Total noob here, need help creating my script

waterwingz

12088

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #10 on: 20 / November / 2012, 18:55:41 »

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Quote from: RandomTeacher on 20 / November / 2012, 17:43:29

And yeah, I don't think the 5 second shot interval is going to cut it. I'm going to cut it to 30 and see how that goes. Worst case scenario I can revert to one shot per minute. I'm going to do some more endurance tests and let you guys know how it went later tonight or so.

With a 30 second interval, it might be worth experimenting with using set_record() to try running in playback mode and only changing to shooting mode long enough to take each shot. According to tests done a few years ago, playback mode draws about 20% (IIRC) of the current that shooting mode does. As long as you can set the camera up to not close the lens then that's a big deal.

Unforunately, I'm not sure I can adequately test this by the weekend.

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Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

lapser

1093

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #11 on: 21 / November / 2012, 14:07:25 »

I'm working on a Lua script that does time lapse in half-shoot so it can shoot at around 2 shots per second, depending on the shutter time. If you start in continuous drive mode, it goes even faster. It holds the initial focus/exposure for all the pictures.

The attached script starts by setting focus and exposure, assuming you're in auto mode. You have to keep pressing "set" to measure and accept focus, then exposure. I'm working on setting focus automatically soon.

The interval time parameter is in seconds. If you enter a negative number it's seconds*10. I.E. -15 is 1.5 seconds.

While the script is taking pictures, press "set" to toggle the backlight off/on. Press "menu" to exit the script.

I think it should use a lot less power, since it doesn't measure exposure or set focus each shot. On my camera, the backlight flashes in continuous drive, but stays off in single shot drive mode. Anyway, let me know how long the battery lasts with the new script. Good luck.

HalfTest.lua (2.9 kB - downloaded 65 times.)

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EOS-M3_120f / SX50_100b / SX260_101a / G1X_100g / D20_100b
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrLapser/videos

RandomTeacher

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #12 on: 25 / November / 2012, 17:48:49 »

Success! I launched on Saturday morning. Rookie mistake and didn't use as much helium as I should have. The flight time was much longer than I wanted it to be, and the balloon traveled 290 miles before it landed - three states over, and just about 300 yards away from the wall of Maine State Prison! I have two pictures from the project posted on the Donors Choose page you can find here http://www.donorschoose.org/project/help-my-kids-try-to-reach-space-literal/765004/.

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waterwingz

12088

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #13 on: 25 / November / 2012, 18:19:11 »

Quote from: RandomTeacher on 25 / November / 2012, 17:48:49

Success! I launched on Saturday morning. Rookie mistake and didn't use as much helium as I should have. The flight time was much longer than I wanted it to be, and the balloon traveled 290 miles before it landed - three states over, and just about 300 yards away from the wall of Maine State Prison! I have two pictures from the project posted on the Donors Choose page you can find here http://www.donorschoose.org/project/help-my-kids-try-to-reach-space-literal/765004/.

Thanks for reporting back ! Looks like you all had a lot of fun and such a great story about the landing location.

Are you going to post more pictures somewhere ?

Also, I'm curious about what you said on your page about :
"The only thing that they missed which I had to remind them of is making sure a plane doesn't hit the capsule when it's going up - we'll be covering the capsule in aluminum so it's reactive to radar for that. "

AFAIK, only military planes carry search radar that would be able to pick this up - commercial aviation is limited to weather radar. Learned that from the pilot of a corporate jet - but I could be wrong about that. Did you get that advice from somewhere ?

Also, I've been working on a project to measure & test ways to extend battery life. Might be useful for your spring flight .. although an external battery might help too ?

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Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

RandomTeacher

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #14 on: 25 / November / 2012, 18:54:52 »

http://www.instructables.com/id/Lightweight-Radar-Reflector/#intro

is where I got the radar reflector idea. It's supposed to be a rule to use it... I ended up using that and not covering the capsule itself in aluminum.

An external battery would have been awesome. Unfortunately the camera I used doesn't charge via USB so I couldn't use an external battery. For the next launch I want to use a camera where an external battery is a possibility. I used an external battery for the GPS device and it worked very well. When we found the capsule the external battery was drained, but the battery on the GPS was at a full 99%! This was after 13 hours.

For my next launch I think I'm going to use multiple cameras - two Powershot 300's using CHDK taking pictures every so often, and one Camcorder taking HD video. The camcorder needs to be able to use an external battery, and a memory card to take up to 4 hours of video. Any suggestions?

I'm going to put all the pictures up on Flickr. I'll post the pictures here soon.

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RandomTeacher

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #15 on: 25 / November / 2012, 19:28:25 »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69878398@N08/sets/72157632102237792/

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lapser

1093

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #16 on: 26 / November / 2012, 18:12:59 »

http://www.amazon.com/ACK-DC10-Replacement-Adapter-PowerShot-Digital/dp/B003CRBIYA/

This kit includes the dummy battery for the Elph, and a cord that plugs into the battery from the bottom. It's cheap enough that I would buy 2 or 3 just for the connector. It's hard to find the right size.

For my sx260, I cut off one of the cords and connected it to a USB plug I cut off from a spare USB cord. Then I plugged it into a lithium battery with USB power out, and got about 7 hours of continuous time lapse shooting at night, with the shutter open almost all the time.

The sx260 battery voltage is 4.7, which means 5 volt USB power works great. I think the ELPH is 3.7, so 5 volt may be too much. But a fully charged lithium battery can be almost a volt over nominal, so I bet USB 5 volts would work (some may disagree).

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EOS-M3_120f / SX50_100b / SX260_101a / G1X_100g / D20_100b
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrLapser/videos

lapser

1093

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #17 on: 26 / November / 2012, 18:17:47 »

Quote from: RandomTeacher on 25 / November / 2012, 19:28:25

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69878398@N08/sets/72157632102237792/

By the way, great pics! I'd love to see them more often, especially on the way up. A script option to take pictures as fast as possible for a few minutes might work. Then it could switch take shots slower for the rest of the time.

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EOS-M3_120f / SX50_100b / SX260_101a / G1X_100g / D20_100b
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrLapser/videos

waterwingz

12088

Re: Total noob here, need help creating my script

« Reply #18 on: 26 / November / 2012, 19:29:30 »

Quote from: lapser on 26 / November / 2012, 18:17:47

By the way, great pics! I'd love to see them more often, especially on the way up. A script option to take pictures as fast as possible for a few minutes might work. Then it could switch take shots slower for the rest of the time.

Here's a link to a uBASIC script (not mine) that divides a balloon flight up into segments (time based), taking a video at launch, some low altitude photos, another video mid-flight and then high altitude photos (different exposure settings).

https://www.box.com/s/mnf6le1sj5t5ts2xnnus

It was written for SDM so has bunch of those "special" keywords that need to get translated back into normal uBASIC (or better yet Lua). Still, its got some interesting ideas.

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Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16