EOS M3 porting [M3] [EOS_M3]

srsa_4c

That's a long post and I won't be able to answer everything at once.

derMart
I have build rev. 5021 for firmware 1.20f. The bitrate changing feature works like a charm without crashes there. One quirk however ist that the reported byterates for cbr mode are varying (ex.: at 0.25 modifier, byterates vary between 384KB/s and around 700KB/s), I have not checked the encoded video if it varies there too.

The bitrate is OK on my cameras, I assume the same on this one. The bitrate display is the one that isn't perfect: CHDK gets recorded file size in 3MB increments. At low bitrates, that results in a heavily inaccurate display. When you record for a longer time, the variation will gradually improve.

I have one big problem with CHDK on my M3 and this is the menu flickering issue reported on the M10.

It was also reported on the M3.
Have you tried switching off Canon features that draw various animated stuff on screen?

For D6 display related info, try browsing through these threads:
https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/11316
https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/12788

In the chdk code I have seen that for all DIGIT6 processors only draw to the active buffer is implemented.
Could a workaround be to implement drawing to both (or are there even more?) bitmap buffers simultaneously like for the older models done?
Of course this would be slow because redundant draw calls have to be done.

The slowness of drawing was one of the reasons why I did not implement drawing to both buffers.

A better strategy might be to blit one buffer after completed drawing a frame to the other or get to know when the active buffer changes? Do we have any information about such event?

We don't have our own display buffer, we write directly on Canon's. We also don't know when the buffers are swapped.

It seems some chdk osd items like the battery indicator flicker faster

Some parts of CHDK OSD are continuously redrawn.

How/when does chdk decide to redraw their osd stuff?

Some CHDK display modes (such as the menu) use "guard pixels". When the guard pixels are erased, we redraw.

tiim

Hello Everyone.

I'm new here.

I have been using CHDK on a number of P&S cameras, dating back to ~2009 on a PowerShot A7.

I have had an M3 since visiting Japan three years ago, when the camera was relatively new there. I have been lurking around, watching the development of the EOS M3 CHDK, and am very impressed with all your work, and THANK YOU!

I will share one thing about menu flickering:

I noticed erratic menu behavior, using fw 1.20f and CHDK 1.5.0-5066 full:

If you have AF enabled, the menu options jump vertically in menus that have no horizontal option (i.e. enter a value in milliseconds), the menu option (cursor) will jump as many spaces, up-to-down, as you have moved it.

If you are in a menu option that uses horizontal input, the cursor begins to jump side to side, and the further you move the cursor, the further the jump, back and forth.

If you are in MF mode, these cursor jumps do not happen.

In AF, you can temporarily 'calm the cursor down' by half-pressing the shutter button for a couple of seconds. This is how I figured out my work-around to MF mode.

Overall, the menu flicker (separate issue, and (less) noticeable on my other Canons) happens either in MF or AF, but appears less severe if you have a static background.

That is my input so far. I have a lot to figure out with CHDK on the M3, but coming from other cameras, it should not be too difficult.

Cheers,

Tim

hyperion

Hey All,

Was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction.

I am trying to run a EOS M3 via HMDI into a capture card for continous video recording, however whenever the LCD times out so does the HDMI feed.

Is it possible to use CHDK to force the LCD to never time out?

waterwingz

hyperion
Is it possible to use CHDK to force the LCD to never time out?

Yes. It's an option available in the CHDK setup menus.

mash.m

Hi,

iÂ´m new to chdk cause i get a faulty m3 that is working again now. i have installed chdk without any problems. Now i like to use the camera as a small setup for astrofotography. at the moment i use the intervall script, but it is limited to 30 seconds at max. is there a blub script out where i can select longer shooting time as 30 seconds?

Markus

reyalp

mash.m
Now i like to use the camera as a small setup for astrofotography. at the moment i use the intervall script, but it is limited to 30 seconds at max. is there a blub script out where i can select longer shooting time as 30 seconds?

Markus

I'm not clear which script you are using, but you should be able to set overrides longer than 30 seconds in the CHDK menu if the script itself doesn't set shutter speed.

You could also try https://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Lua/Scripts:_Fixed_Exposure_Intervalometer which lets you easily select shutter speeds between 1/64 and 256 seconds

There is no "bulb" mode in CHDK. The shutter speed must be set before the exposure starts.

waterwingz

mash.m
Hi,

iÂ´m new to chdk cause i get a faulty m3 that is working again now. i have installed chdk without any problems. Now i like to use the camera as a small setup for astrofotography. at the moment i use the intervall script, but it is limited to 30 seconds at max. is there a blub script out where i can select longer shooting time as 30 seconds?

Markus

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Meteor_Intervalometer_with_Dark_Frame_Management

mash.m

reyalp
I'm not clear which script you are using, but you should be able to set overrides longer than 30 seconds in the CHDK menu if the script itself doesn't set shutter speed.

You could also try https://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Lua/Scripts:_Fixed_Exposure_Intervalometer which lets you easily select shutter speeds between 1/64 and 256 seconds

There is no "bulb" mode in CHDK. The shutter speed must be set before the exposure starts.

Hi, that was a very usefull hint. IÂ´m often use Magic Lantern, but chdk is completely differently. i was able to override the shutter time and the aperature at chdk menu and use the a interval script in TV mode of the camera. Works like sharm 😁

Thanks, now recording without shutter will be nice. i saw that some People here are still in Progress. hope this will happen at near future.

markus

darkest_star

Hello chdk-m3 developers,

I'm a Canon camera user since many years. Since my cams doesn't support focus bracketing natively I came across to CHDK.
Currently I have access to an EOS M10 (FW 110d) and EOS M3 (FW 1120f), a EF-M 15-45mm and a EF-M 18-55mm lens. On both cams I got chdk installed and running.
But if I try to run several bracketing scripts it seems to me that get_focus as well as set_focus doesn't work as expected.
Function get_focus always returns "0" regardless of which focus distance was adjusted at the lens. set_focus doesn't sets the focus.
I have this effect on both cams and with both lenses.

Are these functions currently not implemented in EOS M3 (as well as M10) port?

Thanks in advance,
Uwe

srsa_4c

darkest_star
Are these functions currently not implemented in EOS M3 (as well as M10) port?

No, unfortunately not. This is mentioned in camera notes (camnotes.txt). My attempts to find a working focus control method have not been successful (I would not say it's impossible, it's just substantially different from PowerShots). I don't know if Ant has found something on the M3, but even if, it's not in the source.

darkest_star

Oh, thank you very much. And sorry for not reading the camnotes carefully.
But then it's clear to me why all attempts to get the bracketing scripts running was not successful.

I'm a software developer too but have (until now) not looked into the chdk code. I would like to support chdk. But I need to understand the structure, functionality and debugging facilities first.

PS: And I'm still willing to keep on my M3/M10 cams + lenses (and to preserve my EOS 5D IV) and not buying a Panasonic or Olympus M43 cam only to have the focus bracketing functionality. 😀

c_joerg

darkest_star
I would like to support chdk.

You could try to port the G1X Mark II 😀

srsa_4c
My attempts to find a working focus control method have not been successful (I would not say it's impossible, it's just substantially different from PowerShots). I don't know if Ant has found something on the M3, but even if, it's not in the source.

What about this?

[unknown]
This command moves the focus 2500 steps forward with speed 10:
lua call_event_proc("EFLensCom.MoveFocus",2500,10)

https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/12758/165

I always want to try this but never found really the time. Moving the focus would be probably enough to do focus bracketing.

darkest_star

c_joerg
You could try to port the G1X Mark II 😀

Yes, I know. This would be a great step ahead. But I'm really "fresh" with chdk. I need deep understanding of that what you brilliant guys have done. I will do some investigations in the current code base. I'm an embedded software developer. So, everything should be possible... 😉
Is there a kind of "checklist" of what needs to be done for porting a "new" cam? Only for acceleration ...
But, I would also have a second "defective" G1X II where only the lens cover is (mechanically) defective. So, I would have a test object. 😁

[unknown]
This command moves the focus 2500 steps forward with speed 10:
lua call_event_proc("EFLensCom.MoveFocus",2500,10)
https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/12758/165

I always want to try this but never found really the time. Moving the focus would be probably enough to do focus bracketing.

I will look at this. Thank you for that hint!

reyalp

darkest_star

c_joerg
You could try to port the G1X Mark II 😀

Yes, I know. This would be a great step ahead. But I'm really "fresh" with chdk. I need deep understanding of that what you brilliant guys have done. I will do some investigations in the current code base. I'm an embedded software developer. So, everything should be possible... 😉

FWIW, G1x Mk2 should be a relatively easy Digic 6 port. It's been in my test set for finsig_thumb2 (https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/12714 https://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Finsig_thumb2) and it's the same dryos version (54p3) as the already ported SX700.

Is there a kind of "checklist" of what needs to be done for porting a "new" cam? Only for acceleration ...

Not really. Basically, copy an existing port and implement all the platform specific bits... go through every file in the loader/<camera> and platform/<camera>. Generate the inline assembly with capdis.

https://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Adding_support_for_a_new_camera is pretty out of date, but the same general structure is still valid.

https://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Digic_6_Porting has some useful resources for digic 6 and later.

If you want some realtime advice, I'm often in the irc channel #chdk on freenode evenings and weekends US/Pacific (GMT-😎 time.

darkest_star

reyalp
If you want some realtime advice, I'm often in the irc channel #chdk on freenode evenings and weekends US/Pacific (GMT-😎 time.

Thank you very much! I will start to dig into the code in the next days ....

reyalp

Regarding event procs and focusing, you can find a list of known functions in a ports platform/<model>/sub/<fw version>/stubs_by_*.csv

Since Canon nicely leaves a lot of human-readable names around, this is often a useful starting point for testing or reverse engineering. E.g. the "EFLensCom" and "EFLensTool" functions are related to lens control on the EOS cameras.

It's a good idea to check the disassembly of a function to get and idea of what parameters are expected before calling it. Also, some functions aren't actually implemented in the canon firmware and just return 0.

If you call event procs by name, they may need to be registered first, see
https://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Event_Procedure and https://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Lua/Lua_Reference/Native_Function_Calls

You can call functions directly by address using call_func_ptr, but you may need change how parameters are passed (e.g. pass by reference instead of value) and the address has to be correct for your specific firmware version. On thumb2 (digic 6 and above) firmware, you also have to set the thumb bit correctly (LSB=1 for thumb code, 0 for ARM)

effectzero

I read in another post the M3 port allows for setting clean overlays during recording. I have an M6 which has an option for no overlays except for the AF face-tracking rectangle. I'm trying to get clean HDMI out for off camera recording, preferably with the camera in standby vs recording mode.

Do you guys have any initial thoughts from your M3 experience if that AF rectangle can be visually removed while still having the AF face tracking functionality? I just got the M6 firmware dump and am slowly starting to see how deep this rabbit hole goes before i jump in!

srsa_4c

effectzero
I read in another post the M3 port allows for setting clean overlays during recording. I have an M6 which has an option for no overlays except for the AF face-tracking rectangle. I'm trying to get clean HDMI out for off camera recording, preferably with the camera in standby vs recording mode.

Do you guys have any initial thoughts from your M3 experience if that AF rectangle can be visually removed while still having the AF face tracking functionality? I just got the M6 firmware dump and am slowly starting to see how deep this rabbit hole goes before i jump in!

If you're lucky, the palette based approach might work even from a Canon Basic script (meaning you don't necessarily need a CHDK port for that camera if your only interest is cleaning the overlay).
The thread discussing the overlay hack is this: https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/13489
If you have some programming experience, you can peek into the patch I posted there. The hack basically zeroes out the 256-entry palette used in rec mode (and restores it when needed). The palette (AFAIK) is not continuously updated by the firmware, so it's enough to clean it once.
For M6 with the 100b firmware, the addresses are
0x11d44, active_palette_buffer
0x11d4c, palette_buffer_ptr
Code examples for Canon Basic can be found in this thread.
General Canon Basic information is here and here.
If you have questions, please post in the clean overlays thread.

AstroSky

Hello can someone help me with a issue regarding a .diff file
I have the EOS M3. i got CHDK installed (120f) now im trying to install this script that helps me clear the overlays on the camera so i can finally have CLEAN hdmi
only problem is....idk how to install this .diff file
is it a canon basic script? if so how do i use canon basic ALONG with CHDK?? thats if its actually just some kind of canon basic script

Im so close to getting this to work .-. only thing left is getting that stupid auto focusing square away and ill have usable live stream footage

reyalp

AstroSky
Hello can someone help me with a issue regarding a .diff file
I have the EOS M3. i got CHDK installed (120f) now im trying to install this script that helps me clear the overlays on the camera so i can finally have CLEAN hdmi
only problem is....idk how to install this .diff file
is it a canon basic script?

Replied in: https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/13489/5

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