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Poor battery life with CHDK?

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Offline jasonc2

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Poor battery life with CHDK?
« on: 03 / February / 2009, 09:24:40 »
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I have a PowerShot SX100IS. I'm using relatively decent batteries (Radio Shack, they're no Duracell, but they're no Powercell either). When I'm using the normal firmware, I can get hundreds of shots over 3-4 hours on a pair of AA's. When I'm using CHDK, I consistently get maybe 20-30 shots tops over 45-60 minutes before the batteries are sucked completely dry.

Does anybody else have this issue? I'm using pretty much all the default settings, I haven't modified any noise reduction options, not saving RAW files, histogram, zebra, and other data displays are all off. It's a little crazy, I have to pack a dozen AA's when I go out for a walk, now.

Thanks,
J
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Offline Hacki

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #1 on: 03 / February / 2009, 10:27:39 »
I happen to own a SX100 and a laboratory power supply, and also happen to have conducted some measurements on how chdk impacts on energy consumption. It does, but in an insignificant way.

Of course your battery will drain faster if you run around with the shutter half pressed all the time because of chdk, but that is rather your fault then ;)

See:

http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,2375.0.html


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Offline dom-a

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #2 on: 03 / February / 2009, 11:24:48 »
I must admit I have found that CHDK is impacting on the life of the batteries. Because I'm taking more and better photos.  :P
I can still get a fall day out of a single set of 2500 mAh AA.  :D
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Offline jasonc2

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #3 on: 03 / February / 2009, 11:50:19 »
Quote from: Hacki on 03 / February / 2009, 10:27:39
Of course your battery will drain faster if you run around with the shutter half pressed all the time because of chdk, but that is rather your fault then ;)

http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,2375.0.html

Nice experiment, I'm convinced, but I'm still consistently seeing battery issues... next time I change the batteries I'll try to be more mindful of how often I run around with the shutter half-pressed and see if that fixes it.

It seems reasonable that I wasted a lot of the battery life just playing around, although I'm still surprised that I went through 4 sets of batteries in just a few hours yesterday.
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Offline julesd

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #4 on: 03 / February / 2009, 15:48:38 »
I have the same problem with my A570 IS. Batteries seem to run down very quickly. Maybe 50 or 60 shots. Sounds a lot, but I am doing 9 shot brackets, so it works out about 6 bracketed rounds.

I notice there are menu options for battery settings. I also noticed if I pop the 'flat' batteries out and try them in another device, the still read full. I have tried setting different values, but I'm not sure what settings to use?

Thanks, J
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Offline fudgey

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #5 on: 03 / February / 2009, 16:33:24 »
Quote from: julesd on 03 / February / 2009, 15:48:38
I have tried setting different values, but I'm not sure what settings to use?

CHDK settings only configure CHDK's battery indicators. They have nothing to do with the camera's decision to shut down. The a570is is known to shut down early e.g. when using batteries with high internal resistance (Eneloops and similar low self discharge NiMH cells, old batteries, batteries in cold temperatures).

Also, many chargers out there are extremely crappy (no matter what the cost) and fail to charge properly. Stores also stock mislabeled batteries and undoubtedly you can also find batteries on the shelves destroyed due to old age combined with excessively high storage temperatures.

A pair of regular 2700 mAh NiMH batteries charged full using a good charger (using 500 mA charge current, the same charger measures 2600 mAh as their capacity in 200 mA discharge) performs hundreds of timelapse pics (note that zooming and other motors require lots of power, timelapses don't need that) on my 570is in room temperature and keeps fast mode (half shoot) motion detector running for several hours (several being more than three).
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Offline julesd

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #6 on: 03 / February / 2009, 17:23:59 »
Quote from: fudgey on 03 / February / 2009, 16:33:24
old batteries, batteries in cold temperatures

Ok, I may be over-reacting then.... My first set of batteries came with the camera (old?). The second set are duracell ultra's... when I was using them, I was taking snow shots (cold). I just switch on my camera, that still has the duracell's in it from yesterday. The cam had shutdown, but after waiting a few minutes, the voltage display says 2425mV at 24'C.

Thanks, J
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Offline jasonc2

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #7 on: 03 / February / 2009, 23:13:54 »
Today I took a series of about 30 bracketed shots, and was very careful to avoid doing things that drain the batteries. I've found that setting the histogram to always on, for example, instead of during shooting only, helps a lot since it reduces the temptation to press the shutter to see the histogram. I made sure to always turn the camera off as soon as I finished using it, and didn't mess around with too many features, play games, etc.

Now that I am being more careful about it, I am indeed finding that the batteries last about as long as they always have. I put a fresh set of Radio Shack AAs in this morning and they're currently around 90%. So it looks like all is well.

Thanks,
Jason
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Offline barret

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #8 on: 04 / February / 2009, 03:48:59 »
i don't know about you, but i prefer rechargeable batteries rather than single use batteries. what are the benefits of using single use batteries anyway?

i think displaying live histogram causes batteries to drain faster.
I've been using CHDK for quite some time, but haven't experienced any change in battery life.
and, of course, LCD takes quite a lot of power to operate: for example, someone measured A550: LCD on: 1A, LCD off: 0.5A of power. quite a difference ;)
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Offline PhyrePhoX

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Re: Poor battery life with CHDK?
« Reply #9 on: 04 / February / 2009, 04:00:58 »
btw in contrast to popular belief, rechargable batteries perform way better in digital cams than the single use ones :)
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