cinetics CineMoco User manual

CineMoco
Instruction Manual
Documentation v1.0

Documentation v1.0CineMoco
Table of Contents
1 Intro......................................................................................4
2 Hardware.............................................................................4
3 The Cycle..............................................................................5
4 User Interface and Navigation.............................................6
4.1 The Status Bar.............................................................7
5 Modes - Menu Style...............................................................8
5.1 Quick...........................................................................8
5.2 Advanced....................................................................8
6 Modes - Movement Style.......................................................8
7 Quick Mode Screens and Settings.........................................9
7.1 The Main Screen..........................................................9
7.2 The Settings Screen...................................................10
8 Advanced Mode Screens and Settings.................................11
8.1 The Main Screens.......................................................11
Cycle.........................................................................11

Documentation v1.0CineMoco
Run..........................................................................12
8.2 The Settings Screens.................................................13
General....................................................................13
Camera....................................................................14
Motor.......................................................................15
Extra Features.........................................................16
Notes on Extra Features...........................................17
9 Credits and Release Notes...................................................18
10 Revision History

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1|Intro
Cinemoco is a lightweight timelapse controller designed to drive and power a single stepper motor
and camera. It was developed to provide a compact package for timelapse photography, stop motion
photography, or panning video.
2|Hardware
Included in the Cinemoco package is a custom made driver board, with a 128x64 graphic LCD
screen, and a 12v Lithium polymer battery all tied up into a neat little package. Below are diagrams
explaining all the hardware features of the system:
Hardware Interface
navigation
arrows
menu
button
home/
play button
power switch

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Connection Ports
3|The Cycle
The way cinemoco works can be described as a cycle. When you set up a shoot you tell cinemoco
how long the camera will expose, how far (or fast) to move the motor, and the interval between shots.
micro USB
expansion camera motor
DC power

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The interval between shots is the cycle length, or the time of camera exposure and motor movement
including delays. If your cycle length is set longer than the total time of the parts of the cycle, your
system will simply sit idle until the next cycle starts.
However, if the cycle length is shorter than the total time of the parts, your system will run all the parts
of the cycle until complete, then start again.
This means the interval between shots is the minimum cycle length, but not necessarily the maximum
cycle length.
4|User interface and navigation
There are two types of screens in the cinemoco system: the main screen and menu screens. Every
screen in the software is divided into three sections.
| Status Bar
Displays non-selectable information
| Setting Names
Names of the different settings the user can
adjust
| Setting Values
Values (either numbers or specic options) of
the setting

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To adjust settings use the right navigation arrow to move from the setting name to the setting value.
Once the value is highlighted use the up and down navigation arrows to adjust it, and use the left
navigation arrow to move back to the setting name when nished.
The menu button will take you to the menu screen, and cycle between menu screens in advanced
mode.
When on the main screen, the home/play button will start a program. When in a menu it will take you
back to the main screen. When a menu item with an arrow in it is highlighted
4|1 The Status Bar
The status bar gives you vital information on your shoot on the main screen. On the menu screens,
it will simply tell you what menu you are in.
| ENGINE STATUS
Status of the engine. This shows if the engine is
running or stopped
| POWER STATUS
Displays the amount of power left in the battery or
an image of a plug when the system is powered
externally (a wall outlet or external 12v battery)
| INTERVAL
The user-dened cycle interval. ***Only shown
in status bar in advanced mode***
| SHOT NUMBERS
Number of shots taken since the engine starts/
total shots to be taken. ***total shots only in
advanced mode***

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5|Modes - Menu Styles
The functionality of the CineMoco is divided up into ‘Quick’ and ‘Advanced’ menu systems.
5|1 Quick
In the Quick menu you input the values for the parts of the cycle detailed in section 3, plus the
direction the motor will spin. If this is your rst go at motorized timelapse, we’d recommend starting
here; this setup is designed to require the minimum number of settings dened by the user. But don’t
be afraid to get adventurous; you can always reset to defaults!
5|2 Advanced
The advanced main screen has two display options: cycle and run.
• Cycle allows you to set up your shot the same way as in the 'Quick' menu, but with more options,
most of which are on the settings screens.
• Run allows you to set up based on the time it will take to shoot the entire program and the desired
playback time, and the total distance traveled by the dolly; with these settings CineMoco will au-
tomatically calculate the elements of individual cycles.
6|Modes - Movement Style
There are three different ways to move your camera using the CineMoco: shoot-move-shoot (s-m-s),
continuous, and stop motion.
• s-m-s is the default setting for movement. In this mode the camera will re, then the motor will
perform it’s movement in each cycle. The user will set the movement distance when moving this
way. This style is ideal for timelapses with longer exposures.
• When the movement is set to continuous, the motor will move throughout the entire cycle, never
stopping. This is ideal for shooting video, but also gives great timelapse results.
• Stop motion is the same as s-m-s, but requires the user to manually start each cycle by hitting the
home/play button.

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7|Quick Mode Screens and Settings
7|1 The Main Screen
| INTERVAL
The user-dened cycle length. See section 3 for
more information.
| DISTANCE/SPEED
The total distance traveled during a cycle (sms,
stopm modes).
The speed of the motor (continuous mode).
| DIRECTION
Direction of the motor. CW = clockwise, CCW =
counter-clockwise.
| EXPOSURE
Shutter speed of the camera NOTE: can be
used to trigger the camera in manual mode, or
adjust the exposure time in bulb mode.

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7|2 The Settings Screen
| MOVE STYLE
Changes the way the way a motor will move
during a cycle. shoot-move-shoot, stop motion,
and continuous are the three options.
| TEST SHOT
Test res the camera when
pressing the home/play button.
| CAMERA TYPE
Must set for your specic camera type. In our
experience Canon cameras will work with either
0 or 1, and Nikon cameras have to be set to 1.
Your experience may vary.
| INFO
Shows version info
and developer credits.
Home/Play button
shows information.
| MENU STYLE
Changes the menu style to advanced.

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8|Advanced Mode Screens and Settings
8|1 The Main Screens
• Cycle
| INTERVAL
The user-dened cycle length. See section 3 for
more information.
| EXPOSURE
Shutter speed of the camera
NOTE: can be used to trigger the
camera in manual mode, or adjust
the exposure time in bulb mode.
| DISTANCE/SPEED
The total distance traveled during a cycle (sms,
stopm modes).
The speed of the motor (continuous mode).
| SHOT #
Limits the amount of
shots the camera will
take. setting it to zero
will allow unlimited
shots.
| DIRECTION
Direction of the motor. CW =
clockwise, CCW = counter-clockwise
.

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• Run
| DIRECTION
Direction of the motor. CW = clockwise, CCW =
counter-clockwise.
| TOTAL DISTANCE
Distance traveled by the camera over the whole
program.
| RECORD TIME
Time the entire program will take to run.
| EXPOSURE
Shutter speed of the camera NOTE: can be
used to trigger the camera in manual mode, or
adjust the exposure time in bulb mode.
| PLAYBACK TIME
Play time of the compiled video.
| PLAYBACK FRAMES PER SECOND
Settable to 24, 25, 30, 50, 60 fps. this is only
used by the system to calculate the interval and
total shot number, and does not lock you into
using a specic frame rate.

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8|2 The Settings Screens
The advanced menu gives you access to a more expansive group of settings to tailor your cinemoco
to move exactly as you’d like. In addition to these extra settings, there are two advanced features for
users: HDR shooting and Bulb Ramping (bramping).
• General (GEN)
| BACKLIGHT POWER
sets the percentage of total power the backlight
outputs.
| BACKLIGHT TIMER
sets the time before the screen backlight powers
down.
| SETUP STYLE
changes how you plan your move; cycle allows
you to plan for each single cycle, exactly how
you do in the quick menu. run allows you to
plan for the entire program run -- setting the
total shooting time and total playback time, and
the system will calculate the intervals of each
individual cycle.
| MENU STYLE
advanced or quick. When moving from advanced
to quick, settings that the user no longer has
access to will be set to defaults.

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• Camera (CAM)
| CHAIN STATUS
sets the CineMoco to either master or slave for
daisy chaining ***This feature is an ongoing
development***
| INFO
displays version info and developer credits.
Home/Play button shows information.
| RESET DATA
made a lot of changes, and don’t want to have to go change them all back? use this to return
everything to defaults. Home/Play button resets data.
| CAMERA TYPE
must set for your specic camera type. In our
experience Canon cameras will work with either
0 or 1, and Nikon cameras have to be set to 1.
| TEST SHOT
test res the camera
| POST DELAY
The post delay is a delay time after the exposure time is over. This can be used to ensure the camera
has enough time to nish the exposure before the motor starts to move.

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• Motor (MOT)
| MOVE STYLE
changes the way the way
a motor will move during a
cycle. shoot-move-shoot,
stop motion, and continuous
are the three options.
| MOTOR SLEEP
Motor sleep denes the behaviour of the driver board when the
motor is not moved. This setting is only valid for the time when
the engine is running. While the engine is stopped, the motor is
always in sleep mode.
If your motor is in sleep mode between the movements, its energy
consumption is drastically reduced. You can turn sleep mode off to
keep the motor powered as long as the engine is running. This is
useful if you want to avoid movements of your dolly during the run.
| RAMPING
This value is dening the amount of steps your motor will accelerate
and decelerate through a motor movement phase. This is set as
a fraction of a revolution of the motor in steps of 0.1 revolutions.
The motor ramping is sinus shaped for smooth movements. If your
ramping phases will take longer than the total motor phase (2 x
ramp > steps) the values are adjusted automatically to allow a nice
and soft movement.
| GO HOME
With this functionality you
can move the motor back to
its home position manually.
Activate by pressing the
Home/Play button.

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| CONTINUOUS RAMP
enables or disables motor ramping for continuous
motor movement style
| POST DELAY
this delay is usually used to let the dolly settle
down after motor movement to avoid vibrations
• Extra Features (EXT)
| SET HOME
sets the current position of the motor as home position
| HDR (HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE)
enable or disable HDR. When enabled motor
movement is limited to s-m-s or stop motion
| NUMBER OF SHOTS
number of shots per cycle
| BULB RAMP
enable or disable bulb ramping
| BRACKET
number of stops moved up and down for each
extra exposure

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| FIRST EXPOSURE
exposure value of the rst frame
| LAST EXPOSURE
exposure value of the last frame
| SHOT NUMBER
total number of shots to be taken during bulb ramp
• Notes on the Extra Features
high dynamic range (HDR):
high dynamic range is a technique where photographs taken at different exposure values are
combined to get more detail across all the lighting ranges (from shadow to highlights) than is possible
with a single photograph. Using the HDR mode on CineMoCo one can take the shots necessary for
HDR, however image processing software is required to make the nal image.
bulb ramping:
Bulb ramping is used to alter the exposure of the image smoothly over a period of time to account for
changing lighting conditions. Most often this means during sunrise or sunset when the the available
light will deminish or increase dramatically over the course of a few hours. Using bulb ramping one
can ensure a smooth transition between exposures for these lighting conditions and decrease the
amount of ‘ickering’ caused by using a shooting priority mode in the camera.

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9|Credits and Release Notes

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10|Revision History
08/03/2012 -- Version 1.0
Initial Release