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Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK

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Offline m*sh

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Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« on: 04 / July / 2010, 02:31:33 »
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Hi,
I was really fond of the low battery consumption of my PS SX 110 is up to now.
Usually a pair of AAs was good enough for about 400 - 600 shots - a regular week in a holiday.
After installing CHDK, the batteries went down pretty quick. First I thought my rechargeable batteries have not been loaded properly, and so I used a pair of new 'true' batteries (not rechargable) for further tests.
Well, they lasted about another 10 shots (and lot of toying around).
But now battery indicator is at 0% again.

Can anybody confirm a massive additional usage of power with CHDK? I think the improved battery indicator is a great thing but if batteries are 'sucked empty' like that it is not of much use.
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« Reply #1 on: 04 / July / 2010, 03:44:07 »
Quote from: m*sh on 04 / July / 2010, 02:31:33
Hi,
I was really fond of the low battery consumption of my PS SX 110 is up to now.
Usually a pair of AAs was good enough for about 400 - 600 shots - a regular week in a holiday.
After installing CHDK, the batteries went down pretty quick. First I thought my rechargeable batteries have not been loaded properly, and so I used a pair of new 'true' batteries (not rechargable) for further tests.
Note that regular alkalines will generally have worse performance the NiMH
Quote
Well, they lasted about another 10 shots (and lot of toying around).
But now battery indicator is at 0% again.
Are you looking at the CHDK indicator, or the canon indicator ?

Do you really mean 10 shots ? Unless you spend hours "toying around" that is difficult to believe.
Quote
Can anybody confirm a massive additional usage of power with CHDK? I think the improved battery indicator is a great thing but if batteries are 'sucked empty' like that it is not of much use.
CHDK should not use noticeably more power, and in most cases where people have done proper, reproducible measurements, it does not. See http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._Does_the_CHDK_program_consume_additional_battery_power.3F

However, it can affect when the canon firmware decides the battery is low: http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,4037.0.html

I don't know whether sx110 is affected by this or not.
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Offline m*sh

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Re: Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« Reply #2 on: 04 / July / 2010, 04:29:48 »
Quote from: reyalp on 04 / July / 2010, 03:44:07
Note that regular alkalines will generally have worse performance the NiMH
Yes, I am using several devices with AA and AAAs and am quite experienced on that matter.

Quote
Well, they lasted about another 10 shots (and lot of toying around).
But now battery indicator is at 0% again.
Quote from: reyalp on 04 / July / 2010, 03:44:07
Are you looking at the CHDK indicator, or the canon indicator ?
The canon indicator is flashing red.
After turning the cam on, the CHDK indicator says 32% - but then starts a count down to 0% - really every second: 32,31,30,29 ...
Quote from: reyalp on 04 / July / 2010, 03:44:07
Do you really mean 10 shots ? Unless you spend hours "toying around" that is difficult to believe.
Okay, I counted again and it have been 15 actual shots - mayibe I deleted two or three additional. But not more than 20.
I'll check out the links you mentioned and make some more tests...
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Offline m*sh

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Re: Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« Reply #3 on: 04 / July / 2010, 15:31:01 »
The matter is not solved but the power consumption can presumably be explained.

The first set of rechargables was the same brand as I usually use; but I grabbed into the wrong box in the shop and got me some AAs with 1200 mAh instead of 2500 mAh.
I noticed this after recharging - which went surprisingly quick and so I had a closer look at them.

The other pair - well they are not rechargeables but to my experience two out of ten may be bad - so toying around with CHDK (for the first time) for 4 days and starting and stopping the cam every other now and then may come close to 4 days on holidays -  whereas the holiday pics usually give better results than indoor tests of my daughters teddy bear.

Thanks @reyalp for trying to help.
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« Reply #4 on: 04 / July / 2010, 16:42:37 »
Glad you've found some of the problem at least. Just a quick note that there are two things discussed in the thread I linked earlier
1) the blinking icon. Purely cosmetic, some cameras (particular AA which have to deal with both NiMH and alkaline) it blinks when there's a lot of life left in the battery.
2) Actual shutdown voltage in the camera firmware. On some cameras, shutdown limit appears to be different if CHDK is loaded.
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Offline m*sh

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Re: Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« Reply #5 on: 04 / July / 2010, 17:00:54 »
The blinking Icon didn't bother me up to now...
With CHDK and more output in the display I'd love to see an option to disable it - but I can live with that too.
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Offline fudgey

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Re: Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« Reply #6 on: 04 / July / 2010, 17:26:00 »
The easiest known way to get rid of that battery warning blinker is described here:
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,4037.msg37941.html#msg37941

This feature is not in CHDK, requires some porting for sx110 (and any camera other than the a570 || a710) and some new code to CHDK trunk, but is known to work at least on those two cameras.
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Offline m*sh

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Re: Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« Reply #7 on: 05 / July / 2010, 03:10:38 »
Thanks fudgey, but I am a hacker on Linux and Win. At the moment I would not dare tampering with my cam w/o knowing exactly what I am doing. Anyway I'd be greatful if CHDK would provide an option to disable this - at any later time.
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Offline fe50

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Re: Battery consumption with PowerShot SX 110 is and CHDK
« Reply #8 on: 05 / July / 2010, 06:43:52 »
« Last Edit: 05 / July / 2010, 06:49:55 by fe50 »
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