Multi-camera setup project. - page 33 - Creative Uses of CHDK - CHDK Forum

Multi-camera setup project.

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Offline reyalp

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #320 on: 22 / September / 2015, 22:14:29 »
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As far as "entire CHDK folder" ..you probably mean take all folders in there..from the full zip right?
Unzip the zip to a directory, like c:\temp
Upload everything that was in the zip to the camera, like
mup c:/temp A/

Note this will overwrite existing files without prompting. Your CHDK cfg files will not be affected, because none are included in the zip.
Don't forget what the H stands for.

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Offline mphx

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #321 on: 23 / September / 2015, 07:57:52 »
@reyalp

Ok , thanks for the instructions.
Thing will go down tomorrow , since today there is a shooting scheduled.

I will come back with news tomorrow.

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Offline reyalp

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #322 on: 23 / September / 2015, 16:50:32 »
@reyalp

Ok , thanks for the instructions.
Thing will go down tomorrow , since today there is a shooting scheduled.

I will come back with news tomorrow.
This is probably obvious, but just in case: I'd strongly recommend making sure you have a copy of the build you are currently using saved somewhere, and making sure the update works as expected on one or a few cameras before updating them all.

You can use mdl A/ c:/some/path to download everything on the card if you don't have the original zip somewhere.
Don't forget what the H stands for.

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Offline mphx

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #323 on: 24 / September / 2015, 07:49:25 »
@reyalp

Ok , things went well.

Update went without issues.

We did some test shots with the new command (shoot_burst).

With 64 cameras we cant "play" with interval lower of 4000ms.Second shot is going all over the place.
Probably hardware cant catch up or something...dont know .
With interval of 4000ms ..shots are seemed to be synced (first and second) although in 2nd shot there are some errors in console (unexpected error from cmd "shoot_burst" blablah , failed=true etc etc)..and its repeated for some or even all cameras.Despite the fact that the second shot is "heard" to be synced on all cameras.


As far as synctime is concerned..we set it up to 800ms , because we have seen min sync delay ranging from 300ish up to 700ish...i saw that if synctime < min sync delay , command adjusts it..but we set it up to 800ms to be safe.

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Offline reyalp

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #324 on: 24 / September / 2015, 17:03:53 »
With 64 cameras we cant "play" with interval lower of 4000ms.Second shot is going all over the place.
Are you shooting raw? The interval should be similar to what you can get on one camera, which I would normally expect to be under 2 sec if you aren't using raw.

Have you tried with just one or two cameras?

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With interval of 4000ms ..shots are seemed to be synced (first and second) although in 2nd shot there are some errors in console (unexpected error from cmd "shoot_burst" blablah , failed=true etc etc)..and its repeated for some or even all cameras.Despite the fact that the second shot is "heard" to be synced on all cameras.
Example output for one camera might be helpful. blahblah doesn't help me much with debugging ;)

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As far as synctime is concerned..we set it up to 800ms , because we have seen min sync delay ranging from 300ish up to 700ish...i saw that if synctime < min sync delay , command adjusts it..but we set it up to 800ms to be safe.
Since just sending to each cam takes takes several ms, this sounds fairly reasonable.
Don't forget what the H stands for.

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Offline mphx

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #325 on: 24 / September / 2015, 18:01:10 »
@reyalp

Nope no raw shooting. jpeg.

If i remember well , when we tested 2-3 cameras , we had synced shoots..both times.i mean shot1 and shot2 (we set it up to shoot 2 shots)

But with 64 cameras , things change.

If we set interval to 2000 or 3000 and synctime something high...shooting goes like this.
 preshoot...everything getting ready as supposed....shooting #1 , all synced (judging by the click sounds) , after 2000msec (or 3000msec...same behavior)...shooting #2 and shouting clicks are random.

With the same settings BUT interval of 4000msec , second shooting "sounds" synced.

In both cases after the second shooting , there are the aforementioned "error messages" that as you understand i don't remember them exactly :)

I remember that the line was beginning with the id of the camera and the rest were inside { }.

"unexpected error from cmd "shoot_burst"" and then some boolean status messages.

I scrolled a bit the console output , it was this message for almost every camera id.

So in the case of 4000 msec , thing is working..two shots are taken correctly (despite the error messages)but we really could use a smaller interval number...why second shoot doesnt sync with smaller interval...i dont know.

And something else , irrelevant to this matter.

I noticed some changes to some commands output ...less messages , doing the job hard to monitor.

I remember when i was issuing the commands to set focus and zoom...i was seeing the id of the cameras and the commands applying to them.
Now i see the two commands...being executed..one by one..no information...no cameras ids...no ending message.
Turned on the cameras to update to the latest chdk , i was seeing the files being copied..never knew when it was done :)
Same thing when dowloading images from cameras , or deleting..never know when the command its done :)
I just see gui getting "not responding" and i know its "working"..when it "comes back" , i know that its done.But that way is way too lame...

Is it possible to get some more output on commands ?:)

And an another issue we were talking some months ago.We have 64 cameras...sometimes , a cable is loose and some camera loses connection...if this happens it fcks up the whole connection...and  i have to reconnect them all.
Since we can work with 1-2 cameras less ,and during a shooting is bad to say to client...wait a moment..technical issues...etc etc... is there a way when a camera loses connection , chdkptp will ignore this camera and keep working with the rest?It will be very handy if this can be done.

Thanks again for all your efforts :)

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Offline reyalp

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #326 on: 24 / September / 2015, 22:22:29 »
In both cases after the second shooting , there are the aforementioned "error messages" that as you understand i don't remember them exactly :)
In the future, I suggest you copy and paste a sample somewhere. I don't have 64 cams, if I am going to debug the problem, I need some better idea of what is happening.

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I noticed some changes to some commands output ...less messages , doing the job hard to monitor.
I reduce the output because even with 3 cameras the flood of messages was difficult to follow. With 64, it's probably enough to slow things down noticeably...

If you are using mc:cmd() or mc:cmdwait() you can pass the option printcmd=true, like
 !mc:cmdwait('rec',{printcmd=true})
If you only want to print once for each command rather than each camera you can use
 !mc:cmdwait('rec',{printcmd='once'})

It the moment there is no way to do this with other functions like shoot that call cmdwait(). I will add a way to change the defaults for this at some point.

Some kind of status in the download command would be good.
edit:
Actually, you should be able to pass verbose=true in the mc:download_images options to see whats being downloaded.

Quote
Since we can work with 1-2 cameras less ,and during a shooting is bad to say to client...wait a moment..technical issues...etc etc... is there a way when a camera loses connection , chdkptp will ignore this camera and keep working with the rest?It will be very handy if this can be done.
Yes, being able to ignore failed cams is something I would like to add, but it will take some work.
« Last Edit: 24 / September / 2015, 23:41:10 by reyalp »
Don't forget what the H stands for.

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Offline mphx

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #327 on: 25 / September / 2015, 08:09:05 »
@reyalp

As far as the error messages , i will try to reproduce the whole thing tomorrow that i will be at studio and try to copy/paste the messages for you to check them out.

About commands output.

You are right , with 64 cameras there is too much flooding and some time delay with too much detailed output.
But you could put some message indicating that the command(s) are done.

For example , when i issued the commands for focus and zoom yesterday (lets call them command1 and command2 for the example) it was like this in the console output

command1....(~1 sec pause , probably as command was applying to all cameras)...command2.....

for command1 i had an indication that it was over since there was command2 starting after the first one.
But for command2 , i had no indication..i GUESSED that after 1-2 secs , it was done.

Same thing with dowload/delete images from cameras..i get an estimated guess when its done when i see gui getting back from "not responding" state or when stop scrolling in console.

A "Done" , "Download complete" "Delete complete" "Command successful" or whatever would have been enough for me ...to know things are over..that i can issue the next command , without the fear that the previous one is still executing...

I don't care if the output will show all cameras or the command once..i just need to see a fail or complete message to know that the command ended (successfully or not).

Anyway , you know better how and if it can be done... :)

As far the "ignore failed cams" , its not that big/vital thing right now..so take your time..if it can be done..it would be nice...since when a cam fails..we waste some secs to find out which cam failed since it can't be seen right away.
We found out that issuing a "delete" command , reveals the failed cam ....so imagine the whole scene :

failed cam...delete image (bad thing if there was some shooting already) ..find out which cam failed...check cam's cables...reboot cam , re-connect cams..sync..set focus/zoom again....we just spent around 1 min (with the client standing in the stand..waiting)..instead of "ignoring" the failed cam and working with the rest.


Thanks again.
« Last Edit: 25 / September / 2015, 08:12:02 by mphx »

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Offline reyalp

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #328 on: 28 / September / 2015, 16:12:44 »
FWIW, the problems with the chdkptp svn are resolved, and the multicam patch posted earlier is checked in.
Don't forget what the H stands for.

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Offline mphx

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Re: Multi-camera setup project.
« Reply #329 on: 29 / September / 2015, 10:26:00 »
Roger that , i just synced my copy.

Thanks.

 

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