Ixus i95 6-month timelapse with ultra-intervalometer

loodberg

3

« on: 17 / August / 2010, 05:07:48 »

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Hi all. Just want to start off by thanking all the developers for your work. You guys rock!

Our company is working on a project where we are using an Ixus i95 to capture a timelapse of the construction of a ship.
We need the tiny camera to take one photo every 24 hours for about 6 months and we have already fitted it along with an ac power supply and a UPS. We have been running the Ultra-intervalometer script and it worked fine in testing for 48 hours. After its first week on location test we ran into a problem as the camera only took 2 pictures.

We would like to know if anyone else has had success trying something similar with this type of compact camera. Our primary conclusion is that it must have had a power cut sufficient enough to run through the power supplied by the UPS. We made this conclusion because when we got to the camera after a week the lens was still protruding in its "on" position but the camera was off.

Also, is there a time limit to which these small cameras can be left running? maybe a canon safety feature?

Thank you in advance for you time.
Lood

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zeno

891

Re: Ixus i95 6-month timelapse with ultra-intervalometer

« Reply #1 on: 17 / August / 2010, 05:28:14 »

Questions have been raised about whether it's possible to keep cameras powered on for very long periods.

For what you want to do, I think it would be better to:

1. attach the camera to the power supply via a time-switch set to power on once a day for a few minutes
2. write a script which just takes one photo, then powers off the camera
3. set the script to autostart when the camera is switched on
4. tape the shutter button down (so the camera starts up when power is applied)

The camera is only going to be powered on and off around 180 times - not enough to cause problems. A cheap time switch is not going to cost you much (plug it in between camera and UPS - that way the camera will power on even if there's a power cut at the time).

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fudgey

1705
a570is

Re: Ixus i95 6-month timelapse with ultra-intervalometer

« Reply #2 on: 17 / August / 2010, 13:12:00 »

I second that advice. It's unknown what happens after about a month or two when the camera's ticker wraps around. A crash or weird CHDK behavior are both likely. And even if that doesn't happen, something else might. Regular restarting removes that problem entirely, and it also automatically covers the lens (otherwise you'd have to keep switching between play and rec to achieve that).

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loodberg

3

Re: Ixus i95 6-month timelapse with ultra-intervalometer

« Reply #3 on: 20 / August / 2010, 04:05:34 »

Quote from: zeno on 17 / August / 2010, 05:28:14

Questions have been raised about whether it's possible to keep cameras powered on for very long periods.

For what you want to do, I think it would be better to:

1. attach the camera to the power supply via a time-switch set to power on once a day for a few minutes
2. write a script which just takes one photo, then powers off the camera
3. set the script to autostart when the camera is switched on
4. tape the shutter button down (so the camera starts up when power is applied)

The camera is only going to be powered on and off around 180 times - not enough to cause problems. A cheap time switch is not going to cost you much (plug it in between camera and UPS - that way the camera will power on even if there's a power cut at the time).

Thank you so much zeno! That is a great idea! I will suggest this to our client.

Quote from: fudgey on 17 / August / 2010, 13:12:00

I second that advice. It's unknown what happens after about a month or two when the camera's ticker wraps around. A crash or weird CHDK behavior are both likely. And even if that doesn't happen, something else might. Regular restarting removes that problem entirely, and it also automatically covers the lens (otherwise you'd have to keep switching between play and rec to achieve that).

Thank you for your time fudgey. I truly appreciate you guys helping me out.

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