabber / Digital Creation Labs, Inc / uCFG / $149.00 / 1 / $149.00
Sheet Aluminum / AircraftSpruce.com / 03-27760 / $8.38 / 1 / $8.38
Total / $300.36
Figure 6: Package Cost
References:
- The WC-003-000 Camera Pan and Tilt System
- The Lynx A - Pan and Tilt Kit
- Rabbit RCM3100 Microcontroller
- Infrared Camera - LEE162AAL
- CS-59 Servo Motors
- Image Grabber Card