Using the LRT Pro Timer together with motion control devices
When shooting timelapses from a slider and/or pan-tilt head, the camera usually will be triggered by the motion controller. In most cases however, you could also use the LRT PRO Timer to trigger the whole setup to take advantage from his features, like interval ramping for example.
The only requirement for this is that your motion controller supports “slave mode”, that means, it can be externally triggered. Currently, this is the case for Emotimo devices (including Spectrum), the NMX from Dynamic Perception, the Pine Controller from Black Forest Motion and others.
- By default the motion trigger will happen 2 secs before the interval ends, this means the camera will be moved when it’s not shooting. You can define the time that the motion happens before the end of the interval (basically the duration of the movement) in the settings under Motion Trigger.
- Connect the 1st port of the LRT Pro Timer as usually with the camera.
- Connect the 2nd port of the LRTimelapse Pro Timer (which you just configured for “motion trigger”) with a TRS-cable (2.5mm trs on both ends) (Amazon.com*, Amazon.de*) with the Aux-input of the motion controller.
- Now activate the slave mode on your controller.
- For the NMX you press the blue button of the controller three times quickly.
- For the Emotimo Spectrum, you just put the controller in pause mode after having programmed it, to enable slave.
- For the Pine Controller just set “Slave” when configuring the interval.
While in slave mode, the controller will wait for an external trigger before triggering a move. The trigger will be coming from the LRT Pro Timer.
Now you can use all options of your new LRT Pro Timer when capturing timelapse with motion control and you will have the following advantages:
- You can use advanced features like interval ramping, which motion controllers often do not offer.
- You have a better control about the shooting, because the LRT Pro Timer is an external device whose display is always available whereas many motion controllers require you to connect your smartphone, launch the app etc. to see how many pictures you have taken, how much time is left etc.
- Using the LRT Pro Timer to control a motion controller in slave mode allows you to do the whole operative shooting without having to use your smart-device (once you’ve initially programmed the movement) which allows you to use the smart device to do the holy grail adjustments via qDslrDashboard / ControlMyCamera for example.
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