Intro:
I am a newbie in taking photographs and I was hoping to photograph the stars as well as some other cool stuff. I was trying to take a series of pictures and compose them into a video, but it was quite boring keep pressing the "Capture button" . I found this Me-Shutter from Makeblock is quite helpful in taking pictures. You can write some code to modify it and it will take pictures by itself or by a single click. Luckily, I captured an airplane on my long expose experience but the city was too bright to capture the stars. Please excuse my bad technique in taking pictures and welcome to point out the things that I need to improve to be a better photographer.
Parts you need for this system:
I used Me-Baseboard (same as Arduino and it is easier to connect) as my main control. And I used the Infrared remote controller and infrared receiver to remote control my camera. They came with the starter kit from Makeblock. The electronic on the second picture is Me-shutter, which translates the micro-controller command to the language camera can understand. The main part of this auto photographing system is in the coding part.
You can the airplane in these five pictures below.
This is an YouTube video. The pictures in the video was taken every 5 sec at day and every 3 sec at night.
Coding part:
The Me-shutter goes to PORT 3 and the Me-Infrared receiver goes to PORT 6 as indicated in my code below.
Here is the code I made for IR remote control.
The IR remote control is quite sensitive. It can be disturbed by sun lights.
If you have any questions in uploading code to Me-Baseboard, go visit this link.
http://wiki.makeblock.cc/index.php?title=Makeblock_Robot_Starter_Kit#Programming
In my code, I define the buttons as below. There are more details in the code.
Test: Camera Focus
Plus: Increase delay time
Return: Delay variable back to 1
Previous: Decrease shot_time variable (50 times in taking picture)
Play: Take a picture
Next: Increase shot_time variable (50 times in taking picture)
0 number key: Long expose mode
1 picture,
10 sec expose (depends on delay time variable; unit: 10 sec)
1 number key: 50 pictures (depends on shot_time variable; unit: 50 pictures)
1 second between taking next picture,
0.5 sec expose (depends on delay time variable; unit: 0.5 sec)
2 number key: 50 pictures (depends on shot_time variable)
2 second between taking next picture,
0.5 sec expose (depends on delay time variable; unit: 50 pictures)
3 number key: 50 pictures (depends on shot_time variable)
3 second between taking next picture,
0.5 sec expose (depends on delay time variable; unit 0.5 sec)
......
9 number key: 50 pictures (depends on shot_time variable; unit: 50 pictures)
9 second between taking next picture,
0.5 sec expose (depends on delay time variable, unit: 0.5 sec)
I don't have enough room to post my code here please visit my instructable page for the code
Here is my instructable page:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-an-auto-photographing-system/