{"id":3477,"date":"2015-09-30T20:28:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T20:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/?p=3477"},"modified":"2020-07-03T13:21:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T12:21:25","slug":"sky-pi-posting-to-tumblr-from-a-raspberry-pi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/sky-pi-posting-to-tumblr-from-a-raspberry-pi\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky Pi: posting to tumblr from a Raspberry Pi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update\u00a029-09-2016:<\/strong> the pi is no longer posting gifs and images. I’ve recycled it\u00a0it. Also hat-tip to\u00a0Oliver\u00a0Quinlan<\/a>\u00a0for catching a mistake in the instructions, I’ve fixed it below (sudo pip install<\/em> pytumblr). The archive of over 50,000 gifs<\/a> is still there.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago I blogged<\/a> about getting my Raspberry Pi to create gifs and server them to the web:Gif Cam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This only keeps the most recent gif. A couple of days ago I tried to set it up to catch the blood moon, and store a series of gifs but my scripts failed to work. It did lead me to changing the position of the camera from the local cross roads to the sky.<\/p>\n

I then noticed a couple of interesting images, so though about how I could do that. There is not enough room on the pi’s SD card to hold images for very long. I started by uploading the gifs to a website via ftp. But this was still not a long term solution. I then though about Tumblr and after a bit of googling I’ve got a working solution that posts a gif of the Glasgow Skies to Sky Pi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are some notes to show how I did some of it. You need to be able to use the termianl and a command line file editor such as nano. I am very much a newbie with this stuff.<\/p>\n

My pi is on my home network connected to the router via Ethernet and a powerline. It is set up as a webserver with a domain, http:\/\/pi.johnj.info<\/a>. I have ssh access to the pi and do any editing from my mac via ssh. None of these things apart from the connection to the Internet.<\/p>\n

The pi is running from an SD card with NOOBS<\/a> installed.<\/p>\n

I’ve run: sudo apt-get update<\/code>
\nand
\nsudo apt-get upgrade<\/code>
\nbefore starting to get the pi up to date.<\/p>\n

Code like the above is run form the terminal, either on the pi with a monitor and keyboard or by logging on via ssh. I create scripts on the pi in the terminal with nano, which is an uncomplicated text editor that is used in the terminal.<\/p>\n

Taking Pictures, making Gifs<\/h3>\n

The whole thing runs from a shell script, which started like this:<\/p>\n

\n    #!\/usr\/bin\/env bash\n    for (( i = 0; i < 10; i++ )); do\n        raspistill -h 486 -w 648 -a 1036 -vf -hf --encoding gif  -o \/var\/www\/tempgifs\/cam${i}.gif\n    done\n    gifsicle --delay=10 --colors 256  --loop \/var\/www\/tempgifs\/cam*  > \/var\/www\/tempgifs\/camd.gif\n    mv \/var\/www\/tempgifs\/camd.gif \/var\/www\/camd.gif\n    raspistill -h 486 -w 648 -a 1036 -ae +25+25 -vf -hf -o \/var\/www\/camd.jpg\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
When the script runs, it takes 10 still pictures with the raspistill<\/em> program. I am not too sure if these are the best settings, but<\/p>\n