DIY Time lapse Camera , Arduino Based

[Deleted member 49011]

Hey ,

one of my more random simple projects

I wanted to try and have a go at time lapses but was finding it difficult to find a camera so in my DIY'ness I got a mini arduino 3.3V board , 2 NPN transistors and a Samsung PL81 12Mp digital camera with a damaged LCD and had ago at making one

First I removed the case from the camera with a little help from brut force , This camera requires two buttons to be pressed , the first one "arms" the camera and sets the auto focus , with the second button actually taking the picture .

The cameras self power off has been turned off so the camera will never sleep and always stay on .

Next was finding what pins on the photo button did so after abit of "see what happens" moments I found which 2 pins on the button did what . using my oscope I checked to voltages on the pins 2 sit at 0 V , with the other 2 sitting at 3.6V so it seems the pin needs to be grounded to trigger the response so that's where the NPN transistor come into
play .


IMG_0021 by TwirlyWhirly555, on Flickr

2 NPN transistors , one for each button is connected with its collector on the 3.6V pin , then the emitter is tied to arduino and camera ground .


IMG_0024 by TwirlyWhirly555, on Flickr

The arduino code simply runs a loop with a delay , first the "arm" button is pressed then a 1 second delay the "photo" button is pressed , the camera takes the picture then the code delays for a set number of seconds ( 300 seconds for 5 minuets intervals ) and this repeats over and over


IMG_0026 by TwirlyWhirly555, on Flickr

The camera is using a 4Gb SD card and is set to 5Mp photos , with about 2000 photos able to be taken , I will have to "fake" the battery using a 3.7 Volt regulated source feeding the two battery pins to keep the camera running all the time

So hopefully the arduino is fairly accurate and I should get a time lapse of some plants like cress soon

 

[SKeeZ]

Thanks for sharing +rep

 

[photovoltaic]

Awesome! I recently did some testing of Arduinos time function (millis()) paired against a DS1388 RTC chip. It was within a second after many hours... Then my laptop shut off and I didn't feel like repeating the test..
I would love to see some time lapse shots made into a video.
+rep

 

[Deleted member 49011]

Thanks for sharing +rep

Thanks

Awesome! I recently did some testing of Arduinos time function (millis()) paired against a DS1388 RTC chip. It was within a second after many hours... Then my laptop shut off and I didn't feel like repeating the test..
I would love to see some time lapse shots made into a video.
+rep

Thanks ! , I wanted to use the millis function , but went for the simple delay function , due to me using a 8Mhz arduino the functions are half as fast , so with a 300000 delay for 5 minuets I get a 10 minuet delay . So far its kept going and hasn't seen to strayed much from the 10 minuet delay . Eh that sucks :/ I did plan to use my PC but opted for a standalone device .

I've made the camera look abit neater and now Both the arduino and camera run from a 4 Volt supply from a LM317 Reg that's fed from a DC 9V wall adapter , over 72 hours so far and still going

Sure , im half way though a timelapse of cress with around 6 pictures per hour , will upload it to see the results of this arduino/camera within the next 2 - 3 days

 

[Fiddy]

Awesome great work

 

[Deleted member 49011]

Awesome great work

Thanks


So , 700 photos later for a 36 second video , here is the timelapse video made with my arduino camera .

Cress TimeLapse , Modified Camera With arduino - YouTube


Turnd out well