KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

bchristal

Ah, okay. The phototransistor feedback cable is a big help in this case. The photos with a red dot are georeferenced, and accounted for in the log. They are red because Pix4D is unable to match them up to the rest of the photos since the airplane is turning and it's a single photo on the end. The LED flashes whether the Pixhawk triggers the photo or it's a superfluous photo at the end.

bchristal

Here's the log with LED flash duration. Seems to be well under a second. Not sure why I thought it was slower.

KAP.log

11.75KB

waterwingz

bchristal
Here's the log with LED flash duration. Seems to be well under a second. Not sure why I thought it was slower.

Thanks. Individual shots clock in at 3/4 of a second - continuous mode shots running 0.4 seconds.

Not bad actually.

Edit : If it's not working for your customer, do I need to figure how to shorten the LED "on" time? Or is this something the Pixhawk can handle?

bchristal

Do you have another recommendation for a point and shoot like the S110 that can be USB triggered? S110s are great, but getting really expensive and hard to find. Other Canon point and shoots just aren't as clear.

waterwingz

bchristal
Do you have another recommendation for a point and shoot like the S110 that can be USB triggered? S110s are great, but getting really expensive and hard to find. Other Canon point and shoots just aren't as clear.

AFAIK every CHDK enabled camera can be USB triggered. I wrote the code currently in use so there is a 50:50 chance I know what I'm talking about here. 😎 The trick is probably finding a Powershot that is CHDK supported, commercially available, and not brutally expensive. The Canon refurb store is a great source but it's hit and miss as to what they have available.

Edit : take a look at the IXUS160/ELPH160. Not the same class as the S90/S110 line but still available and not expensive.
ex : B&H Photo

dopplerx

Hi all,

ItÂ´s my first post here. I'm using CHDK with a Canon S110 in the "one shot" mode with APM and the results are good.

Searching a way to take more photos (flying faster or at lower altitudes) I found this forum and the "burst" mode used in the Pixhawk.

I would like to know: Does this "burst" mode work for APM?

Thanks!
Max

bchristal

Hi Max,

Set your Pixhawk and S110 like this: http://tuffwing.com/support/Install_KAP_UAV_Exposure_Control_Script.html

Brian

dopplerx

Hi Brian,

Does it work the same way for the APM? I don't have a Pixhawk.

Thanks!

bchristal

Hmm, I don't know. Try it on an RC out. I haven't looked at an APM in a while.

aquila_geo

Hi there. I've been using CHDK for UAV mapping for a few years, but I just got a new camera (A2300). I love this script, but turning off the intervalometer disrupts my practiced workflow..with the camera mounted on a gimbal, it's hard to get to the MENU button to turn it off...in the past, I've just used the shutter button, which would be far easier. Is there a setting that I'm missing? Thanks

waterwingz

aquila_geo
it's hard to get to the MENU button to turn it off...in the past, I've just used the shutter button, which would be far easier. Is there a setting that I'm missing?

The default CHDK method of using the shutter button to halt a script essentially stops the script dead in its tracks. So the kap_uav.lua script disables that action. This allows the script time to clean up and close its log file - something not otherwise possible even when the script uses the "restore" functionality.

Having said that, it should be possible to trap a shutter full press and convert it to work like a "menu" key exit. I'll post an update in the next couple of days.

flo_vienna

Hi

I am using a 3DR Y6 with Pixhawk together with a simpleshutter cable to remotely control a Canon S90. I tried to setup the shutter as requested on vendors page (http://www.mobilexcopter.com/files/Simple_multi_shutter_Pixhawk_settings.pdf) using AUX2 on Pixhawk with CAM_TRIGG_TYPE 1. I installed the latest CHDK and the latest KAP_UAV Script on the camera and configured it according to the wiki page.
My problem now seems to be how to properly trigger the camera as the script is running and the shutter cable is indicating that it is sending some pulse to the camera. On random occasions the camera takes a picture but most of the time I get a message stating usb pulse = idle pulse ($ msec) which seems to be the default if the pulse does not match anything known. The pulse length seems to be different no matter what I set the CAM_Duration to. Sometimes the camera takes a picture but then does not seem to react to any further input and does not show any sign of being alive anymore.

How do I need to configure the CAM_Duration to make this work properly ? I tried 0, 1 , 5 , 10 but none of these seem to produce a reproducible result.
Is this some issue of the shutter cable or does the script need some adjustment to work with that cable and the pulse it sends ?

Greets from Vienna

KAP.log.txt

2.33KB

waterwingz

flo_vienna
I tried to setup the shutter as requested on vendors page (http://www.mobilexcopter.com/files/Simple_multi_shutter_Pixhawk_settings.pd

Thanks for the link - I had not seen that page before.

I installed the latest CHDK and the latest KAP_UAV Script on the camera and configured it according to the wiki page.

Thanks for attaching your log file. Everything looks correct in your setup but the log entries show that the pulses the camera sees from the pixhawk seem to be somewhat random in length.

How do I need to configure the CAM_Duration to make this work properly ? I tried 0, 1 , 5 , 10 but none of these seem to produce a reproducible result.
Is this some issue of the shutter cable or does the script need some adjustment to work with that cable and the pulse it sends ?

As I don't own a pixhawk I will check this with someone who does and uses the script.

Update 1 : I took a longer look at the link you posted. The setup shown is designed to produce "shoot pulses" that are at least 100 mSec in length (0.1 seconds). This is not compatabile with kap_uav.lua script's USB Shot Control Mode = pixhawk. That's the bad news. The good new is that if you set the USB Shot Control Mode = OneShot it should work (albeit at a slower shot rate of at least 2 seconds per shot)

I'll look for some better documentation about how to configure the pixhawk for "high speed" shooting.

Update 2 : link to instructions for high speed shooting ~~http://tuffwing.com/support/Install_KAP_UAV_Exposure_Control_Script.html~~

Update 3 : updated link http://tuffwing.com/support/pixhawk_camera_trigger_cable.html

flo_vienna

Setting it to "OneShot" seems to work at least when manually triggered via Missionplanner 😉

I am going to give it a try soon , thanks for the effort 😀

Greets

cndnflyr

I'm using the KAP script to trigger a Canon ELPH 110 HS from a Pixhawk with a Gentwire USB2 cable. I've looked at and implemented all the links I've seen regarding this, but I've been having tons of trouble getting it working properly though. Right now, when I have USB Shot Control set to Burst or OneShot the camera starts shooting in Continuous mode and doesn't stop. I've had it working before, but it was triggering too slowly so I messed around with a bunch of stuff. I can't for the life of me figure out where this is set or how to change it. Can someone point me in the right direction?

waterwingz

cndnflyr
Can someone point me in the right direction?

The script ignores all of the settings from the CHDK USB remote menu so it does not matter how you set them.

Please post the KAP.LOG file from the root folder of your SD card so that I can take a look at your setup.

cndnflyr

Of course! Meant to and forgot, here's the log.

KAP.log

22.81KB

waterwingz

cndnflyr
Of course! Meant to and forgot, here's the log.

Thanks. I took a quick look and did not see anything wrong with your setup. There were a lot of changes recently made tuning "pixhawk" mode for sub one second shooting. It's possible something broke in "gentwire" mode as a result. I don't think many people are using that device so a new bug may not have surfaced yet. I'll take a closer look tonight at the logic.

cndnflyr

I'm not sure it would be an issue with the logic of the script. It was working for me last week, albeit slowly. I can't figure out why it would be going into continuous mode. And I think the way it was working last week isn't working now. I'm pretty new to using this, sorry i'm not more definite. I was hoping it would be a no brainer, but maybe not.

Toshopo

Hi Waterwings

I was asking you for the Helium baloon, I launch finaly on 6th of June with my classroom.
Your KAP scripts was perferct and I want really want to thank you.
As a proof of your wonderful script i try to send this pictures about 3.000 and 75.000 feet over the ground.

Glad to met you

Olivier

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