1Colorado Space Grant Consortium

Gateway To SpaceASEN / ASTR 2500

Class #13

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-The following instructions will walk you through the steps needed to change the firmware on this camera to take picture every 20 seconds

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-The CHDK code was originally written by Rick von Glahn from Edge of Space Sciences (EOSS)

-These steps are performed with the camera modified to turn on and off with a external switch

-The steps to modify the hardware of the camera are contained in a different presentation

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-This mod uses CHDK to add autonomy to a digital camera without the use of a timing circuit or further modifications to the camera

-CHDK is firmware enhancement

- It only works with Canon digital cameras

-Please see the following website for much more information http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

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-Take your camera out of the box

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- Insert the batteries

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- Turn on camera by touching two wires together

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- Set the date and time

- Power off the camera by touching the two wires together again

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- Insert SD card and close battery cover

(not all SD cards support this mod)

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- Set Camera to “AV” mode

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-Turn on camera by touching two wires together

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-Press the “MENU” button and format the card – Use the “Low Level Format” setting

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Canon A570 IS Mods:

-Press the “MENU” button and format the card – Use the “Low Level Format” setting

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Canon A570 IS Mods:

-Press the “MENU” button and format the card – Use the “Low Level Format” setting

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-Power off camera and remove the SD Card

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-Connect the SD card to your computer

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-The files we are going to copy to the SD card contain a script (macro) that will take pictures about every 20 seconds after an initial boot up.

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-Open the “cu_gateway_fall_2008.bas” file

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-Open the “cu_gateway_fall_2008.bas” file

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-Open the “cu_gateway_fall_2008.bas” file

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-Open the “cu_gateway_fall_2008.bas” file

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- Save the “cu_gateway_fall_2008.bas” file

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-Copy the CHDK folder structure and files to the SD card

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- Switch the play/record button on the camera to “play”

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- Insert SD card and power the camera on.

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-Press the “MENU” button and press the left on the circle button until the “play” symbol is highlighted

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-Press up on the circle button and highlight “Firm Update”

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- Select “OK” and press “SET”

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-Camera should now be running the CHDK firmware.

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-Press the shutter button to stop the script but leave the camera on

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- Switch the play/record button on the camera to “record”

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-You should see “Default Script” and “<ALT>” in the bottom of the screen

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-With “<ALT>” showing, press the “MENU” button

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- “<ALT>” will be replaced by “<CNF>”

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- Use the control pad to move the cursor down to "Debug parameters" and click "SET" to select this option.

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-Move the cursor down to "Make card bootable...“-Press "SET" to select this option.

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-Nothing should happen. This is OK-Power off camera.

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-Remove the SD card and slide switch to “LOCKED”

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Even though the card is in the “LOCKED” position it will be able to be written to via the CHDK firmware.

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-Power on the camera

- “Default Script” and the “<ALT>” should be visible

-Press the shutter button to stop script

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- Insert locked SD card and make sure the camera is in “RECORD” mode

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-With “<ALT>” showing, click on the menu to get to the “<CNF>” screen.

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-Use the control pad to move the cursor down to "Scripting parameters" and push "SET"

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-On the “Script” menu select "Load script from file..."

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-On the "Select script file" screen, move the cursor to highlight "cu_gateway_fall_2008.bas>" and press "SET"

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-When you return to the “Script” menu ensure that "Script Autostart" is checked (a dot in its selection field).

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-Also make sure the “Current script” is correct

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-Now click "MENU” to save these changes to the configuration file

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-Turn off camera

-The next time the camera is turned on, it will run the script

- It will go through a series of camera setting changes which will take about 60 seconds

-Then the camera will begin to take pictures every 5 to 6 seconds until the card is full

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- Sometimes the script doesn't execute properly the first time it runs.

- If this happens, let it run it's course for around a minute or so then turn the camera off then on again and it should work fine

- It should continue to work just fine on every subsequent power up

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-Turn on the camera

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-You can turn the camera off anytime.

- If you wish to stop the script during execution just press the shutter release button and that will interrupt the execution of the script

- In this way you can gain control of the camera without having to remove the card

-This is handy if you want to review photos, or do something else without the script running.

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-After the pushing the shutter, you must push the print button to have normal camera operation

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-Remember, any setting you might make to the camera will be restored to factory default settings next time the script runs as that is the first action the script takes

- Once you interrupt a script it must be re-run from the beginning you can not PAUSE a script and RESUME it

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-You can modify your code without reloading the firmware

-For example lets change the “sleep” value to 5000

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-Power off camera

-Remove SD Card

-Unlock SD Card

-Open CHDK/Scripts/cu_gateway_fall_2008.bas

- Scroll down to end of code and change sleep = 5000

- Save

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- Remove SD card and lock

- Insert SD card into the camera and power on

-Pictures should be taken every 8 to 10 seconds now

- I would suggest a 20 second (sleep = 16000) for 135 minute flight time

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-You can also “rem” out pieces of the set up or other functions but test first

-Camera is working, it shall also be working at the end of the semester

-Take good care of this camera

-Thank you.

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Questions?