How I made a CHDK-launcher to Canon camera

Here is my memo: How I make camera launcher from old servo electronics, usb-cable and diode.

Here are quite many steps, so I write this memo if I need to make system again... Programming took only few minutes, to build circuit took more time.

My camera is Canon PowerShot S90

Buy max 4 Gb memory card to camera.
Create a file to memory card, name it to ver.req (last letter is small Q) Content can be anything.
Put memory card into camera. Go to Play mode. Press FuncSet -button down and in the same time press Disp-button.
Look Firmware ver number.
Go to page http://mighty-hoernsche.de/ and search the right version to camera model and version. Select Full version
Unzip files to memory card root
Put memory card to camera. Turn camera on, go to Play mode
Press Menu, search Firmware Update. When camera says Update firmware, answer Ok. Camera starts to CHDK Play mode
Press Print button [S], to bottom of screen comes <alt>, then press Menu. Select Miscellaneous stuff, and Make card bootable. Press FuncSet, nothing seems to happen, but everything is ok.
Go to previous menu and select Scripting parameters / Load script from file. Search and select REMOTE.BAS
Remote Parameters / Enable Remote [o]
Select Scripting Autostart [On] and Save params [o]
Switch camera off, and take take memory card off. Put small Lock switch in memory card to Lock position. Put memory card to camera.
Start camera. Camera starts to Play mode, and now in the lower left corner should read ***Autostart***
Make the camera launch circuit from old digital servo electronics, diode and Micro-USB-cable. Remove motor and put diode and cable to its place. Check that during launch there should come 5V to red wire and GND to black wire. When launch is not on, there should be 0V between wires, never negative voltage!
Test with camera. I have used channel 5 from receiver, then I can turn camera on with Gear switch. If switch is on, camera takes pictures at 2 - 3 seconds intervals.
If I use camera to other purposes, I just turn Lock button in memory card to Off position.
It is also possible to remove the potentiometer, and make voltage divider from two resistors.

More details http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

This same page in Finnish

Mike have you by any chance finished "fast intervalometer" modified to start taking pictures after a delay and shutting off the camera before the plane lands? Mind sharing a link to the script. Thanks.
Comment by Mike on September 9, 2011 at 12:34pm: Alpo, there is a CHDK script that starts continuous shooting. I think its called Fast Intervalometer. I modified this so that I can allow an initial period to go to altitude before it starts. I usually use 30 seconds. Once the plane and camera are at the desired altitude the camera sets focus and exposure then takes a photo continuously at about 1s intervals. I am looking into developing it further so that it will power down the camera after a certain time. By keeping track of this time you will know when the camera has powered down and it is safer to land with the lens in. i tried the other main intervalometer that does the focus and exposure for every picture but the processing time is so much longer that the interval was not acceptable for my purposes.

I am using the camera for aerial mapping so the exposure range is not that great and I have been able to get nicely exposed shots at close intervals.

I will soon publish the code to the CHDK wiki.

Cheers,

Mike

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Moderator

Dwgsparky January 3, 2013 at 6:30am

Hi. Mr Osbourne, in arduplane does the camera trigger fiction work, if so what is the best way to trigger at a waypoint. Thanks
Moderator

Dwgsparky January 2, 2013 at 1:14pm

I understand that this is available in mission planner fore arduplane. Turns a servo On or Off at a waypoint . Can anyone confirm it works ?
roger August 14, 2012 at 7:18am

Mike have you by any chance finished "fast intervalometer" modified to start taking pictures after a delay and shutting off the camera before the plane lands? Mind sharing a link to the script. Thanks.

Comment by Mike on September 9, 2011 at 12:34pm

Alpo, there is a CHDK script that starts continuous shooting. I think its called Fast Intervalometer. I modified this so that I can allow an initial period to go to altitude before it starts. I usually use 30 seconds. Once the plane and camera are at the desired altitude the camera sets focus and exposure then takes a photo continuously at about 1s intervals. I am looking into developing it further so that it will power down the camera after a certain time. By keeping track of this time you will know when the camera has powered down and it is safer to land with the lens in. i tried the other main intervalometer that does the focus and exposure for every picture but the processing time is so much longer that the interval was not acceptable for my purposes.

I am using the camera for aerial mapping so the exposure range is not that great and I have been able to get nicely exposed shots at close intervals.

I will soon publish the code to the CHDK wiki.

Cheers,

Mike
Alpo Hassinen December 22, 2011 at 12:39am

That pcb is taken from servo. Only the servo motor is removed, and two wires going to motor are cut near motor. You can see these wires coming from pcb. Then I added that diode, and also usb-cable. I did not change anything else. This servo pcb can be different in other servo brands.

When I switch on my Canon with chdk, it goes directly to Play mode. But when I take first photo manually or through usb, it goes to Record mode and starts to take pictures. Camera uses normal settings that I have set in original mode.
Alpo Hassinen December 21, 2011 at 10:19pm

@David

Probably not very easily, but you can do it afterwards: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/georeferencing-pictures
Alpo Hassinen December 21, 2011 at 10:17pm

I can not test it, but it should be possible.

Look here details http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/A495

and download firmware from here http://mighty-hoernsche.de/
T3

Krzysztof Bosak September 11, 2011 at 11:44pm

Mike, you are using in-house software? Everything else I know uses GPS position at least fo initial matching.

Consider the number of combinations if you fly a linear pattern then back - anything could match to anything. If you have a few blurs or misses in the line, without GPS, even with genereous overlap- you are done.
T3

Krzysztof Bosak September 10, 2011 at 6:57am

@Gary Keep it as simple as possible, but not simpler. With self-triggered intervals, you won't be able to tell at which GPS position the photos were taken which is the key requirement of turning happy random vertical photos into mapping business. The reason is that camera timer and everything drifts around from camera make to another and after the flight it is virtually impossible to match the continuous flood of photos to GPS positions. Even if it worked yesterday, daily timer drift can be close to 0.5-4s (vs GPS time, one does not negotiate with atom power).

I believe the photos should be triggered by the autopilot or else post-processing is very difficult.

Using GPS-equipped camera is also anti-concept as it limits the list of available cameras to maybe 1% of the market - therefore you would have to chose by presence of built-in GPS instead by other factors like optics, sturdiness, availability, IR capability.
malcolm churn September 9, 2011 at 12:48pm

Thats superb my cannon camera is supported thanks for the link.
T3

healthyfatboy September 9, 2011 at 12:29pm

I want to say some of the scripts I have used automatically adjust to the light settings and focus each time it takes a picture.

I'll have to get back to you on the scripts I use since they are at home but I can go find it.

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