Camera Goodness

Camera SDM software is working!

After posting a message to the SDM newsgroup, one of the developers (Dave / aka microfunguy) has been emailing me test versions. After a conversion spanning 85+emails so far he has managed to fix it! I was able to make the camera take a video via a script ... I get better support from Dave then we get from our vendor at work that we pay huge amount of money. Anyway Dave has been great and I'm going to try a full functional test later today.

Nearly killed myself....

So my water heater was on the fritz. I woke up to nearly boiling water. I replaced the thermostat and all appeared well. The next day the water was lukewarm. I thought I would test to make sure there was power.

...this is where it gets dangerous.

My water heater works on 220v. Which needless to say is very dangereous. I was aware it was on and had my shiny new meter set to measure the AC. When I touched the probes to the contacts the following happened: A huge bang, a bright light, and me nearly soiling myself.

Turns out I still had the meter red lead plugged into the port to measure current - not voltage. i.e. when I plugged it in I created a short.

Luckily I did not electure myself, however it had the following effects: Water hearter contacts blackened, shiny new meter test probe melted at end, circuit breaker tripped, fuse blew in meter, and the best part: it blew the tracing right off the circuit board in my shiny new meter. Later I was able to solder a jumper over the damaged circuit board, but I don't know if I will trust it to accuratly measure amperage...

Eventually it turned out to be just a bad element in the water heater. I replaced it and all was well....

GPS good, Camera bad

Got my multimeter and a variety of test leads in today. Used said leads to try once again to hook up the GPS 18lvc and try and update firmware. Still no go. I double checked all the connections and it looked good. Then I had not not so brilliant idea of trying to view its output with a terminal program - and it was happily spitting out GPS data! Even better in the data it occasionaly said it was running version 3.0 of the firmware! This is the latest version and includes the update to work above 60k feet which is what I was concerned about. I don't know why the garmin updater was not connecting, but I don't need it now that I know it is at the proper firmware level.

I've had some communication back and forth with the SDK newgroup about my problems with getting the SDK firmware to load on my camera. Still not working, CHDK works fine, but SDK will not load. So this means as of right now - no video, only stills. I'll keep an eye on the forums and see what happens, worst case senario either I go with no video, or buy a used canon camera that is known to work with SDK.

Camera Woes

I spent hours last night trying to get the camera control to be able to take a movie via a usb signal. Looks like CHDK cannot do it. However SDM can, in fact sdm looks perfect - its specifically made to make such tasks easy so you can put a camera on a kite. However when I try and boot the sdm software the camera comes up only for a few seconds and then shuts right back down....arrrgh. I've posted my problems on the sdm news group, so hopefully somebody may be able to help me. One user says it works fine with his SD750 - it may be an issue with my canon firmware (which is old) however I see no updates on the canon web site to update the firmware.....

Various updates

I found a really nice ready made tilt mechanism for the camera. Looks pretty nice and will handle the tilting of the camera bettery than any mechanical contraption I could create. I don't think I will have any problems with the program to tilt the camera and take pictures. However I'm not so sure now on triggering a movie. Looks like the current version of the CHDK software does not support switching camera 'modes' to movie mode. On my camera it is a physical slide switch that has to be moved to go to movie mode. I'll look at physically moving said switch, but that could be difficult as its a small tab that would need to move horizontally.

I also need to work out via the CHDK software if it is possible to disable the review feature, the flash, and autofocus. I just want the focus set to infinity and the flash would be worthless. Disabling these would increase battery life.

I still have not had success in getting my gps18 to talk to the computer so I can update the firmware. I've tried multiple times but the garmin software says it cannot find the device. I don't know if the problem lies with my wiring, the gps itself, or the computers....arrrrgh. I should be getting my new multimeter in the mail soon. I'll use it to double check all the connections and also maybe try a different computer so I can elimate that angle.

More Arduino Fun

Last night just for fun I created a 6 led 'cylon light' with the Arduino. It was pretty cool. I managed to wire it up without refering to any web pages. I did grab the code off the internet and modify it - but I think I could write it from scratch. Its pretty easy to program.

After that I created a usb cable to plug into my canon point and shoot (SD750) and connect the the Arduino prototype board. I was able to have the Arduino send a command to shoot the camera! Unfortunatly it was not able to tell the camera to shoot a movie. I think I need a different version of the CHDK software on the camera that allows the setting of modes. I'll try that out later.

Shiny new Gadget!

I went geocaching in the woods earier as I had the day off. Found one close to the trail. I could not find the second. My gps (garmin eTrex Legend) was jumping all over the place and loseing its satallite lock. I went back home and my new gps was waiting on the porch! Its a Garmin Colorodo 400t, which has very good reviews and is very geocaching friendly. I've already transfered some geocache locations over to it and am looking forward to trying it out.