Daytime Timelapse

[Fornaxtwo]

Probably been asked before - is it possible to set in code to make a daytime Timelapse that finishes at dusk?
Thanks,
Rob

[EricClaeys]

Call generateForDay --timelapse DATE from a script in the day-to-night module flow. I am on my phone traveling right now so I can't give details. If you can figure that out it would be really cool if you could figure out how to make that a new module so other people who have asked for that capability can use the module...

[Fornaxtwo]

I’m new to this and the Rpi Eric, when you have a chance let me know where this module is.
Thanks, Rob

[EricClaeys]

In the WebUI, go to the Module Manager link on the left side. Near the top, change the flow in the dropdown to this:

then enable the script. The "Modules" documentation page describes how to create a script.

Creating scripts and modules is a somewhat advanced topic, so if none of this makes sense you can always wait until someone else implements it. Or of course try to learn it on your own.

[Fornaxtwo]

Thank you Eric, I’ll see what I can do

[brianboru82]

I do create daytime timelapses, but it's not 100% finished yet.

1. Under Modules/Daytime Capture, I have the Overlay Data on the Image and Save an Intermediate Image modules selected and enabled
2. For the Saves an Intermediate Image settings, I set the image folder to ${ALLSKY_IMAGES}/${DATE}-day . I've found in the past that if all the daytime and nighttime photos are saved together, you'll get a timelapse of both day and night, and same with the keogram and startrail, which I don't want. So I save them separately. (Side note, this means you won't be able to see the day videos from the allsky website. I just look at them from where they are uploaded to my server. It hasn't bothered me enough to hack the website interface)
3. Then, under the Day to Night Transition, I have a custom script, which is saved in the allsky folder under /allsky/scripts.
4. Custom script file location: /home/pi/allsky/scripts/DayTimeLapse.sh
5. DayTimeLapse.SH:

cd /home/pi/allsky/scripts
DATE=$(date + %Y%m%d')-day
./generateForDay.sh --timelapse DATE
./generateForDay.sh --timelapse --upload DATE

Hope this helps!

[brianboru82]

BTW the main problem is the timelapse takes a long time to generate, so the debug script timer has to be set very long otherwise it'll only run for one day.

[Fornaxtwo]

Thanks very much for the code and tips, should help me get up and running.

[EricClaeys]

If you are running the latest Allsky, you can shorten it some (and fix a bug):

#!/bin/bash
DATE="$(date + %Y%m%d')-day"
generateForDay.sh --timelapse ${DATE}    &&   generateForDay.sh --timelapse --upload ${DATE}

If the first generateForDay.sh fails it won't try the second one.

I suggest creating a directory in $HOME to hold your script(s). Anything in ~/allsky/scripts will need to be recreated after every upgrade, whereas anything in $HOME won't. For example:

cd
mkdir myScripts
# move DayTimeLapse.sh to ~/myScripts
chmod 755 ~/myScripts/DayTimeLapse.sh

The custom script file location would be: ${HOME}/myScripts/DayTimeLapse.sh

When done, I suggest copying myScripts to a PC.

[brianboru82]

Thanks Eric, I'll try that out.

[EricClaeys]

FYI, I've asked @Alex-developer about having a directory called ~/allsky/config/myFiles that users could store their modules and scripts in, and it would be carried forward to new releases.
I'll let you know what we decide. If we go with it in the next release, you could put your files there now, and when you upgrade they will be copied to the new release.

[EricClaeys]

If your budget allows it, a Pi 5 with or without an NVMe disk, is much faster at creating timelapse videos.

[brianboru82]

Yeah, i was kind of thinking that. The Pi3B+ was pretty good with the ASI120, but with the RPi HQ camera, it takes a bit longer.