Submitted by slayer on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 15:04
Posted in
Hi folks,
Very, very new to this, but am inspired by some of the fantastic video seen on Vimeo.
Trying to understand what I need to build something like this...I do have some Arduino experience (although never a fully completed project!) and was wondering if the Chronos hardware could be combined with the miniE controller to provide an HDR-capable stop-shoot-start system? (I'm even sure my terminology is wrong! :-))
Specifically, will the Chronos worm drive work with stepper motors? No backlash?
Be very keen to see the Chronos specs when they are published.
I am after a rig that is lightweight and portable enough to go through the UK's increasingly difficult luggage weight limits, especially for snowboarding trips! It also needs slow and fast speed options.
Will be poring over the info on the site - great resource!
cheers
Slay
Hej, you can trigger your
Hej,
you can trigger your camera to do a row of 3 (or more) shots with one miniE signal. That means miniE can (indirectly) handle HDR. In terms of hardware - miniE can control a system like Chronos. Chronos has only one stepper motor and thats exactly what miniE can control. The system itself has no backlash (worm drive) so miniE doesn't have to care about that.
Finals answer: Yes, miniE can control a system like Chronos for HDR timelapses.
cm
Oops, thought I had replied,
Oops, thought I had replied, but must have failed login.
Thanks for the info...
I have the UNO predecessor, the Duemilanove, which I guess can be used? Still trying to tie down the hardware I need.
Cheers,
Slay
Make sure you do your
Make sure you do your research on this. miniE looks awesome, im not sure how well it will work on chronos, it will likely require some modifications on chronos.
I dont know how miniE is implemented, is ti just a control interface? does it supply the driver for the stepper? is it compatible with unipolar steppers?
Chronos uses a unipolar stepper motor, so you need to make sure you use a unipolar driver, running it bipolar saps the strength from it. The motor control shield i used http://www.adafruit.com/products/81 uses quite a few pins, so however the mini-e connects you will need to make sure you dont have to spend a bunch of time re-assigning pins. So make sure you contact the designers of the miniE and see what pins it leaves and how exactly it interfaces.
Quote:The motor shield pinout is as follows
Digital pin 11: DC Motor #1 / Stepper #1 (activation/speed control)
Digital pin 3: DC Motor #2 / Stepper #1 (activation/speed control)
Digital pin 5: DC Motor #3 / Stepper #2 (activation/speed control)
Digital pin 6: DC Motor #4 / Stepper #2 (activation/speed control)
Digital pin 4, 7, 8 and 12 are used to drive the DC/Stepper motors via the 74HC595 serial-to-parallel latch
Chronos only uses a single stepper, so depending on which side you use depends on what pins are available. Using stepper 1, the shield requires the use of pins 3,4,7,8,11,12, or if using stepper 2 it uses pins 4,5,6,7,8,12
Keep in mind that is just the motor shield, i also have a few whisker switches as safety stops implemented, check the schematics to see what is left. That is one of the reasons i went with a bare bones control system with the buttons and knobs. Not flashy but you get a lot of flexability out of that type of setup.
Just a heads up, im developing my own control system for controlling chronos, it will also be compatible with anything else i develop, and i have a couple other vendors looking into making it compatible with thier systems as well. It uses the i2c bus for communication and control. it will just plug into Chronos with a phone cable. It is called Project Zeus, and is still in its developing stage, the first prototype is about done, now im doing a complete redesign with what i have learned. hopefully in a few weeks ill have a finished prototype. It will include multiple camera trigger jacks, a couple optical triggers, several built in intervalometers, a 16x2 LCD screen, a lightning trigger, and support velocity ramped modes, continuous modes, as well as SMS modes. it can be powered off chronos or by a 9v battery. this WILL be 100% compatible with chronos.
The miniE will clearly be a less expencive option than Zeus, and if you can get it to work do everyone a big favor and document how you integrated the two, i could see how miniE would be a real attractive option. if you have any questions for me as far as chronos goes you can always ask here, or email me at eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%50%72%6f%6a%65%63%74%43%68%72%6f%6e%6f%73%48%65%6c%70%40%67%6d%61%69%6c%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%50%72%6f%6a%65%63%74%43%68%72%6f%6e%6f%73%48%65%6c%70%40%67%6d%61%69%6c%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b')) and ill do my best to help out.
I have been running a miniE
I have been running a miniE setup in a test situation for 3 weeks. It works well my only issues are with the Arduino, very current thirsty. I have to find lower current hardware to make a long term intervalometer (no motor). It seems to integrate miniE with the Chronos hardware is Really simple. I am runnning a bipolar stepper via a Pololu stepper driver this could then just drive the lead screw, if more torque is needed yo can use a gear head stepper or ad a 3-1 reduction via a belt drive. Jack what size stepper are you running? It looks like a Nema 25 motor. To drive multiple cameras just add another 2 channel optoisolator for a second camera or third.
Cheers
Oh and BTW all the
Oh and BTW all the documentation for miniE is in the download. Including manual and schematics. Chronos looks really good, well designed and thought out.
Cheers
I am pretty sure it is NEMA
I am pretty sure it is NEMA 23.
here is a link to the motor. Honestly i thought i was ordering a unipolar motor, i was sort of annoyed when i got it. But i figured i would go ahead and make use of it, and it does do a wonderful job, when wired as a bipolar it just sucks, it is weak as hell, but when wired as unipolar it really cranks.
12v 125oz in Stepper motor Robotshop.com 59.99 (x1)
http://www.robotshop.com/productinfo.aspx?pc=RB-Soy-14&lang=en-US
Here is a link to the specs, it looks like it is NEMA 23 by the dimentions, so the mounting brackets should fit ANY Nema 23 motor, so you could certainly go with a bi-polar motor, which really seems to open your options for off-the-shelf motor drivers. You may even be able to just use an Easydriver which work well considering they are dirt cheap.
http://www.robotshop.com/content/PDF/rb-soy-14-unipolar-stepper-motor-specs.pdf
Thank you for the kind words about chronos. So far it has been performing wonderfully. There are several chronos builds going on in 3 countries now.
I am actually going to be building another, somebody asked if i could assemble one for them, i agreed to do it just for the opportunity to build a step by step instruction guide.
Hej, here some thought to the
Hej,
here some thought to the miniE system directly from the designer and developer.
miniEngine is a full motion control engine supporting one stepper and one camera (the full feature list can be found here) with an included 16x2 UI and 5 button control (through the DFRobot LCD keypad shield). It has no motor driver included directly. This means you can add any motor driver you want and need for your requirements that can be controlled by the 3 signal lines
Step
Direction
Motor Sleep (not really required but saves a lot of energy)
I do not know if there are stepper driver boards for uni-polar steppers that can be controlled this way. If not, you could take a bi-polar driver board that supports beefy steppers.
I think it would be quite easy to use miniE as the „brain“ and controlling unit for the Chronos system. In fact, I am currently building a system based on the same Drylin slider from Igus.
I think the Arduino Duemilanove will not work with miniE due to its limited flash memory. The Duemilanove has only 16kbyte available but miniE needs 27kbytes. The UNO provides 32kbyte.
Regards,
cm
Hi all,I'm new to the forum
Hi all,I'm new to the forum and need help with miniE software.Load the code into the program and when I try to upload to the Arduino board, I get the following error:
miniE.cpp: In function 'void paint_scroll_arrows ()':mE_ui: 683: error: call of overloaded 'write (int)' is ambiguousC: \ Program Files \ arduino \ libraries \ LiquidCrystal / LiquidCrystal.h: 82: note:candidates are: virtual size_t LiquidCrystal:: write (uint8_t)C: \ Program Files \ arduino \ hardware \ arduino \ cores \ arduino / Print.h: 49:note: size_t Print:: write (const char *)
What is this? What do I have to do?Thanks very much for your help, we can help.Greetings.
What is your level of
What is your level of experience with Arduino, maybe the libraries are not loaded?
OK so the answer is YES there
OK so the answer is YES
there is no reason it shouldnt work, you just have to wire the motor up correctly by using half coils instead of full coils. Not only will it with with the easydriver, but with this method the end-to-end time dropped to 5 minutes.
i have a miniE put together and ive been testing, i have not managed to get it to work with the stepper yet, but i think it is user error and i just have to dial in the correct parameters, once i figure it out ill post it up.