Intervalometer with time of day constraints - page 3 - Script Writing - CHDK Forum
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Intervalometer with time of day constraints

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Offline DanielF

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #20 on: 24 / June / 2009, 04:22:18 »
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cygnusb,

I have two working time-of-day intervalometer scripts (one works night as well as day, with up to 15 second automatic exposures at night), but being also a newbie, I don't know where to upload them (Wikia won't accept Zip uploads).

If someone can tell me where/how to upload scripts, I'll happily do so.

Daniel
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Daniel
Gerroa, Australia
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Offline eliavecellio

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #21 on: 24 / June / 2009, 15:45:30 »
Quote from: scattered on 23 / June / 2009, 05:22:38
I'd like feedback on what cams the script works on, I'll start a list of known working cams.  Also, if you have problems I may be able to work around them, or add related features, if they're not too large and fit with the design or application of this script. 

Well, the basic features seem to work fine on my (digic2) A620. The camera woke up, as scheduled, at 4am and took a photo every 2.5mins until around 7:30am, at which point it ran out of batteries (I had already taken a 552 image timelapse, one image every 30sec, without the LCD ever switching off on the same set/charge batteries). Seems fine.

Is there a reason why I wouldn't set the low-battery level to -1 (or something really low) and just have the camera drain the juice completely? I did this with the above mentioned test. I knew the batteries were quite low on juice (CHDK battery meter showed around 40% charge). If the camera is going to switch off at the end, it's not as though you have to worry about the script not 'cleaning up' after itself.

I don't suppose the LCD sleep mode settings could be activated/overridden from within the script? It's a little unintuitive to go to the regular Canon menu and set the sleep option (BTW, the A620 also has the 10, 20, 30sec, 1, 3, 3min options). Actually this is why my first time lapse always had the LCD on (a little to my surprise), because I didn't realise I had to change the regular Canon option. Mind you, with photos every 30 sec, I guess the LCD would only be off about half the time (for 15 sec each time). Now my camera LCD goes to sleep really fast in normal usage too, until I get around to resetting that option (so, this is why I ask the question, because it could become 'annoying').

What do you do about time lapses that span big changes in light, ie from night to day, or day to night? We have some limits to deal with as far as shutter speeds allowed in Av mode (1sec limit). I'm curious to see about DanielF's scripts answers to the issue.
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Offline eliavecellio

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #22 on: 24 / June / 2009, 16:01:23 »
DanielF. Im interested in seeing those scripts. The 1sec shutter limit in AV mode is limiting for doing time-lapses that cross over between night and day. Not useable in time-lapse contexts, but I've dealt with this limit when doing long exposures by using Tv-mode and manually adjusting the shutter speed until my desired aperture appears - maybe CHDK scripting could automate this trial-and-error process?

I've seen posts here with files "attached" but I can't find how to do it. One possibility is to use one of the free file hosting services (Rapidshare, Megaupload, Mediafire, uploaded.com etc etc) and then paste the link into your message. Lots of people here have http/ftp hosting (myself included) if you sent/emailed the file, they could host it somewhere. Lastly, since it is only scripts we are dealing with, you could put the content of each script file into the message itself (use the
Code: [Select]
code tags to make it easy to recognise the important). In this case, it would be good to provide some basic instructions (eg whether it should be a lua file or a bas file).

Elia
« Last Edit: 24 / June / 2009, 16:07:31 by eliavecellio »
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Offline bugsplatter

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #23 on: 24 / June / 2009, 17:50:29 »
Quote from: eliavecellio on 24 / June / 2009, 16:01:23
The 1sec shutter limit in AV mode is limiting for doing time-lapses that cross over between night and day. Not useable in time-lapse contexts, but I've dealt with this limit when doing long exposures by using Tv-mode and manually adjusting the shutter speed until my desired aperture appears - maybe CHDK scripting could automate this trial-and-error process?

Why not usable in timelapse scripts?  At the moment I'm interested in capturing dawn/sunset and hopefully some good cloudscapes as the window with best sky view the cam stares out of is facing south. 

How is going Tv and selecting speed until desired aperture better than full manual exposure?  There's a meter value in manual mode documented that should allow a script to seek correct exposure for a given aperture, longer than 1s.  Maybe I'll try it today, the sky is gray here...
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Offline DanielF

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #24 on: 24 / June / 2009, 20:49:49 »
Elia, thanks for reminding me - I already have a MediaFire account, so here are my Intervalometer scripts:
http://tinyurl.com/DF-Intervalometers

The included txt files explain what each one does and how to use them.

For cygnusb, who wanted the timed intervalometer to repeat every day, he would need to add a few lines to one of my timed scripts to make it repeat when one day's run had finished.  E.g. for NiteDay2.bas I'd add a label at line 50, and a goto that label at line 99:

Code: [Select]
:day_repeat
...
goto "day_repeat"
Some cameras (my A470, for example), even with 'Auto power down' set to 'Off' and running on mains power, sometimes still power down while waiting for the start time.  Not always.  I'm still trying to track down the cause, but I'm pretty sure it's not the script code.

Daniel
« Last Edit: 24 / June / 2009, 20:52:35 by DanielF »
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Daniel
Gerroa, Australia
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Offline bugsplatter

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #25 on: 24 / June / 2009, 21:40:43 »
Quote from: DanielF on 24 / June / 2009, 20:49:49
Some cameras (my A470, for example), even with 'Auto power down' set to 'Off' and running on mains power, sometimes still power down while waiting for the start time.  Not always.  I'm still trying to track down the cause, but I'm pretty sure it's not the script code.

That's the Display Off setting, it cannot be disabled (on my a590 101b), see daylapse.bas for wake from idle state handling that includes restoring the cam to MF mode if required.
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Offline DanielF

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #26 on: 24 / June / 2009, 21:55:02 »
Scattered, no it's not Display off.  I want the LCD to go off while it's waiting many hours to start.  This is camera off - lens retracts and the camera powers down.  Have to press the power button to power it up again, so no script is going to help with that!

Daniel
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Daniel
Gerroa, Australia
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Offline eliavecellio

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #27 on: 25 / June / 2009, 16:05:57 »
Quote from: DanielF on 24 / June / 2009, 20:49:49
Elia, thanks for reminding me - I already have a MediaFire account, so here are my Intervalometer scripts:
http://tinyurl.com/DF-Intervalometers

Thanks Daniel. Turns out my recommendation for Mediafire was not crash hot. Firstly, the entire domain seems to be blocked in my current location (P.R. of China), others such as Rapidshare, Megaupload et al are accessible. I remote-desktoped into an overseas machine to access the file, and was promptly presented with a 'fake' antivirus claiming that my system was infected and I needed to pay up to money quickly to get protection (so, people's, use Mediafire with caution).

I will check out the scripts shortly.

Elia
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Offline eliavecellio

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #28 on: 25 / June / 2009, 16:17:23 »
Quote from: scattered on 24 / June / 2009, 17:50:29
Why not usable in timelapse scripts?  At the moment I'm interested in capturing dawn/sunset and hopefully some good cloudscapes as the window with best sky view the cam stares out of is facing south.

Only unusable because it is completely user-driven - not at all automated, so not viable in intervalometer scenarios, unless the trial-and-error could be scripted or....
 
Quote from: scattered on 24 / June / 2009, 17:50:29
How is going Tv and selecting speed until desired aperture better than full manual exposure?  There's a meter value in manual mode documented that should allow a script to seek correct exposure for a given aperture, longer than 1s.  Maybe I'll try it today, the sky is gray here...

... the meter value could be used in a *smart* way to avoid trial-and-error and simply plug the appropriate shutter/aperture values into Manual mode.

My method of Tv mode was *completely* referring to the user-driven method of taking single long-exposure photos. It requires fewer button presses (and only a single button) to get my desired Aperture and Shutter, compared to Manual mode which (on most Powershots) requires a bunch of presses to choose the aperture, then another button (the Delete button on the A620) to tell the camera that now you want to adjust the shutter speed, then a whole bunch more presses. In both cases you keep on adjusting until the camera tells you either a. the desired aperture (in my Tv mode method), or b. the exposure-meter reads +/- 0 (in the Manual mode method). The end result is the same, and when you talk about scripting (which I was not, in my previous post), it's the end result that matters (ie freedom to have long, but varying, shutter speeds with a desired fixed aperture).

I hope this doesn't seem argumentative. I just wanted to clarify the previous post. Keep up the good work with the script - that also goes for DanielF.

Elia
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Offline bugsplatter

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Re: Intervalometer with time of day constraints
« Reply #29 on: 25 / June / 2009, 17:35:56 »
Quote from: eliavecellio on 25 / June / 2009, 16:17:23
... the meter value could be used in a *smart* way to avoid trial-and-error and simply plug the appropriate shutter/aperture values into Manual mode.

Yes, my background is industrial control so I think in terms of feedback.  I know what you mean now 'cos I looked at the bit DanielF used from someone else in switching to 'night mode'.

Quote
My method of Tv mode was *completely* referring to the user-driven method of taking single long-exposure photos. It requires fewer button presses (and only a single button) to get my desired Aperture and Shutter, compared to Manual mode which (on most Powershots) requires a bunch of presses to choose the aperture, then another button (the Delete button on the A620) to tell the camera that now you want to adjust the shutter speed, then a whole bunch more presses. In both cases you keep on adjusting until the camera tells you either a. the desired aperture (in my Tv mode method), or b. the exposure-meter reads +/- 0 (in the Manual mode method). The end result is the same, and when you talk about scripting (which I was not, in my previous post), it's the end result that matters (ie freedom to have long, but varying, shutter speeds with a desired fixed aperture).

Have you tried stacking short exposures to get the effect of a long exposure?  Reduces noise as that tends to average out.  I tripped over a page here that describes it but can't point you to it.

Quote
I hope this doesn't seem argumentative. I just wanted to clarify the previous post. Keep up the good work with the script - that also goes for DanielF.

Argument is discussion -- and with forum writing it's easy to misunderstand.  Thanks for clarifying.  I'm trying to improve the technical quality of scripts.  Mine don't unexpectedly crash the camera ;) 

As well, I need to gain insight as to what people want out of a simple script.

Cheers!
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