Timelapse for Raspberry Pi based on Alex Ellis's blog post

Base: https://blog.alexellis.io/raspberry-pi-timelapse/

An incomplete rundown.

Read above blog for the background on why docker but check around to install docker as that process has changed since then. I use Ansible to configure up my RPi with the basic setup and docker so I rarely setup manaually.

Raspberry Pi & Pi camera needed. I've been using two setups:

Raspberry Pi Zero W + camera in an offical case which is attached to an USB battery. I use this on an angled stand in an altered cardboard box to control side light falling on the lens. Normally I have this sitting outside on the windowsill which external power pointing to the southern sky but have used it battery powered outside when stargazing. The base OS setup has docker installed and it can either connect to the house wifi or my iPad to get NTP updates and to let me ssh into it.

Second setup is a Zero W using a ZeroView 'case' [The PiHut] and a realtime clock. This setup I use mounted on windows in hotels (especially high up). The Pi is setup to connect to my iPad in hotspot mode so I can add the hotel wifi but with realtime clock it doesn't need that. Cool for city view timelapses but use a big SD card.

The program loops and uses parameters set via a config file to decide when and how the pictures are taken. Copy config.yaml to base directory and modify to your requirements.

If you use the docker container there is no need to rebuild when you want to tweak it as config.yaml is read before every shot. So you can set your location, the shooting day's start and end time or even tweak raspistill arguments while the program is running.

I haven't installed it directly on a Pi for a long time so this might not be complete but these Python3 libraries are needed:

astral
pyyaml
logzero

Check the program and dockerfile for more details.

Configurationwise check astral documentation for location cities. I try to match time zone city https://astral.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

If you have the Pi, camera, docker and config ready then:

docker run --name capture --volume /home/pi/image:/home/pi/image\
           --privileged --restart=always --env TZ="Australia/Sydney"\
           --detach micedwards/phototimer:latest`

Replace the TZ environment variable with your location's timezone.

Dockerfile stuff you probably can skip: The dockerfile here is different to Alex's as it has been updated to use balenalib buster as the base image rather than resin. This lead to raspistill failing so I've had to roll back the libraries containing the raspistill programs to:

        libraspberrypi-bin=1.20180328-1~nokernel1 
        libraspberrypi0=1.20180328-1~nokernel1

[as of 2020.03.01]

Debug logging is switchable via the config file. Creates logfile in base path directory.

Files:

phototimer
    +-- config.py     ! initial configuration
    +-- config.yaml   ! localised configuration (edit on the fly)
    +-- Dockerfile    
    +-- phototimer.py
    +-- README.md

Default config.yaml:

---
location: "Sydney"          ! used to calculate dawn/dusk for exposure mode
start_time: 1
end_time: 2359
flip_horizontal: False      ! check raspistill documentation
flip_vertical: False        ! check raspistill documentation
metering_mode: "matrix"     ! check raspistill documentation
shooting_mode: "normal"     ! "night" for no shots during dawn to dusk
base_path: "/home/pi/image"
width: 3280                 ! check raspistill documentation
height: 2464                ! check raspistill documentation
quality: 85                 ! check raspistill documentation
time_delay: 60              ! check raspistill documentation
ISO: 200                    ! check raspistill documentation
brightness = 48             ! check raspistill documentation
contrast = 3                ! check raspistill documentation
nightSSpeed: 5700000        ! check raspistill documentation
debugLog: False

Default configuration on boot provided by config.py:

config = {}
config["start_time"] = 1          
config["end_time"] = 2359         
config["location"] = "Sydney"

config["flip_horizontal"] = False
config["flip_vertical"] = False
config["metering_mode"] = "matrix"
config["shooting_mode"] = "normal"

config["height"] = 2464
config["width"] = 3280
config["quality"] = 85

config["base_path"] = "/home/pi/image"
config["time_delay"] = 60

config["ISO"] = 200
config["brightness"] = 48
config["contrast"] = 3
config["nightSSpeed"] = 5700000

config["debugLog"] = True

Here in case I forget the basics again...

Build Pi:

docker build -t micedwards/phototimer:{date} . docker push micedwards/phototimer:{date}

Once working:

docker image tag micedwards/phototimer:{date} micedwards/phototimer:latest
docker push micedwards/phototimer:latest

Camera Pi:

docker run --name capture --volume /home/pi/image:/home/pi/image\
           --privileged --restart=always --env TZ="Australia/Sydney"\
           --detach micedwards/phototimer:latest

(or use the date tag if troubleshooting)

Troubleshooting:

Local logs in base directory also check: docker container logs capture

To connect to running container for debugging: docker exec -it capture bash

Cleaning up:

docker container stop capture

Clear all pictures & logfiles from bash directory: sudo rm -r ~/image/20* && sudo rm -r ~/image/log*

Delete all docker logs: sudo find /var/lib/docker/containers/ -type f -name "*.log" -delete

docker container start capture