Welcome to OpenMoCo

pan tilt by shutterdronemicroengine by cronixlokomoko 666 by IncoeMotimo

Welcome to OpenMoCo, a community site for Open-source Photographic Motion Control technology. Our focus is to create open-source solutions for motion control in photographic techniques including time-lapse, gigapixel panoramas, focus stacking, live video, and just about anything you can think of.  Here, you can interact with other people working on their own motion control systems, share software or hardware designs, and get help in creating a motion-control system that meets your needs.  We believe in complete compliance with the Open-Source Hardware Definition.

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Forums Active Again

Submitted by shutterdrone on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 16:10
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We got the forums working here on OpenMoco again, they're still not perfect but highly improved. Feel free to Register and join in the discussion! We'll be quickly working to populate many of the off-line discussions we've been having about UI and system design, and look forward to hearing from all of those we haven't yet.

You can access the forums from the links at the top and on the left of this page.

An OpenMoco Hardware Prototype

Submitted by shutterdrone on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 17:16
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We're making progress with hardware kits that will soon (maybe early Q2 2010?) be available for purchase. The idea is to use laser-cut acrylic panels and mostly off-the-shelf hardware (there will only be a couple of custom circuit boards, and one gear has to be custom-bored) to provide simple kits for the DIY motion control enthusiast to build their own systems without heavy investment in tooling and without having to focus on all of the fundamentals. In such a world, you could create new software, or just get out and shoot without first buying expensive CNC machines, or have to figure out yet one more way to come up with that right gear ratio.

The idea is that these kits would trade a little sweat equity from the end-user for cost, providing a system capable of just about anything you can imagine at a fraction of some of the pre-built systems' cost.

Getting Up and Running with OpenMoco Slim

Submitted by shutterdrone on Thu, 12/17/2009 - 03:07
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While the Timelapse Engine provides all the functionality needed to perform the motion control for your time-lapse video, you'll still need a way to interface with the engine. The engine can communicate with any computer that has a USB port, so we'll just need some software to tell it what to do. OpenMoco Slim is the first, and most basic interface to the time-lapse engine. It's a simple application that provides a low-profile way to interact with the engine and script complex sequences of motion in Windows, Linux, and OSX.

We'll cover how to get Slim up and running, and walk through the basics of using it.

Motion Techniques and Terminology

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When building a motion control rig for timelapse, gigapano, or other photographic motion control, it is important to first establish which type of motion technique will be appropriate for your project. You must know which technique(s) you wish to employ before beginning motor selection and overall system design.

While some of the techniques described here will be well-known and agreed upon by the time-lapse community and others, some are purely hypothetical and crafted to encourage experimentation and thought on the subject.  Please feel free to add any additional techniques, or discussion as a comment to this article.

Arduino Intervalometer Basics

Submitted by shutterdrone on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 04:13
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OpenMoco TimeLapse Engine 0.81 Released

Submitted by shutterdrone on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 02:30
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Version 0.81 of the OpenMoco Timelapse Engine is now available for download.

Changes in this release:

The OpenMoco Reference Design

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Here on the OpenMoco.org website, you'll find a number of open-source, free, and user-contributed software and hardware designs.  The core focus of the OpenMoco system is the Official OpenMoco Reference Design.  This design includes the system architecture, the system software components, and the system hardware components.

 

OpenMoco Architecture High-Level View

 

OpenMoco Time-Lapse PERL API Released

Submitted by shutterdrone on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 05:19
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The PERL API is ready for download, and is fully documented.  It provides easy scripting capabilities when attaching a time-lapse engine to any windows or linux computer's serial/usb port.   All capabilities of the engine are exposed through easy-to-use methods.

Source, documentation and a package may be downloaded at the Software Download Page

OpenMoco Time-Lapse Engine 0.8 Alpha Released

Submitted by shutterdrone on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 05:10
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The first publicly available release of the OpenMoco time-lapse engine is now available.  Download it at the Software Download Page.

Documentation is incomplete, and there may be bugs, but stop on in, sign up for an account, and let us know what you think!

What's not done?

  • Further code optimization - several flags need to be rolled into single bytes
  • Complete documentation
  • ... and probably another hundred things I can't remember!

What is Moco?

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The term 'Moco' is short for 'Motion Control' (wikipedia).  In general motion control is precise mechanical movement of objects, in our case the object is a camera.  The basics of photographic or cinematic motion control are to achieve predictable accurate camera movement and thus smooth changes in point of view.  Moves can be made up of a pans (horizontal turn), tilts (vertical turn), dollys (linear travel), rolls (circular camera movement), booms (long arm cantilevers) or any combination of these movements.  Photographic and cinegraphic moco can also include control of lens functions such as zoom and aperture.  The apparatus that makes all these automated movements and adjustments possible is typically called the 'rig' (which can also refer to non automated or hand driven camera apparatus).

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