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Qirab™ Digitisation Column - QDC100 & QDC150

An open-source motorized vertical column camera support design for imaging maunscripts and fragile books

    Introduction

    The Qirab™ Digitisation Column (QDC100 & QDC150) is an 100cm or 150cm tall open-source motorized vertical column camera support specifically designed for use while imaging manuscripts and fragile books.

    It provides a stable, safe, and adjustable camera platform to facilitate precise imaging when used in combination with the Qirab Conservation Cradle QCC50 as a manuscript support.

    Qirab™ Digitisation Column (QDC100)

    Qirab released the design under a Creative Commons license for anyone to download and construct their own QDC from common materials and 3D printed parts.

    Qirab™ Digitisation Column (QDC100) horizontal camera slide adjustment

    As a complement to the QDC, Qirab developed a Manuscript Digitisation Workflow and tested it as part of a manuscript preservation & digitisation case study at the Academy of Arabic Language in Cairo, Egypt.

    The successful two-year testing of the Qirab ideas culminated in the academy’s 61 manuscripts being made available on Archive.org.

    Design

    The design of the QDC design was conceived with manual manuscript Digitisation in mind.

    Qirab™ Digitisation Column (QDC100) imaging a manuscript

    Key features of the Qirab™ Digitisation Column include:

    • 100 cm or 150cm vertical camera column
    • Motorized vertical movement with 0.5 mm increments
    • Safety stop switches at top and bottom. (The height of the lower switch can be adjusted to insure the camera does not touch the object being imaged.)
    • Manual horizontal camera positioning
    • Adjustable feet
    • Height reference ruler
    • 3D printable MX keycaps

    Qirab™ Digitisation Column (QDC100) control buttons

    Materials

    The QDC is built from commodity and open source materials which should be available in most places.

    Qirab™ Digitisation Column (QDC100) Arduino microcontroller and stepper motor driver

    The major components include:

    A full bill-of-materials is included with the design download.

    Download

    The CAD designs, 3D printable files, Bill of Materials, and Assembly Instructions for how to build the Qirab™ Digitisation Column QDC100 & QDC150 are available on the Qirab Github.

    QDC ZIP File Download

    Qirab™ Conservation Cradle CAD X-ray view

    We are open to including community improvements or tool designs in future versions of the Qirab™ Digitisation Column.

    License

    The Qirab™ Digitisation Column (QDC100 & QDC150) design is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Creative Commons License