This time-lapse photo trigger was built [Lukasz Goralczyk]. It is controlled by an ATmega168 and we were surprised to read that it uses about 12k of code. Curious about what takes up that much space, we were impressed to see all the features demonstrated in the video after the break. The small device, running on two AA batteries, has a well-designed user interface displayed on a 3V character LCD that is navigated with a clickable rotary encoder.
It isn’t the smallest intervalometer we’ve ever seen, but it deserves respect for the features packed into a diminutive form-factor.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYXByBqI0XU]
[Thanks Michal]
Very nice. My biggest question with things like this is where to get the required plug to attach to the camera? For example many canon SLRs use a small 3 pin connector as shown here: http://tinyurl.com/26dld7x
2.5mm adapters sold for ipods etc work well… My astro photography consists of me taking an ipod adapater.. and just jamming it into my camera.. when you go too far.. it just shorts the contacts.. I set it for 30 second shutter and let it be!
What program can I use to combine all of the photos into a video file? I’m a Windows/Ubuntu user and don’t have Quicktime Pro.
Nice logic under the hood, the knob seems interesting, is it a pot and button at the same time or a stepped switch and knob ?
@Physics-Dude VirtualDub will do this at a set frame rate, it will automatically import all the frames if they are numbered sequentially, e.g. IMG_0334.JPG
IMG_0335.JPG
IMG_0336.JPG…
It has only rudimentary adjustments/filters, but gets the job done well.. for free and it runs under WINE as well
@Physics-Dude
on Ubuntu, or Windows, you can also use ffmpeg to accomplish this.
from ffmpeg’s man page:
ffmpeg -f image2 -i foo-%03d.jpeg -r 12 -s WxH foo.avi
this will collect all images foo-000.jpeg through foo-999.jpeg, sequentially, into a video, at 12 frames per second.
@Gben
Judging from the ‘encoder’ on the PCB my guess would be a digital rotary encoder. useful things they are.
I’ve got pinout diagrams for 7 of the more common types of camera plugs. I did this for my Camera Axe project, which also includes a timelapse mode, but if you only want timelapse this is a more focused approach.
http://www.cameraaxe.com/wiki/index.php?title=CameraCables
@Erik Johnson
I cant seem to import all frames in at once… I’m running VirtualDub in Windows XP
Very decent stuff!
I have not looked at the code yet, but using LGPL code from AVRFreaks.net (like tinymenu), I expect this to be a solid implementation.
Thanks for sharing this, Lukasz!
I hope I find the time to complete my own project, which is a similar user interface for
a remote measuring device.
Examples like this encourage me to share my own
results, too!
I decided to help everybody out and post what I do to get ffmpeg to work on windows 7
I use Infraview to process to files and name them image0001.jpg image0002.jpg and so on.
Copy C:\ffmpeg\share to C:\usr\local so that your presets can be found at C:\usr\local\share\ffmpeg
Then i process it using this command line
c:\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe -r 12 -i “C:\path\image%04d.jpg” -sameq -s hd1080 -vcodec libx264 -vpre hq -crf 25 c:\OUTPUT.MP4