LucidTronix is a new Open-Source Electronics designer. We make
tutorials,
as well as transparent, beautiful, and lucid
devices.
Read more
about us here.
Time-Lapse Camera
This PCB controls a camera and an SD card so you can make automatic time lapse videos.
Mapping a cheap CMOS camera to an arduino and an SD card you can make your own time lapse videos automatically. This tutorial uses the
TTL Serial JPEG Camera with NTSC Video
from adafruit. Basically, we take a picture, wait a certain amount of time and then take another picture. Putting them all together as frames in a video makes a nice time-lapse movie. It takes about ten seconds to save each image on the SD card so the time lapses have to be at least ten seconds long, they can be longer too, as long as you want within the memory bounds of the Arduino and the SD card. Like
cameras
? Check out our
panoramic camera tutorial
, uses the same plexi glass case and a similar circuit board to take panoramic pictures.
Camera and Case
-
Camera and CaseThe laser cut plexi glass enclosure. Cut on a lunar lazor monday at NYC resistor using their awesome laser cutter. -
50% Populated PCBNotice the big silver SD card slot, that is where the images will be saved. You can see some yellowing in the cilkscreen this is from reflowing with a heatgun. Oops! -
Plexi Glass EnclosureThe Time Lapser camera features a laser cut plexi glass enclosure. The pieces fit into box with precision cut outs for the servo motor, battery case, and PCB buttons. -
PCB BacksideThis board uses the Atmel Atmega32u4 chip. The same one used by the arduino Leonardo. It is a nice chip with built-in USB support. The black headers on the right interface to an XBEE and the camera. -
Time Lapse CameraWe use this same plexi glass case with the servo motor enclosure in our panoramic camera project . -
Finger ReferenceSee the board in relation to the human finger. A lot of intelligence in a little package. -
It's Watching...The eyes are multiplying... Ahhh! -
Silkscreen Closeup300 DPI never looked so good. Eye love that shallow depth of field acheived with the macro lens! -
Naked PCBThis is the time lapser PCB without any components soldered on.
The laser cut plexi glass enclosure. Cut on a
lunar lazor monday
at NYC resistor using their awesome laser cutter.
Example Video
Here is an example of the type of time lapse videos you can make using this camera. The above were made watching the sunset with 5 second intervals.
Arduino Code
Here is the code for the arduino. It uses a bunch of libraries namely the
SD library
to save the images, the
SPI library
to talk to the SD card, The
VC0706 library
from adafruit for the camera, and the
SoftwareSerial library
to talk to the camera. The crucial function is called time_lapse and it takes two arguments: the number of pictures to take and the amount of time to wait between each picture (on top of the five seconds or so it takes to save the images). So a call like:
time_lapse(99, 5000);will take 99 pictures waiting about ten seconds (5 seconds of delay + 5 seconds of saving) between each shot. The function definition looks like this:
void time_lapse(int num_pics, unsigned int wait){ // Create an image with the name IMAGExx.JPG char filename[13]; strcpy(filename, "lapse00.jpg"); for (int i = 0; i < num_pics; i++) { filename[5] = '0' + i/10; filename[6] = '0' + i%10; take_picture(filename); delay(wait); }}
Please note:
if you want more than a hundred images this function needs to be tweaked so that the images are saved as lapseXXX.jpg rather than lapseXX.jpg.
Download File
/* LucidTronix Time Lapse Camera. * For instructions details and schematic, See: * http://www.lucidtronix.com/tutorials/14 * Connect the camera RX to pin 10 * and camera TX to pin 11 */#include#include #include #include SoftwareSerial cameraconnection = SoftwareSerial(10, 11);// pass the serial connection to the camera objectVC0706 cam = VC0706(&cameraconnection);#define SD_CS 4 // Set the chip select line to whatever you use (4 doesnt conflict with the library)int pin_pan = 6;int pan = 0;unsigned int cur_wait = 2000;void setup() { delay(1400); while (!cam.begin()) { delay(10000); } pinMode(SD_CS, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(SD_CS, HIGH); while (!SD.begin(SD_CS)) { delay(10000); } cam.setImageSize(VC0706_320x240); // medium time_lapse(99, 5000);}void loop(){}void take_picture(char * filename){ if ( cam.takePicture()){ // Create an image with the name filename // Open the file for writing // delete it if it exists SD.remove(filename) ; delay(200); File imgFile = SD.open(filename, FILE_WRITE); // Get the size of the image (frame) taken uint16_t jpglen = cam.frameLength(); // Read all the data up to # bytes! while (jpglen >= 1) { // read 64 bytes at a time; uint8_t *buffer; uint8_t bytesToRead = min(32, jpglen); // change 32 to 64 for a speedup but may not work with all setups! buffer = cam.readPicture(bytesToRead); imgFile.write(buffer, bytesToRead); jpglen -= bytesToRead; } imgFile.close(); cam.reset(); }}void time_lapse(int num_pics, unsigned int wait){ // Create an image with the name IMAGExx.JPG char filename[13]; strcpy(filename, "lapse00.jpg"); for (int i = 0; i < num_pics; i++) { filename[5] = '0' + i/10; filename[6] = '0' + i%10; take_picture(filename); delay(wait); }}
Parts
| Title | Description | # | Cost | Link | Picture |
| TTL Serial JPEG Camera with NTSC Video | Camera from adafruit | 1 | $39.95 | Link |
|
| Servo Motor | Continuous rotation servo motor. | 1 | $13.95 | Link |
|
| PCB for SD Card and Camera | PCB supports camera and SD card atmge32u4 and USB. | 1 | $7.0 | Link |
|
| ATMEGA32U4-MU | Integrated Circuits MCU AVR 32K FLASH 16MHZ 44-QFNValue:2.7 V ~ 5.5 V 16MHz | 1 | $6.04 | Link |
|
| microSD Card Connector | Secure Digital - microSD™ Push In, Push OutValue: microSD | 1 | $3.44 | Link |
|
| USB connector | USB Mini type BValue:female | 1 | $0.68 | Link |
|
| Crystal | CRYSTAL 16.00000 MHZ 20PF SMDValue:16MHz | 1 | $0.53 | Link |
|
| Switch | SWITCH SLIDE DPDT 6VDC 0.3A SMTValue:DPDT | 1 | $0.44 | Link |
|
| Button 6mm Through Hole | Tactile Switch Through Hole SPST-NO 0.05A 12VValue:0.05A @ 12VDC | 3 | $0.1 | Link |
|
Tutorials
Servo motor, JPEG camera, and Arduino Leonardo combine to make a panoramic camera....
Spherical Camera
Arduino-powered spherical camera with 2 Servo Motors and an SD Card....
Mixing pixels from two face images together....
Our take on the classic bouncing ball, paddle game....
Handheld gaming machine, based on the Arduino Leonardo, equipped with joystick, SD card and more....
Print bitmaps, cellular automata, drawings and text.....
Use the Joy Gamer to make a dynamic picture frame....
A wearable real-time clock with vibrant color display....
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