Ok now Im really jealous...

I just bought a A490 but not sure I want to do the hack. I know you can brick the camera if you slip up. What are the advantages to using CHDK as opposed to just going it bare bones?

Promise, you wont brick it. I used it on both my Canons, which cost me around $500 ea at the time. I wouldn't attempt it if not. It actually just boots up with it, rather than altering the camera's firmware, if that makes sense, so very safe.

Triggering options mainly. Intervalometer script which allows interval shooting, and also the use of USB trigger cables. Without CHDK, you'd have to use a servo.

Hmmmm.....I think I'll just keep it stock then. Interval shooting isn't something I'm terribly interested in and using a servo is not a big thing for me. For the moment though, I'm going to keep experimenting with my S3300 now that you've explained the ISO settings. I also bought an Olympus VR-330 to play with and a Fuji S4250 although that particular camera is a bit heavy so I'll probably just keep it as a land camera.
I'll have enough cameras to experiment with to last me all summer

I forgot to add what is probably the most imprtant feature, as I thnk you camera only has automatic controls. CHDK adds the ability to set the shutterspeed. THis is pretty essential for AP, as you can tell it to hold constant 1/1000th etc. IT is in the CHDK menu

Originally Posted by Navy Jet Mech

Hmmmm.....I think I'll just keep it stock then. Interval shooting isn't something I'm terribly interested in and using a servo is not a big thing for me. For the moment though, I'm going to keep experimenting with my S3300 now that you've explained the ISO settings. I also bought an Olympus VR-330 to play with and a Fuji S4250 although that particular camera is a bit heavy so I'll probably just keep it as a land camera.
I'll have enough cameras to experiment with to last me all summer

Yep - I ended up with a drawer full. For AP, I have retained only:
- Canon s90
- Canon s95
- Lumix LX3
- Canon A2200
- Gopro 1

Using a servo will be fine on the A490. Have a great summer experimenting. I just got my y6 up and running. Need to tune it some more and set up a mount, then I'll try vibe control and see what happens

Originally Posted by uptime4downtime

Denis, do you have a shot of your entire system? And the specs? That is the lowest shutter speed I've ever seen used, and I assume it's a multirotor, so it is quite something I reckon!

Here is a video of my quadcopter with details about construction

QUADRICOPTER "HX4AP" QUADCOPTER (3 min 24 sec)

Characteristics:
- 650 mm diameter
- 465 mm motor to motor distance
- 1,7 kg AUW with battery and camera mount (but without camera)
- frame made from 4 mm Sintra, 15 mm square aluminum, 5 mm plywood
- landing gear made from 12 mm pvc pipe and 5 mm carbon rod UPDATE: new landing gear made with carbon arrow shafts http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...9#post24195901
- camera mount made from 1,5 mm GFK and alu brackets
- 4 x HK F30 ESC, flashed with SimonK firmware
- 4 x Sunnysky X2212-13 980 kV motors + Graupner Elektroprop 9x5 props
- Turnigy 4S 3600 mAh 20-30C battery, 11' flight time with camera (not yet tested with 5000 mAh battery)
- FrSky D8RII+ receiver with voltage sensor
- Turnigy SBEC 26 V, 5 A UBEC
- CopterControl flight controller, recovered from the old tricopter
- Canon SD940 with CHDK or Canon A560 with wide angle converter and CHDK or modified Panasonic Lumix FX35 as cameras

Sunnysky motors and Graupner props match perfectly for no vibrations. Like Thomas I used the laser method to detect vibrations and only had to lightly sand down props.
The gravity system is made with an old Tamiya u-joint and polyethylen from cutting board.

Denis

Originally Posted by Navy Jet Mech

Hmmmm.....I think I'll just keep it stock then. Interval shooting isn't something I'm terribly interested in and using a servo is not a big thing for me. For the moment though, I'm going to keep experimenting with my S3300 now that you've explained the ISO settings. I also bought an Olympus VR-330 to play with and a Fuji S4250 although that particular camera is a bit heavy so I'll probably just keep it as a land camera.
I'll have enough cameras to experiment with to last me all summer

It's really simple actually, just copy the program to the SD card, start the camera with play button, hit menu, choose firm update & point to the new version, ok that and you are ready to go. Starting the camera with the power button bypasses the CHDK and it starts as normal.

I've attached a zipfile with the necessary files you need from my own A490, just unzip it to the root of your SD card and you are ready to go. It's all set up for an A490 and has a intervalometer script already set up, I think it's set to take a picture every 5 seconds, starting at 2 minutes after it's initiated. These settings are easily changed to what you want though.

Go with the CHDK, thats why people get Canons. All you need is a busted servo and a USB B cable. I think copied a link to the build of the cable back in this thread some where.

Thanks for the post Glenstr. I'll also look into that usb hookup. I'll do the CHDK tomorrow after work. You've all talked me into it

Originally Posted by Bowman813

Here is a video of my quadcopter with details about construction
http://vimeo.com/55539766
Characteristics:
- 650 mm diameter
- 465 mm motor to motor distance
- 1,7 kg AUW with battery and camera mount (but without camera)
- frame made from 4 mm Sintra, 15 mm square aluminum, 5 mm plywood
- landing gear made from 12 mm pvc pipe and 5 mm carbon rod UPDATE: new landing gear made with carbon arrow shafts http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...9#post24195901
- camera mount made from 1,5 mm GFK and alu brackets
- 4 x HK F30 ESC, flashed with SimonK firmware
- 4 x Sunnysky X2212-13 980 kV motors + Graupner Elektroprop 9x5 props
- Turnigy 4S 3600 mAh 20-30C battery, 11' flight time with camera (not yet tested with 5000 mAh battery)
- FrSky D8RII+ receiver with voltage sensor
- Turnigy SBEC 26 V, 5 A UBEC
- CopterControl flight controller, recovered from the old tricopter
- Canon SD940 with CHDK or Canon A560 with wide angle converter and CHDK or modified Panasonic Lumix FX35 as cameras

Sunnysky motors and Graupner props match perfectly for no vibrations. Like Thomas I used the laser method to detect vibrations and only had to lightly sand down props.
The gravity system is made with an old Tamiya u-joint and polyethylen from cutting board.

Denis

Thanks very much. I'm really going to look at what you have got there. Looks very well done. I think I will eventually swap out my motors also. Rick

Ok. Now I've got some homework to do. At first I couldn't figure out how to access the enhanced features but I figured it out. Thanks for the direct upload Glenstr.

Yes, takes a bit of fiddling, but in the end, it is possilbe to change AV and TV values, making the camera fully manual! Very cool. Also, lots of other features like batt percentage overlay etc. etc

Originally Posted by Navy Jet Mech

Thanks for the post Glenstr. I'll also look into that usb hookup. I'll do the CHDK tomorrow after work. You've all talked me into it

No problem - I believe this is the latest build for the A490 but I could be mistaken, it was about a year ago I set the camera up with it.

Anyway, this is what you need to do, the readme has more technical info so here is a quick start (after you copy the files to the SD card)

• Start the camera by pressing the playback button on the back
• Press the menu button
• Scroll up one or down to the bottom to get to the Firm Update option, press the right (flash) control to go to where it asks you if you want to go from 1.0.0.0.- 1.1.0.0 and choose OK.
• To open the lens you press the shutter button slightly, pressing the power button will shut if off and unload CHDK

That's it, CHDK is loaded, but the camera is still in "normal" mode until you press the playback button again, which will bring up a red <alt> at the bottom, meaning it's in CHDK mode. The intervalometer is set to load automatically so you'll also see it on the bottom left of the screen. When the <alt> is not on the bottom the camera is not using CHDK and all normal functions are available, including the menu. When you press menu when <alt> is on you get the CHDK menu and can check it out, including changing the intervalometer settings.

Pressing the shutter down once will start the intervalometer, pressing it again will pause it.

I make sure I disable the flash first in non-CHDK mode, just to make sure it wont use it if it's at all low light. This can most likely be done in CHDK somewhere with a command or setting, but I haven't used that yet. I used to have a set focus to infinity line in the intervalometer script but I had to make sure the camera was pointed at something far away and let the intervalometer take the first frame to set it, now I don't bother with it. I'm sure there is a lot cleaner way to do it as well as a host of other things but I just wanted to get the camera taking pictures every x seconds and never really got into all the other features, of which there are many.

Originally Posted by Glenstr

I used to have a set focus to infinity line in the intervalometer script but I had to make sure the camera was pointed at something far away and let the intervalometer take the first frame to set it, now I don't bother with it. I'm sure there is a lot cleaner way to do it as well as a host of other things but I just wanted to get the camera taking pictures every x seconds and never really got into all the other features, of which there are many.

I have an intervalometer script with a focus option, set once for all pics or set for each pic (this is the one I use in case of flight near another flying object). Don't forget to "disable display after shooting" in the menu so you can shoot pics at reduced intervals.
I think this script is enclosed in all CHDK versions, but here it is if it's not the case, simply put it in the chdk\scripts directory of your SD card.

Denis