HeraclesXI

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ + Camera Module V2 + HeraclesXI = Automatic Sunrise & Sunset timelapse capturer.

See it in action: https://twitter.com/hasvistoelcielo

Instructions

Build filesystem image

This is meant to be run in your normal workstation.

• git clone https://github.com/franalbani/heraclesxi.git
• cd heraclesxi/scripts
• Edit network with your WiFi credentials.
• Edit raspbian_zip_to_img to choose $HOSTNAME and $TIMEZONE.
• Download raspian image (now called raspios). This was last tested with 2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-lite.zip.
• Run ./raspbian_zip_to_img 2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-lite.zip. This will generate 2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-lite.img.

Burn image to SD card

This is meant to be run in your normal workstation.

• Insert SD card.
• lsblk to take note of block device asigned to SD card. Do not confuse with partitions. Replace $SD_CARD_BLOCK_DEVICE by it in next commands.
• sudo dd bs=4M if=2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-lite.img of=$SD_CARD_BLOCK_DEVICE conv=fsync status=progress
• eject $SD_CARD_BLOCK_DEVICE
• Insert SD card in Raspi and boot it.

Raspi first boot and network discovery

This is meant to be run in your normal workstation.

• ping heracles.local. If it works, good; if not, try:
  • nmap -sn 192.168.0.0/24 | grep -B 2 -i raspberry in your host. It should show something like:

    Nmap scan report for 192.168.0.28
    Host is up (0.082s latency).
    MAC Address: B8:27:EB:89:16:67 (Raspberry Pi Foundation)
    

  • Take note of IP address (192.168.0.28 in this case).
• ssh pi@heracles.local or ssh pi@192.168.0.28
  • Next commands are meant to be run inside raspi.
  • sudo /root/on_first_boot
  • cd
  • git clone https://github.com/franalbani/heraclesxi.git
  • cd heraclesxi
  • Edit heraclesxi.service to suit your needs.

    • $ ./heraclesxi --help
      usage: heraclesxi [-h] [--target {sunrise,sunset}] [--destdir DESTDIR]
                        [--minutes_before MINUTES_BEFORE]
                        [--minutes_after MINUTES_AFTER]
                        [--seconds_between SECONDS_BETWEEN] [--fps FPS]
      
      optional arguments:
        -h, --help            show this help message and exit
        --target {sunrise,sunset}
        --destdir DESTDIR     destination directory
        --minutes_before MINUTES_BEFORE
                              minutes before target
        --minutes_after MINUTES_AFTER
                              minutes after target
        --seconds_between SECONDS_BETWEEN
                              seconds between captures
        --fps FPS             frames per second
      

  • sudo cp heraclesxi.service /etc/systemd/system/ TODO: improve this step
  • sudo systemctl enable heraclesxi.service
  • sudo systemctl start heraclesxi.service

Misc

Test camera

• On raspi: raspivid -w 640 -h 480 -t 0 -l -o tcp://0.0.0.0:35000
• On your pc: vlc tcp/h264://192.168.0.28:35000

Power saving

• sudo tvservice --off
• sudo ifconfig eth0 down
• sudo systemctl stop bluetooth.service

Temperature

• /opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp