Summary of Contents for Dreaming Robots Camera Axe 5
- Page 1 Camera Axe 5 User Manual Document Version: 5.2a December 18, 2011 Authors: Andrew Morgan and Maurice Ribble...
- Page 2 Introduction Differences between Camera Axe 5 and Camera Axe 5 Shield Hardware Display Power Switch Activate Button Select Button Menu Button Arrow/Cursor Buttons Camera Flash Buttons Camera/Flash LEDs Camera/Flash Ports Sensor Ports USB Port Menus Advanced Sensor Menu Projectile Menu...
- Page 3 Camera Axe Shield to enable long battery life. The Camera Axe 5 Shield is a kit that must be soldered together. The user must supply an Arduino Uno (or compatible) development board and a way to power the device. Since this version gets it’s power from the Arduino there is no power switch.
- Page 4 can either add a switch between the battery providing power to the Arduino or just unplug power from the Arduino. The power switch turns on/off the unit. When the unit is powered on it goes through a startup sequence. In the startup, the microcontroller input and output pins are set up, the default values are loaded from the EEPROM and the display is setup.
- Page 5 The tip of the 3.5mm plug is +5V, the base of the 3.5 mm plug is ground, and middle of the 3.5 mm plug is the sensor. Starting with Camera Axe 5 (Camera Axe 4 does not support this) the power pin can also optionally be configured as another analog data pin which is useful for some sensors.
- Page 6 voltages are within the range of 0 to 5 volts. USB Port On the standard Camera Axe there is also a USB port. This port is used for programming the Camera Axe with new firmware and to recharge the internal battery. On the Camera Axe Shield the USB port is located on the Arduino board.
- Page 7 The top area of the menu sets the device settings. Devices are the camera or flash plugged into the ports on the side of the unit. Device1 refers to the Camera/Flash 1 port and Device2 refers to the Camera/Flash 2 port. The bottom area selects the sensor that is associated with a particular device. For understanding how the menu is configured, the menu consists of four sections that work together to configure the device and sensor setting.
- Page 8 when the Activate button is pressed, to put the unit into photo mode, causing the camera to pre-focus (if the camera supports this capability). NOTE: Leave this set to No for flashes. Device Settings Prameter Options Description Trigger Type A setting of Low will trigger when the sensor High reading is lower than the setting.
- Page 9 light sensor). When the laser triggers the lights sensor the laser will turn off. You can also use the more powerful “and” or “or” trigger modes of the devices to make very flexible decisions on when to turn off the power to a sensor. Sensor Settings An example of using the Advanced Sensor Menu with a microphone is described below in the Microphone Sensor section of the document.
- Page 10 Due to the display size, the entire menu shown below is not visible at the same time. Pressing the up and down arrows will scroll the display to show the rest of the menu. This is a special purpose menu for the valve sensor.
- Page 11 The following settings are only useful for advanced users with 2 valve sensors. The second valve sensor should be plugged into the Sensor2 port. Parameter Options Description V2 Start Offset Numeric value The number of milliseconds from when the first between 000 and valve start to when the second valve starts.
- Page 12 Interval hours:minutes:seconds The amount of time between shots in hours, minutes and seconds. # Shots (0=Inf) Numeric value between The total number of intervals that will be 0000 and 9999 done. Setting this to 0 will take keep taking shots until this mode is exited or the Camera Axe runs out of batteries.
- Page 13 trigger. The 2nd would be about a half second later with a 2 second shutter trigger, the 3rd would have a 4 second shutter trigger and the 4th would have an 8 second shutter trigger. The 5th through 8th shots would start at 1 minute 5 seconds from activation and would have shutter trigger times of 1,2,4,8 seconds respectively.
- Page 14 function and is reset if necessary in the detectButtonPress function. Sensors There are a wide variety of sensors that can be used with the Camera Axe. Depending on the sensor type and the menu being used, a wide variety of photographs can be taken using the Camera Axe. This section describes the collection of sensors sold with the Camera Axe but any sensor type that conforms to the sensor wiring and electrical requirements will work with the Camera Axe unit.
- Page 15 Bulb sec Prefocus Device Settings Parameter Sensor1 Sensor2 Trigger Type Threshld Trigger Value Power Sensor Settings The camera should be set to take a picture using aperture priority to allow the shutter speed to vary as the daylight dims (or you may choose to set up the camera for the shot in manual mode). These Camera Axe settings will trigger a shot each time the daylight dims by 10 units on the light sensor.
- Page 16 Parameter Device 1 Device 2 Trigger Sensor Sensor1 Sensor1 Delay ms 000.0 000.2 Bulb sec Prefocus Device Settings Parameter Sensor1 Sensor2 Trigger Type Trigger Value Power Off_Sen2 Sensor Settings The camera should be set to manual mode and the aperture and shutter speed should be set as appropriate for the flash value.
- Page 17 Trigger Sensor Sensor2 None Delay ms 500.0 000.0 Bulb sec Prefocus Device Settings Parameter Sensor1 Sensor2 Trigger Type Trigger Value Power Sensor Settings Projectile Sensor The projectile sensor is used with the projectile menu described above to capture images of projectiles in flight (and objects exploding) at a specific distance from the sensor based on the measured speed of the projectile.
- Page 18 NOTE: This sensor and menu are designed to work with projectiles with a (nearly) constant velocity such as bullets or pellets. The sensor and menu can be used for objects falling through the sensors but due to the effects of gravity, the distance value will not be accurate and the user will need to start the drop from the same position each time to get consistent results.
- Page 19 Motion/Distance Sensor This sensor, which plugs into either of the Sensor ports on the Camera Axe, detects the distance of an object from the sensor. It updates its measurement 20 times per second so won't work for really fast moving objects, but it is ideal for wildlife. Its max distance is about 10 feet (3 meters). The object it is detecting must be the size of a small bird or larger and it is accurate enough to detect a movement of just a few inches.
- Page 20 This Clip sensor, which plugs into either of the sensor ports on the Camera Axe, is a generic sensor for people who want to make their sensor. This sensor can trigger the Camera Axe when the conductivity between the clips changes. Examples of how this could be used would be to add any of the following between the two clips: a manual button, two sheets of tinfoil the touch each other when someone steps on it, a thin metal trip wire, a photo-resistor, or many other things.
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