Advanced Functions

The STorM32 board provides many user features. Many of them, namely those which can be activated or controlled by an input signal, are accessible as so-called functions. Others are accessible via specific parameter fields, or the [GUI:Tools] menu.

Lipo Saver

The parameter Low Voltage Limit in the [GUI:Main] tab allows to activate a lipo saver. When the voltage falls below the specified voltage per cell, the motors are disabled to minimize current draw. This state is signaled also by the fast blinking green and red led. The board needs to be repowered or reset to resume normal function.

Comment: Lipo batteries maybe safely discharged down to 3.0V/cell, under load.

Comment: The lipo cell number is determined automatically by the firmware when a battery is connected to the board. Connecting discharged batteries may lead to incorrect cell number determination.

Beeps

The parameter Beep with Motors in the [GUI:Setup] tab allows to activate the emission of beeps by the motors upon certain events. Two settings are available:

• “basic”:
• “full”:

Comment: The beeps are audible only when the motors are enabled. Hence, beeps are e.g. not heard when the board is powered only by the USB.

Scripts

The concept of on-board scripts is a very innovative approach of the STorM32 board to modify the boards behavior and achieve even complicated tasks (it was invented and provided first by the STorM32 project!).

In total four scripts can be run simultaneously and independently. They are handled via the fields in the [GUI:Scripts] tab. For each script, two fields are available, e.g. for Script1:

• Script1 Control:
• Script1:

Any available parameter, except of the Script Control parameters, can be modified by the scripts. This allows very powerful possibilities, but obviously also allows to do stupid things. It's in the users responsibility to not do nonsense. Script1 is distinguished in the sense that it allows to modify the Script2 Control, Script3 Control, and Script4 Control parameters, while the other scripts can't modify them.

The following commands are currently (firmware version v0.68) possible:

• STOP:
• REPEAT:
• CASE#DEFAULT:
• CASE#1:
• CASE#2:
• CASE#3:
• SET:
• SETMINMAX:
• RESTORE:
• RESTOREALL:

Some example script files (extension .scr) are available in the firmware folder, which should be self explanatory enough to use the scripts.

Motion Control

The STorM32 controller provides a rich set of commands for remote controlling the camera. These commands can be send by any of the serial ports (USB, UART, Bluetooth) to the board. A very convenient method to make use of these commands are motion control scripts. A typical example application would be shooting a pano, i.e. a sequence of photos which are stitched together later to a large panorama view.

Some example motion control script files (extension .mcs) are available in the firmware folder, which should be self explanatory enough to use them.