Making our Meadow Blog

New Cam

Got a new camera today via Ebay. A Canon S5IS, which will definitely
solve the aberration with the current camera’s image, but unfortunately
it did not enable a larger capacity SDHC card to be used. In fact I was
starting to wonder if it would work at all – I had to try three SD cards before
I found one which actually worked! So there is a chance that another SDHC card will
work. But it will take a bit more research.

RAW issue solved

Simply turning off the RAW always setting off solved this
issue which should make all the difference in terms of memory. If I have time
in the morning I will start another trial, if not it will have to wait till the
weekend.

First trial results

Just got back from the Netherlands and had enough time to
check the status of the Meadowcam. It was still powered well (in fact the
battery showed output voltage of 13.48V) but the memory card was full after just
a couple of days. The CHDK settings had been set to save a RAW copy file for
each shot and each was 6Mb. I will try to assemble the files and will amend the
settings of the camera.
 
The important thing is that the timer and the light detector
are working properly and that the timings are correct. The bracketing seems to
be working well so I will just need to change the raw settings.
 
The other issues are the positioning of the camera, which is
easily solved, and the existence of some strange lines, which may be a problem
with the camera. I will see if I can continue as I am, but I might need to find
another camera. Again…

Meadowcam plus hood

This is the meadowcam plus the cobbled together hood –
it seems to be working fine.  

Camera status 27/1/10

Quick check this morning showed the meadowcam to be fine
regarding condensation and frost. It was starting to rain so I put the
improvised hood back on. Note to self – must devise a more permanent
fixing method. I think the easiest would be to drill a couple of small holes in
the back and fix wire onto the post and use some bolts to act as spacers.

Camera setup and trial underway

Camera all setup now and trial started on saturday. Images of camera uploaded here http://meadowmaker.typepad.co.uk/photos/meadowcam/. So far no problems and internal condensation not too much of a problem. Need to check on how well the timer is working but not easy since I am at work all the time it is light and we are off to the Netherlands on Friday.  

Camera working at last!

After asking Neil for some advice I have sorted out the problem got the camera and timer/light detector working. Neil had intelligently included a cut off so that if the interval is less than the time the camera is on during each interval period the camera will not operate. I was inadverantly setting the camera at the shortest interval setting (1) while i had worke out that the mininum time for the camera to be on for it to power up, the script to start and the shutter to run 3 times is 35 seconds.

While I have been testing it this evening I have  been testing on setting 3 (1.5 mins) and it has worked a treat.

So I will be in a position to test it at the weekend, at last.

New circuit not working yet

The new circuit which arrived last Friday is still not up
and running I am having problems with the programming of the microprocessor.
Unfortunately a mountain of work has landed on my desk so I don’t have
time to tinker at the moment.

Problem solved...hopefully

Neil has got back to me and solved the problem:

“Camera and bits and pieces arrived safely this morning. It did
not take long for me to find out that the problem is that you either have to
feed 6V into the battery bay or at least 7.0V into the DC plug! Very strange,
but that's what we have to work with. Since I know that you did not want me to
modify the camera at all, I have instead modified your controller so that now
it outputs 7.30V - fortunately there was just enough space to fit the extra
components required. Everything is set up next to me now and working perfectly
turning the camera on and off no problems at all, and should therefore work
perfectly for you once you have re-programmed it to automatically shoot an
image on power-up. For future reference, the camera and circuit board together
draw a total of around 300mA @ 12VDC when the camera is on, and less than 10mA
the rest of the time.”

With luck I should be in a position to start the full scale
trial this weekend…

 

Camera returned

I have sent the camera and the circuit back to Neil.
My carrier is doing rather well out of this project! ;o)