Late to the game...help with remote via raspberry pi

hancockks

« on: 09 / June / 2020, 21:51:32 »

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I was investigating gphoto2 control for some of my old Canon Powershots and found that all 3 of them weren't supported. I then stumbled across CHDK, got it installed on my Powershot A570, got CHDKPTP installed on the rpi, now I'm stuck on connecting.

First, what I'm trying to do:
1) pre-focus the camera
2) trigger a shot through USB controlled by the raspberry pi [repeatedly]
3) download the images some time later.

Can CHDK do what I want it to do?

With CHDKPTP I can't connect unless I'm in play mode, but can't take photos in play mode since the shutter is closed? I think I'm missing something fundamental before I get into the scripting.

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reyalp

13844

Re: Late to the game...help with remote via raspberry pi

« Reply #1 on: 09 / June / 2020, 22:05:46 »

Quote from: hancockks on 09 / June / 2020, 21:51:32

With CHDKPTP I can't connect unless I'm in play mode, but can't take photos in play mode since the shutter is closed?

You should connect the camera in playback mode, and then use the chdkptp 'rec' command in chdkptp to switch to shooting mode.

If the camera does not switch to shooting mode, you probably need to adjust the udev rules and/or hwdb as described on https://app.assembla.com/spaces/chdkptp/wiki/Install under "Interactions with default software"

Quote

First, what I'm trying to do:
1) pre-focus the camera
2) trigger a shot through USB controlled by the raspberry pi [repeatedly]
3) download the images some time later.

Can CHDK do what I want it to do?

Yes, there are several ways you could do this. Do you want a program or script to control shooting, or shoot at an interval, or control manually?

If manually, the simplest way is probably to use the rsint command. rsint keeps half press held, and shoots every time you enter 's'. This actually saves the file directly over USB rather than saving on camera and downloading later. Except for cameras that only support USB 1 speed, this is generally about as fast as saving to the SD card.

If you really need to keep the images on the card and download them later, you'll need a bit of scripting. If you describe your needs in a bit more detail, I'm happy to provide advice and possibly code.

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Don't forget what the H stands for.

hancockks

Re: Late to the game...help with remote via raspberry pi

« Reply #2 on: 09 / June / 2020, 22:25:49 »

Quote from: reyalp on 09 / June / 2020, 22:05:46

Yes, there are several ways you could do this. Do you want a program or script to control shooting, or shoot at an interval, or control manually?

Thanks for the quick reply. That gives me something to start on tomorrow.

I'm not doing interval timing. The camera will be triggered by an external process that will call a shell script every so often, so I can have the shell script do whatever needs to be done. (3d printing time lapse on layer change via Octoprint/Octolapse.) Downloading over USB is certainly ok if that's easier. I'm a SW developer and have even done lua in the (very) distant past, so not too concerned about that part once I figure out the basics.

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hancockks

Re: Late to the game...help with remote via raspberry pi

« Reply #3 on: 10 / June / 2020, 10:38:42 »

Ok, so I made the mistake of making my sd card bootable. Now when I start in PLAY mode, the OSD is stuck in the set-time display and the print button doesn't work as an ALT button. I can however connect with
chdkptp which gives me a warning that CHDK extension is not detected.

My bad...this is what happens if you have USB connected when you power the camera on. Any way to avoid that?

« Last Edit: 10 / June / 2020, 12:45:29 by hancockks »

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reyalp

13844

Re: Late to the game...help with remote via raspberry pi

« Reply #4 on: 10 / June / 2020, 12:50:08 »

Quote from: hancockks on 10 / June / 2020, 10:38:42

Ok, so I made the mistake of making my sd card bootable. Now when I start in PLAY mode, the OSD is stuck in the set-time display and the print button doesn't work as an ALT button. I can however connect with

The set time display appearing shouldn't be related to the card being bootable. It generally means the RTC battery has died. On A570, this is a CR1220 that's in a holder in the main battery compartment.

If the card is correctly made bootable and locked, CHDK should still load when the date/time setting appears. If you don't see the splash screen, it's loading.

edit:
Powering the camera on with USB connected also shouldn't trigger the clock display.

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Don't forget what the H stands for.

hancockks

Re: Late to the game...help with remote via raspberry pi

« Reply #5 on: 10 / June / 2020, 14:01:04 »

Success...was able to use chdkptp to trigger and download a photo. Still need to play with the settings a bit, but this is definitely workable. Trying to figure out whether the AF and focus assist light always comes in whether I'm focusing or not.

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