Submitted by RCFisher on Thu, 08/05/2010 - 21:30
Posted in
I have an application I would love to make something for. what I need is a timelapse controller that I can programe to shoot 10 hours a day 5 days a week, no shooting on the weekends. I found a High accuracy RTC, the ChronoDot from Adafruit, I need to incorporate this into an Arduino shield and have an interface and software to run it. I plan on using 2 optos so I can shoot stereo. I am not into software I can solder and build into something usable but it's software and integration that has me stumped. I have a great TL controller right now but it would be nice to save the frames and battery power that get waisted on weekends.
I would love help and ideas.
Thanks
I have built this. My last
I have built this. My last time lapse was over 15 days with a 10 minutes interval. I am not far from getting my I2C RTC into my home built camera shield. Thing is that I am not using OpenMoco but a custom sketch. My sketch is turning on my studio strobes before the shot. I can also power out (for example a plant growth light) before the shot. I can put my sketch on sourceforge as a contributed application. @Chris: why not?
Right now the cameras we have
Right now the cameras we have running are 2 and 3 min intervals and running for months. Hopefully new camera rigs going in with more power and bigger memory so we can shoot at 1 min intervals 10-12 hours a day and hopefully on a 5 day a week schedule. what is the schematic like for your controller? With the chrono dot RTC it uses 4 wires I think to the arduino. Would your sketch work with a weekly schedule? Also I have to figure out the power draw since the cameras have to be stand alone and unattended for a month at a time. I am using 8.4v 7000mah batteries at the moment, was thinking of just paralleling more batteries to get a longer run time.
I also am looking for a schematic of a low battery indicator(LED)to add for yucks.
My schematics is very simple
My schematics is very simple and based on the OpenMoco schematics. My RTC is I2C based, so I only need analog pin 4 & 5. I have been searching for an I2C battery indicator myself. They exist, but I have not found one that suits my needs.
I think most of the RTCs I
I think most of the RTCs I have seen for Arduino's are I2C connected. Adafruit has 2 of them one with a DS1307 and the High Accuracy one with a DS3231 chip. My big question will your intervalometer work with weekly schedules say 5 days on for 12 hours and 2 days off. Another question will the Arduino hold the sketch if the power is killed or removed so when restored it starts again.
Thanks
Andre - you should definitely
Andre - you should definitely add your sketch to SVN, and we can also link it on the Software page. It would be really cool if you could write an article/page about it as well. If you don't see the "create content" link on the left, let me know - I recently changed it so that everyone could add content, as the spambots are easily squashed these days =)
I'll have to look into the Chronodot before offering any suggestions there, as I've never used it, or even seen it before =)
For low voltage measuring, check out this chiphacker question: http://chiphacker.com/questions/77/low-battery-indicator you can look at the answer I have there, or even use the last answer which has a sort of hack on the issue.
Yes, the arduino will retain its sketch between power-off's, however, if you have dynamic data in play that you want retained, you will need to write it to the EEPROM to prevent loss (RAM is not retained between power cycles). If oyu have more than 1K of RAM data you want to retain, you'll need to use an external EEPROM. That way, you can set a flag in the EEPROM saying "program was active", and if it is set at boot-up, re-load RAM from EEPROM, and then continue execution.
!c
Hi Church How did LA (that's
Hi Church
How did LA (that's Los Angeles) go. I got back late friday so I didn't have a chance to make it over to Siggraph. Worked finishing our camera enclosures he entire time I was in FL, just one little problem after another.
On Adafruit's site they say the same code used for the DS1307 can be used for the chronodot. The main difference is that no crystal is needed since the chip has internal temp compensated reference source. It may be a bit overkill but it would be nice to have a really stable clock for my application. Do you know of anyone who could help me with the code, I can do hardware but code is a bit over my head. So my shield will hold 2 optos (for stereo cameras) and the chronodot and I think I can power off a 8.4v 7000mah Sony camcorder battery. I am aiming for 3-4 weeks run time between card and battery changes.
I am looking for a little stand a lone low battery indicator so I can put it on the camcorder batteries for the cameras as well as the arduino.
What do you think?
Robert, It was fun! Talked
Robert,
It was fun! Talked to a _lot_ of people (hundreds), was on my feet for about 12 hours a day, but it was well worth it. Our little talk was packed, standing room only (good to be talking on a day when there are no regular conference talks scheduled =).
Here's someone's library for using the DS1307, it should be as easy as plugging it in and going, they have an example sketch using it: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1191209057/0
For a stand-alone low battery indicator, you can probably harvest one of the ones used in the LiPo packs as a safety device... I think LiPo's are gotten in 8.4v? Here are some options from a battery vendor: http://www.all-battery.com/batterytesterandanalyzer.aspx
Otherwise, I'd follow the chiphacker answer -- just use some diodes and a really high Ohm resistor, then use the resistor to feed into an analog pin, and measure the voltage on that - scale the 5V to the 8.4v, and kick off an LED if the voltage drops below that amount. It might even be possible to just build a simple voltage warning device, here's what looks to be right up your alley: (I think! =) http://www.io.com/~n5fc/batt_warn.htm
!c
I have added my Sketch on
I have added my Sketch on SVN. A small description of the project can be found here: http://openmoco.org/node/227
Andre, Just one thought -
Andre,
Just one thought - maybe a slightly different name? =) OpenTimeLapseEngine is very close to OpenMoco TimeLapse Engine, and may cause some confusion. Maybe something like 'MicroEngine' or something like that referring to its "light weight" purposes? (Mind you, I'm removing 'OpenMoCo' from all of the software/hardware names and using that just to refer to the site from now on, for avoiding this very confusion with OpenMoko, inc. and avoiding possible issues with their trademarks. As an aside: all of this trademarking and patenting of Opensource hardware/software makes me queasy.)
I'll add some links to your article from the Documentation and Software pages after I get some office stuff finished up.
!c
You are right. I had the same
You are right. I had the same thoughts after my post. I like MicroEngine. Give me some time to change it all. You have no problems with my name in the images?