What would be the smallest way to make a time lapse camera, where it would take a photo every x amount of seconds/minutes and have it saved to a micro sd? I've been bouncing around all sort of different microcontrollers, and can't figure it out. Any help would be great.
Small Time Lapse Camera
- Thread starter Phil7153
- Start date
ranch vermin
- Joined May 20, 2015
- 85
discarded my post - i thought you meant hispeed camera....
Hola Phil
Is your camera designed for time lapse operation?
Been around that for a long time but found difficulties a little bit discouraging.
Points, very relevant for me, were:
1) How is the connection to trigger the camera? In the sites showing cameras used in kites, you can see people using a small actuator where the plunge press the button. All what I have seen were not time-lapse cameras. That actuator uses power. Keep that in mind.
2) After opening several common cameras in the past it seems to me that it could be possible to close the switch electronically, but for that you would need to access the interior. Risky business I think. Unless you use a cheap one.
3) Keep in mind that long periods of use and at fast switching rate you are helping the system (mechanical in common cameras) to wear out rather quickly.
4) The above accounts also for the battery if left unattended for long time. (Cold weather makes batteries look discharged more easily).
5) In common ones, the camera switches off by itself after some time. Would you keep it awake? That means extra consumption.
Buena suerte.
Is your camera designed for time lapse operation?
Been around that for a long time but found difficulties a little bit discouraging.
Points, very relevant for me, were:
1) How is the connection to trigger the camera? In the sites showing cameras used in kites, you can see people using a small actuator where the plunge press the button. All what I have seen were not time-lapse cameras. That actuator uses power. Keep that in mind.
2) After opening several common cameras in the past it seems to me that it could be possible to close the switch electronically, but for that you would need to access the interior. Risky business I think. Unless you use a cheap one.
3) Keep in mind that long periods of use and at fast switching rate you are helping the system (mechanical in common cameras) to wear out rather quickly.
4) The above accounts also for the battery if left unattended for long time. (Cold weather makes batteries look discharged more easily).
5) In common ones, the camera switches off by itself after some time. Would you keep it awake? That means extra consumption.
Buena suerte.
upand_at_them
- Joined May 15, 2010
- 940
Get a camera that you can install CHDK on. No microcontrollers needed.
The pre-focus/shutter buttons on a cheap(ish) point-and-shoot digital can be controlled by transistors or opto-couplers.
As long as the battery power remains, all the shooting settings will remain in effect.
As far as making a thingy that...
Every X seconds
Turn pre-focus on
Wait xx milliseconds
Turn shutter-control on
Wait yyy milliseconds
Turn both off
Continue forever or?????
... that's just an Arduino-esque exercise for the student.
Got one sitting on the windowsill right now, taking pictures of nothing
As long as the battery power remains, all the shooting settings will remain in effect.
As far as making a thingy that...
Every X seconds
Turn pre-focus on
Wait xx milliseconds
Turn shutter-control on
Wait yyy milliseconds
Turn both off
Continue forever or?????
... that's just an Arduino-esque exercise for the student.
Got one sitting on the windowsill right now, taking pictures of nothing
upand_at_them
- Joined May 15, 2010
- 940
Why go to all that trouble when you can install the CHDK camera firmware that does everything you need?
Last edited:
I, for one, never heard of CHDK.
My goal is to have the camera take a picture every 30 seconds.
I have seen numerous projects that connect to some form of digital camera, but that is much too big for my application. I'm planing on using this camera as a wearable object to document things, so I would need it to be as small as possible. Like tinyduino or micropython size.
I was trying to control it with a switch/button, where once turned on it would run through the code taking a picture and saving it to the micro sd every 30 seconds. This would repeat until I turned it off, or the battery died.
I have seen numerous projects that connect to some form of digital camera, but that is much too big for my application. I'm planing on using this camera as a wearable object to document things, so I would need it to be as small as possible. Like tinyduino or micropython size.
I was trying to control it with a switch/button, where once turned on it would run through the code taking a picture and saving it to the micro sd every 30 seconds. This would repeat until I turned it off, or the battery died.
onepowerengineer
- Joined May 26, 2015
- 3
A neat idea may be a universal time lapse mount using an Arduino. Every X seconds a servo moves to position Y to auto-focus (button slightly depressed) then at X plus 2 seconds it fully depresses the shutter button and moves back to it's original position. You could use a cheap Ebay SPI 4 wire LCD w/buttons to program and view the variables and the servo library to control multiple servo's for time lapse, pan, tilt and a stepper motor rail if you want to go that far. Hmm that sounds like it would be a neat project.
djsfantasi
- Joined Apr 11, 2010
- 9,163
Have you googled for "Arduino camera"? There are tiny cameras that attach serially to the microprocessor. With an SD shield, you might be able to stream the image directly to an image file. Note this is just an idea. One such camera can be found at this link:
http://store.linksprite.com/jpeg-co...rs232-level/?gclid=CPurobDN4MUCFQioaQodcCYAeA
http://store.linksprite.com/jpeg-co...rs232-level/?gclid=CPurobDN4MUCFQioaQodcCYAeA
nerdegutta
- Joined Dec 15, 2009
- 2,684
Not actual wearable but a Raslberry Pi, webcam/cam module and Motion...
