farmlapse gives you a smart way to capture photos for your timelapses. It is smart because it only takes pictures between sunrise and sunset and creates a useful folder structure. It is simple because it only depends on Python and raspistill both of which are normally already available and one extra library called sunrise.
Start phototimer through a terminal, ssh connection or @reboot crontab specifying the amount of seconds between photos after that. By default photos are stored in /home/pi, but this is configurable along with the quality level of the photos.
This is an example config.py file which should create files that are about 2MB in size:
config = {}
config["latitude"] = 400
config["longitude"] = 2000
config["flip_horizontal"] = True
config["flip_vertical"] = False
config["metering_mode"] = "matrix"
config["base_path"] = "/home/pi"
config["height"] = 1536
config["width"] = 2048
config["quality"] = 100Terminal
$ python take.py 3600 &
Crontab
sudo crontab -e
and add
@reboot /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/farmlapse/take.py 3600 &
This will takes a photo every hour between sunrise and sunset and save it in home/pi using a folder such as: /2014/11/2014_11_1_10_15.jpg (year/month/year_month_day_hour_minutes.jpg)
Enable pi camera
sudo raspi-config
Installing required software
Go to interfaces and enable the camera. Set the right localization and timezone while youŕe here. Make sure your pi is up to date and all necessery packages are installed because you might not be able to access the internet with it again.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt install python3-pip git dnsmasq hostapd npm ffmpeg -y
git clone https://github.com/53645714n/farmlapse
cd farmlapse
pip3 install suntime
sudo reboot
Create node.js service
cd farmlapse/node
npm init
Answer all questions (or skip them)
npm install express
Copy the service file and enble it
cd ..
sudo cp farmlapsehotspot.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl enable farmalpsehotspot.service
Make a timelapse automatically every night from all picturs in the pictures folder:
crontab -e
and add
0 0 * * * sh /home/pi/farmlapse/create_farmlapse.sh
!!! Afther the following steps you probobly won't be able to use the internet with your pi !!!
Set a static IP with dhcpd
sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf
Paste the following at the end of the file
interface wlan0
static ip_address=192.168.4.1/24
nohook wpa_supplicant
this basically gives the wireless card a static IP and tells it to ignore any wpa_supplicant files.
Configure the DHCP server with dnsmasq
sudo mv /etc/dnsmasq.conf /etc/dnsmasq.conf.orig
sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf
This moves the old configuration and opens a new configuration in which we will paste:
interface=wlan0 # Use the require wireless interface - usually wlan0
dhcp-range=192.168.4.2,192.168.4.255,255.255.255.0,15m
address=/#/192.168.4.1 # Redirect all domains (the #) to the address 192.168.4.1 (the server on the (Pi)
Configuring the access point
sudo nano /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
and paste:
interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
ssid=Farmlapse
channel=7
hw_mode=g
This enables the wifi access point with name 'Farmlapse' in the 2.4 GHz band. To tell the system where to find this file:
sudo nano /etc/default/hostapd
and find/replace this line:
DAEMON_CONF="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"
Now unmask and enable hostapd:
sudo systemctl unmask hostapd
sudo systemctl enable hostapd
Configuring the pi as a router
sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf
Uncomment the line 'net.ipv4.ip_forward=1'.
Set firewall configuration:
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
sudo iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -d 192.168.4.1 -p tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.4.1:3000
sudo sh -c "iptables-save > /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat"
Tell the system where to find the iptables rules:
sudo nano /etc/rc.local
and paste the following just before 'exit 0'
iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat
Configuring the node.js server
- Add exposurecalc based on actual sunrise-sunset times
- Add variables to tell the script to run only at night/day/both/day with offset
- Maybe add some logging