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Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000

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Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« on: 03 / October / 2014, 22:47:48 »
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New CHDK user here.
I bought 2 A4000s to use primarily for stereo photography.
I created bootable SD cards using Stick, and they work fine. What I want to do is use the USB remote to control the zoom.
It does work - but zooming in stops working at about 8 steps. Sometimes I can get to 10 steps, but that's all it will do.
After it stops working, it remains that way. The full zoom range is 127 steps, so this feature is unusable at present.
Zoom Out (2 presses) usually only works once.
Shutter (3 presses) always works.
Max Zoom (4 presses) always works.
Min Zoom (5 presses) always works.

I tried using stable release 1.2, and trunk release 1.3. No difference.
Everything else seems to work OK.
Camera is A4000IS, 101b.

Any ideas for a remedy?
Also if the zoom moved 10 steps per button press, it would be much better.

Thank you.

Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #1 on: 04 / October / 2014, 01:09:13 »
It does work - but zooming in stops working at about 8 steps. Sometimes I can get to 10 steps, but that's all it will do.
After it stops working, it remains that way.
But it will go back out ?

Quote
The full zoom range is 127 steps, so this feature is unusable at present.
I have not tested the USB zoom on a camera with so many steps.  It works on cameras with 10 or so steps and looking at the code, it seems it should work for cameras with more steps.  I'll take a closer look - I now have access to an SX50 and it has 201 steps.

Quote
Also if the zoom moved 10 steps per button press, it would be much better.
I can now see how it would be pretty easy have the script move the lens 10% of the zoom ranges for each USB  remote button press.  I'll look at making that change. 
Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16

Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #2 on: 04 / October / 2014, 08:28:18 »
Thanks for the quick reply!

"But will it go back out?"
Let's say I press the button for 8 single presses. The zoom counter shows that it increases one step for each press. But on the 9th press nothing happens. No matter how many additional presses I make, still nothing happens.
I tried zooming out from this state, but it only comes back one step. Actually, when it gets "stuck" like this, I can zoom in and out for one step only.
4 presses zooms it fully in. Still at this point, it will only zoom out one step.
5 presses zooms fully out, but single presses may only work once or twice after this.

Both cameras behave the same way, reducing the likelihood of a mechanical problem. Both are refurbished, purchased directly from Canon. Good price too!

I really appreciate your attention in this matter.
Thanks again.

Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #3 on: 04 / October / 2014, 09:34:28 »
Let's say I press the button for 8 single presses. The zoom counter shows that it increases one step for each press. But on the 9th press nothing happens. No matter how many additional presses I make, still nothing happens.
I tried zooming out from this state, but it only comes back one step. Actually, when it gets "stuck" like this, I can zoom in and out for one step only.
4 presses zooms it fully in. Still at this point, it will only zoom out one step.
5 presses zooms fully out, but single presses may only work once or twice after this.
I have a few additional questions that should help me track this down.

1) Can you zoom in for five individual steps, zoom out five individual steps and repeat that process at least 10 times?  (i.e. is this something that happens after 10 steps in any direction or is it triggered by stepping out past the first 10 steps?)
2) Can you do a four press to zoom all the way in and then two press repeately to zoom back out ?
3) How do you reset this?  Do you need to power the camera off and on?

TIA
Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16


Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #4 on: 04 / October / 2014, 11:44:08 »
Have more info for you. I just tested with the camera running ver 1.2.
By the way, the cameras are not connected in parallel USB yet. I'm testing only one camera at a time.

1. I was able to step in 3 times, and step out 3 times. I could repeat this 10 times.
Then I tried stepping in 4 times, but it would only step back out once.
I wasn't able to step in past 4, so I power cycled.
I was then able to step in 5 times, but still could only step out once. At this point I can step in once, and step back out once...repeatedly. But can only make a single step either way.

2. 4 presses always works. Once fully zoomed in, I can step back only once. Same thing is true even after a power cycle, or two. At this point I can step in once (to max zoom), then out once, only once.

3. This is hard to determine. Once stuck, I can zoom fully in, then fully out, and sometimes I can step in. But it again gets stuck sometimes on 4 steps, or 5, or more. But I rarely get past 8.
I'm not sure if a power cycle changes this. It always seems to behave the same way.

4. New info. Power cycle, then use the real zoom lever to zoom in, to any medium level, say 75. I cannot step in any further. Tried this several times. However, I can step out once, only once. Then I can do the step-in-once, step-out-once dance. But only one step either way.

I hope this helps. I'm willing to help any way I can.

Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #5 on: 04 / October / 2014, 11:51:05 »
4. New info. Power cycle, then use the real zoom lever to zoom in, to any medium level, say 75. I cannot step in any further. Tried this several times. However, I can step out once, only once. Then I can do the step-in-once, step-out-once dance. But only one step either way.
To clarify - you manually zoom to 76 using the cameras zoom lever and then try to use the USB remote to step in & out ?

Quote
I hope this helps. I'm willing to help any way I can.
All good - thanks.
Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16

Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #6 on: 04 / October / 2014, 12:21:08 »
Update :   as I was changing the code so that all cameras zoom from end to end in a maximum of about 10 steps, I realized that my S100 has 121 zoom steps.  So I ran your test and it fails too.

I think what might be happening with the megazooms is a precision issue.  The USB remote code tried to move the lens just one zoom step at a time.  But the inner CHDK code handles that by reading the current zoom step position and adding one to it.   It's possible that this results in the zoom getting "stuck" if an increment of one is not quite enough to nudge the zoom out (or in).

What firmware version of the A4000 do you have ? I'll post a custom patched version for you to try out if you want to explore this.

Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16

Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #7 on: 04 / October / 2014, 12:30:03 »
Verified with another test.

Power on. Manual zoom to level 94. Cannot remote step in any further. Can step out one level, to 93, but no lower. I can step between 93 and 94 forever. Repeated test with a zoom of 78. Same results.

Also....Power on. Manual zoom to max (126). Can only step back one time to level 125, no lower. Can step between 125 and 126 forever.

My zoom levels go from 0 to 126. Only 127 levels, when I would expect 128.

Thanks.


Just saw your latest post..........great find!!
Stick created folders for both 101a and 101b. Could my cameras be different?
Now I gotta find out for sure.
Yes I do wanna explore this fix.

Yea!


Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #8 on: 04 / October / 2014, 13:11:55 »
I'm having a problem checking my firmware version. I can't get vers.req to work.
I know it's ver 101, but I don't if it's a or b.

Sorry.

Re: Remote Zoom Strange Behavior w/A4000
« Reply #9 on: 04 / October / 2014, 13:22:11 »
I'm having a problem checking my firmware version. I can't get vers.req to work.
I know it's ver 101, but I don't if it's a or b.
ACID

Although STICK will also tell you.
Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16

 

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