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PiXPi dslr camera controller

Modular and programmable DSLR camera trigger

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"PiXPi" is a project about building open-source, programmable DSLR camera's trigger/controller. this project started focusing mainly on the "high-speed photography" technique. Aim of high speed-photography is making perfectly frozen photos of fast-moving things, like bullets, cracking glass, droplets collisions, and... creativity should be the only limit here. Unfortunately for some photographers, there can be also some technical difficulties and this is the first goal of this project: making "high-speed photography" as easy as possible, but without limiting those with more technical knowledge. Additionally, as the project is being under constant development in the future I want it to be more than a "just" trigger for high-speed photography, but also a unified controller for some other photography techniques, for example using stepper powered modules for extreme-macro or sliders for time-lapses.

Project goals:

First goal of this project is simple, just creating controller which will make possible to create nice photos of things that are happening really fast in reliable way.

Second is to have possibility to configure it without using computer.

Third is to make interface such simple to be possible to use by photographers without technical knowledge.

Fourth is to make it as elastic as possible, so to have as much as possible ways to extend it's functionalities.

Fifth is to extend it's possibilities more than only for high speed photography, but also for macro photography, time-lapses, astro-photography by using motorised modules.

Long-term/future goal is to extend possibilities of interfacing with camera.  

                                                                                      How it works :

Controller board(PiXPI) is running under Linux(OpenWrt) control, on top of it is a Python application which is responsible for receiving, executing and controlling scripts created and sent from smartphone application, which I wrote for this project.

Smartphone App utilise Google's Blockly library for making creating of those scripts/sequences simple as possible. So in effect you can create them using graphical programming interface, using blocks instead of writing any code, no knowledge of Python programming is required for, user do not see Python code at all, he/she will just see blocks .

Scripts which are sent from smartphone are basically strings of python code, python was chosen as language which is powering controller, as it can execute code from string without compiling.

Scripts are sent from android application using Wifi->http->rest protocols.

Scripts are responsible for orchestrating photo shoot sequence, so camera shutter, flash and modules interfacing.

Those blocks with help of Blockly library are under the hood translated into python code and script is ready to be sent to controller board and and executed on it... 

Controller board is powered by VoCore2 system-on-module, it's opensource system-on-module(https://vocore.io/).

And if you did it right, you will get some nice photos.

                On controller board there are camera connector,2 flash connectors and 3 modules connectors,    Additionally there is also serial usb connector for accessing Vocore's serial console need and 12v supply jack.

                                             how to catch things that are happening very fast?

Simplifying what you need to do is trigger camera(or just flash, but will come to it later) when glass is cracking or droplets are colliding, so just in "right moment", but as this thing are happening very quickly it can be very hard to catch this "right moment" manually(i mean just pressing shutter button) as in 99% of cases you will miss the perfect shoot, as for example colliding drops when you will see splash is about 1-2ms.

So here external triggering coming with help, all DSLR camera has connector for remote triggering

Future plans are to implement more interfaces to control more than just camera trigger.

                                                                      Sense an action:

So using external triggering of, what can be done is that you can couple it with something which will trigger camera...

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pixpi board sources.zip

Schamatic, pcb layout and bill of maetrials

Zip Archive - 102.39 kB - 09/29/2019 at 16:51

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StepperDriverMount.STL

Mount for stepper driver pcb

stl-binary - 8.87 kB - 08/24/2019 at 10:16

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ValveHolder-DropletModule.STL

Valve holder models, which's used for droplet module

stl-binary - 130.06 kB - 08/24/2019 at 10:04

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ValveHolderForPneumaticGun.STL

Valve holder which's used for a pneumatic gun module

stl-binary - 39.14 kB - 08/24/2019 at 10:00

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SensorHolder.STL

Sensor holder/mount for tripod

stl-binary - 37.29 kB - 08/24/2019 at 09:52

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View all 6 files

  • 1 × 1455B802[BK] Boxes, Cabinets, Enclosures and Racks / Boxes
  • 1 × PP23 Sensor module case
  • 1 × 1455B1002BK Boxes, Cabinets, Enclosures and Racks / Boxes
  • 1 × 3P025-06 Droplet module/pneumatic gun solenoid valve
  • 1 × Mini CO2 regulator for pneumatic gun, search for: keg mini co2 regulator on Aliexpress

  • Contest entry video

    krzysztof krzeslak09/30/2019 at 18:33 0 comments

    Hello I published contest entry video for this project and in this log I wanted to share some lessons learned and challenges which I faced during creating it:

    Idea:

    This was the easiest part as I already had an idea for such clip from quite long time ago and actually first attempt was done when I started this project entry and now idea remains same, but this time main objective was to make it best as I could. Mentioned attempt gave me some clues what challenges I can expect this time and I prepared better but still there was some challenges to be faced.

    Here you can see this mentioned first attempt which was published with project entry:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK5UgD781-4

    Technique:

    Same as previously photos needed to be taken not in high speed-photography method as this requires dark-room to be used and due to that I wanted to create video at same time it was not an option, so rather I needed to go opposite way and use high shutter speed and constant high power illumination. This approach has some downsides such as limited motion-freezing properties and shutter lag(explained further later in this log).

    Setup for this video in my basement, during taking intro with turntable, but first I really had hard times to fix this background  well :p 

    Equipment:

    Most of parts was filmed with Sony RX0 camera, as this is only camera(at least from what I know) in affordable price range on market which can shoot at such high frame rate which I needed to create this slow motion shoots. This camera is capable to catch up to 1000 frames per second(for very limited duration). As can be expected at such frame rate's quality need to be sacrificed and I already knew that at 1000fps(40x slow-motion) quality drop is very significant, so for first attempt I used 500fps(20x ), but this time I still wanted to get better quality so this time I used 250fps and i find it good decision as it gave me quite decent quality and satisfying slow-motion(10x) shoots. Additionally at such high frame rates shoot duration is very limited and for 1000fps it's just about 1 second, 500fps ~2second and for 250fps ~4-5 seconds, so I thought it will be handy to have possibility to trigger recording in right time... aand hmm this sound like something that I can do and I came with quite nice solution to use on of PiXPi's flash ports(as one is occupied by DSLR) as trigger for recording and i was quite supprised to found that it's working very well :)

    Sony RX0 camera connected to PiXPi's flash port for triggering, just 3,5mm/2,5mm jack adapter was needed I felt like winning on lottery when i found it working very fine,  it was really helpful and I don't even need to change anything in app as I just used flash block to trigger this cam.

    Photos and some parts of video was taken with Nikon D600 coupled with 90mm Tamron lens, as this is only which I own. Shutter speed in camera was set to 1/4000-th which is maximum for this model, it could be better, but it was significant. 90mm lens forced me to push camera quite far from scene, so you will not see much of camera in video frame, but at least it is safe from hitting with some paint splash.


    Illumination
    :

    From previous attempt I already knew that CFL bulbs commonly used as constant light sources in photography filmed at high frame rate give some significant flickering, due to mains AC supply voltage.

    This time I don't wanted to see this flickering effect so I decided to give a try with led illumination, exactly budget Chinese spotlights, so in total I bought four of them, 2x quite cheap 200W with cold white light and 2x still quite cheap, but bit better quality 150W with warm white light...

    But this is what I saw when I filmed them at 500fps:

             ...
    Read more »

  • Additional/bonus module: Turntable

    krzysztof krzeslak09/29/2019 at 14:49 0 comments

    Hello,

    Last week was very busy as I was working hard on preparing submission video and I thought that I would like to have some shots for this clip using turntable and as I already got driving electronics which I used in macro rig I just needed to get some mechanical design. Thankfully I found very nice design on Thingverse:

    https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2031323

    it's called StarScan and It has really really clever design, especially I liked it as it can be used with different sizes of table surfaces without replacing any part!

    So i decided to give it a try I just needed to change was making legs longer as I needed to put controller under the motor, but it was quite easy, so below you can see quick demo:

                                 So stay tuned and you will see this in action in project entry clip ;)

    Modified files can be found in "files" part of this project page.

  • MacroSlider: let's take a first look

    krzysztof krzeslak09/24/2019 at 20:18 2 comments

    Hello,

    Today I want to share some work which I did in last days on motorised/macrorig module, let's take a quick look on some first effects:

                     Above image was created by stacking 40 images stacked, each taken with 0,4mm step.
                                             I found flowers to be quite  simple for testing stacking technique.
                                                                                    Full resolution link


                                                                  All images used for stacking of above
    So let's get back to technical aspects
    Last time I decided that I should go on with Mechaduino servo driver I found it a good choice, as it can provide incredible precision and it's opensource, so I could modify software to work with signal generated by PiXPI.
    Unfortunately i get one issue with Mechaduino, which's is that I could't get it fast and to progress until finals ends I came up with temporary solution, which was getting some Mechaduino clone which I found in local distribution in Poland(MKS Servo 42A), so first prototypes are based on it, but in future I plan to move on with Mechaduino as I find it has better and simpler software and also MKS servo has not onboard 5v voltage supply for logic, so i needed to add external step-down converter.
    Anyway MKS-servo software which I modified to be controlled with PiXPi can be find here, additionally I changed function of onboard buttons to manual control(left-move back, right- move forward, center-disable/enable motor)
                               https://github.com/krzysztofkrzeslak/pixpi-stepper-driver/tree/master/MKS-SERVO42A

    Macrorig with MKS servo as control board, on cable you can see stepdown converter for supplying logic(under red isolation)
                                                                                       complete setup

    Stacking software:
    For stacking I used trial version of Helicon software, but after these test I can say that it's definitely worth buying full version, as  initially I was afraid that learning of stacking software will take me some significant time, but this software has really simple user interface, you basically need just to open all images for stack and click one button ,it's fast and does it's job great, additionally you can export stacking animation from it, so I found 55 dollar license(for pro version/year) quite reasonable.


                                                                                    Some more example:
                                                                        50 images stacked, step 0,5mm
                                                                 ...
    Read more »

  • Power driving mode

    krzysztof krzeslak09/12/2019 at 18:50 0 comments

    Hello,

    Today I want to introduce new feature it's called: "Power driving mode", it's mode for driving some "action" modules which can be handy in some situations as it's purpose is to drive some modules without any additional external circuit.

    But let's start from recalling how "action" modules are driven in "normal" mode, let's see below image:

                                                                 Port circuit behavior in "normal" mode

    In "normal mode" power Mos-Fet of port is open all the time, low current signal for driving module is delivered through "com" pin.

                                                    And how it looks in Power driving mode:

                                 In power driving mode "com" pin is not used, instead just supply pins are controlled

    In power driving mode "com" is not used(should not be connected) and driving of module can be done through on-board power transistor, so for example you can connect solenoid, or anything other, theoretically max current is approx. 5A(60W), but till this moment I tested max 3A in pulse.

    how to enable:

    I modified App "port configuration" screen to handle enabling of this mode, after choosing port function mode, checkbox where you can select it will appear:

                                                   Power drive mode is valid only for "output" port mode

                             Below you can find small demo with driving some random peripherals:

    Advantage of using this mode:

    You can drive simple "action" modules without external circuit, so for example till this moment I was using board small with Mos-Fet to open and close valve(solenoid) in response to state on "com" pin, but with power driving mode solenoid can be connected directly to "gnd" and "+12v" pins of port and driven just with toggling supply on this pins.

    Disadvantage of this mode:

    When you first think about it using such driving mode should be "best" way of handling such use case as driving solenoids, valves, etc. So maybe you can think, why even I bothered to create "normal" mode as first?

    there's one valid reason for it, when you will take a look at solenoid driving board you can see button there which is used to "emergency/maintenance" opening of valve and I found it really handy to have such button, especially when I was experimenting with "liquid gun" module which was valve with syringe pressurized by springs and I needed way to fill this and it was really hard to do this when I had to control valve open/close from app. 

    It's a little bit easier with "droplet module", but still it's handy to have possibility to emergency valve open for example for filling chamber of valve or just emptying it after use. Without supplying module all the time, there will be no possibility to open valve without using app.

    so in some(or most) cases it's handy to had module supplied all the time.

  • Finals! Wow and what are my further plans

    krzysztof krzeslak09/11/2019 at 16:32 0 comments

    Hello,

    PiXPi is in finals of 2019 Hackaday Prize!

    There was so much great projects submitted and I really feel honoured to be among those 20 chosen for final round. 

    Also I found it awesome to see my project described in finalists announcement post, thanks Mike for nice words! I really want to appreciate this so I thought the best way to say thanks will be to put as much heart into this project as possible, "heart" in this case, can be translated into "hard work" ;) 

    What now:

    I just cooled down a bit to be able to think consciously about that what need to be done as there is not much time, so I came to conclusions that I need to prioritise some areas where the biggest improvements can done, so according to this I chosen as main focus :

    1. Introduce new feature which is "power driving mode" of modules ports:

    I was working on it lately, so stay tuned, it's almost ready and will be soon described in project log.

    2. Finish and show effect of usage "motorised/stepper" module: 

    Currently I got some base which I show in previous logs, but I was not happy with stepper motor driving electronics and during seeking for better solution I came across project called: "Mechaduino"...  which by the way was 2016 Hackaday prize entry!!: https://hackaday.io/project/11224-mechaduino and I realised that it should be possible to communicate with my controller as Mechaduino is opensource, so possibly it can be quite easy to modify software of Mechaduino to be controlled through PiXPi controller.... Isn't opensource great?! :) 

    3. Work hard on new video:

    Last, but very important point, as ti's one of requirements of final entry is to create 2-5 minute video which will show project and I got already some initial idea how to do this, but I know it will be quite challenging to do it right. 

    Optional point: New hardware design with better ports protections, after experimenting with "power driving mode" I came to conclusions that I will feel safer when power driving transistors gates for each port will be driven through optoisolators, but it's more on good practice rather that new feature introduction as i experimented quite heavily with power driving and I was not able to burn VoCore port with current protections. Possibly I will start to work on it after 1-st of October.

    What you think about it?! :) 

    It would be really nice to hear some thoughts of community on this project, as this was my main motivation to publish this project here, so don't hesitate to share some I will really appreciate to hear some(Even those critical ones).

  • Controller board specification and software sources

    krzysztof krzeslak08/24/2019 at 18:09 0 comments

    Hello today I wanted share quick summary specification of current controller board design,

    and as this project is meant to be opensource I want to share some sources today I Think both will be good summary for entry round of this contest :).

                                                                v0.9(current)controller version

    Controller software:

    https://github.com/krzysztofkrzeslak/pixpi-controller-app

    it's Python app sources which is running on controller.

    Hardware specification:

    1 x Optoisolated camera port(2,5mm jack) for camera focus/wake and trigger

    2 x Optoisolated Flash port(3,5mm jack) for flash triggering

    3 x module port, which can be used in following modes:

          Port Red: Input, Output, Com(1-wire), Pulse

          Port Green: Input, Output, Pulse

          Port Blue: Input, Output, Pulse

          Each port has 3 pins: Signal, 12V, Gnd

          Ports connector fits standard servo connectors

    8 x Gpio pins

    1 x mini-B usb connector for accessing Linux command line/serial console.

    1 x 1,27mm 6pin SPI connection for complete flash writing(unbricking, bootloader change, etc. )

    1 x DC jack for 12v supply (should be tolerant up to 22v)

    2 x status led: supply, ready

    3 x port status led

    1 x Buzzer for state indication

    Powered with opensource VoCore2 system on module (https://vocore.io)

    Which provides:

    - Mediatek MT7628, 580 MHz SoC

    - Memory(ram): 128MB, DDR2

    -  Flash: 16MB

    - Running under Linux(OpenWrt) control.

    It's also fully OpenSource: Complete specifications and sources available on: https://vocore.io/v2.html

  • Some new photos

    krzysztof krzeslak08/24/2019 at 14:02 2 comments

    Hello,

    This time I wanted to share some photos which I took lately, within this I also want to show how setup and program look like for each shoot and also you will see example how modules can be combined.

                                          Doing photos like below was really simple using relay module

                                                                                                 Burning bulb filament
    Read more »

  • Macrorig controlled from app

    krzysztof krzeslak08/20/2019 at 19:41 0 comments

    Hello

    As i wrote in previous update lately I was working on adding possibility to control macrorig/stepper driver from android app, and just wanted to share some effects of it:

     Generally it works, it's simple and there are some fine tweaks still needed, but it will come in future, what was currently added on app side is:

    Added "step" mode in ports configuration screen:

                                                              "Step" mode can be set on each port

                After setting port into "step" mode following block will become available:

    With these block you can move steppers forward and backward and set desired travel, currently smallest possible move for macrorig is 0,005mm(1 step).

  • it's alive! stepper driver with macro-slider

    krzysztof krzeslak08/18/2019 at 15:13 0 comments

    Hello, today I was finally able to make macro-slider, so I wanted to show off a bit, below is a small demo:

    Currently utilizing of this feature needs to be imlemented on Android app side, but for controller testing i just sent http request from laptop, so next step we be adding blocks for driving this from Android app.

                                          I also designed and 3-d printed some holders for driver board

    As i mentioned in one of logs i decided to use "pulse" like interface for driving stepper boards, it's really simple and work like that:

     pulses below 2ms time will make stepper move in one direction

     pulses above 2ms will make it's moving in opposite direction

     and till now it works pretty well. 

    As currently i've used 1mm/rev trapezoidal screw and stepper motor has standard 200steps per revolution so theoretically it should have 5-microns resolution.

    Currently i already had some ideas about new driver board as I think it will be handy to have there some buttons to "manually" move slider.

    So watch for updates... :)

  • New black robe and few words about cases

    krzysztof krzeslak08/17/2019 at 19:01 0 comments

                                                            Controller in anodised black casing

    Hello, Today I wanted share photo of controller in "a new robe" which is anodised black case I bought those black cases some time ago, but not really used till this time, now as previous case got little dirty I thought that maybe it's a good moment to test this variant. 

    By the way I also realised that in log about board design i skipped somehow case selection topic, it necessarily should be there as case selection was one of first thing which I did when started this project, so board dimensions was designed to fit this cases(to be precise first prototype was intended for 100mm version[1455b1002], but after moving to esp then to vocore I switched to smaller 80mm version[1455b1002] ).

                   I really like this cases as they look very nice and are surprisingly cheap(less than 10 dolars),
                                          they're manufactured by Hammond manufacturing.

                       After removing front panel board can be slidden in/out, as it's held by those ribs on sides

    generally I can't make my decision which color version I like more, this one or old one(natural aluminium), so some opinions are appreciated :)

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Discussions

FORART fe wrote 10/01/2020 at 07:05 point

Hi there, I have a question: does this can be used to control a DSLR-based film scanner ?

To be more clear, like these ones:

https://hackaday.io/list/175104-diy-film-scanners

Hope that helps/inspires.

  Are you sure? yes | no

krzysztof krzeslak wrote 01/28/2021 at 16:44 point

Hello, indeed I think this will be ideal, this "rotating table" module could be utilized for, this had quite precise motion control. Generally, this was the whole point about this project, as during the design phase I didn't even think about some use case, but due to this "programming" like configuration interface, it could handle them flawlessly.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Attila Kovács wrote 09/11/2019 at 19:25 point

This is a great project. I'm on and off on a similar one and you just gave me some ideas how to better tackle my problems. For some reason I never thought to have all the sensors separate. I planned to ditch the screen and user interface and use a mobile app instead but your solution is much better then what I planned.

My current device:

http://kovacsa.hu/uploads/SLT-A65V-DSC05801-20170824_mini.jpg

http://kovacsa.hu/uploads/SLT-A65V-DSC05807-20170824_mini.jpg

http://kovacsa.hu/uploads/SLT-A65V-DSC05797-20170824_mini.jpg

http://kovacsa.hu/uploads/SLT-A65V-DSC05798-20170824_mini.jpg

http://kovacsa.hu/uploads/SLT-A65V-DSC05796-20170824_mini.jpg

  Are you sure? yes | no

krzysztof krzeslak wrote 09/11/2019 at 20:20 point

Hello Attila,

Thanks for sharing your controller pcb design looks impressive! What processor is powering it ? is it Atmega or something from ARM family ?

Also I see one thing that your controller has and my controller not, it's built-in battery, plus for it! I also had some thoughts to put some on-board battery, as having it can be handy, but in my case i'm running on 12V so it will be not so easy to pack it in such small space.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Attila Kovács wrote 09/12/2019 at 08:49 point

Hello Krzysztof,

It's an STM32F103, ARM Cortex-M3. I think I will exchange it with something more modern for the next iteration. I plan to keep the battery as it makes the device portable (f.e.: lightning photography). Using a microcontroller instead of a full blown microprocessor let's me get away with a single Li-ion battery cell.

  Are you sure? yes | no

krzysztof krzeslak wrote 09/12/2019 at 11:13 point

Yeah, keeping battery is definitely good idea, in my approach 12v supply is effect of that most of modules need such supply and some higher powers(valves, steppers, coils...), so I decided to go with single external power supply "quid pro quo" ;).

Regarding processor choice, it's pretty decent I think old or not, it's fine until it serves it's purpose, but yeah sometime you reach limit which can be overcome just by upgrading to higher/newer version.

Don't hesitate to share when you will finish new version :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Attila Kovács wrote 09/12/2019 at 13:57 point

Yes, of course :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Tyler Gerritsen wrote 07/31/2019 at 14:44 point

What an awesome design!  I haven't looked through all your documentation yet, but the 'Program Editor' really stands out.  Everything looks professional. 

When I go to your site and click 'Documentation', it doesn't take me anywhere.  Are you sharing the plans to build one?  

Do you plan to manufacture and sell?  You definitely could compete with the current market!

  Are you sure? yes | no

krzysztof krzeslak wrote 07/31/2019 at 22:44 point

Thanks a lot, it's always nice to hear such words! :) 

I'm also happy with this editor as i initially wasn't sure how it will perform, but it turned out that it works quite nice :) 

Regardind documentation, yeees good observation it's my weak point, it's always a little challenge for me to write documentation which also will be understandable, but currently working on this, also on placing all sources in Github, so soon it will be available, at least in some initial form. Currently just finished something which can be called "architecture diagram"(it can be found in updated project details) because I had feeling that it's not so easy for all to understand how all part of this project cooperate together, so I hope with diagram will be a bit easier and it's a good starting point for documentation;)

Regarding manufacturing and selling, i'm not felling confident about hitting commercial market, but i had such thoughts in my mind, but currently i'm just enjoying working on this as hobby project as there's a lot of thing which can be improved ;)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Tyler Gerritsen wrote 08/14/2019 at 18:59 point

I see you've been busy!  It's awesome to see your development continuing.  I just happen to have a home-built macro slider similar to what you've built, but my controller is very basic.  The idea of an open-source platform to control my macro slider AND high-speed flash is very appealing.

I think that it would be great to have all the documentation available online.  Keep it up!

Since you built a 'laser barrier' system, could I make a suggestion?  Can you set up two lasers so that the PixPi can calculate the speed and delay time?  Then you could give it a distance (maybe for the strawberry, distance from the second laser to the water).  Just an idea!

Keep it up!

  Are you sure? yes | no

krzysztof krzeslak wrote 08/15/2019 at 10:00 point

Hello Tyler, yeaah i'm trying to do both simultaneously add some project logs and also to keep project development going further, it's not so easy, but I was able to create some more detailed description of modules, check it out in project logs ,generally I plan to re-use this project logs as base for documentation, so It will be easier then.

Regarding slider driving modules, it's just what I've set priority now you can also read what is current status in this log which i mentioning goal is that with just using controller and stepper-driver module you should be able to run every slider powered with stepper easily, so it's should be definitely possible to drive your slider with it.

Now this is possible to catch "right moment" without knowing speed of bullet, just to sense passing bullet(or actually shoot with pneumatic gun module) and then with "trial and error method" adjust flash/photo delay using "VAR delay" block you can change it from control panel, so this is approach from "another side of equation" .

I considered such possibility in past, but i came to conclusion that it will be not exactly in "assumptions for project" way, which was to keep modules simple as possible... but back then i thought about doing it with single module and after you mentioned it I thought that maybe with using two sensor modules and then doing calculations on controller side... there will be just need to add new block for, I will keep it in mind as this can be interesting feature, thanks for hints ;)

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