KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

Devinb86

5

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #980 on: 12 / May / 2018, 17:24:53 »

Advertisements

I can verify the tx will output these pulses. It was actually the first thing I did prior to playing with the script, as I wanted to be sure I could actually make the tx produce them and THEN get the script to read them.

On a more somber note, my camera took a digger on a bad crash and I haven't had the money to replace it yet, so it'll be a couple of weeks until I can replace it and test a new script. One of the hazards of diy-ING I guess.

Once we get this figured out and working, I'll add a post detailing what I've done on my end to get this working with details on the tx settings and pixhawk parameters so others can do the same. I can't imagine I'm the only one who would benefit from this.

Anyway, thanks again for working on this, I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Logged

KonradW

1

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #981 on: 15 / July / 2018, 06:58:03 »

I can not download the Script for some reason.
the download site (ge.tt/...) just shows the following:

There is no clickable option or anything.
Is it possible that someone provides me a functioning link or the file itself if possible?

Edit:
Found the solution. I was using FF and had declined the advertisement cookies.
With IE and with ad cookies the page loaded correctly and I was able to download.

« Last Edit: 15 / July / 2018, 10:01:42 by KonradW »

Logged

OhSnap

32

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #982 on: 07 / November / 2018, 13:38:12 »

Hey again, I'm having this issue wioth my 125hs. running with pixhawk on continuous mode. Some pictures are out of focus while others are OK, distance between cam and ground are the same.
How is that possible? Since continoues mode keeps the initial focus.
Am I missing something?
Oh and a big thank you for this great script. I use it almost daily with (almost) no issues

Logged

waterwingz

12139

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #983 on: 07 / November / 2018, 20:38:13 »

Quote from: OhSnap on 07 / November / 2018, 13:38:12

Hey again, I'm having this issue wioth my 125hs. running with pixhawk on continuous mode. Some pictures are out of focus while others are OK, distance between cam and ground are the same.
How is that possible? Since continoues mode keeps the initial focus.

Sigh. Focus issues again.

Please post your log file (kap.log) as an attachment here. It should be located in the top level folder of your SD card. It would be helpful to know some of affected image filenames too as I look through the log.

Also, if you look at the EXIF information for good and bad images, can you see a pattern in the reported "SD" or "Subject Distance".

This might be a camera setup issue, a script configuration issue, it might be limitation of the script, or could be a vibration issue with the mounting on your UAV.

For example, people suggest turning Canon's image stabilization off for UAV usage - it's designed for removing jitter during shaky hand help shots where the subject matter tends to stay in one position. A UAV shoots the opposite way - little camera movement (assuming good vibration reduction mounting) and lots of subject movement (obviously).

Logged

Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

OhSnap

32

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #984 on: 13 / November / 2018, 13:43:01 »

Thanks for the fast reply and sorry for my late one.
I have slightly modified your script with some changes for auto shutdown, but otherwise everything is the same.
I have IS turned off, and settings are as suggested in your site.
According to an online EXIF reader SD seems the same for all images (65.53m). Which makes sense since it's in continuous mode.
Please take a look at my attached script. Particularly out of focus images are : IMG_0001 IMG_0004 IMG_0009 IMG_0011 IMG_0012...

KAP.log (99.7 kB - downloaded 11 times.)

Logged

waterwingz

12139

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #985 on: 18 / November / 2018, 11:36:42 »

Quote from: OhSnap on 13 / November / 2018, 13:43:01

According to an online EXIF reader SD seems the same for all images (65.53m). Which makes sense since it's in continuous mode.
Please take a look at my attached script. Particularly out of focus images are : IMG_0001 IMG_0004 IMG_0009 IMG_0011 IMG_0012...

Thanks for posting the log file. I don't have any great answers here but I'll share some thoughts.

One thing that jumps out right away is that you have disabled the script from trying to set the focus at infinity (at least for the images you reference here). So it theory, the focus for first image in continuous mode is whatever Canon picks when it shoots that image and the subsequent images use the same setting. That's okay but I noticed you later let the script set the focus - did that change anything?

The EXIF info all set the same is also interesting - it appears neither the camera or script tried to change the focus while shooting.

So is it posible that we are seeing some sort of motion blurr? Or camera vibration? The focus is actually at infinity but the camera is not stable? If you put the camera on a tripod, point it at landscape scene and let the script take a few hundred photos with the settings you normally use, do you get any out of focus photos?

Logged

Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

OhSnap

32

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #986 on: 20 / November / 2018, 06:21:23 »

I did those tests, and seems images from a tripod mount are good. I turned off focus at infinity because it made all the pics blurry,
might have to tweak the distance in the script.
I'm leaning towards a vibration issue myself, weird thing is cameras are mounted on anti vibration bobbins and all props are balanced well.
I'm now gonna test with softer bobbins and see if that makes a difference.
Pictures however look like theyre out of focus and not fuzzy or blurred out like you would expect from vibration,
on the other hand vibes might move the optics around changing the focus.

Will run some more tests and update.

Logged

waterwingz

12139

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #987 on: 21 / November / 2018, 08:59:24 »

Quote from: OhSnap on 20 / November / 2018, 06:21:23

I did those tests, and seems images from a tripod mount are good.

So the script is basically working correctly.

Quote

I turned off focus at infinity because it made all the pics blurry, might have to tweak the distance in the script.

There is another huge thread on this forum where we looked at the whole "focus at infinity" issue. We made a lot of improvements but never got it 100% solid for every camera. Sigh ...

link> Manual Focus @ Infinity not working

Quote

I'm leaning towards a vibration issue myself, weird thing is cameras are mounted on anti vibration bobbins and all props are balanced well.

There have been quite few discussions on this forum thread on the vibration topic. The easiest way to review them is to click the "PRINT" button, which gives you the complete thread on one page in text mode. You can then use your browser search function ( ctrl-F ) to search on the word vibration and scroll through all the posts

link> KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script in Print Format

Quote

I'm now gonna test with softer bobbins and see if that makes a difference.
Pictures however look like theyre out of focus and not fuzzy or blurred out like you would expect from vibration,
on the other hand vibes might move the optics around changing the focus.

This article is very interesting :
link> DYI Drones : Let's Talk Canon Cameras

edit : forgot about this link : Setting focus from scripts or menus

« Last Edit: 21 / November / 2018, 09:52:21 by waterwingz »

Logged

Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

OhSnap

32

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #988 on: 04 / December / 2018, 06:48:58 »

After dozens of tests to figure out why my pics started to get blurry I found the culprit...
I had changed some frame parts to my quadcopter (the arms) and left the rest the same.
However it turns out, the different material properties resulted in vibrations of different frequency...

Vibrations in all cases were minimal, but seems the camera is more susceptible to lower frequencies.
I fixed it by swapping out propellers that produce less thrust thus have to be operated at higher RPM
and blurry pics disappeared.

Even when on purpose unbalancing the new props blurry pics are far less...

On another note I have made some additions to the script, one of them being an audible battery level indicator, since I cant really see the screen when mounted.

Now I'm trying to automate the camera shutdown based on the
get_focus command.
However after 3353mm I get -1 as return value, any clue why that could be ?
Works fine for 0-3353mm

Again thanks for the help and effort you put in your replies!

« Last Edit: 04 / December / 2018, 07:22:11 by OhSnap »

Logged

waterwingz

12139

Re: KAP & UAV Exposure Control Intervalometer Script

« Reply #989 on: 04 / December / 2018, 13:52:32 »

Quote from: OhSnap on 04 / December / 2018, 06:48:58

After dozens of tests to figure out why my pics started to get blurry I found the culprit...

Thanks for reporting back on that. Too frequently people come here for help and then get busy or something and don't report back on their findings / results.

Quote

However after 3353mm I get -1 as return value, any clue why that could be ? Works fine for 0-3353mm

How did you test this? I thought you had focus locked in the script?

Can I assume you started with the camera lens almost touching something and then moved away from that object. And the reported focus distance started at 0mm and kept going until you were about 3.3 meters away. If you moved any farther away you got -1 reported?

Edit : I spent 10 minutes chasing through the get_focus() code hoping to see if -1 means "infinity" - which is my suspicion. Might be - ran out of time to chase it further. Sorry.

« Last Edit: 04 / December / 2018, 14:01:51 by waterwingz »

Logged

Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16