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Battery Intervalometer

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Offline lapser

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Re: Battery Miser Intervalometer
« Reply #10 on: 04 / December / 2012, 00:32:42 »
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Quote from: waterwingz on 03 / December / 2012, 22:40:20
The result of this test was 566 shots over 9:26 hours - good but only the third best time out of five different setups!  Placing the camera into playback mode after each shot with the backlight turned off was better  (640 shots @ 10:48 hours)  and of coarse the best was with the display disabled 100% of the time via the DISP button (811 shots over 13:30 hours).
I hope I can figure out a way to hold the correct focus with the display off. I'm hoping to do some overnight time lapses that last all night, shot as fast as possible. The shutter will be open most of the time, which will drain a lot of power. I'd be happy if my G1X lasts 14 hours with the external battery. I only get about 2 hours with the shutter open that much.

I bought an underwater camera bag I'm hoping to use for overnight shots outside. A big problem is that it doesn't work with a tripod. Since I'm not planning to use it underwater, I'll probably end up punching a hole in the bottom reinforced with some heavy tape. But I think I can put some silica packs inside it to keep from getting condensation, and maybe one of those toe warmers to keep it warm.

It's hard to figure out the right size, but I got this one for the G1X. It fits pretty well.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00212S3TK/
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Offline ahull

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Re: Battery Miser Intervalometer
« Reply #11 on: 04 / December / 2012, 03:31:13 »
That's a pretty fancy plastic bag, It would be a shame to punch a hole in one of those.

I would be tempted to rig up something magnetic with a couple of hard disk magnets or similar (powerful magnets are very cheap these days http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=magnets&_sacat=0&_from=R40 )

Don't risk getting fixing them direct to the camera, in case you end up magnetizing something important, but perhaps stick them to the base of a small tripod mount. screw that to the camera, and pop the whole lot in the bag. Next, clip another magnet on the outside of the waterproof bag, and fix that to the tripod. That way you preserve the waterproofing 100%

I use a clip lock food container with one of these inside.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Camera-video-Suction-Mount-standard-Tripod-Holder-Car-Wind-Screen-Black-/321004494035?pt=UK_Tripods_Monopods&hash=item4abd5bdcd3

If you go for the plastic bag you mentioned, you could use one of these but remove the sucker and glue a magnet in its place.
« Last Edit: 04 / December / 2012, 03:37:37 by ahull »
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Offline lapser

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Re: Battery Miser Intervalometer
« Reply #12 on: 04 / December / 2012, 18:17:10 »
Quote from: ahull on 04 / December / 2012, 03:31:13
That's a pretty fancy plastic bag, It would be a shame to punch a hole in one of those.
That's for sure. What I'm going to try first is to screw a tripod quick mount onto the bottom of a small board, a little larger than the base of the camera. I'll attach the camera, in the bag, to the board with 2 bungee cord loops. If I can fit an external battery, a toe warmer, and some silica for keeping things dry, I think I'm good for outdoor winter time lapsing.
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Offline lapser

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Re: Battery Miser Intervalometer
« Reply #13 on: 09 / December / 2012, 23:28:01 »
I had another idea pop up from where ever they all come from. I've noticed that the CHDK battery voltage display seems very accurate. If you watch the battery voltage display, it seems to fall pretty steadily. Wouldn't it be possible to measure the power drain in different modes by timing the voltage drop in the battery?

You could probably write it into a time lapse script to log the battery voltage with each shot, and maybe even compute the slope, which would be related to the power drain.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Battery Miser Intervalometer
« Reply #14 on: 09 / December / 2012, 23:56:48 »
Quote from: lapser on 09 / December / 2012, 23:28:01
I had another idea pop up from where ever they all come from. I've noticed that the CHDK battery voltage display seems very accurate. If you watch the battery voltage display, it seems to fall pretty steadily. Wouldn't it be possible to measure the power drain in different modes by timing the voltage drop in the battery?

You could probably write it into a time lapse script to log the battery voltage with each shot, and maybe even compute the slope, which would be related to the power drain.
That's a great idea.  And in fact,  that's exactly what the Battery Miser Intervalometer script does.   You can even use the resulting log file in your favorite spreadsheet to draw nice graphs - I'd planned to do that but never got around to it yet.
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Offline lapser

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Re: Battery Miser Intervalometer
« Reply #15 on: 10 / December / 2012, 01:04:10 »
Quote from: waterwingz on 09 / December / 2012, 23:56:48
That's a great idea.  And in fact,  that's exactly what the Battery Miser Intervalometer script does.   You can even use the resulting log file in your favorite spreadsheet to draw nice graphs - I'd planned to do that but never got around to it yet.
I love when people use my ideas before I even think of them ;)
Could you correlate the rate of change of voltage with what was happening with the camera, like backlight off, play mode, etc.?
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Battery Miser Intervalometer
« Reply #16 on: 10 / December / 2012, 08:31:40 »
Quote from: lapser on 10 / December / 2012, 01:04:10
Could you correlate the rate of change of voltage with what was happening with the camera, like backlight off, play mode, etc.?
I don't see why not.   My original intent was to shorten the amount of time it took to make each test.  Once you know the range and discharge profile of the set of batteries used in the test,  it should only be necessary to test until the battery discharges to a defined point.  If you stop the test at 50% of battery range,  it seems resonable that the number of shots available in that mode will be 2x the number taken at the 50% point. There is a parameter to allow you to set that point.

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Offline lapser

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Re: Battery Miser Intervalometer
« Reply #17 on: 10 / December / 2012, 12:29:35 »
Quote from: waterwingz on 10 / December / 2012, 08:31:40
If you stop the test at 50% of battery range,  it seems resonable that the number of shots available in that mode will be 2x the number taken at the 50% point. There is a parameter to allow you to set that point.
I forgot about the cutoff voltage in chdk. Great idea!
I was thinking more of a continuous read out of battery drain, which would correlate with the slope of the voltage. It would be like one of those car computers that show miles per gallon in real time. For instance, you could log the voltage at the start of a 60 second exposure, and at the end. Maybe do 10 of them to get a better average.

Anyway, fun things to do in the future. Your tests seem to show that the important thing is to turn the display off. Since the automatic power saving feature does it without losing focus and exposure lock, it would be nice to hack into that feature and find a way to turn off the display with CHDK the same way. That's a little above my pay grade at the moment.
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Offline joelacson

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Re: Battery Intervalometer
« Reply #18 on: 20 / February / 2013, 01:23:09 »
NICE THANKS!!! WORK WITH MY A810..
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Offline srsa_4c

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Re: Battery Intervalometer
« Reply #19 on: 25 / February / 2013, 20:11:23 »
Some observations on my A470. The camera, although it has no optical viewfinder, does support "sleep mode", which can be assigned to the print button. The manually activated sleep mode is equal to the power save mode.
I have used an inaccurate power supply (about 3.4V) and an also inaccurate current meter. Camera is idle in all cases.

Mode                        Current draw
Play                        125mA
Play, backlight off          55mA

Rec, "P", HI ISO            390mA

Rec, "P"  AUTO ISO          350mA
    +backlight off          275mA

Rec mode, sleep              50mA

Movie mode, 640x480 20fps   460mA
            320x240 30fps   425mA
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