How can I do good time lapses with my phone? Should I buy a new/better remote controller and which one? What could be the issue? What’s the right way to do good time lapses with mobile phone?
There’s quite a bit of relevant information missing from your post. If you want the community to give you useful, targeted help, providing complete technical context matters.
The printer has no native camera or shutter-control capability, so this is necessarily a custom or modified setup. I did a similar project a few years ago on a P1P, so I’m familiar with the failure mode you’re describing.
To diagnose this properly, please include:
How the printer physically presses the remote’s shutter button (what part presses it, how far it moves, and how long it stays pressed).
How the printer tells the remote to press the button (for example, using printer movement or a G-code command).
Any changes you made to the G-code, and at what point in the print those changes run.
From your description, this sounds very much like a long-press being mechanically induced rather than a Bluetooth or camera issue, but without the above details that’s impossible to confirm or offer a remedy.
I just switch on the time-lapse function on the slicer, so the nozzle for each layer goes to the left place where the remote controller is (see the image).
I didn’t change any G-code, but I tried to change the TimeLapse G-Code in Bambu Studio. I changed the line M400 P300 to M400 P200, M400 P100 and M400 P50. However, none of these changes had any effect on the time lapse (300, 200, 100 and 50 all caused problems with the video).
A quick search of Makerworld brings up instructions for the correct Gcode edits you need to make. Basically you need to drastically shorten the contact time and then move the head way from the button.
Timelapse G-code Setup
To make this work, you’ll need to slightly modify the timelapse G-code section in your print profile.
IMPORTANT: if your print quality drop, please enable smooth timelapse, this will enable a purge tower.
Replace:
M400 P300
With:
M400 P10
G1 X10
M400 P300
This sequence does the following:
M400 P10: short 0.1s pause at the current position (X = 0)
G1 X10: moves the printhead away from the camera view
M400 P300: 3-second pause so your phone has time to take a picture
If the printhead is still visible in your frame, feel free to adjust the G1 X… value.
Thanks for the additional details. What @JonRaymond posted was new to me, but it closely mirrors what I did on my P1P about three years ago.
In my setup, I printed a small fixture that incorporated a limit switch, which I hard-wired to the remote shutter actuator similar to what you show in your photo. I then modified the G-code so that, at each layer change, the toolhead moved to a fixed location where it reliably triggered the switch. Functionally, it was just a repeatable move command tied to layer transitions.
After completing that experiment, I lost interest fairly quickly. I posted about this same topic a few days ago here:
The setup itself was an interesting exercise, but the results were underwhelming. Once you’ve seen a few layer-by-layer time-lapse videos, they tend to lose novelty unless you have a specific need to document a print or process.
That’s not to discourage you, but it’s worth setting expectations: the project can be technically fun, even if the long-term value of the output turns out to be limited.
Timelapse G-code Setup
This sequence does the following:
If the printhead is still visible in your frame, feel free to adjust the G1 X… value.