Intervalometer power saving for SX220

Recordingimages

« on: 07 / July / 2012, 03:38:17 »

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Hi,

I'm trying to find an intervalometer that allows the LCD screen of the SX220 to turn off between shots.

The SX220 has its own power saving settings which allows the screen to turn off after a minimum of 10 seconds after a picture has been taken. There is no no "off" option in the power saving menu, and no "Display off" button on the camera. But 10 seconds would be acceptable when using long timelapse intervals.

Unfortunately even with the power saving set to 10 seconds, the ultra_intervalometer script keeps the screen on constantly, even if the interval between shots is for example 2 minutes.

I've tried the "intervalometer with power saving" script: it sounded like the ideal solution, but this script retracts the lens and switches off the SX220 camera completely after every shot. It then nearly immediately reboots and leaves the LCD on until the next shot.
Are there any other SX220/230 users that have had success with the "intervalometer with power saving" script?

Is there perhaps some way to allow the camera's own power saving function to turn off the display after 10 secs while running the ultra_intervalometer script?

Thanks for any feedback

Andy

« Last Edit: 07 / July / 2012, 03:45:13 by Recordingimages »

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Re: Intervalometer power saving for SX220

« Reply #1 on: 07 / July / 2012, 04:25:57 »

Hello & welcome Andy !

Configure the "Disable LCD Off" setting from the CHDK "Miscellaneous stuff" menu to your needs:

* http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_User_Manual#Disable_LCD_Off

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Recordingimages

Re: Intervalometer power saving for SX220

« Reply #2 on: 07 / July / 2012, 05:22:34 »

Thanks! it was set to "alt" by default. That works, but....

The LCD turns off between shots only if the "Disable LCD off" is set to "never".
It is a bit awkward that the screen turns off now also if you are in the CHDK menu or if you are configuring the script parameters.
The options are "alt" "script" "always" and "never". Shouldn't the LCD turn off when running a script if the option is set to "alt"?

In any case it would be nice if you could allow the screen to turn off only during execution of a script and not during access to the CHDK menu. (being able to choose on or off for each of the "disable LCD off" options).

cheers

Andy

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dbldash

Re: Intervalometer power saving for SX220

« Reply #3 on: 07 / July / 2012, 07:25:30 »

Quote from: Recordingimages on 07 / July / 2012, 05:22:34

The options are "alt" "script" "always" and "never". Shouldn't the LCD turn off when running a script if the option is set to "alt"?

"Alt" means that the LCD is NOT disabled in Alt mode, so this means the power saving options do nothing in Alt mode (when running a script you are still in Alt mode).

Quote from: Recordingimages on 07 / July / 2012, 05:22:34

In any case it would be nice if you could allow the screen to turn off only during execution of a script and not during access to the CHDK menu. (being able to choose on or off for each of the "disable LCD off" options).

Have you considered using the set_backlight function (http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Script_commands#set_backlight.28.29? This can be used to turn the backlight on or off within a script, like this:

UBasic:

Code: [Select]

set_backlight 1     rem Turn backlight on
set_backlight 0     rem Turn backlight off

Lua:

Code: [Select]

set_backlight(1)     -- Turn backlight on
set_backlight(0)     -- Turn backlight off

It is enabled again after shooting, but if you insert a command to sleep for a second or two you can then switch the backlight off again. This method has the advantage that you don't need to fiddle around with the camera's own power saving options.

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anvarjamal

Re: Intervalometer power saving for SX220

« Reply #4 on: 12 / March / 2015, 06:24:44 »

Hi 'recordingimages'. I was having a similar problem with the LCD turn off feature. I wanted to turn off the LCD while the interval script is running to save power. I tried the 'disable LCD off' option but that did not work for me. Then I googled a little bit and found a different interval script or timelapse script which has the option to turn off LCD while the script runs. The link is given below.

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Lua/Scripts:_Accurate_Intervalometer_with_power-saving_and_pre-focus

This is running on my SX220HS greatly. In case, you need any help, just let me know

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