TimeLapse Your 3D Prints

If you want to have a video of your printer creting awesome desings you may think to record it but this is not an options dou to the memory you will need to dou it, if you record it at 1080p you may need 12gb per hour.

Insead of wasting memory you can simply record a timelapse but WHAT IS A TIMELAPSE?

A Timelapse is sequence of photographs shown quikly to create a video, this photos can be taken it 1080p or even 4k without using that amoung of memory.

There are a lot of softwares that lets you create a timelapse with your phone camera, but if only have one phone and ypu need it during the printing you can use a Raspberry Pi and a PiCamera or a webcam to record the timelapse even easier.

If you have a phone you can use during the printing process you will have the easiest way to take a timelapse of your prints.

• FIRST, search on the Google PlayStore or in the AppStore on IOS "Timelapse" and download the better one you see, on my android I have "Time Lapse Camera" is very easy to use and its free.

• SECOND, set the app to take photos at 1080p and at least 25fps (frame per seconds).

• THIRD, set the phone in a good place that can take the photos of the entire print base, be CAREFUL not to place the phone in the hotbed, or somewhere it can be hitten by the hotbed or the extrusor while their moving. A good place is in a corner out of the printer.

This is a very good way to take timelapses eventually but its not practical if you want to take them in every print or if you pretend to use them in a professional or public way.

A Raspberry Pi is a mini computer that can hold a lot of things and programs thanks it have a lot of software adapted to it. This mini computers are very versatile, you can use it with linux or windows or use a special software for particular works like we are going to do now.

You we'll need:

• A Raspberry Pi (model 3) 40$, you can buy it on Amazon or the RaspberryPi Official Website
• A webcam or a RaspberryPi Camera 20$
• The Octoprint free software
• A case and a mount for the RaspberryPi you can download in Thingiverse and print it in your 3D printer
• A SD Card (for installing the software in the Raspberry)

When you have all the materials, you will have to install Octoprint on your Raspberry Pi, I am not going to explain how to do that because in the Octoprint website they explain it very good and there are a lots of videos of youtube.

When you have your Raspberry Pi ready to use, install it in your printer with the mount and, if you have a webcam you just have to put it in a good place where it can take the hole print.

If you have a RaspberryPi Camera will need a mount for it, there are a lot of them in Thingiverse but i designed one that is very easy to put and take out the camera (Pi Camera Mount) this one is ready to use with gopro attachments so if you have one you can use it or print one for your printer.

Here you can see what you will get if you do that. This is a video of the MatterHackers Astronaut.

I hope you liked it and you creates amazing timelapses.