KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

waterwingz

OhSnap
I also added a shut_down() function after the same "if" statement for the camera to shut down after the mapping is complete and protect the lens.

That will cause the camera to power down with the shooting "half-press" still engaged. You will also lose the last parts of the log file and any configuration things modified by the script will not be reset.

A better choice would be to call a release('shoot_full') followed by the scripts' restore() function.

Or alternatively, just enable the USB Timeout (secs 0=off) script parameter with a long timeout (30 seconds maybe).

OhSnap

Yeah I was suspecting something like that.
Went with calling the two functions as you suggested and it works just as good.

lanzo

Hello, I'm using KAP 3.7 on 2 Canon S110 with CHDK 1.4.1
Trigger by USB transistor (Pixhawk)
it works very well but the display off function let the display go on every time it takes a picture, then goes off again, is this normal or I made some mistakes? I use 2 identical cameras at the same time.
Below my script parameters.

Thank you very much

--[[
  KAP UAV Exposure Control Script v3.7

  Licence: GPL (c) 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 by waterwingz
  -- with contributions from wayback/peabody & Naccio
  Please check for the latest version (and documentation) at :
     http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/KAP_%26_UAV_Exposure_Control_Script

@title KAP UAV 3.7
@chdk_version 1.3

@param     i Shot Interval (sec)
  @default i 2
  @values  i Burst Fast 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 30 45 60 90 120 180 240 300

@param     o Shutdown (minutes, 0=never)?
  @default o 0
  @range   o 0 240
@param     s Total Shots (0=infinite)
  @default s 0
  @range   s 0 10000
@param     j Power off when done?
  @default j 0
  @range   j 0 1
@param     b Display Off?
  @default b 1
  @values  b No Yes Delayed
@param     d Start Delay Time (sec)
  @default d 0
  @range   d 0 60000

@param     g Exposure Bracketing
  @default g 0
  @values  g Off +/-0.33 +/-0.66 +/-1.00 +/-1.33 +/-1.66 +/-2.00
@param     e Exposure Comp (stops)
  @default e 5
  @values  e -2.0 -1.66 -1.33 -1.0 -0.66 -0.33 0.0 0.33 0.66 1.00 1.33 1.66 2.00
@param     z Zoom position
  @default z 0
  @values  z Off 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
@param     c Focus @ Infinity
  @default c 1
  @range   c 0 1

@param     y Tv Min (sec)
  @default y 5
  @values  y None 1/60 1/100 1/200 1/400 1/640 1/800 1/1000 1/1250 1/1600 1/2000
@param     t Target Tv (sec)
  @default t 7
  @values  t 1/100 1/200 1/400 1/640 1/800 1/1000 1/1250 1/1600 1/2000 1/5000
@param     x Tv Max (sec)
  @default x 3
  @values  x 1/1000 1/1250 1/1600 1/2000 1/5000 1/10000
@param     f Av Low(f-stop)
  @default f 1
  @values  f 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.6 2.8 3.2 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.6 6.3 7.1 8.0
@param     a Av Target (f-stop)
  @default a 2
  @values  a 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.6 2.8 3.2 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.6 6.3 7.1 8.0
@param     m Av Max (f-stop)
  @default m 13
  @values  m 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.6 2.8 3.2 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.6 6.3 7.1 8.0
@param     p ISO Min
  @default p 0
  @values  p 80 100 200 400 800 1250 1600
@param     q ISO Max1
  @default q 2
  @values  q 100 200 400 800 1250 1600
@param     r ISO Max2
  @default r 3
  @values  r 100 200 400 800 1250 1600
@param     n Allow use of ND filter?
  @default n 1
  @values  n No Yes

@param     v Video Interleave (shots)
  @default v 0
  @values  v Off 1 5 10 25 50 100
@param     w Video Duration (sec)
  @default w 10
  @range   w 5 300

@param     u USB Shot Control?
  @default u 2
  @values  u None On/Off OneShot GntWire Pixhawk
@param     k USB Timeout (secs 0=off)
  @default k 60
  @range   k 0 240
@param     h Shot Sync LED
 @default  h 0
 @values   h Off 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

@param     l Logging
  @default l 3
  @values  l Off Screen SDCard Both

Spares : none

--]]

waterwingz

lanzo
it works very well but the display off function let the display go on every time it takes a picture, then goes off again, is this normal or I made some mistakes?

The display should stay off and not come back on after each shot when the Display Off function is enabled. However, you need to set the Review setting in the Canon shooting menu to Off for this to work. Do you have it set that way ?

lanzo

Yes I have set Review OFF, all the settings here:

Camera mode in "P"  or Program (not Auto, M, SCN, or Live)
ISO in Auto
Continuous AF Off (setting the camera in P mode will automatically turn this off on cameras without this menu option)
AF Frame not in Tracking AF
Servo AF Off
Safety MF Off
IS Mode Off (may not be necessary for KAP but should be off for UAV)
Review Off
Lens retract 0 sec.

CHDK reset to default, however I can't remove the disable overrides option, I remove and it returns, maybe the script wants it

waterwingz

lanzo
Yes I have set Review OFF, all the settings here:

Okay - that's good. It turned out that was the problem here : link

CHDK reset to default, however I can't remove the disable overrides option, I remove and it returns, maybe the script wants it

The script will work either way. The reason it turns off is likely the "Disable Overrides on Startup" menu option at the very bottom of the CHDK Enhanced Photo Operations menu. If it is selected then deselect it.

I've tested with your settings (including Shot Review = Off) on my G10 and S100 and both cameras keep the LCD off completely while shooting.

So either the S110 CHDK port works differently or I am missing something else important in your setup. Can you please post the KAP.LOG file from the top folder on your SD card?

lanzo

In attachment the file requested and a video too, thank you

KAP.log

25.42KB

waterwingz

lanzo
In attachment the file requested and a video too, thank you

Thanks for the video and log. I can reproduce the problem now. Might take me a bit to fix and test - I'll post something to try shortly and add the fix to the next script updated this weekend.

lanzo

Wow this is great, thank you very much! 🧑‍🎄

waterwingz

lanzo
Wow this is great, thank you very much! 🧑‍🎄

Try this?

kap_uav_3-7a.lua

44.22KB

lanzo

waterwingz
Try this?

waterwingz (what's your name?) I had packed my equipment and was going to sleep then I saw your message so went back to test the script and it works, problem resolved!
Tomorrow I will go to make some flights, saturday I will come back and let you know if it worked after hundreds of pictures.
Thank you very much, you're great!!!

waterwingz

lanzo
I had packed my equipment and was going to sleep then I saw your message so went back to test the script and it works, problem resolved! Tomorrow I will go to make some flights, saturday I will come back and let you know if it worked after hundreds of pictures.

So, because I am evil, I will point out that you are using the USB "OneShot" mode with your Pixhawk UAV. Which limits you to about one shot every 2 seconds (at best).

But your Pixhawk and CHDK can get down to 2 shots per seconds! Depending on what you are doing, that may not matter. But if you get to the point when you want to shoot that fast, check back here?

lanzo

waterwingz

lanzo
I had packed my equipment and was going to sleep then I saw your message so went back to test the script and it works, problem resolved! Tomorrow I will go to make some flights, saturday I will come back and let you know if it worked after hundreds of pictures.

So, because I am evil, I will point out that you are using the USB "OneShot" mode with your Pixhawk UAV. Which limits you to about one shot every 2 seconds (at best).

But your Pixhawk and CHDK can get down to 2 shots per seconds! Depending on what you are doing, that may not matter. But if you get to the point when you want to shoot that fast, check back here?

Sure I will, very interesting, and if you check the latest apm plane 3.5.1 / 3.5.2 it seems it can log the picture number, I don't know if we can apply it to cameras without external flash, see you soon and thanks again!

waterwingz

lanzo
Sure I will, very interesting, and if you check the latest apm plane 3.5.1 / 3.5.2 it seems it can log the picture number, I don't know if we can apply it to cameras without external flash, see you soon and thanks again!

Now that is interesting!

Several forum members have attempted to work with the APM (Ardupilot) community on closer integration with CHDK. For example, the script's Shot Sync LED option was added to the script in anticipation that it would be supported by the flight controller. That never happened but it remains in the script.

lanzo

Dear waterwingz the script worked flawlessy for 2 days and almost 1000 hectares!

CharlieR

Hi there, just wondering if anyone has any experience using the timestamp information from the kap script log file to do accurate geotagging? I'm using an S100 with the script and geotagging with Pixhawk flight logs and a utility built into Mission Planner GCS but this is limited to 1 second accuracy, which at 8 metres/second could be improved on. I'd love to try using the kap log to provide the time information for geotagging but can't find any software which will accept image time information from an external source - any ideas?

I'd also be very interested in how precise the GPS clock sync on the S100 would be relative to the clock on the Pixhawk (also GPS synced) if anyone happens to know?

Thanks very much!

Charlie

waterwingz

CharlieR
I'd love to try using the kap log to provide the time information for geotagging but can't find any software which will accept image time information from an external source - any ideas?
,

The script log was originally setup to be easy to import into a spreadsheet. That's still possible but there is now a lot of additional information in there that can be hard to filter out. Cleaning that up is on my "to-do" list so if you can give me a better idea about what you are trying to do I might be able to help. I've given some thought to having the option of two logs - one like the existing one and the other just containing picture info - perhaps formatted as XML. Seems like it would not be too hard to write a PC script to take that log info and insert it into each image EXIF data for example.

I'd also be very interested in how precise the GPS clock sync on the S100 would be relative to the clock on the Pixhawk (also GPS synced) if anyone happens to know?

You might be on your own with this one. Perhaps some on the ground testing with the pixhawk and camera might tell you something if you can figure out a common way to sync.

CharlieR

Unfortunately I don't think the exif data can accomodate sub-second information, at least I haven't been able to add the extra decimal places manually using exif tool. Happy to stand corrected if that's not the case though!

I have posted a query to the Mission Planner devs asking if they could add a feature to import the KAP script log info to their geotag utility, so will see what happens. Ideally I want to be able to geotag images to cm precision whilst flying. A secondary RTK GPS will provide flight path information, either (ideally) from the Pixhawk dataflash logs, or from the GPS system logs with post processing. As I am already using the S100 and CHDK/KAP script for mapping it seems worth putting some time into getting the most out of the hardware - though it will depend how accurately the GPS clocks on the pixhawk and S100 are synced.

If the timestamps from the logs can be into the geotagging process the reprojection error results from Pix4d et. al. should give a good indication of how accurate the tagging process, and thus clock sync etc. is. Will be an interesting test of a very low cost mapping system...

Thanks very much for your help,

waterwingz

CharlieR
I have posted a query to the Mission Planner devs asking if they could add a feature to import the KAP script log info to their geotag utility, so will see what happens. Ideally I want to be able to geotag images to cm precision whilst flying. A secondary RTK GPS will provide flight path information, either (ideally) from the Pixhawk dataflash logs, or from the GPS system logs with post processing. As I am already using the S100 and CHDK/KAP script for mapping it seems worth putting some time into getting the most out of the hardware - though it will depend how accurately the GPS clocks on the pixhawk and S100 are synced.

If you are going down that path anyway, the idea of having the pixhawk log the exact point at which each photo is taken via a digital input watching one of the camera LEDs might be something to pursue again.

CharlieR

Yep - the next release of Copter (3.3.4) will support triggering of a log message via the hotshoe of a camera so will probably look in that direction. I guess that feature could be adapted to use a photoresistor and the flash sync LED. Got RTK GPS system from Reach setup yesterday, accurate shutter timestamping the last piece of the puzzle!

Cheers - will post here if I come up with a way to use the KAP logs and check the accuracy of the clock sync, for general interest if nothing else.

BR,

Charlie

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