Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

waterwingz

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #30 on: 22 / March / 2012, 10:10:35 »

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Quote from: jim0watters on 22 / March / 2012, 09:42:08

Question 1: When the camera is sitting idle waiting for the next shot is it using lots of power? Although I did have the screen on several times adjusting and testing various settings the batteries are not lasting a whole day. Are there other power saving options that I missed? Or is this a bug with the A800 beta software. With so few pictures being taken I was hoping the batteries would last several days.

If you read the A800 reviews, it's referred to as a "battery hog" in a few places. This is a function of the camera design - not a bug in CHDK.

Turning off the LCD backlight does not save a lot of power - there are many posts about this on the forum. Apparently, if you plug in a "video out" cable then the actual display goes off and that saves more power. I'm not sure if the A800 supports this or not.

The other thing you will discover on the forum is that switching to playback mode in your script until you need to shoot again apparently saves a lot of power. I have not played with this a lot myself but its on my list of things to try.

Your best bet might be an external battery pack. There are many posts on how to design something like that on the forum as well.

FYI ... the "beta" designation is somewhat arbitrary.

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Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16*

waterwingz

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #31 on: 22 / March / 2012, 11:43:38 »

Quote from: jim0watters on 22 / March / 2012, 09:42:08

Question 2: Can the zoom setting be remembered from when the camera was last on?
When ever the camera is turned back on (like when the batteries need changed), the previous zoom setting is not remembered so I need to interrupt the script, get into regular mode, adjust the zoom, then start the script again. Is there a way to avoid this?

Add a set_zooom() command to your script. You'll need to figure out what setting to give it but at least it will go the same place every time when you restart the camera.

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/UBASIC/TutorialScratchpad#The_set_zoom.2C_set_zoom_rel.2C_get_zoom.2C_set_zoom_speed_commands

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Question 3: Even though I think I set the camera to use a focus distance it is refocusing for each shot. What are the correct steps to ensure the camera does not refocus? Trying to save battery power.

Add a set_aflock 1 to the start of the script ...

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Script_commands#set_aflock

Some other thoughts here :

http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=7748.msg82022#msg82022

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Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16*

SkyWalker9

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #32 on: 22 / March / 2012, 15:32:02 »

The best solution in your case is to use an A/C Power Supply (like http://www.amazon.com/Canon-ACK-800-Adapter-SX100IS-SX110IS/dp/B00006CFDO) instead of batteries - this will eliminate most of the problems you are experiencing. The camera will have power for extended periods of time and you'll be able to avoid resetting your camera focus, etc., or restarting the script. Many people actually let their cameras run for many days at a time before they actually interrupt the script - usually to change the SD card.

Question 4: If I have the script to start on the hour and take a picture every 15 min I would expect the shot to happen on the 15 min marks regardless of what time the script was restarted.

You are correct, the script should start on the day-of-the-week, start & end times and intervals (hour, minute and seconds) you specify. The timestamp will vary from the script trigger time because the camera needs time to focus, adjust exposure, etc., so the time the photo is actually taken can be delayed depending on how you have your camera setup. Typically, in good lighting the timestamp of the photo is the same as the script setting. In lower light conditions the camera has to work harder so delays can be much longer and the timestamp of the photo will be later than the script trigger.

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jim0watters

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #33 on: 23 / March / 2012, 14:51:36 »

Quote from: waterwingz on 22 / March / 2012, 11:43:38

Add a set_zooom() command to your script. You'll need to figure out what setting to give it but at least it will go the same place every time when you restart the camera.

Thank you I got something to work. It became a bit more complicated because I could not set to the max zoom directly without it crashing but had to incrementally change the zoom with a sleep between each.

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Add a set_aflock 1 to the start of the script ...

This works to remove all the false focusing. Before it would attempt to focus then go back to the manual focus distance that was set. Now I use set_aflock 1, after it takes the first image, and no more focusing happens.

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The best solution in your case is to use an A/C Power Supply

I have ordered an external power supply. The camera drained two sets of batteries and did not even take 60 pictures. I'll try the AV cable trick tomorrow to see if that helps too.

I am also going to look into adding a beep if the battery gets low.

Jim

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philmer

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #34 on: 03 / April / 2012, 04:51:41 »

first of all, awesome stuff you guys doing! Much respect for all those help and scripts.

But i still got a question. Is there any possibility to shut down the Display between the shots?
We going to start a timelapse project probably this week for about 9 Months. The interval should be from Monday-Friday with a power supply from 07:30 AM to 16:30 PM. Every 10-15 Minutes one picuture should be captured. I´m little bit scared if the power supply and the camera will be broke in a couple days or weeks if i cant turn the display off.

And another thing i really dont get is the first parameter:
Number of Shots
Does it mean, how many shots it take till the script will be finished and stop doing pictures?

For my project I customize it like this:
- Number of Shots / right now there is "10", what should be filled in for an unlimited shooting?
- Interval (mins) / 15 - every 15 minutes one picture?
- Interval (secs) / 0 - seconds doesnt matter
- Starting Hour (24 Hour time) / 7
- Starting Minute / 30
- Ending Hour (24 Hour time) / 16
- Ending Minute / 30

I would be super nice to get this little help..thanks guys!

Greetings from Germany

Philipp

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jim0watters

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #35 on: 03 / April / 2012, 06:53:05 »

Quote from: philmer on 03 / April / 2012, 04:51:41

Is there any possibility to shut down the Display between the shots?

Using power saving settings the display can be set to turn off after a few seconds after each shot.
Nothing will be displayed by plugging in a cut off video display plug. I have not tried this.

Quote from: philmer on 03 / April / 2012, 04:51:41

We going to start a timelapse project probably this week for about 9 Months. The interval should be from Monday-Friday with a power supply from 07:30 AM to 16:30 PM. Every 10-15 Minutes one picuture should be captured. I´m little bit scared if the power supply and the camera will be broke in a couple days or weeks if i cant turn the display off.

I got my power supply last week. Between shots when the display is off a little LED is lit to indicate the camera is still powered. Unfortunate in the last week about 5 times that light has gone out, sometime after a few hours sometimes after a couple days. I don't know if it is my camera (A800), power supply, or connections on the power supply. I have double checked the connections and they all look fine. I have the camera conveniently located in the window above my head so I can hear it take the shots and see if the LED is lit.

Quote from: philmer on 03 / April / 2012, 04:51:41

And another thing i really dont get is the first parameter:
Number of Shots
Does it mean, how many shots it take till the script will be finished and stop doing pictures?

Yes, and 0 mean no limit.

Jim

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matt314159

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #36 on: 10 / May / 2012, 00:30:10 »

Okay folks, I've done some cursory reading of this thread, and have decided this is probably going to be my best bet for the "15-month construction project" I mentioned in my other thread.

Some nitty gritty here:

1) Is there a preferred model of camera or features to look for to let this script run at its best in perpetuity for (ostensibly) the entire 15 months? I realize other things can and probably will go wrong at some point (ac adapter dies, weather manages to kill the camera, etc, etc) but also the cheaper the better since I will probably be buying two, one as a backup. I was thinking one of the early 2008 models (when they began coming out with DIGIC III) because they specifically state that they support SDHC in the specs. I noticed the ultra-intervalometer script had "tested" models...is that really necessary? or will any camera running CHDK have the cajones to handle this?

2) It looks like this CAN be set from, say, 7AM to 6PM M-F, and just go infinitely in this routine, correct? I will probably answer this question on my own later with more careful reading but at least it's back here to remind me I need to research this.

3) Has anyone tried this with an Eye-Fi card? I was thinking of getting the 8GB Mobile version. With that, I should be able to just walk out to where this is mounted, get within range of the card's wifi with an android phone, iphone, ipad, or laptop, and download all the pictures from it. The eyefi card is smart enough, as I understand it, that it will auto-delete downloaded photos when it reaches n% of its capacity.

Question: Has this ever been known to throw off the camera and freak it out, when all the photos on the card suddenly disappear without the camera being power-cycled or the card re-inserted, etc? I guess what I'm wanting to see is if the camera actually checks how much free space is available before it shoots? I want this to act like a truly "endless" memory card.

4) can the script be made to auto-start in the event of a power failure? Ideally I'd like it to self-start and just pick right back up where it left off if it loses power for any length of time. Heck, maybe I can even put some rechargeable AA's in it if it's that type of model? Would that charge through its AC adapter?

Anything else I should know before I buy the camera? I'd like to order everything before the end of this week, have it delivered to my office while I'm away on vacation next week, and then set up, test, and deploy it early the following week. I'd like to catch the demolition of a current building on the job site and the pouring of the footings, etc, for this large building.

Thanks for all the help and advice you've already given in my other thread, and thanks in advance for anything you an answer here at your convenience as well. I will be doing more and more reading as the days go by, I promise you that; but also kind of need a kick start in the right direction so I can make this happen ASAP. As things stand, they've been digging for a month; as soon as school is out (saturday) they are demolishing another building on the edge of the site so they can then expand the pit and then begin pouring, so I'm getting pretty crunched for time. We initially had planned to purchase and use the Harbortronics kit (full DSLR set up with enclosure, etc) but that idea got nixed at the last minute due to budgets running out for this fiscal year, so we're footing the bill out of pocket.

« Last Edit: 10 / May / 2012, 00:35:00 by matt314159 »

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SkyWalker9

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #37 on: 10 / May / 2012, 14:25:17 »

Quote from: matt314159 on 10 / May / 2012, 00:30:10

1) Is there a preferred model of camera or features to look for to let this script run at its best in perpetuity for (ostensibly) the entire 15 months?...I noticed the ultra-intervalometer script had "tested" models...or will any camera running CHDK have the cajones to handle this?

This script was designed to run on most Canon PS cameras, so you should have many camera models available to choose from.

Quote from: matt314159 on 10 / May / 2012, 00:30:10

2) It looks like this CAN be set from, say, 7AM to 6PM M-F, and just go infinitely in this routine, correct?

Yes. Just set the script parameters to:
- Number of Shots to zero
- Interval (mins) to 5
- Interval (secs) to zero
- Starting Hour (24 Hour time) to 7
- Starting Minute to zero
- Ending Hour (24 Hour time) to 18
- Ending Minute to zero

Once the script starts running you can then choose which days of the week you want to use. In this case (M-F), the script can be changed so that you wouldn't need to re-enter them each time you need to restart the script. This might be useful after say a power outage, changing SD cards, etc. For example, the Days of the week (DOWs) use the variable L and the DOWS are represented by a number (Sun=1, Mon=2, etc.). Therefore for M-F the variable would be set accordingly to L=23456. The change would then be inserted after the line in the script-> :ok1

The script change would then read:
:ok1
L=23456
goto "sel_fini"

Edit: If you use the newest version of this script (follows later), the above coding changes will be unnecessary. You can now set a DOW parameter to 2 and the script will only take shots during the week (M-F).

Once set, CHDK will remember the parameter values. After a power outage all you would need to do is be sure the camera is ok and then power it on. If you had the script autorun option enabled the camera would check the time & date to determine if it should wait or if it should start shooting again.

Quote from: matt314159 on 10 / May / 2012, 00:30:10

4) can the script be made to auto-start in the event of a power failure? Ideally I'd like it to self-start and just pick right back up where it left off if it loses power for any length of time.

I don't know of any way to restart the Canon PS cameras from a power off condition other than by hand. However, CHDK does have an option that can be set to autorun the script when powering up the camera. If the DOWs are hard coded as above and the parameters don't need changing, you could have almost anyone start and stop the camera for you and it would start taking photos when required -- welcome to the power of CHDK !

« Last Edit: 12 / May / 2012, 15:13:31 by SkyWalker9 »

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matt314159

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #38 on: 10 / May / 2012, 14:51:38 »

Thanks, Skywalker. I picked up an A570IS for $52 shipped and we will start with that. If the camera charges NiMH AA's internally, I can stick some rechargeables in it to act as a fail-safe and run it for a few hours in the event of a power outage. Will experiment with it and see how things go. The A590 was only $5 more but is 1/4" wider and I am limited to 4.5" wide total, including the DC adapter sticking off the side.

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zeno

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Re: Selective Intervalometer (days, days of week, hours/min, intervals min/sec)

« Reply #39 on: 10 / May / 2012, 17:57:22 »

I'm afraid when the A570 is plugged into an external power supply the internal AA's are disconnected. They don't therefore get charged. Although a fresh pair of Sanyo Eneloops will hold their power for a long time (weeks) when not being used, for the same reason if the external supply fails I don't think the internal batteries will take over.

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A570, S100, Ixus 127
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