sjdh/astroplant-timelapse

Timelapse utilties for the astroplant project

Timelapse for Astroplant

This is a timelapse tool for the astroplant project. To be used with atroplant setup, based on Raspberry Pi.

Usage

Show help

python timelapse.py --help
python timelapse.py capture --help
python timelapse.py simulate --help

Simulate

# Write repeated simulated capture to ./capture 
python timelapse.py simulate --start-recording 2020-01-05T15:32:21 --days=20 ./capture

Directory structure

timelapse stores and reads captures in the following directory structure

capture
├── 2020-01-05
│   ├── capture_15:32:21.png
│   ├── capture_15:47:21.png
│   ├── capture_16:02:21.png
│   ...
├── 2020-01-06
│   ├── capture_00:02:21.png
│   ├── capture_00:17:21.png
│   ├── capture_00:32:21.png
│   ...
...

Capture periodically

timelapse does not implement a schedular. Hoever, systemd is an excelent choise as a schedular and it is present on most linux systems.

To schedule a priodic capture, first create a new service.

# /etc/systemd/system/timlapse-capture.service
[Unit]
Description=Captures a single timelapse shot

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python /home/ubuntu/atro-timelapse/timelapse capture
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu/timelapse

Adapt to your specifics and then create a timer file

# /etc/systemd/system/timlapse-capture.timer

[Unit]
Description=Run timelapse capture every 15 minutes

[Timer]
OnStartupSec=15min

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

List timers

systemctl list-timers

Enble timer on boot

systemctl enable timelapse-capture.timer

Start timer

systemctl start timelapse-capture.timer

Requirements

Python3

to do: add requirements.txt