Stepper to Camera - Universal mounting plates

A set of mounting plates and low profile modular dovetail adapters for attaching a range of cameras to a NEMA 17 Stepper Motor. Ostensibly for the purpose of creating a single axis gyro stabilised mount for all standard cameras. The 90 degree dovetails allow you to adjust the mount to adjust the axis of the lens to that of the motor, to avoid a swinging motion (or to add one, if that's your preference).

Inspired by Derek Leiber's awesome gyro mount for the Contour (http://www.revenanteagle.org/checksix/gyrocam/), I decided I wanted one that works on any camera up to small DSLRs, to this purpose I'm moving up to a NEMA11/17 stepper motor for extra torque, and building it as a universal system that could be used for other purposes, like automated panoramas.

Stepper motors are a bit jerky compared to servos so you'll ideally want a 1/16 microstepping driver like the Pololus used by the RepRap project. A 400 step (0.9 degree) motor should then yield a resolution of 6400 steps over the whole rotation. If this still proves to be too jerky a geared down stepper motor could easily be adapted (and provide even more torque).