miniE is an engine sketch to provide control over a single stepper motor and camera, using an Arduino and DFRobot LCD Keypad shield. It is an open design providing all the necessary features to do shoot-move-shoot or continuous timelapse with a built-in UI. The 1st version of the code was inspired by the OpenMoCo Engine by C.A. Church and is basically based on it - Thank you for your great work and help! The project has evolved since its first version and is now a standalone software/hardware solution. The aim of the system is to be as flexible as possible. For this lightweight engine, full system control is possible out in the field without extra hardware.

Version 1.1 (fully non-blocking)
The project is present at SourceForge. You can directly download the GNU-tarball which contains everything you need - code, shield files/schematics, documentation.
Main features
-----------------
- Arduino (ATMega) based motion control system for use with the DFRobot LCD Shield
- system control is fully implemented as a 5 button - 16x2 char user interface
- supports 1 stepper motor
- supports 1 camera
- shoot-move-shoot mode
- continuous mode
- 3 different motor ramping styles (arc-tan, sinus, linear)
- up to 20 programs can be created (single date events, repeating weekday events) when using a RTC Module
- motor: home, sleep, post delay, ramping length, max. speed, min. speed
- camera: focus time, exposure time, post delay
- 2 physical limiting switches
- max. motor steps & max. shot limits
- Settings and programs can be stored in the EEPROM
miniE shield board
----------------------------
The boards are ordered and currently in production! I'll post the link to the shop as soon as everything is in place.

"Screenshots"
-----------------
the main status screen

in the program menu
Airic

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Thank you, Airic! New system just about done
Thank you, Airic, for your work on this. My dolly is just about complete, with the shutter release the only piece remaining. I'm using the following:
- Adafruit LCD shield with buttons (blue/white backlit)
- Pololu driver and 1000mA bipolar stepper motor
- USA LED Supply power supply for the motor
- A couple of RC car gears for the motor and pulley
- A plastic clothesline pulley (!!) bolted to the large drive gear for motion (I opted to go with the Syrp-like rope drive)
- A latching enclosure from WalMart
- Miscellaneous connectors, plugs, jacks from DigiKey
I had to update the miniE software for the Adafruit LCD, and I changed the top-level display a bit to include graphics for clockwise/cclockwise, current selection arrow, and an open/closed circle for run/stop indication.
I was also concerned a bit regarding the very hard step motion on the motor, until I updated the wiring to run in 1/16th steps - much more smooth now! I'll be adding three switches to the case to allow selection of each step option (full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16).
I'm hoping to post some pics late next week, once I get it all mounted in the case and the camera trigger wired up. I still haven't got any wheels, since I refuse to pay $30 for a set of skateboard wheels at the local sports big-box.
A couple of observations
First of all Airic, many thanks for providing the code for Mini Engine, I really appreciate the hard work which has gone into producing it. I have built myself a camera slider using your code, which leads me to a couple of observations.
The design of the limit switches is such that the system 'fails dangerous' rather than 'fails safe'. As the limit switches use normally open contacts which when closed indicate the limit has been reached, if one of the wires to the limit switch becomes disconnected (for example by being broken or a connector becoming dislodged), the limit switch will not work, resulting in MiniEnginr continuing to move the trolley when at the end of its travel. As the Mini Engine is designed to be used unattended in some cases, this could mean the motor being driven for quite some time against the limit, with potentially dire consequences.
The behaviour when the limit is reached can lead to a quite violent reversal of the direction of travel of the trolley. This appears to be because when the limit switch is detected. the behaviour of the code is to immediately reverse at the same speed as you were going forward, by the same distance as when you were going forward. I would like to suggest a slightly different approach for the next version (if you are thinking of releasing one):
1. Limit switch detected
2. Pause for a moment (configurable?)
3. Reverse at say 1/2 the forward speed (or the minimum speed) until the limit switch is released (i.e JUST far enough for the limit switch not to be operated).
I also seem to have an unusual stepper motor driver, in that MOTOR_SLEEP_PIN is HIGH to put the motor to sleep, whereas it is hardcoded as LOW in MINIE. Might I suggest 2 new #defines which are used to set the motor awake or asleep?
#define ASLEEP 0
#define AWAKE 1
That way if there are people with unusual drivers, they can just change the #defines rather than having to change every occurence of MOTOR_SLEEP_PIN (and possibly miss one or more)
Once again many thanks for MiniEngine!
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shutter and motor at the same time
Compiled and uploaded no problem. Playing with cycle times and no matter what I do, the camera(Canon 5D mark II) shutter triggers at the same time the motor moves. Settings:
Cycle length: 6s (shutter on manual 2sec exposure)
focus time 0 not hooked up...manual focus
exp time 100ms
focus behavior low
max shots 0
post delay 200ms
test shot works
motor steps 30
direction clockwise
post delay 0ms
motor sleep enabled...tried both
max steps 0
ramp 500 tried many variations
max speed 0
min speed 5000 microsec
operating mode shoot - move - shoot
lmt switches disabled
Anyone else seen this behavior? I have check my wiring ....everything works, motor moves, camera shutter....just at the same time.
Thanks,
Hello, the problem is pretty
Hello, the problem is pretty obvious. Your settings define a 300ms camera-phase (100ms exposure + 200ms camera-post-delay). The motor starts immediately after the camera is done. Your camera on the other hand, is set to do an exposure of 2 seconds. So the result is that your motor starts before the camera is done. Set your camera-post-delay to something bigger than 2000ms (to give your camera the time it needs to finish the exposure) and the system will run just fine.
Let me know if you still have problems. I am happy to help.
Airic
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version 1.1 is out
Hello,
I cleaned up the motor code and added 2 new ramping types. The new arc-tan ramping is the default style now. It is much smoother that the old sinus shaped ramping. The used ramping can simply be selected in the code's main file in line 133 (e.g. for going back to sinus shaped ramping)
I also added limit-switch checks to the motor phases (every 150ms).
And finally, the motor phase is no longer (fully) blocking. I added a check for SELECT key presses to the it. So one is now able to stop the engine even during motor phases.
Have fun!
Airic
Jog
How much of a pain in the butt would it be to add a jog function in the motor menu to move the camera to a new start position? Is there room left? Or if not maybe implement in a Mega platform with dedicated buttons.
Thanks
v1.1
Great! I downoaded now I just have to check it out.
v1.1
Please re-download and re-install the software. I fixed a bug in the motor home system that was new in 1.1.
Thanks!
v1.1
Thanks Airic
LS problem
I had some problems with the limit switches and I don't know if it depends on my hardware setup or the code. In some cases the motor stops with a significant delay between the switch activation and the real stop of the motor. I did a test with these params: 10" cycle time, 12800 steps to obtain 10 mm of carriage translation per cycle (my dolly has a M8x1.25mm leadscrew) and all runs well but at end the motor has stopped about 1.5 second after the LS activation. However the LSs seems to trigger quickly if the number of motor steps are set at low values. Another issue is that the Select button doesn't switch the cycle off if the cycle time is equal or minor to 1.5 sec (7200 motor steps, 400 focus time, 100 exposure time). Sorry I'm not a programmer but it's not clear to me why you put the check_limit_switches() function after the doMotorPhase (that I suppose do the required steps motions). When and how many times is the limit switch check performed during the cycle time? Only at the end or in between (during) the cycle?. If I set a large number of steps for the motor, in order to obtain rather big carriage translations, I need more then one limit switch check during the motor phase (e.g. one every 2-3mm of translation). Thanks.
done.
Actually I avoided adding the limit-switch-checks to the motor phase due to analogue reads do take quite long. I tried it and it worked just fine, so what can I say, out of "check version 1.1!" ;)
Airic
Great
Great! just downloaded and tested, it works perfectly. Thanks again. Gigi
Move to limit Switch
I too would like to know how to move the carriage to the end of the track (limit switch location).
I also shot normal video and I would like to be able to set the speed of the carriage during the 'move to a limit switch'. With that function I could move the carriage to a limit switch, then start my video camera and move the carriage to the other limit switch at a pre-determined speed.
Is there any way to do this with the current code, or do I need to start doing some programming?
Thanks for MiniE - saved me lots of time !
Move to limit Switch
Sorry, there is no such function at the moment. But I am very glad the engine saved you still lots of time!
Airic
How to move the dolly rapidly to the end of the rail?
Hi, just a simple question. Is there a function in miniE that allow the stepper to rapidly move the dolly carriage to one end of the rail (until it reach the limit switch)? I've not yet set the home positionof the motor and the carriage is in the middleof the rail. In principle I'd like to know a reasonable way to operate manually the motor in the fastest way. Thanks, Gigi
Thanks
I just wanted to say thanks to CM and Chris for miniE. I just used it shooting the space shuttle Discovery's move to the Smithsonian in Washington DC. I built several time lapse controllers and a moco rail and all worked great. I made a shield that sandwiched between the LCD shield and the Arduino Pro. Once the gear makes it back to LA I am going to rebuild the controller and make some finishing touches to the rail system. All were built quickly over a week. I powered the TL Controler versions with a Sony camcorder battery. I calculated that the controllers would run about 2 weeks on a NP-F970 battery. We use these same batteries for running the cameras as well. They are pretty cheap and easy to find.
I have some time lapse I'll post soon but the rail I didn't get a chance to use but I will use it soon on another trip to Washington and NYC.
Thanks again!
DC motors
Hey!
Does anyone know if you can get one of these:
http://dynamicperception.com/products/stage-zero-replacement-motor-mx2-power-lead (minus the MX2 leads because it's going into Arduino)
But possibly cheaper + if possible, more suitable to this project.
I'm currently using a Stepper Motor, but it's just not powerful enough to carry a 5DmkII up or down inclines, it can't hold the camera if I'm doing 60º timelapses and it's making me sad.
Would anyone recommend a DC motor other than the one above?
And is it true that DC motors are greater than Stepper Motors?
Cheers
&
DC Motor
The system is designed to be used with a stepper and will not work with a DC motor. If the motor is to weak, you could look for a bigger one (if you not reached the 750mA limit already) or use a worm drive / threaded rod for moving the dolly.
Airic
How's about a rotary encoder of sorts.
On the "Mega Version" is it posible to add a rotary encoder with a push button for scrolling through menus : )
Ohh pretty please!!!
rotary encoder
Well, the current mega design does not include such an encoder - this requirement came a little too late - the hardware specs are settled. BUT I am also working on the next version of the "original" miniE system. I won't decide for an encoder but use a potentiometer. This solution allows different speeds as well as uses only one pin and not 3.
If you are willing to build your own shield, I could integrate the potentiometer-code into the system (and delete the program functionalities to generate free space for the new feature).
Airic
program functionalities
Hey Airic,
first of all: GREAT WORK with the miniE!
I would be very pleased to get the source code without the program functionalities. I want to build a S3D Moco and integrate a couple of additional features (external trigger control with LDR, 5 seconds before shot warning, e.g.).
In every cycle my camera should behave like this: fire left eye, move camera to right eye position, fire right eye, move back to "home" position. Can you help me with integrating this into the code. Where should this part placed? I played around with a for loop in the void loop part - unfortunately with no luck.
Can I use the "home function" which is already integrated for moving my camera back, how should I do that?
I don't need the continuous mode - can I just delete it (and of course all linked functions)?
This won't be the last questions occurring on my project ;-) - do you mind if I post further questions here in the forum or can I contact you directly? My mail adresse is cm(at)buntundbewegt.de
Thanks
Awesome work!
Thanks for joining the Space Federation call last night and telling us about this project. We've shot more than 583,000 frames of timelapse at Bucketworks over the last decade, and something like this would have helped us tremendously.
Hey - I am glad to hear that
Hey - I am glad to hear that you have use for the system. Could you tell me a little more about the Space Federation? I am happy to help in the future.
Airic
Space Federation
Airic - the space federation is a non-profit which helps maker/hakerspaces get off the ground. I joined their monthly call and talk about the miniE system.
MiniE and EasyDriver v3.0
Hello
I've got an Easy driver v3 on a shelf ...pinning is ok but what about the code and functionnality ...?
The sleep pin is not present in the v3.0 EZdriver board
Regards
The Easydriver 3.0 should
The Easydriver 3.0 should work if there is a dir- and a step-pin.
Works fine thanks ! great job
Works fine thanks ! great job Airic ...
I'll post pictures of my "french touch" setup as soon as possible. :-)
Regards
DIY shields
Hi all, just finished my diy shields (minimal Arduino clone and miniE components on a protoshield). The shields and Arduino component kit comes from
http://oomlout.co.uk/. The system works just fine and considering that I'm a newbie on electronics and soldering, I'm rather satisfied. If someone curious, I've placed some snapshots in my gallery (https://picasaweb.google.com/110161483001058852427/DIY?authuser=0&feat=directlink). It was just an exercise, an opportunity to learn soldering and circuitry. Regarding software, I have a wish. Is it possibile to add a line in the code in order to have the Arduino led connected to pin 13 blinking during the active cycle (e.g. 1 blink per second) so that there will be a continuous visual feedback? Thanks and regards. Gigi
I am glad you have a running
I am glad you have a running miniE system now. Regarding the pin 13 and a blinking LED - this pin is actually assigned to the motor direction and can not be moved to another pin due to the fact that all output pins are used.
Airic
Test Shot doesn't work with my D80
Thanks again for your great work on miniE. As soon as I've finished my rig and taken some photo sequence I'll show you the results.
I've another question, about Test Shot capability. The system works fine during normal cycles (I use 400ms for focus and 200ms for exposure with 'high with shutter' behaviour), the camera focuses and take the photo regularly but when I try the Test Shot function it doesn't work. The camera led blinks but doesn't proceed with focus and shutter, it seems that it doesn't perform the focus action (I have Nikon D80, tested both in manual and auto exposure/focus).
That's true. The current code
That's true. The current code only triggers the shutter line. If you set your camera to manual focus, it should work.
Current code
With cameras like the Nikon or Sony's the focus line has to be high for the shutter to open. It doesn't matter if the camera is in full manual or not. It would be great to have the code shoot the test with the focus high or what ever it's set to. If the camera doesn't start until the next day I put in a program for a few minutes to test to make sure everything is working before I walk away.
nice work
Looks great! I wanted to see if you could give me a link to where you were able to find button caps(push button extensions) for the dfrobot shield?
no caps
There are no caps, the shield itself has these built-in strange but useful elongated push-buttons.
minie with geared dc motor
hi there,
i was staring at the code the last days, but i´am to dumb to understand it all ...
do you think its possible to port your minie engine to work with a geared dc motor.
i´ve got the dc robot input shield in combination with the arduino motor shield r3 and an arduino uno
every pin on the arduino is used in this combination.
2 for the motor, 2 for the cam and the rest for the shield.
but i diddnt get it how and where to recode all the stuff -.-
i know a dc geared motor is much less accurate, but on the other side it uses much less power than a stepper.
would be so nice if somebody could help me :)
Hello, the pin allocation is
Hello,
the pin allocation is defined in the very first document
miniEat its top. I think you'd need to rewrite themE_motorfile and possibly some other files too. It it's not done by just changing the pins.Airic