My latest project ...

[DDY]

I've been really busy in the past few weeks and have been working on this project on and off, but 2AM this Saturday morning I'm dead chuffed to finally come to a stage where I have a working one of these:



I'm deliberately being vague and I'm too tired to write much but I bet most of you can guess what it is

More info to follow!

[TheAnimus]

So we've a microprocessor, with an HD44780 style LCD hooked upto it. With a breakout board that looks to be fairly minimal.

With a stepper (guessing from the wires) connected to a belt that has a mechanical switch, assuming to be a safety.

Oh hell its 2013, I guess 3D printer.

[peterb]

Yes, 3D printer carriage - as TheAnimus has identified, stepper motor and a limit switch to detect when the printer head is at the end of its travel. Or it could be the basis of a plasma cutter (similar positioning technology).

Alternatively, it could be a camera track!

However, I am assuming that it is meant to be horizontal, if it was vertical, it could be the basis of a lift for a pampered hamster

[TheAnimus]

I am guessing it wouldn't be a a camera track with a rubber band drive. Unless things have gotten better in the last 10 years since I actually knew anything about this stuff, it would probably be to elastic to get a smooth track with a heavy camera, it would simply wobble.

[DDY]

The forum sub-section which this thread is posted in should be a clue! Regrettably not a cutter or 3D printer, which incidentally is on my to do list . And, that's not a rubber band drive, it's a steel reinforced timing belt

I was hoping for more input, but nevermind, I might as well reveal it now as my update's going to make to too easy!

It's a time lapse slider!

It has just completed its first test run, here are the results.

It's made of 450 unproccessed frames, 1/50s and taken in a period of about 15mins. This is only half of the total 900 shots taken along the length of the sider but the rest of my wardrobe's base is boring. The video I have here isn't jumpy like the one I uploaded on Photobucket, I suspect this is caused by Photobucket's differing frame rate.

And a vid of it in action here

There's still a lot of work to be done, once I'm done planning what's next I'll also post a write up on how this thing it built.

[peterb]

Alternatively, it could be a camera track!

I rest my case (and claim my £10 )

[Funkstar]

Interesting!

Missed this thread before, can't see the picture and can't get to photobucket from this network (restricted corporate network). But will take a closer look when I get home. This is something that greatly appeals to me.

[DDY]

The write up.

I'm relatively new to time-lapse photography but I'd thought I'd take a dip in the deep end and build a time-lapse slider to play with. Here is goes!

I had this project in mind for some time but I decided now's the time as 3D printing surges in popularity improving the availability and prices of linear motion kit, e.g. belts, pulleys, stepper motors and related electronics. Secondly, my proficiency at programming on the Arduino has come to a point where I can actually build practical things.

At the heart of this rig is an Arduino, specifically an Arduino Pro Mini, which in function is almost identical to the common Arduino Uno but is physically much smaller and cheaper. The Mini Pro also lacks a USB port and requires an RS232 interface (e.g. via USB) for programming.

The Arduino sits on the mainboard which also houses:
- A six way Schmitt trigger IC to debounce the buttons and switches, of which I have exactly six (four UI buttons and two end stop switches)
- A Polulu A4988 stepper motor driver board, this allows the Arduino to drive the stepper motor with nothing more than 5V pulses. This board is commonly used on 3D printers so availability and pricing is good.
- A few components to support the above
- Lots of connectors!

The Arduino is the blue board on the left, the stepper driver is the red board on the right.


The IC and both the Arduino and stepper driver boards are removable, great for troubleshooting and quick repairs if I manage to blow something up - which I did, I'm on my second stepper driver board!

Other bits off the mainboard:
- Button pad, it's a temporary solution before I stick everything in an enclosure and mount the buttons permanently. The end stop switches are connected via this board, for no good reason.
- LCD, a standard 16x2 hd44780, dead easy to interface on the Arduino. Like the buttons I intend to mount this in an enclosure once I get around to it.
- Relay board, the switching side is hooked up to an IR shutter remote. The relay gives me a bit of flexibility with the method and compatibility of shutter release with different devices.
- Remote IR shutter remote, it's a £3 remote that I modified to be powered externally and electronically actuated by the Arduino - via the relay. With a remote, nothing is physically connected to my camera, there are no wires to run and best of all there's no risk of blowing up my camera if I mess up the wiring! The camera can see the IR remote refection off the side of its lens and I can get away with sticking the remote to the side of the rail somewhere.







Power supply-wise, everything needs 5V except for the stepper motor which takes 8v-35V, for the 5V supply I have a cheap little switching step down module that also happens to accept a voltage up to 35V. At 12V I've measured this rig to draw a maximum of 0.25A. To add some element of portability I'm currently powering this rig off a pair of 6V 7Ah(!) SLA batteries.



On the mechanical side of things;
- NEMA17 BiPolar 4-wire Stepper motor 44N.cm, plus the mounting bracket.
- 1m Igus Drylin N 80mm linear bearing rail, plus the carriage. These two are by far the most expensive components in this build.
- 2m T2.5 6mm timing belt, plus two 16t pulleys
- Assortment of steel brackets from B&Q

To do list:
- Buy and fit two tripods, preferably ball jointed, one for each side of the rail to stand it up. Easy job.
- Find an appropriate enclosure, will need one big enough to accommodate a fan as the stepper driver gets hot. Mounting the buttons and LCD will be fiddly.
- Fit a pan and tilt head to the slider carriage, will need to build a custom bracket myself, preferably out of aluminium because it's lighter and easier to cut!
- Build a power supply pack using lithium batteries, possibly with a built in a charging circuit too.
- Debug code...
- Figure out how to post-process time-lapse movies.

Aaaand, here's the second test run:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/DDY/...f/TL3.mp4.html

Again, like the first time I've only uploaded half of the video, but this time it the second half gets too dark because I'm rubbish with time lapse settings. But, again, jumpy because of Photobucket's frame rate. I'll upload to Youtube in 30fps HD next time.

Boring vid I know, the rig still needs to be tidied up and fitted with tripods before I can take it anywhere interesting. Oh, and if it looks wobbly, it is. The rig is precariously sat on top of a stack of boxes... on a bed.



I think the carriage bracket and P&T head is first on the to do list!

[josephlck]

Very nice! Looking at your video, did you set your exposure to auto? It looks the exposure is changing so the video flickers. I've never done timelaspse myself but I understand you should set exposure to manual as long as you don't expect lighting conditions to change too drastically. Admittedly, for outdoor timelapse over a long time this isn't practical...