Can anyone comment as to the tolerance of the rails and disks within the enclosures?
I’m wanting to mount machine vision cameras which, once calibrated, absolutely can not move within the enclosures.
Do the rails and disks sit snug against the internal wall of the enclosure or would there need to be some extra component or a slightly larger made disk to stop any lateral movement?
I’m assuming the rails have some amount of clearance between the wall, so potentially a spacer block wuold be required to stop them from moving.
Has anyone managed to alter the disks in order to fit 4 rails for extra rigidity?
I’m leaning towards custom printing ,slightly modified disks, that would contact the enclosure radially at each axis and will accept a 4 rails setup.
Hi @Proteus_Subsea -
The rails securely bolt to the flange. Neither the rails nor anything mounted to them touch the walls of the enclosure - this is because the ID along the length of the tube is larger than the ID of the sealing surface at either end!
By machine vision camera, do you mean stereo camera?
If the rails are bolted to one flange, and have a plate or disc between them, they are quite rigid. Using 4 rails could increase this further - attaching a 3D printed disc to this arrangement seems trivial. However you will not be able to make the rails/discs contact the inner diameter, as then you won’t be able to insert the assembly into the tube, past the sealing surface!
I think you’ll find 2 rails with a standard plate or disc plenty rigid enough, but without knowing what tolerances you can tolerate that’s impossible to say…
Hi Tony,
Thanks for the info.
Yes it’s for a stereo pair in dome ports so the tolerance for movement is quite literally zero. I’ll have one camera per housing, so there’s more to go wrong than with a flat port stereo pair in one housing. They need to not move within the focal point of the domes and also not move relative to each other.
I think then, I’ll go with custom printed discs that will take 4 rails, and some means of locking them in place radially. 4 adjustable screws that extend to contact the ID of the housing, should suffice.
I’ll let you know how I get on once I’ve put them together.
Cheers
Hi @Proteus_Subsea -
I have no idea how you’d reach those screws that extend to contact the ID - I’d recommend against that as unnecessary or requiring of insanely tiny hands!
From my experience with stereo cameras, any misalignments calibrate out pretty well, but the orientation does need to stay consistent. I’d be more concerned with holding the enclosures externally securely than the internal components! 4 rails seems like overkill - they really are quite stiff on their own, and rock-solid once tied together with a mounting plate.
Me neither.. some sort of spring loaded quarter turn pin. springs make the contact then a quarter turn locks the pin. I havn’t got that far!
If the rails alone are rigid enough, perhaps I’m over complicating. We shall see.
And yes, fully agree that calibration can remove misalignments, but movement whilst operating is a different thing.
As for externals. Plate bracket and 2 clamps per housing.. Nothing fancy, just solid. Vibration dampener between the plate and the sub.