DIY-streetview.org

Check it out at http://www.diy-streetview.com

Original size: 7500 x 3750 pixel. Click image for full size!

Shot with the DIY-streetview camera:

Get one!

Hi all,

just came across this Google streetview car in my hometown Langen (nearby Frankfurt am Main) in Germany.
So I shot a few closeups. Click the images for full size.

Hi all,

recently I came across a pile of plywood and … well, I couldn’t help it, this is what happened to me:

Plywood Rig Backpack

Plywood Rig naked

Plywood Rig Head

Plywood Rig Black Box

Plywood Rig Intervalometer

Plywood Rig Holder

A 30mm x 30mm wooden pole fits just perfect into the middle of 4 GoPro HD. Then one GoPro HD on top, and ready is the 360 x 158 degree head.

Of course I also had to do some soldering to the cameras:

GoPro HD 1080p soldering

Black and green are both ground.
White is the ON/OFF and Mode button
Yellow is the release button. (Hard to see on the very bottom of the image.)

Connecting white or yellow to Ground is like pressing the buttons.
Thanks to Matt who did this before, and Thomas whom soldered my cameras.

The Black Box connects all the white wires to the red button to switch all the cameras on and off the same time. The yellow wires are connected to the socket for the programmable intervalometer.

The two switches on the right and left side of the Black Box are to separate the wires, so one can program a single camera only. Without it pressing a cameras button always affects all cameras, which makes it impossible to do anything.

The intervalometer aka “remote timer” is available at ebay.

Features:
Timer delays       0s to 99:59:59s in 1 sec intervals
Exposure time     0s to 99:59:59s in 1 sec intervals
Interval                1s to 99:59:59s in 1 sec intervals
Number of shots 1 to 399 or indefinitely
Sound                  On or OFF

Taking an image every 2 seconds works well.

Panorama images from the plywood rig look like this:
Click for full 6800×3400 pixel size.

Opening the full size, 5.3 MB, equirectangular file in Panini one can check the size of the hole in the Nadir, which is totally acceptable. Just the size of me. ;)
Rig will be refined to place the camera head ca. 15 cm more to the front. Also the pole will be tilted by a ca. 7 degrees to have the camera head more upright.

Panini-Screenshot

Future development is using the GoPro HD BUS socket to skipp the soldering.
Figuring the BUS out happens right now here:
http://goprouser.freeforums.org/post11878.html
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=5890.msg59797#msg59797

Also we are all waiting for the official GoPro HD 3D kit (click on “3D HERO Kit – Soon” on the right hand side) to arrive.
It will show how to wire 2 camera together master/slave style for perfect video synchronization. GoPro support confirmed by email it will work for all recording modes, including still images and even time-lapse. Hopefully this can be used for 1 master and 4 slaves too.

I am working on an automatic leveling device to record tilt and roll data to level the panoramas when stitching them. This saves a mechanical gimbal mount and is way more robust. The device will also double as a GPS logger.

The new head from the Design Contest looks like this:

DIY-streetview-rig

The four camera around are tilted down a bit to have more coverage that is needed for automatic leveling.

Feel free to write a comment or mail me:
janmartin AT diy-streetview DOT org

Jim Watters contributed the most refined suggestion for a rig, that I then had professionally drawn for manufacturing:

DIY-streetview-rig drawing, idea by Jim Watters.

Stay tuned for the new rig to be build.
Should be amazing.