Servo Controlled Time-Lapse Camera

Using the RasPi Zero with the PIcamera, a Servo and the OC05 Servo Driver/Controller, you can shoot a panning time-lapse video.

Step 1: Preparing the SD Card for the Rasperry Pi Zero

• Download Raspbian Lite and unzip

• Download Etcher and install

• Flash Raspbian Lite to a Micro-SD card using Etcher

• Open your terminal and go to the root of the SD Card

cd /Volumes/boot
echo 'dtoverlay=dwc2' >> config.txt 
touch ssh 
echo -n ' modules-load=dwc2,g_ether' >> cmdline.txt  

The last 3 lines set up the RasPi Zero (and only the Zero) to be able to network via the USB port. Just verify that the last line has no newline before ' modules...' in cmdline.txt!

• Eject the SD Card

• Assemble everything as per this video:

• Connect USB Cable between your RasPi Zero and your computer.

• Either use a Mac or install Bonjour to SSH to your RasPi Zero: ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

• Password is raspberry

• Finally setup internet sharing on your computer allowing Broadcom Ethernet to connect to your WiFi via your computer.

Step 2: Configuring the Raspberry Pi Zero

sudo raspi-config nonint do_expand_rootfs 
sudo raspi-config nonint do_i2c 0 
sudo raspi-config nonint do_camera 0 
sudo apt-get install vim python-smbus i2c-tools 
sudo apt-get install python-picamera python3-picamera
sudo reboot

• The first 3 lines makes full use of your SD card, activates I2C for the servo controller and activates the PIcamera.

• Then I2C tools are getting installed and then PIcamera drivers.

• Then reboot to make the changes take effect.

• Login again.

• Test the connection to your servo controller, and if everything is fine you should see this:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ 
    0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f 
00:          -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  
70: 70 -- -- -- -- -- -- --   

Step 3: Install OC05 Servo Driver

cd ~

git clone https://github.com/xinabox/rpOC05.git  
cd rpOC05

sudo python setup.py install   

This will install the Servo Driver library, once installed, test by:

cd examples
python simpletest

Step 4: Program

• Copy and Paste the code below into xservo.py.

• Create a frames directory

cd ~
mkdir frames
python xservo.py

It should now start taking pictures and store them in frames.

Step 5: Extra steps

• You can have the program run automatically by crontab -e

• And then write at the bottom of the file: @reboot python /home/pi/xservo.py

• Once your shoot is finished, you can copy the pictures to your computer. I use scp

• And then I use convert from ImageMagick, like this: convert -quality 100 frames*.jpg outputfile.mpeg