Spy Lantern Surveillance Camera

timgor

Actually this is a rare case, I tested about 20 cameras and this is the second time as I remember. I use external power supply. Right now my camera is off and I will double check it tonight. It's a not a big problem for me.
In my project I need to have a script that can recognize any initial state of the camera and bring it to operational mode from this state.
In this case I use "prsss half" "release half" that helps to bypass this time screen.

Another issue is when I wait half of second sleep(500) between clicks that control "left" "right" "up" "down" functions, sometimes it stuck. It's also very rare case, may be 1 of 1000 but it happens. I decided to use sleep(800). May be it will not get stuck anymore.

timgor

By the way I just temporary stopped to sell what I do because nobody could ever imagine the "real" problems that buyers experience with all that things.
The biggest problem for customers is a "wire" 😛 .
Half of customers have no idea what to do with it. They suppose that every product must work right from the box on itself. They don't expect it to plug it to the power outlet.
I assume that they don't have 10 minutes time to install it so they purchased it and never used it.

Some lady writes me - what is that blue thing that you put to the box? :-*

This post is just for fun) Don't pay attention to it)

waterwingz

timgor
By the way I just temporary stopped to sell what I do because nobody could ever imagine the "real" problems that buyers experience with all that things.

Thanks for posting this and giving us some insight into how it's going. Starting a new business is tough and in my experience it's not usually the technology itself that is the hard part - the customers are. Good luck going forward.

timgor

Thanks, I will continue to post here everything related to CHDK problems and solutions.

timgor

I have some updates about external power cycling for the camera. The problem is that I got complain from one guy that camera stopped working after 2 months. It's a really rare case and I suspect it's still something with memory card bug that happens from time to time and not for all cameras and memory cards.
In my previous post I tried to use super capacitor but it didn't work. Now I figured out that internal resistance of the capacitor that I used was 10 Ohm and it didn't work because of it.
Yesterday I did the following:
I took capacitor with a small internal resistance about 100 mOhm or 0.1 Ohm from here
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/AVX/SCMT22C505MRBA0/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMuDCPMZUZ%252bYl1egjuYHMPsoOa6KEKoY0l0%3d
and I added voltage drop ""sensor" to the CHDK script to stop memory card writing if video or shoot is working when power supply disconnected.
In other words capacitor helps to perform "nice" shutdown of the camera.
It works! When I disconnect the power, camera continues to work and stops video recording.
I also use this cycle timer
https://www.amazon.com/2013newestseller-Multifunction-Self-lock-Module-Automation/dp/B00J0SMB3C
that reset external power supply periodically and restarts camera once per week or more frequently in case if it's stuck.

With this modification my camera will work with guarantee for years.

c_joerg

timgor
that reset external power supply periodically and restarts camera once per week or more frequently in case if it's stuck.

What happens when the camera crashes between?
I would be thinking about some watchdogâ€¦
like toggling the focus lamp and detecting it, when itâ€™s stops â€¦

timgor

c_joerg
What happens when the camera crashes between?
I would be thinking about some watchdogâ€¦
like toggling the focus lamp and detecting it, when itâ€™s stops â€¦

Nothing, it will wait until next restart. I think it would be reasonable to restart it every day. But this very rare case and probably only few hours per year will be lost.
I don't know what can I do externally to detect particular stop/crash

timgor

Today I will share results of another experiment that can be useful for somebody who uses external power supply.
First of all I used my elph 115 camera for 2 years with about 1000 zooms per day and finally the zoom died. Anyway camera itself operates good and I decided to kill it.
I increased external power voltage to figure out what is the maximum voltage that camera can survive.
This is the test. I had about 1 minute interval between measurements.
voltage current
2.5V 0.38A
3.0V 0.33A
3.5V 0.27A
4.0V 0.24A
4.5V 0.21A
5.0V 0.20A
5.5V 0.20A
6.0V 0.20A
6.5V 0.21A
7.0V 0.23A
7.5V 0.31A
8.0V 0.32A (camera id dead)
Pictures of the experiment are attached.

I definitely made important conclusions for myself but I will not share it here and will not give any recommendations because it's not ethical.

results.zip

1.22MB

reyalp

timgor
8.0V 0.32A (camera id dead)
Pictures of the experiment are attached.

Did the camera die permanently at 8V, or just shut down?
On user reported a camera shutting down on voltage spikes https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/10452

Some other semi-related threads

https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/12381
https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/11109

I definitely made important conclusions for myself but I will not share it here and will not give any recommendations because it's not ethical.

Potentially camera destroying conclusions are welcome as long as they are clearly identified 😉

c_joerg

Interesting. I would not dare to operate my S110 with more than 4.5V. If I use the S110 with a 5V power bank, then I always have a diode in series. But as it looks, there is still air up. I also wonder how long the camera with 7V would be work ...

Interesting would be for me whether my G1x (SX 50) with 6 * AA (6 * 1.6V = 9.6V) would come clear. Here I would reluctantly experiment ...

timgor

reyalp

Did the camera die permanently at 8V, or just shut down?
On user reported a camera shutting down on voltage spikes https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/10452

Some other semi-related threads

https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/12381
https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/11109

Potentially camera destroying conclusions are welcome as long as they are clearly identified 😉

Camera died permanently and doesn't work anymore.
Actually I just wanted to figure out if it will work with 5V power supply. It does! 5V is a most popular power supply in the world and everyone have it.

timgor

c_joerg
Interesting. I would not dare to operate my S110 with more than 4.5V. If I use the S110 with a 5V power bank, then I always have a diode in series. But as it looks, there is still air up.

Cameras definitely have a gap. Official external power supply has a nominal voltage 4.2V but real measurement shows 4.3V-4.4V. It's really 5% error like all similar power supplies in this world. I'm pretty sure that camera design must have at least 1V spare gap so 5V must be practically safe to operate.
But still I cannot recommend to do that because of respect to Canon officials.

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