Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v4.9 - page 4 - Completed and Working Scripts - CHDK Forum
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Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v4.9

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Offline bwh13

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #30 on: 18 / July / 2013, 18:45:01 »
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Hmmm....
Well I suppose this is good and bad news about the voltage spike. 
I've been testing the camera for a couple of days now and it seems to shut down after a spell.  Today was no exception.  I was running the script with the solar charger and it clicked away for about 30 minutes before shutting down.  There was full sun on the solar panel. 

Here is 'ultimate.log' file.  I think the important things to note are the last 2 values in the output string: battery voltage and temperature.

JUL 18 12:26:08:2013: === Started: 12:26 ===
JUL 18 12:26:08:2013: CHDK 1.2.0-2797 ixus70_sd1000 101b May 20 2013
JUL 18 12:26:08:2013: CHDK version 120 okay
JUL 18 12:26:11:2013: display changed
JUL 18 12:26:12:2013: starting a new day
JUL 18 12:26:12:2013: start time : 09:00 stop time : 18:00
JUL 18 12:27:01:2013: --shot: 1 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4082!T24]
JUL 18 12:27:27:2013: set display off
JUL 18 12:27:27:2013: display changed
JUL 18 12:28:01:2013: --shot: 2 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4439!T22]
JUL 18 12:29:01:2013: --shot: 3 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4521!T21]
JUL 18 12:30:01:2013: --shot: 4 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4445!T21]
JUL 18 12:31:01:2013: --shot: 5 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4791!T21]
JUL 18 12:32:01:2013: --shot: 6 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5143!T22]
JUL 18 12:33:01:2013: --shot: 7 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4533!T22]
JUL 18 12:34:01:2013: --shot: 8 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5260!T22]
JUL 18 12:35:01:2013: --shot: 9 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5173!T22]
JUL 18 12:36:01:2013: --shot: 10 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5126!T23]
JUL 18 12:37:01:2013: --shot: 11 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5043!T23]
JUL 18 12:38:01:2013: --shot: 12 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4609!T23]
JUL 18 12:39:01:2013: --shot: 13 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4897!T24]
JUL 18 12:40:01:2013: --shot: 14 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4961!T24]
JUL 18 12:41:01:2013: --shot: 15 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5413!T24]
JUL 18 12:42:01:2013: --shot: 16 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5495!T25]
JUL 18 12:43:01:2013: --shot: 17 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4521!T25]
JUL 18 12:44:01:2013: --shot: 18 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5794!T25]
JUL 18 12:45:01:2013: --shot: 19 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4551!T25]
JUL 18 12:46:01:2013: --shot: 20 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V4961!T26]
JUL 18 12:47:01:2013: --shot: 21 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5859!T26]
JUL 18 12:48:01:2013: --shot: 22 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5260!T26]
JUL 18 12:49:01:2013: --shot: 23 tv:1/160  [t729|a554|s371|b939|V5841!T26]

I've posted questions on the solar charging forum (adafruit industries) and the one reply assured me that the charger could not draw the 4+ volts.  I think I might beg to differ.

Here's what I think (and I really would like to hear from you more experienced hackers out there, please!): I think the voltage spikes are shutting the camera down, despite what the adafruit forum insists.  If the camera is seeing 5.8 volts, that is way beyond spec.

For what its worth, the lipo charger is on a protected circuit (we'll see!) that was developed for their batteries.

Is there a chance that the script is not reading the voltage correctly?  Is this the right avenue to pursue?
Any thoughts are welcomed with open arms!!

Thanks in advance!
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #31 on: 18 / July / 2013, 21:16:14 »
The shutdown may be an ordinary crash, unrelated to your volatage issues. You can try getting a romlog:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Debugging#Camera_crash_logs_.28romlog.29
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Offline bwh13

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #32 on: 19 / July / 2013, 00:29:15 »
Good to know that there is a crash log I can access.  Thanks for this.

I decided to check your hypothesis:  what I did was run the script like I did before (1 minute intervals), but I disconnected the solar panel from the setup so that the camera was running solely on the battery.  It did not crash in the 3 hours that I ran the experiment.  I checked the 'ultimate.log' and the battery voltages were reading steady at 4.1 volts.

I'm going to run variations on this experiment a couple of more times to really be sure, but I feel like I've got a hold on the major culprit -> something is amiss with the solar charger when the panel is hooked up.

Waterwingz:  do you have the script retracting the lens when it begins the 'night mode'?

Thanks for your attention!
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #33 on: 19 / July / 2013, 00:38:29 »
Quote from: bwh13 on 19 / July / 2013, 00:29:15
Waterwingz:  do you have the script retracting the lens when it begins the 'night mode'?
No - its an option that I would like add but then I have to also add a user parameter to enable/disable it and some other smarts in the day / night code.

I have not been in a big hurry to do so because if you set the Display Blanking Mode to use the "PlayKey" mode,  it just works that way automatically.
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Offline bwh13

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #34 on: 19 / July / 2013, 02:03:01 »
Got it.

So in my most recent attempt to troubleshoot the solar charger, I left the solar panel unplugged to great results. 

When I stopped by to check on it after 3 hours, it had gone into 'night mode' and the lens was retracted.  After reading your post about the 'play key,' I checked my settings and it was in the 'disp key' mode.

I checked my Canon firmware settings and the 'lens retract' setting was set to '1 minute.' Do you think that this setting took over while the script was in 'night mode?'

I assume that your script brings it out of the 'lens retract' mode when 'day mode' is true.

Thanks again!

Thanks!
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #35 on: 19 / July / 2013, 18:16:00 »
Quote from: bwh13 on 19 / July / 2013, 02:03:01
I checked my Canon firmware settings and the 'lens retract' setting was set to '1 minute.' Do you think that this setting took over while the script was in 'night mode?'
As far as I know,  lens retract delay only cause the lens to retract when you are in playback mode. The script does not really do anything different in night mode other than not shoot - it currently does not cause the lens to retract. The only thing that occurs to me that might have caused your lens to retract is maybe the "Disable LCD off" setting in the CHDK menu. It its set to never,  the camera may be shutting down on "inactivity". 

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I assume that your script brings it out of the 'lens retract' mode when 'day mode' is true.
Yes - if you are in the "Playback" power saving mode.  No otherwise.
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Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16
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Offline bwh13

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #36 on: 19 / July / 2013, 20:44:01 »
Thanks for that info.

I was testing out the 'reboot' function last night and left it taking pictures until 22:30 when I had it go into 'night mode.'  I wanted to see if the lens retracted after a 10 or 20 minute period and apparently I found the right setting to keep the lens in deployed.

When I returned the in the morning, the lens was still deployed (stoked!), but when I opened up the housing I made for the camera the camera still had power, but the CHDK was not loaded - it was just the regular Canon firmware (not stoked.)

Questions:
- how does the CHDK reload itself after a 'reboot' if it's not in the 'playback' mode (i.e. in the 'picture taking' mode)
- is this a setting that I missed in the 'ultimate' script or the CHDK settings?
- I've also noted that the CHDK doesn't recognize Daylight Savings Time -> it's always an hour behind. I've tried setting the UTC setting to a couple of different values, but it doesn't seem to change the overall time stamp.  Am I missing a setting somewhere?

Here is a sampling of the last couple of lines of the 'ultimate.log'  It doesn't show anything definitive, but I thought I would just show it, because I think it's really helpful and a great addition to the whole script.

...
JUL 19 00:58:00:2013: --no shot: tv:1/8  [t308|a290|s507|b91|V4134!T25]
JUL 19 00:59:00:2013: --no shot: tv:1/8  [t308|a290|s507|b91|V4129!T25]
JUL 19 01:00:00:2013: --no shot: tv:1/8  [t308|a290|s507|b91|V4134!T25]
JUL 19 01:00:03:2013: set display on
JUL 19 01:00:05:2013: display changed
JUL 19 01:00:06:2013: switching to playback mode
JUL 19 01:00:06:2013: === Scheduled reboot === : lens retraction wait
JUL 19 01:01:18:2013: rebooting now

Thanks for any insight!
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #37 on: 19 / July / 2013, 21:03:15 »
Quote from: bwh13 on 19 / July / 2013, 20:44:01
- how does the CHDK reload itself after a 'reboot' if it's not in the 'playback' mode (i.e. in the 'picture taking' mode)
In the script function camera_reboot() there is a line that says

Code: [Select]
    set_autostart(2)   -- autostart once that gets called right before the camera is rebooted.  This should cause the script to automatically restart after the boot.

Quote
- is this a setting that I missed in the 'ultimate' script or the CHDK settings?
Nope - should just work.

Quote
- I've also noted that the CHDK doesn't recognize Daylight Savings Time -> it's always an hour behind. I've tried setting the UTC setting to a couple of different values, but it doesn't seem to change the overall time stamp.  Am I missing a setting somewhere?
You are not missing anything - it was just another "feature" that I didn't get around to. I think I decided that if you were shooting for a long period,  you probably did not want the start & stop times to suddenly shift by an hour just because the local government decided it was time to observe something called "daylight savings time".

Quote
Here is a sampling of the last couple of lines of the 'ultimate.log'  It doesn't show anything definitive, but I thought I would just show it, because I think it's really helpful and a great addition to the whole script.
Thanks - any debug info when looking at problems like this is always helpful.
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #38 on: 19 / July / 2013, 22:58:04 »
Quote from: bwh13 on 19 / July / 2013, 20:44:01
When I returned the in the morning, the lens was still deployed (stoked!), but when I opened up the housing I made for the camera the camera still had power, but the CHDK was not loaded - it was just the regular Canon firmware (not stoked.)
Do you mean CHDK was not running, or the script was not running?

When you start CHDK yourself, are you using a bootable card, or loading with firm update? If the camera loads CHDK when you power on, it would be VERY strange for reboot to do something different.

Rather than waiting a night for find this out, you might want to test a simple script that just does the reboot portion of the process.
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- how does the CHDK reload itself after a 'reboot' if it's not in the 'playback' mode (i.e. in the 'picture taking' mode)
If reboot() is called with no filename (as in waterwingz script), it just reboots the camera. All the normal Canon firmware boot rules apply, including starting diskboot.bin if the card is bootable and locked. If you are NOT using a bootable SD card then CHDK will not be loaded. However, in that case you can pass the name of an .FI2 file (for dryos cams) or an unencoded diskboot.bin file (for vxworks cams). In this case, the file will be booted directly.

None of the above has anything to do with whether the camera is in playback mode or not. However, rebooting the camera in record mode is not recommended, because reboot doesn't perform a normal clean shut down and doesn't do things like closing the lens etc.

It looks like waterwingz answered how the *script* restarts, which is a different question.
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Offline bwh13

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Re: Ultimate Intervalometer - a script for shooting over a long duration - v1.7
« Reply #39 on: 20 / July / 2013, 02:24:18 »
reyalp:  I wish I had waited for your post!  I have just spent the last 3 or so hours figuring out exactly what you posted.  It was time well spent, though!  Nothing like a 'eureka' moment to make one feel good about themselves.  Thank you for taking the time and for confirming what I just (literally) figured out.

To answer your questions: 1) Neither CHDK nor the script was running, 2) I was using the firm update method (the problem).

I did end up modifying waterwingz' script to reboot the camera a bit quicker than waiting for 1am to arrive.  It wasn't pretty, but it worked and confirmed my thoughts and your advice.

I ended up making a bootable SD card so that CHDK would load on reboot.  I then set the 'Ultimate' script to 'autostart.'  Thus far, we have a winner!

I've parsed through the 'Ultimate' script and it looks like it places the camera in 'Playback' mode and it does retract the lens.  It's a really well-thought out script and nicely done.

Thank you very much for the insight!  I just need to figure out the voltage spikes in my solar charger / battery setup now.
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