3D Printed Basic Pan & Tilt Systems ...

Hi,  I've come to find I can design and build a lot of my own robot parts 'n pieces and a very common part is the basic Pan&Tilt bracket

Of course I had to expand on the basic Pan&Tilt too ... this is to allow it to spin 360° yet Pan&Tilt in its servo restricted zone. 

The design is pretty easy with SolidWorks ... I lay down the bottom side first ... then added the two servo connector arms and then usng the "slot" tool I created the generic mounting holes ... 3mm dia. and the center line is 1mm so the slot ends up being 4mm long ... this allows for all the different variations of "standard size" hobby servos to fit. 

Next step is the back flange ... rather than being the same height as the mounting fingers I choose to save plastic and made it a little shorter ... that is only 5mm from the edge of the holes to the top.  This also helps to make the printing go faster and saves a few pennies. 

The holes there 3mm dia. and are for mounting a servo arm bracket ... basically a "U" shaped bracket for mounting things on ... such as a Ping, or IR Range Finder, or camera etc...

Next is cutting out the two 10mm diameter bottom bores to allow for a servo horn to be mounted flush with the bottom. 

The last step is to use the "Fillet" tool to round off all the edges and corners ... this also helps to save material, time and another penny or two. 

The design is also available for sheet metal ... it's a copy of the first brackets I bought at one of my favorite robot supplies shops "http://www.Lynxmotion.com" ... check them out ... they have a lot of useful robotics for the home hobby Roboteer ...


Here is a link to the file;
www.brainless.org/OPEC/MultiMedia/OtherStuff/5mm2ServoPan&Tilt.STL

This is the print step ... I found printing with the largest side down works best ... 

As you can see in the images that I also did this with aluminum ... those parts were water-jet cut and I did the bending myself.  They work great!

The .STL files will be posted asap ...