Time-lapse rail kit for Nikon

Apologies for my absence but I've switched gears and I'm now working at a break-neck pace to finish a rail kit by Christmas break for my girlfriend. I'm designing 100% of the printed parts from scratch in Autodesk Fusion 360 rather than pulling from Thingiverse or similar. I expect that the extrusion parts will be sitting at my P.O. box today.

Assumptions/requirements/design:
* 6' wide
* Able to work at various heights on each end
* Battery power to run for at least two 1-1/2 hour sessions
* Self-contained and backpack-able
* Fits either Nikon (D3200 and D750) to include the shutter-release mechanism
* LCD-based menu (Raspberry Pi 3 plus PiTFT)
* Most bolts will be 6-32 aluminum since I bought a big box of these from Actobotics/Servocity
* The 2' sections of extruded 80-20 will need to be connectable but also to break down to be packed
* Rather than a pair of rails, I'll be attempting to do all this with one and embedding the belt inside a channel

The ball joint with bolt is printed in carbon fiber—infused PLA from Shaxon for the strength. If you zoom in, you might be able to see the knurling on the dial-lock at the top. It fits perfectly and the ball joint has the rigidity to hold the camera without sliding. I think I'll print and bring a spare ball joint because this just looks like the weak link to me. The wedge part below that printed together with the ball clip above that in one go, aligned upright on the printer. I'm really pleased at how well the ball clip works on my first attempt at this, as well as the threaded ball-bolt combination.

 

Continuing to work at a break-neck speed on this. The Raspi case is completed as well as the battery compartment. The (many) rail connectors are now done as well as the guide channels for the timing belt @ 6'. Pretty sure I have all the parts I'll need now except for a pair of tripods and the remaining plastic parts for the rail followers and the stepper mount.

 

Apologies that I don't have any pictures of the latest work but I've now got the end tripods and the related mounts for those: the rail is off the ground.

So the upper body assembly looks reasonably done and I've gotten the bearings and axles for those all ready. I'm working on the struts which hold the bearing/axle assemblies and then holds up the top parts and the stepper.