Problem turning on camera display permanently.

Karmaschinken

« on: 17 / December / 2013, 08:13:18 »

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Hello, I have a minor problem, but it is really annoying: I am running a script on a SX200IS that sets the Power Saving Option in Canons tool menu to off and also writes set_config_value(67,3), which means that CHDK should always disable screen off. Done this I would assume that the display should never be turned off.

But this is NOT the case. After having reboot the camera and run the script I can wait the time that is named in the tools menu until the screen turns off. Normally my script would adjust this to the longest time available, 3 minutes. So after three minutes the screen turns off, although CHDK should prevent that.

For testing I adjusted the "display off" value in Canons tools menu to e.g. 20 seconds. This makes the screen turn off even when CHDK is still running the script! So it seems that CHDK simply does not prevent the screen from being turned off.

Now the strange thing is, that having awakened the camera from it's unwanted sleep by sending a click(up") via CHDKPTP, the camera does not fall asleep again.

I am using CHDK for a quite long time now, my cameras all have a dedicated power supply and I want them to have the screen always tun on, and I never had this issue.

Am I missing something or is this a bug in CHDK?

Thanks a lot!

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reyalp

11336

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #1 on: 17 / December / 2013, 22:18:10 »

If the camera continues to go into power save mode after you set "Disable LCD Off" to "always", then it's a bug. Since it appears to work correctly on other cameras, it is probably specific to the sx200 port.

You should verify that the menu option is set, just to be sure the set_config_value code is correct.

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Karmaschinken

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #2 on: 18 / December / 2013, 04:44:32 »

Thanks for the reply!

It seems I have at least narrowed down the problem. It really seems to be a bug, which only occurs when the camera is reset to the factory defaults. Afterwards it does not matter what I do, the camera switches off the screen.

When not resetting the camera to it's default values everything is okay. It seems as if the reset somehow avoids CHDKs "disable screen off" feature. The strange thing is, that when doing a reset and then sending a e.g. a click("up") to wakeup the cam via chdkptp after the screen has turned of the phenomenon does not occur any more.

This might also be a common bug, because maybe noone yet tried to reset the cam to the defaults with a script?

Doooo, I need to get rid of that. Any idea what to do with this?

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Karmaschinken

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #3 on: 18 / December / 2013, 05:02:08 »

Okay, at least I found a workaround. I am resetting the cameras to default values by script and then reboot them again. This way I know they are all at Canon's default values.

Then I start another script that adjusts them to the values I want.

This is definitely a bug and I suppose this is not bound to my model?

Alright, thanks a lot!

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msl

1235
A720 IS, SX220 HS 1.01a

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #4 on: 18 / December / 2013, 05:54:52 »

I think, this is not really a bug. It's more an issue with the configuration management. Check that the menu option or 'set_config_value(67,3)' was realy saved in the config file.

This feature works very well with my cameras.

Btw, after a factory reset have you also restarted CHDK?

msl

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Karmaschinken

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #5 on: 18 / December / 2013, 06:51:22 »

Well, turning on the "Always" option manually and then not touching it by code result in the same issue.

I remembered I had some hassle with it some time ago, you replied to that also. Look here!

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Karmaschinken

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #6 on: 18 / December / 2013, 19:55:19 »

Unfortunately the issue is not solved, the workaround does not work.

I used post_levent_to_ui(4458) to warm reboot the camera, but this brings up another problem. Having my script resetting the camera via Canons tool menu is only working "half". Very strange. It is this:

My script navigates to "Tools-Reset all" and resets the camera. Now I would assume that all customized settings like color style, white balance and so on would be at their default values. Right?

But as soon as I use post_levent_to_ui(4458) at the end of the script, all these default values are discarded and the camera is back to the customized settings again, after reboot. How is that possible? I can't imagine there is sort of a buffer or a mirror for the settings, that would be somewhat deluxe and useless for such a cam, no?

The "reboot" function does not work well either, because I still have the problem that some cameras don't start up reliable. Sometimes I can see just CHDKs splash screen, then the camera turn off. This happens both when using reboot from script and when turning the camera on manually. Is there another way to soft reboot the camera, without that strange restore of user adjusted value?

Thanks a lot! Martin

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waterwingz

11478

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #7 on: 18 / December / 2013, 20:15:28 »

Quote from: Karmaschinken on 18 / December / 2013, 19:55:19

The "reboot" function does not work well either, because I still have the problem that some cameras don't start up reliable. Sometimes I can see just CHDKs splash screen, then the camera turn off. This happens both when using reboot from script and when turning the camera on manually. Is there another way to soft reboot the camera, without that strange restore of user adjusted value?

You sent me a PM about this and I responded by asking about your startup script. Can you post that here - that might be what is causing the reboot to fail ... at a minimum, you usually need a sleep(4000) or something at the start of a script that runs on power up.

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philmoz

3070

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #8 on: 18 / December / 2013, 20:58:11 »

Quote from: Karmaschinken on 18 / December / 2013, 19:55:19

My script navigates to "Tools-Reset all" and resets the camera. Now I would assume that all customized settings like color style, white balance and so on would be at their default values. Right?

But as soon as I use post_levent_to_ui(4458) at the end of the script, all these default values are discarded and the camera is back to the customized settings again, after reboot. How is that possible? I can't imagine there is sort of a buffer or a mirror for the settings, that would be somewhat deluxe and useless for such a cam, no?

The CHDK reboot is a hack, not a standard camera function - it is probably happening before the firmware has saved the 'reset' settings.

If you've just reset the camera settings using the Canon menu, why do you need to restart the camera? The updated settings should take effect immediately.

Phil.

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Karmaschinken

Re: Problem turning on camera display permanently.

« Reply #9 on: 19 / December / 2013, 13:50:08 »

I'll try to explain a little better:

The issue happens when resetting the camera to companies defaults, afterwards CHDKs "Disable LCD off"-"Always"-feature does not work, the camera shuts down nevertheless. Even when the script at the end explicitly sets "Disable LCD off" to "never" and then "Always" again using set_config_value(67,0), then set_config_value(67,3)

My rig works like this now:

1. When I turn on a camera a autostart-script starts on the camera, which creates two files: RESET.TXT and INIT.TXT which indicate a) that the camera has to be reset to the companies defaults and b) that the photographic parameters have to be initialized.

2. Via CHDKPTP and multicam.lua I check which cams have a RESET.TXT present. To these cameras I upload and start a script that resets the camera to the companies defaults - with click("xxx") and then adjust some stuff in the tools menu, e.g. no sound, IS off and all that.

At the end of this script I try to prevent the display to be turned of by setting set_config_value(67), although I had set it to "Always" before manually in CHDKs menu. When waiting long enough at this point the camera will shut down although it should not happen. But I can prevent the shutdown by sending any command via CHDK, e.g. click("up"). Nevertheless I would like to avoid that, because I would have to run another step in the initialization mechanism.

3. Via CHDKPTP and multicam.lua I check which cameras have an INIT.TXT. To these camera I upload and start a script that brings all the photographic parameters to their values, like white balance, ISO and so on.

@ phil: I'd really like to avoid rebooting the camera after RESET.TXT, I was just trying to avoid the shutdown of the LCD with it. And it works like this too, but not when using "post_levent_to_ui(4458)" but reboot() in the script. Unfortunately reboot() does not reboot the cameras reliable, because they do not start reliable (see second issue described here later).

Thus you are right, there is no need of a shutdown and actually but it would prevent the display to turn off if I could use "reboot()". The post_levent_to_ui(4458) I cannot use either, because it recalls the photographic parameters as they were set BEFORE resetting the camera to the companies default value. All my custom adjustments I made in the tools menu after the reset will be kept, not white balance, ISO and so on! Also a long sleep() before post_levent_to_ui(4458) does not help, the camera has enough time to save everything.

@waterwingz: The startup failure that happens sporadic but quite often and since I am using CHDK happens whether I have an autostart.lua running or not. It was happening with my very old CHDK version I had all the time running, and it happens with the newest version too. I happens both when trying to turn on the camera manually (in play and rec mode) and when trying to do a reboot from a script. All I can say is that I have the feeling it happens the more often the longer I have the cameras powered on.

Thanks!

« Last Edit: 19 / December / 2013, 14:16:14 by Karmaschinken »

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