Automated Turntable for 3D Scanning

In order to assist with 3D scanning objects, Travis Antoniello made an excellent rig that not only rotates his the objects in question, but triggers a Nikon D3200 camera remotely.

The turntable implements an Arduino Uno for control, along with an EasyDriver board, causing a stepper motor to rotate 10 degrees per shot. After rotation, the device waits for a set amount of time for the model to settle down and the camera’s shutter to fully close, then goes on to the next frame until the digital “materials” for a very accurate model are generated. Camera activation is handled by an infrared LED, and a status LED adds feedback to make sure that everything is working correctly.

The non-electrical parts of the build are 3D-printed, and due to the base’s size, it had to be broken down into multiple parts because of cooling issues. While Antoniello freely admits that getting the entire base 3D-printed might have been overkill. However, it appears to work really well, as evidenced by the scanned object at the end of the overview video below. Code and a few more project details can be found on GitHub, and 3D-printed components are on Thingiverse.

[h/t: Reddit]