Arduino Stacking Controller User Manual
Contents
1. Trigger on off If off the camera will not be triggered during stacking This may be desired if using the controller to operate a camera slider for video production Swap Relays on off If the exposure lock button on your remote causes the camera to take a picture while the shutter release button enables exposure lock toggle this parameter to correct this TV This determines how long the shutter button is closed when photos are being taken during stacking If the camera is placed in bulb mode this value will also determine the exposure time Otherwise it has no effect on the photograph it merely needs to be long enough to trigger the shutter You should not have to adjust this in most cases Position Menu fa i ad Gad BA BA HEHE deki pogi de ki aa ae Position mode allows you to move the motorized stage back and forth and set the beginning and end points of the stack Press the up or right directional arrows on the remote to move forwards and the down or left directional arrows to move backwards The displayed position is the number of full steps from the initial motor position Press the start button to set the current position as the start point of the stack and the stop button to set the current position as the end point of the stack The seek backward and seek forward buttons will cause the stacking controller to automatically move the motorized stage to the start or end positions respectively If you have set2. assembled the stacking controller or installed updated software go to the motor configuration Motor and camera configuration Camera menus to set up the controller as desired Motor Configuration Hue in oe 5 The motor configuration menu allows you to adjust the behavior of the stepper motor and provide the stacking controller with the information necessary to calculate stack depth Use the up and down buttons to move between parameters Use the enter button to toggle parameters on and off and digits 0 9 to modify the values of numeric parameters Half step on off if on recommended the motor is driven in half step mode which is more precise generates less vibration uses less power and produces less heat The downside of half stepping is that it has less torque but this should not be a concern for most applications Reverse on off if you want the motor to move in the opposite direction when operating it from the position menu toggle this parameter St rev set this parameter to the number of full steps in one revolution of your stepper motor To determine the proper value divide 360 by your motor s rated step A 1 8 step motor will give a value of 200 um rev set this parameter to the number of micrometers that your stage advances over one revolution of the stepper motor This value is used to calculate the stack depth readout in the position and stack menus but does not otherwise change the behav
3. your stacking controller check this value during operation to ensure that your microcontroller is not running out of available memory Low memory will cause extremely unpredictable behavior MLTR TES 120 RFP Full ster Hegel or PS Sep The test motor feature will automatically test your stepper motor using multiple combinations of settings and will measure the actual RPM against several target RPM settings If you make changes to the code in the stepper motor library use this feature to test whether the code is functioning correctly If the motor and software is behaving correctly actual RPM values will be close to the set RPM and the position of the motor s drive shaft will return to the same position it started in prior to beginning the test sequence EEPROM clearer The microcontroller s EEPROM is used to save customized configuration values even when the device is disconnected from power The clear EEPROM feature can be used to restore all of the configuration settings to their defaults After use reset your controller by pressing the reset button on the microcontroller board or by disconnecting and then reconnecting the power supply This will load the default values into the EEPROM Problems Although I run the hardware and software through a testing procedure prior to issuing software updates bugs do slip through If you have problems please visit http www ryleeisitt ca and use the contact form to get in touch
4. Arduino Stacking Controller User Manual Rev Jan 14 2015 ARDUINO wi Beg 88 n End 1588 Depth S93um For build instructions and the most recent software and manual please visit Kenwood RC P400 Button Assignments Seek Forward Backward Menu Exposure Lock KENWOOD Shutter Release Toggle Backlight Digits Enter Start Stop Up Down Samsung AA59 00666A Button Assignments Toggle Backlight Digits Of 0 N Shutter Release z m G2 Exposure Lock Menu m z Directional Arrows Enter D A 7 lt Stop Seek Forward Seek Backward SAMSUNG Start General Operation From most menus you can press the toggle backlight button to enable or disable the LCD backlight the exposure lock button to toggle your camera s exposure lock half press mode and the shutter release button to take pictures Note that when the exposure lock is enabled a small EL symbol will appear in the upper right of the display as shown below Sa Deby When items on the screen are preceded by a digit and colon as shown above this indicates that you can navigate to the associated sub menu by pressing the corresponding digit on the remote You can return to a previous menu by pressing the menu button on the remote Main Menu HiH MEHL Fozition From the main menu press the digit on the remote which corresponds to the desired task If you have just
5. ached to my stepper motor has 18 teeth and the pulley on my focus block s fine focus knob has 30 teeth so my gearing ratio is 0 6 According to the specifications the focus block advances 200 um per revolution of the fine focus knob So for each revolution of the stepper motor my focus block will advance by 120 um 200 um x 0 6 By experiment 1 Setup your motorized stage and stacking controller as desired 2 Using the focus stacking controller in the position menu advance your stage through a fairly large distance that you can accurately measure Measure the difference between the initial and final position using a ruler caliper depth micrometer or other measuring device Note that 1 mm 1000 um 3 Look on the focus stacking controller s screen and note how many full steps of the stepper motor this distance corresponds to Divide the distance in um by the number of full steps taken This gives you um step 5 Multiply the um step by the number of full steps per revolution of your stepper motor This gives you the um rev value Round it to the nearest whole number You may wish to do this procedure multiple times to determine an average Camera cach if 5 Fin Mz The camera configuration menu allows you to adjust the behavior of the camera Use the up and down directional arrows to move between parameters Use the enter button to toggle fields on and off and digits 0 9 to modify the values of numeric parameters
6. ell as require more storage space and time to process the stack Before you start the stacking process you can enable the exposure lock mode indicated by an EL symbol in the upper right of the display by pressing the exposure lock button on the remote This will keep the camera in a ready to shoot state during the entire stack which may decrease shutter lag and prevent the camera from entering a power saving mode If exposure lock is not enabled the controller will automatically enable and disable the exposure lock mode for each shot which may be desired if you wish to see the results of each shot on the camera s LCD or video output Once the parameters are set to your liking press the start button to begin the stack emai A ANG alice Par anot 2s During a stack the motorized stage will automatically move between slices and shots will automatically be taken at the desired time interval The current progress will be updated on the LCD after every shot taken While the stacking controller is operating and photos are being taken avoid touching the camera subject table or apparatus to prevent movement and vibrations You can cancel a stack at any time by pressing the stop button Debug Menu The debug menu is intended for testing and trouble shooting The free mem value indicates the amount of free RAM in bytes Care has been taken to ensure that the software does not use too much RAM If you are experiencing odd behavior from
7. ior of the stacking controller Max RPM this parameter sets the maximum speed of the stepper motor Experiment with different speeds to determine what works best for you 120 RPM should work well for many standard stepper motors Higher speeds are more likely to cause missed steps stalling and reduced torque Relax motor on off If on recommended the motor is braked when not in use This reduces heat but also reduces holding torque Accelerate on off If on recommended the motor accelerates up to the max RPM and then decelerates as it approaches a target position This can prevent skipped steps or stalling of the motor Setting the um rev parameter The um rev value is the number of micrometers that your stage advances per revolution of the stepper motor You can determine the correct value through calculation or experiment By calculation 1 Determine your gearing ratio If you have the motor directly coupled to your stage s adjustment knob your gearing ratio is 1 Otherwise the gearing ratio is equal to the number of teeth on the stepper motor gear pulley divided by the number of teeth on the stage knob gear pulley 2 Obtain the specifications for your stage which will hopefully tell you how many um the adjustment knob advances through per revolution 3 Multiply the stage s um rev by your gearing ratio This is your um rev value for the stepper motor Input this into the configuration Example the timing pulley att
8. the correct st rev and um rev values in the motor configuration menu the depth readout will tell you the distance between the start and end positions To return to the main menu press the menu button Stack Menu s i83 Ea berth In the stack menu you tell the stacking controller how many positions slices to stop at for taking pictures throughout the stack the time interval int between subsequent shots and the number of shots bracket per position Use the up and down buttons on the remote to move between the parameters and modify the values using the digits on the remote The total number of photos that will be taken for a stack is determined by multiplying the number of slices by the bracket value For normal use leave bracket set to 1 Bracketing shots at each position can be useful if coupled with exposure bracketing on a camera to produce HDR stacks If you use flashes or strobes for illumination consult the user manual for your light to determine the recommended time interval between shots to prevent overheating If using continuous lighting you can safely reduce the interval to the minimum necessary for reliable camera operation The number of slices should be set high enough to ensure that the resulting stack does not exhibit focus banding alternating bands of in focus and out of focus areas Setting the number of slices too high however will contribute to increased wear on your camera s shutter mechanism as w
9. with me can usually issue patched software fairly quickly once a problem has been identified Happy stacking
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