On Sat, 4 Feb 2017 07:06:37 -0000 (UTC), sean wrote:

>> I had one showing an outside scene and time lapsed that. The white
>> balance set to auto worked very well.
>
> Do you se the white balance with the python picamera module?

I had two scripts. One python to take the still image every 30
seconds, look at the average level and throw it away if it was below
a set threshold (ie it's dark). If it was above the threshold it used
imagemagick to add a semi transparent box that contained the
date/time. This script started on boot up.

The second script was a bash one, called by a cron, to render the
time lapse via mencoder and I think to manage the FIFO file handling.


> Just curious, are you processing the stills on the pi or copying them
> over to x86?

Mine was all done on the Pi (a Pi 2) that also had nginx installed so
I could simply see the results on the LAN via a browser.

> Do you have any you're willing to share?

There is a slight "technical problem" with that. It's a while ago
since I took the camera  down as it was eating cards and sticks. I
still have them but the user (and root) passwords illude me ATM. I'm
letting my subconcious mind work on that...

> If you're doing a time-lapse outside, do you set a time frame of when it
> doesn't need to snap pictures?

I did think about that but the time of darkness varies by time of
year and the weather. Decided that taking a mean level of the image
would be better and automatic. It actually worked very well evening
would fade down to black then fade back up with the next morning.
Bear in mind the location is rural and when it goes dark it goes
DARK. It might not work so well if there is much artifical light
about.

> Ah, so you're using imagemagick on the raspberry pi? Wow, that's quite a
> long time-lapse.

I'd generate one every 6 hours (taking several hours to render).
Compressing 6 hours into just under 2 minutes. I played with the
hardware rendering capabilties of the Pi, very fast, minutes if not
seconds but very poor quality.

> Since it sounds like you're doing these outside, how are you powering
> the pi?

Pi and camera inside looking out of a window. Pi camera lens right up
to the glass looking through a hole in some black plastic sheet, more
sheet covered camera to eliminate reflections. "Black plastic sheet"
being sourced from some chilled food packaging.

> Do you use the raspberry pi camera version 1 or 2?

It has "Rev 1.3" printed on it.

--
Cheers
Dave.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05