[Dan Mauch]

My partner and I are now releasing our 3D circumference scanner kits for sale. This scanner uses a common video camera such as a Sony Handycam. It uses the camcorder to record a scan of an object placed on the kit's turntable. A focusing laser line module is used to project a line over the object. But first a calibrator is used to plumb the laser line and to center the line over the center of the turntable. The object is then placed on the turntable centerline. The turntable consists of a latching relay circuit, a stepper motor, a stepper motor driver with a internal pulse generator and a LED that is used to signal that the turntable has rotated 360 degrees. The turntable is turned on and set to rotate one revolution in 45 seconds. When the protuberance on the turntable trips a microswitch, the latching relay circuit switches the LED off. When the object has rotated 360 then the turntable trips the microswitch and turns the LED back on. Meanwhile the opera! tor has recorded the calibration, and the start and stop positions as indicated by the LED. The resulting file is then loaded into a program that takes the video and creates an .avi file. This file is used to move a calibration line which then is adjusted with a slider to coincide with calibration recorded. This tells the software where the center of rotation is. The program controller is then used to move though the video with another slider control that lets you locate the exact frame where the LED when off signifying 0 degrees and then locates the frame where the light LED turns on identifying the frame that is 360' from the start. The file is then processed resulting in a raw scan data file. This file is then loaded into a second program in the kit that optimizes, builds and triangulates the data points. A surface is then created that can be rotated, tilted in any axis or direction. There are controls for patching gaps, smoothing. Best of all it will allow you to ex! port the file in any of 6 formats including STL, RAW,VRML2, XYZ ( clou d point), DXF and OBJ.
This scan process sound complicated but once you've gone through it a couple times is becomes really fast compared to various other processes that used contact type probes or cameras that you had a take a picture for every degree of resolution that you want.
I am now taking orders. The software and kits have been tested and work quite nicely. We are having the laser cut plastic parts made from the final prototypes that were tested and should have the first batch in about 7 days. The other parts are in stock. The introductory price for the first 20 kits sold is $245 plus s/h. After that the price goes up to $295.
With this kit you will be able to make 3D scans at a fraction of the cost while achieving quality comparable to some of the high end products out there.
If you have questions email me off line at [email protected]

See our web sites at www.intricad.com and www.camtronics-cnc.com

Dan Mauch
CNC since 1993
low cost stepper and servo motors.
cases for Gecko drives
kits and assembled 3-4 axis drives
www.camtronics-cnc.com
www.seanet.com/~dmauch
www.intricad.com

[ger21]

Dan, will it work with a digital camera capable of 640x480 video? I can get at least 2 minutes at a time out of my Canon S2 is.

[Dan Mauch]

Dan, will it work with a digital camera capable of 640x480 video? I can get at least 2 minutes at a time out of my Canon S2 is.

Can you get an avi file format output? If so and you have a firewire connection then it should work. The scan for roating the object only takes 45 seconds.

Dan Mauch
www.camtronics-cnc.com
www.intricad.com

[ger21]

Yes, it saves as .avi, but only has usb. Does it have to have firewire? The USB is usb2, and it's pretty fast.