Is there a Powershot with no lens extension/retraction? (long term time lapse) - Hotwire! Hardware Mods, Accessories and Insights - CHDK Forum
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Is there a Powershot with no lens extension/retraction? (long term time lapse)

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Offline peabody

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Is there a Powershot with no lens extension/retraction? (long term time lapse)
« on: 11 / January / 2015, 01:26:03 »
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Yet another long term time lapse post.  Well, I recently saw a design for a gizmo having nothing to do with photography, and it used a Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller.  These chips are ultra low power, to the point that the guy didn't bother to include an ON/OFF switch.

An MSP430 chip in real time clock mode operates at about 1 microamp, at a voltage as low as 1.8 VDC.  So it seems you could set up a long term time lapse, perhaps at a construction project, and the 430 would wake itself up every hour during the day, weekdays, then it would power up the camera, which would auto-run a CHDK script that takes a picture.  Then the camera power would be turned off again and the 430 would go to sleep until it's time for the next picture.

On my A590, if I hold down the power button, then open and close the battery door, every time I close that door, the lens retracts back into the camera, then immediately extends again.  There doesn't appear to be a way to make it stay extended through power cycles.

The problem is that a lot of power is used up running that extension/retraction motor, plus it would tend to wear out quickly if it has to cycle for every picture.  So I wondered if there is a Powershot that doesn't have zoom, and perhaps doesn't use such a motor.  Or if there's another solution, please post it.

By the way, these TI MSP430 processors are quite remarkable, particularly at a cost of $2-3 each.


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