Calathea Timelapse

Posted byproffea

This is a Calathea Warscewiczii – a type of prayer plant. It is called like that due to the motion of its leaves. As you can see in the GIF, these elevate beautifully at night.

What you will need:

Step-by-step

Download Raspberry Pi Imager (https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/) and flash Raspberry Pi OS onto the micro-SD card. Remove the card from the computer and insert it again.

On the micro SD card, create a file named SSH and a second file named WPA_supplicant.conf. In the latter, write something like this:

country=CH
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev 
update_config=1network={
    ssid="YourWIFIName"
    psk="Your WIFI Password"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

You can now insert the micro SD card into your Raspberry Pi and connect it to a power supply via the micro USB.

In a web browser navigate to your router’s IP address e.g. http://192.168.1.1, which is usually printed on a label on your router; this will take you to a control panel. Then log in using your credentials, which is usually also printed on the router or sent to you in the accompanying paperwork. Browse to the list of connected devices or similar (all routers are different), and you should see some devices you recognize.
Write down the IP address ip_address from your Raspberry Pi and from your laptop (you will need it afterwards).

On Windows open Windows Power Shell, on Mac Terminal.

Type:

SSH pi@"ip_address"

Type yes and type the password “raspberry”. Enable the camera module and update the Raspberry Pi:

pi@raspberrypi: ~$ sudo raspi-config
Interfacing Options > Camera > Enable
Optional: Change your timezone too
pi@raspberrypi: ~$ sudo apt update
pi@raspberrypi: ~$ sudo apt upgrade

Attach the Raspberry Pi with the camera module on a static object (which you will leave in place for 24h!) and place it about 1m away from the plant. Place a lamp towards the plant.

To take the first picture with the camera module, type:

pi@raspberrypi: ~$ rapistill -o test.jpg

Retrieve the picture by accessing it from the network with your laptop:

pi@raspberrypi: ~$ spc *.jpg username@laptops_ip:/Users/username/Documents/your_plant_folder
username@laptops_ip 's password: Enter your password

Adjust the lighting, the camera settings and the camera lens by turning (anti-) clockwise until the image is sharp like this one:

I used a 8MP camera with maximum image size 3280p x 2464p and camera settings:
– quality: 90%
– exposure: night
Additional settings can be found here: https://thepihut.com/blogs/raspberry-pi-roundup/raspberry-pi-camera-board-raspistill-command-list

pi@raspberrypi: ~$ raspistill -o test.jpg -q 90 -ex night

Create a timelapse folder on the Raspberry Pi with mkdir timelapse.
Enter this folder with cd timelapse.

To create a 24h (86.400.000 ms) timelapse with a 2-min (120.000 ms) picture interval type:

pi@raspberrypi: ~$ raspistill -t 86400000 -tl 120000 -o image%04d.jpg -q 90 -ex night

This will create 720 pictures named image0000.jpg, image 00021jpg, etc. in the timelapse folder.

After 24h, retrieve the images from the microSD card and copy them into your computer. Download FIJI/ImageJ from https://imagej.net/Fiji/Downloads.
Open ImageJ and click on Import > Image sequence, click on the first image (image0000.jpg) from your timelapse and import the following 720 images. Tick on use virtual stack. File > Save as.. >AVI, with JPEG compression and frame rate 24 fps.

You now have your 30s HD timelapse of your Calathea. At full HD, this video will be approx. 500MB. To create a GIF, visit https://cloudconvert.com/avi-to-gif and upload your .AVI video. Change the resolution to an eighth of the original size (I used 410p x 308p for a 12MB GIF).

Voilà, your Calathea timelapse GIF is done and ready to be sent and admired on your favorite messenger app!