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Bescor MP-101 camera pan/tilt head with Arduino question

Hello, I'm trying to figure out the best way to control a Bescor MP-101 camera head with an arduino. I want to use PWM to control the speed of each axis.

The head comes with a controller that you can use to manually rotate the unit left and right as well as manually tilt up and down. The controller plugs into a the unit via a 7-pin midi jack.

I have made a cord that plugs into the midi port and breaks out 5 of the 7 pins because these are the only ones necessary to make it move in all directions. I have figured out each wire's role by touching each together and using a multimeter. One of the wires is a common V+ at 6 volts and the other 4 are for each direction

The confusion comes when trying to hook it up to the arduino. I have used transistors for switches in the past but only with common ground. Since I cannot just attach the 6 volt wire to the arduino's V+, I don't know how to hook this up. I feel like this is a simple problem but I just can't wrap my head around it.

One solution I think would work is to use opto-isolators instead of simple transistors but I would like to use transistors because I have a bunch of them but I don't own any opto-isolators.
 
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(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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If you make the +6v of the controller common wiith the +5V of the arduibo power supply (remembering to keep the grounds separate, then 4 arduino outputs can drive the bases of 4 PNP transistors via a (say 1k) resistor. Their emitters are all connected to the common +5/+6V and their collectors connect to the 4 other control wires.

Because this is inverted, the arduino outputs have to be normally maintained in a high (on) state to keep the transistors off, with one (presumably) taken low at a time to tilt/pan the head.
 
Thank you so much, that makes sense, without the grounds connected there is no danger of putting current into the arduino from the power supply of the pan/tilt head. I'll try it out.
 
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