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Trap Sealing Timelapse

I feel guilty about cross-posting these from my Carnivorous Adventures thread, but meh. I figure it makes sense.

Not terribly exciting, but it pretty much accomplished what it set out to do: show the sealing mechanism of the good ol' flytrap.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xKZ0hpj77K0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Music is Chopin's Nocturne in E Minor, Op 72 #1.
 
Help me....
 
Cool! Yeah Jim HELPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEEEE! :spazz:
 
very nice. you should try to see if you can get a time lapse of the trap opening :)
 
PETA's going to have your head for this one! :p
Nice. But is it really a timelapse or just a video of the trap closing? I was hoping to see it go from the margin sealing and the teeth turning outwards to the point where the trap fills with digestive fluid and constricts. But yes, I agree with the others, getting a shot of it opening back up would be cool, although kind of tough - I won't blame you if you miss it.
Thanks for sharing!
~Joe
 
Well, it's a video of the trap closing, and then there's an obvious change in the color/exposure and whatnot; that's where the timelapse begins and it was a picture every ~8.5 seconds for about an hour. I'd love to get it all the way through to the digestive goodness, but the battery won't last that long and I can't afford an AC adapter right now. I also probably won't be able to get the trap opening for the same reason. That's a pretty slow process, and I just seriously doubt I can get enough juice out of a battery for it. ;c

Some day, I'll have an AC adapter and maybe even a proper intervalometer - I don't know how long a freshly charged set of batteries will last a TI-83+ running that script.

I'd also love to get flowers blooming and closing back up, the ones that only last a few hours - D. capensis, for example, maybe D. aliciae. Problem is waking up early enough. XD
 
Yeah, LOL, I'd make one myself but for the fact I have zero experience with that kind of thing. Though I'd love to learn.

I might consider that, though. I assume it'd be possible to give it an AC power source? Maybe even the option of using batteries or AC power? How do you select a delay? There's no readout or anything to show you what you're at. Sometimes very precise timing can be important. For example, if I want to take a picture of something under my lights every 24 hours, but accidentally have it at 23.5 hours, I might eventually end up taking pictures when the lights are off, before they come on.
 
  • #10
awesome video! Nice quality!
 
  • #11
Thanks, Devon.

And I forgot to answer that, seedjar: I think my tripod was a solid $5.99. LOL. The tripod I used in this one, at least. I used a Gorillapod for the Drosera capensis one I posted, which I'd say is a nice tripod. I guess it's just because I set it and left the room for an hour or whatever - didnt' really give it the opportunity to jiggle. ;p
 
  • #12
It wouldn't be hard to add a display with a readout by setting the timer to pulse quickly and then using another chip to count 100 short pulses (or any multiple of pulses for that matter) before triggering the shutter. You'd have to wait a moment after adjusting the time so that another circuit could clock the short pulses and figure out what effective speed it's set to, but it's totally doable with cheap parts. Switching between AC and battery power is also easy. If you wanted to be really flexible it could be done with a programmable digital chip which would give you lots more options and likely improve battery life, it'd just be slightly more expensive than analog parts. In fact, it appears someone has already implemented such a thing on my favorite prefab microcomputer board: http://www.sporez.com/honeyjar/?p=347
Doesn't appear to have a display, but adding one is child's play with something as richly featured as the Arduino.
Hmm... honeyjar... could there perhaps be a relation...?
~Joe

PS - If, as the blog says, the cheapest digital intervalometers are $140, I can definitely do it cheaper. Much cheaper.
 
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