Using pimoroni motes to lightpaint bitmap images.

Inspired by

• the Pixel Stick which is around $350
• the fact I have a full Mote kit that Pimoroni very kindly gave me for my 40th birthday and Motes are "Sticks of Pixels"

sudo aptitude install gphoto2 libgphoto2-dev git python-pip python-tk python-gtk2 sox

sudo pip install webcolors pillow pygubu mote gphoto2

git clone https://github.com/EduMake/mote_light_painting.git

cd mote_light_painting

So far being built for :-

• Linux Machines
  • Originally planned for Raspberry Pi 3 but I'm running it on my Linux Mint Laptop
• Mote https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/mote
• Canon EOS 1200D (optional) - Should work with most EOS models and most cameras gphoto2 can control. Nothing clever just triggering shutter release with the settings you have set on the camera.

• Perspex stick, cut from this svg file
• Screws to attach Mote sticks to the stick
• If using Raspberry Pi - USB Battery Pack

If you are going to attach a Camera by USB make sure you have a "LightPaintings" folder in the same folder as the mote_light_painting folder.

sudo ./mote_light_painting.py

• Choose a file (there is a nice default spectrum if you are just testing)

• "Reload" is useful for resetting to the beginning of an animated GIF

• A message displays how wide the image should be (in cm)

• The Graph shows your image as 64 pixels (the height of a full set of motes) over the draw time (so it will usually look stretched, don't worry its a graph)

• We often end up needing to ignore pure white pixels, if you need them painting check the 'Paint White ?' box.

• "Colour" lets you choose a single colour to paint with.

• "End Colour" and the tick box allow you to set a changing colour pattern

• The "Paint Black as..." takes black and paints it as the current "Colour" lets you paint silhouettes as light

• The "Tween" will vary the colour painted from "Colour" to "End Colour" over the Repeats.

• Ticking 'Control Camera' will try to capture a photo from you USB / PTP camera via gphoto2 (there is no error checking here at the mo, so if it freezes start again).

• "Delay Time" is self explanatory.

• "Draw Time" is how long it will take for your image to be drawn and will depend on the exposure time you are using.

• "Repeats" set how many times the Delay/Draw cycle takes place. This should allow for nice light painted / stop motion effects.

• The "Pixels" slider lets you change the height of your light brush.

• Orientation controls

  • "Paint From Left" - The painting starts on the painters left (this should not effect the orientation of the painted image)
  • "Facing" - The if ticked and the screen is facing the painter the graph moves the same way as the painter does
  • "Flip" - Reverse the image

• The "Draw" button :-

  • Blanks the Graph
  • Waits for any delay, drawing the progress on the Graph (if controlling a camera it adds 3 seconds after sending the camera trigger to give it enough time to start it properly)
  • Starts the camera's shot if 'Control Camera' is selected
  • Starts changing the lights.
  • Move the lights across the field of view of the camera. The Graph will redraw to give you a clue how far along you are.
  • If you have an animated gif file selected it will try to load the next frame.
  • The Draw process "Repeats" until it should end
  • On the last repeat, if 'Control Camera' is selected the image should pop up in a photo viewer