Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)? - Script Writing - CHDK Forum

Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?

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Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« on: 14 / September / 2008, 13:35:22 »
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I've searched on the forum but haven't seen a specific answer to this quetsion.


Is there a way OTHER THAN the button-press scripts to turn the LCD display off?  I've used that method, but the problem is that the camera remembers the display state between powering off.  So, on Day 1, when I start the script it does the right thing (display off).  However, on day 2, even after changing the battery, the script does button presses... but the camera has REMEMBERED that the display was last off.  So, now it turns it on.

Is there EITHER...
- a way to turn off display that's deterministic and not a button pres...   OR...
- a way to "clear" the camera's remembered settings for display (and flash) and so it starts "from scratch" each time?


thanks!

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Offline fudgey

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Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #1 on: 14 / September / 2008, 14:42:02 »
If I'm not mistaken, the only way (apart from things that exist in some test builds for some cameras) is the AV plug method (i.e. just stick a plug in the AV jack and LCD will turn off because external monitor output will turn on), but some people have reported that it doesn't cut power consumption as much as regular LCD off does.

Scriptable LCD backlight control (which may very well be just as good as LCD off but not the same thing) may be on it's way one of these days, but don't hold your breath...

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Offline fe50

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Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #2 on: 15 / September / 2008, 06:29:06 »
green button,

you can use the corresponding propcases for your camera to check which mode you're in at the moment, then you can emulate the correct count of DISP keypresses...
From CHDK wikia: PropertyCase:
Code: [Select]
on Digic II:   181 Display mode (record mode only) (0 = show info icons, 1 = Do not show info icons, 2 = LCD off, 3 = EVF)
on Digic III:  105 Display mode (record mode only) (0,1,2,3 = show info icons, do not show info icons, LCD off, EVF)

You can also use the script command "get_display_mode" when you're working with a new CHDK build like Juciphox, have a look to CHDK wikia: MoreBest#get_display_mode.

Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #3 on: 15 / September / 2008, 10:33:32 »
The Canon shortcut button(enabled to display off),if you have one on your camera,is an interesting way to turn off the lcd:
the camera don't remember the state after shooting or powering off.(but it can react to an abrupt move).This script works well on my g7 allbest#50:(print shortcut enabled to display off in Canon menu)

@title lcdoff
@param a loop
@default a 3
for x=1 to a
shoot
click "print"
sleep 10000
next x
click "print"
end

EDIT:by this way the lcd is  briefly powered on by each shot,a countereffect to take in count...
It's also possible to keep focus by turning on(click "print")the lcd  and reinstalling MF("up" on my g7) before shooting.You
can read this previous post:http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,1734.msg20212.html#msg20212
« Last Edit: 15 / September / 2008, 11:52:32 by maka45 »


Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #4 on: 13 / June / 2009, 00:08:01 »
- a way to "clear" the camera's remembered settings for display (and flash) and so it starts "from scratch" each time?

How about this? Thanks to fe50 for pointer to the display state :)
Code: (actionscript) [Select]
...
goto "init"

:lcd_on
D = 1
goto "lcd_wrk"

:lcd_off
D = 2

:lcd_wrk
rem possible states: 0 on with icons, 1 on no icons, 2 off, 3 EVF
if get_display_mode = D then return
click "display"
sleep 30
goto "lcd_wrk"

:lcdtest
print "lcd off"
gosub "lcd_off"
sleep 2000
print "lcd on"
gosub "lcd_on"
sleep 2000
print "lcd off"
gosub "lcd_off"
sleep 2000
print "lcd on"
gosub "lcd_on"
print "done"
end

:init
if w = 1 then goto "lcdtest"
...
See: http://bugsplatter.id.au/chdk/ for more -- my current chdk project :)

Oops, I'm not working with flash, it stays off on my a590.
« Last Edit: 13 / June / 2009, 00:13:37 by scattered »

Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #5 on: 18 / June / 2009, 20:26:48 »
Hi there, I now have reliable control of the LCD and idle (deep sleep) mode :) 

Secret is NOT to try direct control of the LCD ;)  Instead, let the cam's 'Display Off' switch cam into low power mode and use 'click "shoot_half", sleep 500' to wakeup the cam.  This has proved very reliable, as opposed to the method I wrote about above.  Also has the advantage of leaving the green LED on, which is good on a590 as there's no LED control yet.

Click half shoot is the only button that has no side effect, with the downside of requiring some delay after it so the cam completes waking up before script issues more button clicks to get cam into desired mode.

For MF mode long interval timelapse my script now successfully gets the cam back into MF mode after waking from 'deep sleep', this is good, no?  What I wanted anyway.  For normal and macro mode the script also allows for prefocus + AFlock, or refocus each wakeup.  Focus mode is set in @params so does not require user to carefully set cam prior to starting the timelapse sequence. 

Testers with DigicII as well as DigicIII/IV wanted so I can get the script working with both property sets. 

Daylapse script is on http://bugsplatter.id.au/chdk/ and the documentation there is almost up-to-date.

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Offline Marsjanin

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Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #6 on: 20 / March / 2011, 17:45:46 »
--
Pozdrawiam,
Marsjanin

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Offline fudgey

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Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #7 on: 23 / March / 2011, 07:56:52 »


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Offline SkyWalker9

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Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #8 on: 23 / March / 2011, 21:03:28 »
...PS. What is that EVF mode?
You usually see EVF in conjunction with OSD. EVF refers to "Electronic ViewFinder"

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Offline Marsjanin

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Re: Reliably turning off the LCD (for long intervalometer script)?
« Reply #9 on: 23 / April / 2011, 10:31:24 »
Hey, thanks for replies. I was not using my camera last times and just kept this site in bookmarks. Sorry for not responding long time.
You won't be getting a lot of power savings from disabling the LCD during video record. It's true that the camera's input power decreases dramatically when switched from REC to PLAY or when shutting down the display in REC mode, but most of that power saving comes from powering off the sensor and lens mechanics.
Well, there's (I believe) lens mechanics blocked, when I set focus once (for infinity!) and start recording. But sensors have to work, without them some scenes will be overlighted or underlighted. :)
But it is possible to shut down the LCD and it does save some power. You can either plug something in the AV connector or you can use a CHDK script command set_backlight 0 to disable LCD backlight (responsible of most of the LCD's power drain) after starting video record.

See e.g. http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=3872.0 for some measurement results.
Well, I didn't find any ready script, maybe some tutorial how to write them? I tried to analyze some example scripts from CHDK package, but I'm afraid I'm really not sure all the syntax of this scripting language.
...PS. What is that EVF mode?
You usually see EVF in conjunction with OSD. EVF refers to "Electronic ViewFinder"
Oh, I see, but I was wondering that "mode" there. I'm finding now, that's about "raw" EVF without any OCR info on the screen.
--
Pozdrawiam,
Marsjanin

 

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