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Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?

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Offline Kestrel1978

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #20 on: 02 / April / 2015, 08:57:57 »
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Okay, I will try to push the menu button. But I thought it would automatically start in the morning after 5am.

I found the log, see attached file, note: it's the two last days that are of most interest.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #21 on: 02 / April / 2015, 09:05:32 »
Quote from: Kestrel1978 on 02 / April / 2015, 08:57:57
Okay, I will try to push the menu button. But I thought it would automatically start in the morning after 5am.
It should start automatically at 5am.  Sorry,  but it was not clear from your earlier posts what  exactly was not happening. 

Pressing the menu button in "night mode"  and seeing something happen will confirm that the script is still running.  I'll do some of my own testing to try and determine why it does not restart shooting at 5am.

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I found the log, see attached file, note: it's the two last days that are of most interest.
Thanks.  That helps a bit - I don't see the midnight rollover message for example.  Hmmm....

So we need to figure out if this is a problem with the script,  a problem specific to the G9, or a problem with how you have configured the script / camera.   Or maybe some combination of the three.

Edit  1: in night mode or day modes,  you should be able to press almost any key ( like Func/Set ) and the LCD will turn on for a short period.  Give that a try in night mode rather than the MENU key, which will terminate the script execution.

Edit  2:What setttings are you using for   Display Off mode (day)   and    Display Off mode (night)   ?    The choices are  None BKLite DispKey PlayKey ShrtCut LCD

Edit  3:What setting are you using for the   Disable LCD Off   menu item in the CHDK Settings menu?  It should probably be [ Always ]

Edit  4:It's possible the camera is actually crashing when it goes to night mode - most likely something to do with the LCD off command used (see edit 2 above).   So it would be good to get a ROMLOG.LOG file - you can do that from the  Miscellaneous  ->  Debug  menu.
« Last Edit: 02 / April / 2015, 12:09:40 by waterwingz »
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Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16
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Offline Kestrel1978

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #22 on: 02 / April / 2015, 10:09:42 »
Okay, I will check your suggestions.

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So we need to figure out if this is a problem with the script,  a problem specific to the G9, or a problem with how you have configured the script / camera.   Or maybe some combination of the three.

I have bought 4 more powershot cameras of different types, so I could try them too  :)
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Offline Kestrel1978

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #23 on: 02 / April / 2015, 15:01:51 »
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Edit  2:What setttings are you using for   Display Off mode (day)   and    Display Off mode (night)   ?    The choices are  None BKLite DispKey PlayKey ShrtCut LCD

Edit  3:What setting are you using for the   Disable LCD Off   menu item in the CHDK Settings menu?  It should probably be [ Always ]

I used Display Off mode (day) = LCD and Display Off mode (night) = BKLite
And I used  Disable LCD Off = script

Attached is the ROMLOG.LOG
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #24 on: 02 / April / 2015, 15:19:43 »
Quote from: Kestrel1978 on 02 / April / 2015, 15:01:51
I used Display Off mode (day) = LCD and Display Off mode (night) = BKLite
And I used  Disable LCD Off = script
That should be alright - although  LCD  mode will give you better power saving than BKLite.  In my newer scripts I only use the  LCD  mode option for turning off the display.

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Attached is the ROMLOG.LOG
The assert in that log is from over a month ago
Code: [Select]
Occured Time  2015:02:22 13:28:09so it does not look like you are crashing.  Good new I think.


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Offline Kestrel1978

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #25 on: 03 / April / 2015, 04:07:14 »
Hi, from yesterday and over the night it behaved differently. It stopped at 23 as intended, but without the lens being retracted. It was supposed to start at 5, but didn't. Led lights were on but didn't react to func/set button, only menu. I have attached the log, 3. April to 4. April is the date of interest.

One newbie question, I run the script from SD card, should I use the Bootable SD Card Method?
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #26 on: 03 / April / 2015, 08:11:29 »
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One newbie question, I run the script from SD card, should I use the Bootable SD Card Method?
Doh!  When the script restarts the camera,  it really restarts the camera.  The same thing that would happen if you pressed the power button to turn the camera off.   So when the camera turns back on at the end of the restart,  it will only load CHDK if you have configured it for autobooting (the Bootable SD Card Method).  I guess I thought that was obvious but in hind sight it's the first thing I should have checked.

Quote from: Kestrel1978 on 03 / April / 2015, 04:07:14
Hi, from yesterday and over the night it behaved differently. It stopped at 23 as intended, but without the lens being retracted. It was supposed to start at 5, but didn't. Led lights were on but didn't react to func/set button, only menu. I have attached the log, 3. April to 4. April is the date of interest.
I have yet to see anything in your logs to indicate the camera actually tried to reset.  Even if it failed to start CHDK after the reset,  the log should have shown the camera starting the reset cycle.

Having said that, the most recent log shows the camera going into night mode on Apr 2 at 22:00 and back to day mode at 06:00 on Apr 3.   This is pretty normal on a two day reset schedule.   It also shows motion detected shots on Apr 2 and the first motion detection shot at  8:31 AM on Apr 3.  Again - all normal given your night mode choice of Display Off mode.  You need to use the Play key or Shortcut modes for the lens to retract.

Can I assume the log activity I see at 21:00  on Apr 1 is you adjusting the camera ?

(Also - feel free to delete the log file on your SD card after you download them and post here.  Otherwise it will just keep growing.)


EDITS :
Quote from: Kestrel1978 on 03 / April / 2015, 04:07:14
It was supposed to start at 5, but didn't.
Note that the log shows it started at 6:00 AM.  Camera time not set to your time / time zone possibly?

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Led lights were on but didn't react to func/set button, only menu.
One limitation I now see in the script is that the camera buttons are only checked each time the motion detector times out (once a minute) or after it actually detects motion.  So you might not see pressing the func/set button or MENU button have any effect for up to 60 seconds if there is no motion detected.    No easy way around that other than hacking the underlying C code or having the motion detection time out more frequently.
« Last Edit: 04 / April / 2015, 14:44:43 by waterwingz »
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Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16
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Offline Kestrel1978

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #27 on: 08 / April / 2015, 05:50:32 »
After setting it to SD card reboot the camera has been operating for about 3 days  :D It seems to work as intended.
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Offline Kestrel1978

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Re: Motion detection for focal animal research - scripts and camera suggestions?
« Reply #28 on: 11 / April / 2015, 09:52:46 »
I'm currently testing A2200 with 32GB card.
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