CameraComm

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TIMELAPSE CAMERA INSTRUCTIONS

Hardware Setup

Begin by setting up the hardware according to the following diagram:

Timelapse hardware.png

Things to watch out for:

  • You must REMOVE THE BATTERY from the GoPro. Otherwise the CamDo Controller will not be able to turn it on and off when it needs to. (The GoPro will stay on under its own power)
  • The connection between the CamDo controller and the GoPro uses a special USB cable that only CamDo sells. It looks like a regular USB-C to USB-C cable but it is not. It has tags on it that say “CamDo only”. DO NOT USE ANY OTHER CABLE. You will break things. The CamDo cable has special nonstandard wiring. If you need another one, buy it from their website.
    • It does not matter which end of this cable goes to the camera and which end goes to the controller (I think)
    • It does not matter which way you plug this cable in to the USB-C connector (I think)
    • Some of the weird cables that they sell do matter in these ways so just be careful with this.
  • The voltaic power bank is not a regular power bank. It is able to charge and be charged simultaneously, and can keep its ports on and supplying 5V even when there is no power draw.
    • YOU MUST PUT IT IN THE CORRECT MODE FOR THIS TO HAPPEN (see below)
    • These properties are necessary for the CamDo system to work. (It draws a miniscule amount of power to keep track of time, and then draws a lot of power when it wakes up the camera to take a picture.) If you use any other power bank, the power bank will assume nothing is connected when the CamDo controller is waiting in between pictures, and then not provide power when it needs to wake up.
Voltaic Power Bank Instructions
Voltaic V44 Voltaic V50
V44.jpg
V50.jpg
To check battery level:

Short press the power button. Between 1 and 4 LEDs will light up at the top to tell you the current level.

To check battery level:

Short press the power button. Between 1 and 4 LEDs will light up at the top to tell you the current level.

To enable / disable Always On Mode:

Long press for 6 seconds. You will see all 4 leds flash together 3 times indicating that you have changed the mode.

After this, if the LEDs remain on together for a bit, you have just enabled always on mode. If the LEDs remain off, you have just disabled Always On Mode.

To check what mode it is in:

Press the power button 3 times in quick succession. If the LEDs remain on for a bit after this, Always On Mode is enabled. If they remain off, Always On Mode is disabled.

This battery has Always On Mode enabled by default.

If you have a device connected and for some reason want Always On Mode off, double tap the Power Level Button or disconnect from the battery. To resume charging, tap the Power Level Button once.

Software Setup

MicroSD Card Configuration

Use Rufus (https://rufus.ie/en/) to format a MicroSD card to exFAT. Install it in the GoPro. 64Gb is recommended (lasts about a month at the picture rate described below). Smaller cards can also work but then you have to go open the camera regularly and download the footage to free up space on the card.

GoPro Configuration

Gopro controls.png

Set Camera Settings: Swipe down from the top, edit the options as shown below. (Screen unlocked, voice commands off)

Gopro main settings.png

Select “preferences” to edit more options. Make them as shown below.

Preferences1.png
Preferences2.png
Preferences3.png

I like to keep the beeps on so that I can hear that the camera is taking pictures after I close it up.

Set Night Photo Settings: Click the icon on the bottom left corner. Change the mode to night photo.

Gopro nightmode.png

With the camera in night photo mode, change the shutter to Auto, and the FOV to Wide.

Night settings.png

Set Day Photo Settings: Click the icon on the bottom left corner. Change the mode to day photo.

Gopro daymode.png

With the camera in day photo mode, click the tab on the left to edit the photo settings. Make sure everything is as shown below:

Gopro photosettings.png

Things to watch out for:

  • MAKE SURE THE FOV SETTINGS ARE THE SAME BETWEEN DAY AND NIGHT MODE or else the timelapse will jump around every day at sunset.

CamDo Configuration

The CamDo controller needs to be configured with the schedule that you want the pictures to be taken. You can also use the configuration page to test that everything is working properly.

These instructions are the bare minimum, for more details read the official documentation: https://cam-do.com/pages/UpBlink-user-manual

To connect to the controller, connect it to power and long press the button.

It will create a wifi network like this, connect to it with the default password 1234567890 if needed. Don’t change the password. There is no need to make this more secure since the wifi network is only active when you physically press the button. If you change the password it will just get forgotten and then we will have problems.

Then go to http://192.168.1.1/ to access the configuration page.

At the top of the page you will see the status and manual controls. Here you can power the camera on (if you need to change settings on it), take test pictures, etc.

Camdo0.png

Scroll down to configure the schedule: You can make it as shown below (every 3 minutes 9AM to 2AM) or come up with your own schedule.

Schedule 1

Schedule 2

Schedule 3

Things to watch out for:

  • At night time, make sure the photos are taken in night mode. (Sunset is around 8pm in the summer, so that’s why the schedules are as shown)
  • Photos every 3 minutes is a good frequency. Assuming 30 days of REX, that's 30 days * 17 hrs * 60 min / 3 min / 60 fps = 170 seconds (about 3 minutes) of timelapse footage

Installing the Camera

When you go to mount the camera:

Camera install.png

  • Mount it securely in an elevated location, to something that will not get knocked over / wobble / change position. It looks really bad when the frame shifts slightly mid timelapse. Timelapses should always be static.
  • Make sure nothing is obstructing the lens, and frame the shot well so that it will encompass the full scale of the build, and surrounding activities
  • Connect it to power and make sure the end of the extension cord is reasonably protected from rain
  • Cover all power cables running across walkways with cable covers so they don’t get unplugged accidentally (EC owns a few and they should also be provided with the MIT electrical delivery that the REX chairs coordinate.)
  • Add a sign on the cable telling people not to unplug the camera. The internal battery will last for 1-2 days so it’s not immediately a problem if this happens but you need to check it every so often to make sure it is still getting powered so the camera doesn’t die.

Cable sign.png

After Setup is Complete:

  • Check after a few hours to make sure that everything is working properly. Open it up and read the SD card and see that photos are showing up on it.
  • Check every other day or so that the power cable(s) have not been unplugged
  • Every few weeks, open the camera and download all the pictures off of the SD card to free up storage space for the camera to keep running.

OLD

EC i3 2009

Timeline

  • 1:30-Epic Rush Stuff (The Mob Rules by Black Sabbath)
  • 1:15-Community/on-hall/cats (?)
  • 0:30-Kitchens/Explosion (1-2-8)
  • 0:45-Destruction (Guerrilla Radio)
  • 1:00-Lighter rush stuff (?)
    • Rave, twirly thingie

Music

  • William Tell overture during construction/projects montage; Fast-moving video
  • Destruction oriented scene
    • Guerrilla Radio
  • MGMT
    • Time to Pretend
    • standard Kids fallback if all else fails
  • The Strokes, On the other side
  • Electric six,
  • Owner of a Lonely Heart
  • I want to rock?


Possible Sections

  • Activities
    • Rush
      • Fun
        • Construction
        • Vinny tube dance (fast)
        • IC saying "E #BOLT# C"
        • BBQ
        • Waterwar+Mario Bike?
        • Coaster
        • Xanadu/Rave
        • Rave/Vinny Crowdsurf?
      • Deconstruction
        • Tower? (wtf footage)
        • sledgehammer
        • cart (hmmmmm)
        • boom
    • Bad Ideas
      • Revers taco eating!!!
      • peniscount?
      • pig roast
    • snowball launcher
    • Misc
      • damn kids
  • Projects
    • Tesla Coil
    • Fountain
    • Couch
  • Halls/Misc
    • color light bemis/zoom bemis 4e
    • fish
    • cats
    • 5e?
    • Murals
    • putz walk down - >segway to cam?
  • Cooking/Kitchens/Community
    • thanksgiving
    • cake
    • other noms?
  • Rooms/random stuff
    • arwest

Ideas

  • drastically speeding up many kinds of footage helps a lot with keeping to time
  • reverse taco challenge
  • transition from halls to kitchens - video zooming in on PUTZ monitor to actual kitchen footage
Retrieved from "http://ec.mit.edu/wiki/index.php?title=CameraComm"
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