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Help with Battery Use

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Offline ndsticky

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Help with Battery Use
« on: 17 / November / 2012, 16:40:56 »
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Hi Everybody...

I'm using an SX150is.  CHDK Version 1.00A (1.1.0)

I'm using this camera to take photos from a near-space balloon at 100,000ft.  My biggest concern is the rate at which the battery is used up.  The script I'm using is called Ultra Intervalometer taking photos every 60 seconds.  The display is remaining on which is using power (of course), and it appears that the autofocus mechanism is staying active despite using the "Override Subject Distance" feature from the "Extra Photo Operations" menu.  I don't hear motor noise, but the white segmented focus box on the display is continuously moving and adjusting.  I though I made all the appropriate selections on the camera menu but I must have missed something. 

Can anyone help with suggestions for turning the display off, turning the constant autofocus off, and any other techniques for conserving power? 

BTW... using energizer lithium batteries (2 AA).

Thank you!!
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Help with Battery Use
« Reply #1 on: 17 / November / 2012, 17:21:18 »
Welcome,

There have a been a number of successful high altitude balloon projects using CHDK, you can probably find some useful information searching the forum. Searching "balloon" should get some useful results.

I especially recommend  Francesco Bonomi's work http://www.francescobonomi.it/photo-balloon you can find some more information by searching his forum user name "fbonomi"

There are also numerous discussions of turning the screen off for power saving.
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and it appears that the autofocus mechanism is staying active despite using the "Override Subject Distance" feature from the "Extra Photo Operations" menu
Subject distance override doesn't disable Canon AF, it just forces the focus to the desired value after the canon AF process is complete (if it works, this is a notoriously buggy feature...) I'd suggest using the built in focus at infinity mode if your camera supports it, or perhaps canon manual focus (although this may actually consume more power than AF)

If you do leave AF on, you might want to try different canon AF modes. I'd suggest leaving AIAF, face detect etc off and just going for a fixed center AF box.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Help with Battery Use
« Reply #2 on: 17 / November / 2012, 17:33:02 »
Quote from: ndsticky on 17 / November / 2012, 16:40:56
I'm using an SX150is.  CHDK Version 1.00A (1.1.0)
I'm using this camera to take photos from a near-space balloon at 100,000ft. 
There are a lot of threads on this forum about your exact application.  Try searching for "balloon" in the search box at the top of the page.
For example : http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=6397.390

Quote
My biggest concern is the rate at which the battery is used up.  The script I'm using is called Ultra Intervalometer taking photos every 60 seconds.  The display is remaining on which is using power (of course), and it appears that the autofocus mechanism is staying active despite using the "Override Subject Distance" feature from the "Extra Photo Operations" menu.  I don't hear motor noise, but the white segmented focus box on the display is continuously moving and adjusting.  I though I made all the appropriate selections on the camera menu but I must have missed something. 
Can anyone help with suggestions for turning the display off, turning the constant autofocus off, and any other techniques for conserving power? 
The script commands you are looking for are set_aflock   and  set_backlight.

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_Scripting_Cross_Reference_Page


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