Quick Start

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Quick Start:

FULL HI-POD

(Please read full manual for proper safety guidelines)

You will need to be concerned with four main parts: the base, the tubes, head, and electronics.

BASE:

  • Remove the four legged base from the case
  • Lock all legs in open position
  • Use leveling bubble to balance the base

TUBES:

  • Insert tubes into base, making sure pin goes into hole at bottom of base
  • Attach handle to tubes making sure it can move (spin) without hitting the top of the base
  • Attach the LCD Bracket and LCD above the handle
  • Attach head to top of tubes (may need chair)
  • Attach the ropes coming from head to handle
  • Make sure handle cylinder and ropes from head line up on left side of HI-POD
  • Make sure ropes do not crisscross or become tangled (straight line to the head)

HEAD:

  • Attach Camera to the head, using locking screw under the plate
  • Attach small video cable, and attach small male to male pigtail
  • Now attach large video cable to this small video cable
  • Make sure to create a strain relief knot to prevent pressure on camera connections

ELECTRONICS:

  • Electrical connections at bottom
  • Take small coil cable, connect from LCD to battery
  • Take end of large cable and connect to small coil cable
  • Connect Red to Red, and Yellow to Yellow
  • Now connect the controller to the only loose connection on the large cable
  •  *You should be able to power up the camera and LCD
  • *Should have control over camera

TUBES:

  • To elevate the tubes start from the top thinnest tubes
  • Hold the pole above the collar, loosen the camlock by pulling it horizontal (open position)
  • Push the tube up to desired height
  • Close collar (make the camlock vertical = closed position)
  • Repeat above steps for remaining collars (do not exceed above white line marker)

Safety Note: Make sure to always hold the tube before opening the collar. If you open the collar without holding the above tube, then tube can shoot down…possibly pinching your finger and damaging the camera electronics.

MOBILE HI-POD

Handle, monitor similar to full HI-POD assembly, but base is different

  • Open both collars on mobile base plate
  • Insert tubes into mobile base plate
  • Lock bottom collar to secure tubes to mobile base plate
  • Tighten top collar to add stability according to your preference
  • Attach the head (use included Allen Key)
  • Attach LCD Bracket and LCD to tubes (at eye level)
  • Attach handle below LCD Bracket
  • Make sure handle cylinder and ropes from head line up on left side of HI-POD
  • *Same tube elevation instructions as full HI-POD
  • *Electronics are same as full HI-POD (exception: instead of long straight cable, Mobile HI-POD uses a large coil cable that expands/contracts)

Converting Large HI-POD to Mobile HI-POD

  • The large HI-POD has six telescoping tubes
  • The top three tubes are used in the Mobile HI-POD
  •  Take the Allen Key and loosen the third collar from the top of the large HI-POD
  • Each collar has two screws – the camlock and the screw beneath it (we’re talking about the screw beneath the camlock) You might need a set of pliers to hold the nut of the screw
  • When you remove the screw it loosens the grip on the lower tube allowing you to remove the top three tubes and collar from the lower HI-POD tube stages
  • Now, take top three tubes and insert into mobile base plate

The rest of the process is the same as with Mobile HI-POD

ROBOTIC HEAD

There are two ways to mount the robotic head

  • Directly to top of tubes
  • Or, cantilevered out from tubes

Directly to top of tubes:

  • Screw large silver gear into the top spud of tubes (two screw points)
  • Attach yoke head mechanism directly through center of the gear with large 8mm screw,
  • Use washers above and below the yoke mechanism, as it attaches to the gear
  • Attach bottom bracket and motor to head mechanism
  • Three screws will bolt the motor bracket to the bottom of the head mechanism
  • Line up the spur gear so that the teeth fall in line with the larger gear
  • To tighten the space between the spur gear and the big gear, use set screw
  • When mounting bottom motor bracket, make sure teeth of spur gear and large gear line up
  • To tighten the grip of the two locking gears use set screw on front of yoke mechanism to increase or reduce the distance between the teeth
  • Now mount motor bracket and motor gear to top of head
  • This motor controls the tilt of the camera plate and camera
  • Mount all four screws of motor bracket to the stainless steel plate
  • Make sure the teeth of the spur gear and the large gear line up
  • To tighten, use set screw at top of yoke to increase or reduce distance between gear teeth
  • The bottom motor controls the panning, the top motor controls the tilting

Video and Power Cables

  • Attach t-bar to side of head yoke mechanism
  • Mount cable box to small metal plate
  • Attach that small metal plate to the t-bar
  • Connect cables (motor to motor cables, video and lens control cables to camera)
  • Now connect cat5 cables to small cable box that is now connected to t-bar
  • Connect other end of cat5 cables to the opposite cable box on robot laptop plate
  • This cable box also has a small plate, and that small plate is connected to the robot laptop plate
  • Use the strain relief devices in front of laptop plate to secure cat5 cable
  • Take small cable box cables and connect to robot pan-tilt controller
  • Notice that these items can be connected on left side or right side of robot laptop plate
  • Now, mount your LCD to center of laptop plate (exact same way as on other HI-POD items)
  • Connect HI-POD battery pack to LCD with small coil cable
  • Take video cables from the small cable box and connect to the small coil cable
  • Snap your lens controller to plate and connect cable to small cable box
  • Turn LCD on

Test

  • View image on LCD and check if lens control and motor controls are working
  • For robot controller use your thumb on thumb joystick
  • Move joystick left and right to move head left and right
  • Move joystick up and down to tilt camera up and down
  • Learn to use all three together: zoom, tilt, and pan together
  • Watch on LCD

Enjoy!

Cantilevered Robotic Head

  • When using indoors, the HI-POD tubes are mounted to a wall
  • Use Allen key to remove the bottom bearing piece from tubes (make tubes level with floor)
  • Use the two included brackets (& cement screws) to mount tubes to wall
  • *screws and brackets can be easily mounted and removed (receiving part of screw countersinks into wall, making it easy to attach and remove tubes and also leaving no external pieces)
  • The robot must be cantilevered so that it does not hit the wall when rotating
  • Instead of mounting the bottom gear directly to the bottom of the tube spud there is an 8inch rod that is connected directly to the top spud of the tubes
  • At the end of that rod, the bottom gear and yoke mechanism are attached

Process is same as above