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A couple of Multicam doubts and general help

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Offline waterwingz

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #80 on: 04 / December / 2019, 11:01:59 »
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Quote from: ikercito on 04 / December / 2019, 10:28:42
Something like this... Or a 2A on each of the cameras, instead.
That's correct.  Note that diodes are polarity sensitive - although nothing breaks if you put them in backwards here - it just won't work.  For most diodes, there is a  band printed around one end of the diode that shows the end to connect to the cameras. 

If you try to measure voltage without the cameras connected you will not see any voltage drop - current needs to flow for that to happen. So turn the voltage adjust on the power supply to the lowest output voltage, install the diode(s), connect the cameras, power everything up, and check the voltage after the diode.

Also, you need plain old Si (silicon) diodes - not schottky diodes. See what you can find from your electronics supplier and post a part number for me to check?

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In any case, I may temporarily leave this out.  There's 0,5V excess, as long as the power source can keep up with it, the cameras should be fine right?
It will probably work fine - there is usually a "safety margin" built into most electronic designs.   

That being said, those little cameras were not designed to run continuously - most people turn them on, take a couple of photos, and turn them off.  You, on the other hand, could be running them continuously for hours so there is going to be a lot more heat build-up than they were designed for.  Made even worse by running them with too high a voltage on the input terminals (= more heat).   

It's your decision of course.
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Offline ikercito

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #81 on: 04 / December / 2019, 11:13:20 »

Quote from: waterwingz on 04 / December / 2019, 11:01:59
See what you can find from your electronics supplier and post a part number for me to check?
I will, I recently found a great electronics store nearby. I'm pretty sure I'll be visiting them frequently from now on.
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those little cameras were not designed to run continuously - most people turn them on, take a couple of photos, and turn them off. 
I'm aware of this, always been careful not to have them on for too long. Once the rig is 100% up and running I'll implement the necessary precautions to have it working safely for longer periods. For now, there's a lot of testing to be done, I'll be careful. :)
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Offline ikercito

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #82 on: 24 / December / 2019, 08:25:58 »
Hi guys, no major updates in the project. Lately I've been working in the hardware side, adding more cameras, improving cabling, lighting, etc... I recently bought a 3D printer, I'm quite new to this, but it's turned out to be extremely useful to create proper dummies and supports for the cameras and different parts to aid other needs. I'll be uploading the content I've created to thingiverse so people can make use of it. Since the project started to build up (now I'm in 34 cameras in 360 degrees) progress has slowed down considerably, the amount of work has ramped up and slowly left the CHDK/software part in a secondary place. I'll no doubt be returning to my menu system once the hardware side has been dealt with. Anyway, I wanted to thank all of you again for your support and wish you a very happy Xmas. :)
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #83 on: 24 / December / 2019, 10:21:02 »


Quote from: ikercito on 24 / December / 2019, 08:25:58
I'll be uploading the content I've created to thingiverse so people can make use of it.
Please post a link here when you get it done?  I'll add it the wiki too when you do.

Hope the holiday season goes well for you !

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Offline ikercito

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #84 on: 29 / January / 2020, 03:56:20 »
Hi guys,


Currently uploading the dummy 3D models for NB11L, NB6L, NB7L and NB4L batteries to Thingieverse. Have to wait 24h to make them public. But they'll soon be available for anyone to use. They're simple and quite rough, but they worked perfectly for me.


As an update, just finished a ton load of work and I'm back at the project. Finally got the hardware side (cabling, usb, lights, power...) roughly sorted to start testing the whole array. Found a couple of hiccups and will try to debug them today. Will keep you posted. Thx!
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Offline ikercito

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #85 on: 30 / January / 2020, 05:42:44 »

Here are the battery dummy 3d models.


NB11L - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4132890
NB4L - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4132905
NB6L - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4132900
NB7L - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4132908

This is the initial version, might improve NB11L with a little prong, so the battery latch holds onto it and remains better in place.

I'm considering hacking the on/off switches of all A2xxx and Ixus 1xx as seen here:
https://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=12749.0
But couldn't find much more info on it. Now that everything is up in the rig, it's quite a pain to turn them on manually. Also considering designing/3D printing individual clamps to have the button pressed, though... not sure which method will be less time consuming.

Also, some cameras are going a bit rogue (I'm suspecting 2 of them, probably due to some excess voltage) If one of them fails it brings the whole system down. Need to go back to reply #43 and review the protected/unprotected functions, and usage of mc:check:connections. Anyway, thanks for your help, I'm back at it and will keep you posted. Hope the battery dummies are helpful.
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Offline ikercito

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #86 on: 04 / February / 2020, 12:24:21 »
Hi guys, I just caught one of the cameras throwing the following error. It somehow manages to bring the whole system down... Seems like there's something wrong with multicam, this one doesn't understand the iD command??


Edit: I just had the offending camera connected, trying to debug the problem. Maybe the init_sync error is related to that??
« Last Edit: 04 / February / 2020, 12:51:46 by ikercito »
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Offline reyalp

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #87 on: 04 / February / 2020, 13:41:20 »
Quote from: ikercito on 04 / February / 2020, 12:24:21
Hi guys, I just caught one of the cameras throwing the following error. It somehow manages to bring the whole system down... Seems like there's something wrong with multicam, this one doesn't understand the iD command??
The "failed status from unknown cmd..." message means that some other command received a status message generated by the id command. This could happen if you used mc:cmd('id') rather than mc:cmdwait('id')

The issue is almost certainly in your code, so it will be difficult to provide much more advice without seeing it.
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Offline ikercito

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #88 on: 04 / February / 2020, 14:07:29 »
And once again.... You're absolutely right!  ;)

This is the latest code I've been using. Many things have been left out for the moment, until the system proves to be reliable (right now it is NOT). I used to ID cameras according to a txt created previously, but since I'm constantly finding errors and unplugging cameras, that's been left out too.


I just corrected the cmdwait('id') line locally. This is the original version:

Code: [Select]
mc=require('multicam')
mc:cmdwait('post_levent_to_ui"UnpressPowerButton"')


repeat
 print('1) START 2) ZOOM 3) SHOOT w/FOCUS 4) SHOOT (w/params) 5) AUTO 6) DOWNLOAD 7) SHUTDOWN 8) REBOOT')
 local option = cli.readline('mc>')
 
 if option == '1' then            --------START&SYNC
  mc:connect()
  mc:start()
  mc:cmd('id')
  mc:cmdwait('rec')
  mc:init_sync()
 
 elseif option == '2' then        ---------SET ZOOM
  local zoom=cli.readline('Zoom>')
  mc:cmdwait('call set_zoom('..zoom..')')
 
 elseif option == '3' then        ---------SHOOT w/focus     
  local dist=cli.readline('Focus Dist>')
  mc:shoot({sd=dist}) 


 elseif option == '4' then        ---------SHOOT w/values
 --- local dist=cli.readline('Focus Dist>')
  local fnum=cli.readline('F number>')
  local shutter=cli.readline('Shutter speed>')
  local ISO=cli.readline('ISO>')
  mc:cmdwait('call set_prop(props.WB_MODE,1)')
  mc:cmdwait('preshoot')
  mc:cmdwait('call click"left" sleep(100) release"shoot_half"')
  mc:shoot({tv=exp.shutter_to_tv96(tonumber(shutter)), svm=exp.iso_to_sv96(tonumber(ISO)),av=exp.f_to_av96(tonumber(fnum))})
 
 elseif option == '5' then        ---------SHOOT
   mc:cmdwait('call set_prop(props.WB_MODE,1)')
  mc:cmdwait('preshoot')
  mc:cmdwait('call click"left" sleep(100) release"shoot_half"')
  mc:shoot()
 
 elseif option == '6' then        ---------DOWNLOAD
  local folder=cli.readline('Folder>')
  mc:cmdwait('play')
 --- mc:download_images({dst='c:/download/'..folder..'/CAM${id}/CAM${id}_${shotseq}${ext}',delete=true,verbose=true})
  mc:download_images({dst='c:/download/'..folder..'/CAM${id}_${shotseq}${ext}',delete=true,verbose=true})


 elseif option == '7' then        ---------SHUTDOWN
  mc:cmdwait('play')
  mc:cmdwait('call local fh=io.open(get_image_dir().."/IMG_1000.JPG","wb") fh:close()')
  mc:cmd('call sleep(2000) shut_down()')
  mc:disconnect()
  break
 
 elseif option == '8' then        ---------REBOOT
  mc:cmdwait('play')
  mc:cmdwait('call local fh=io.open(get_image_dir().."/IMG_1000.JPG","wb") fh:close()')
  mc:cmd('call sleep(2000) reboot()')
  mc:disconnect()
  break
 end
until option=='8'
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Offline ikercito

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Re: A couple of Multicam doubts and general help
« Reply #89 on: 05 / February / 2020, 07:30:23 »
Hi. This is the problem i'm facing right now. Been thinking about it and can't find the way to debug it. Let's see if you can shed some light on this... I've disabled   mc:connect({list='cams.txt'}) because i'm constanly unplugging cameras from the array trying to find which one is crashing/failing. And using that line caused errors if one or more listed cameras were not connected. Now cameras don't have a fixed ID number i can refer to, every time i start the system they get a random ID for every camera. So, i start the system, cameras usually connect and initialize sync fine, I can even shoot quite reliably. But every time I try to download files, there's one camera which shuts down/fails, i get the attached message (capture4.jpg) and after a few seconds the command window shuts down. I sometimes get an error poiting to the offending camera (capture1.jpg).


Additionally, is there a way to have init_sync produce less verbose? It creates hundreds of lines, too many to scroll up and pinpoint which camera might be the offending one...

So, basically Im playing cat and mouse with the system now... Do you guys have any idea how could I solve this? Thanks :)
« Last Edit: 05 / February / 2020, 10:04:17 by ikercito »
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