Homebrew Trailcameras

[Bones]

Jayman,  When you ordered the board, you should have specified a camera like the W80 for example. The chip will have W80 written on it if that was what was ordered. I don't think this is a timing issue. I will e-mail Mark to check your posts here and see if he can help. He has done the W130, and as far as I know no one else has done that camera or any of the other new cameras.
Bones

[gkowen]

I have a w80 board and just modified my w150 and it works fine.  It seems to be faster than the w80 I have.  I followed the w130 manual on the yeticam site and it was very close.   

I do have one other thought which is possible. When I wired my first camera the wire to take the picture was wired to the 'half-press' point on the shutter button.  It caused strange actions.  It is easily tested with a digital multimeter but how can we test this without one?  I will see if I can figure out an easy test. I am just thinking of possibilities here.

Can you turn the flash off and is it still slow? Maybe the flash is taking time to charge?

If it is any help, I am running my W80 board with all dip switches off except number 6.  All of the switches should be close to the switch numbers but number 6.

It looks like you are in Tacoma Javman? I work in Dupont so maybe we could get together and try my camera on your board and yours on mine sometime?  Just let me know.

[yetinme]

It sounds like the timing is bad or that the shutter and power wire are flipped. The timing being used is just under 2 seconds with a 1 hour refresh. We can up the time and see if that works. One thing to try is to set the camera down for 1 hour and then pick it up and see how fast you can take a picture (try to get as close as possible to real time). Then you can do this at about 4 or 8 hours and see what happens. Let me know and we will get the timing worked out.

Mark

[yetinme]

Okay, went back and did a little research. I never did do a chip for this since it was for someone else to play with but... When I was playing with it, it was firing in under 1.5 seconds. What are the settings you are using?

Mark

[javman]

I just timed it about 30 times (not from a cold start) with a stopwatch. I'm getting times around 3.0-3.2 seconds. I got 2.8 a couple times. If I press the shutter any earlier it doesn't take. This is a W120. I tried multiple settings (flash on vs off, autofocus vs preset, stabilization off) and it seems to take the same amount of time every time. Hmmm...

[Bones]

Javman,  Your camera is a low end camera, but that means it does not have some of the features the higher priced cameras do, and it has fewer mega pixels. But all of these cameras use the same image processor, and the timing should be exactly the same. Go to the menu and find initialize. Initialize the camera ans see if this does any thing. This will return the camera to factory settings. You will also have to reset the clock after doing this.
 Make sure the camera selector is on the camera icon or on the P setting.
Bones

[javman]

Just re-initialized it, put it on the P setting, and got the same result. All the batteries are fully charged too. I'm going to see if I can buy a board with just a little more delay, and keep this one for the next cam

[gkowen]

Javman,

I just tried a similar test with my w150.  It takes pictures significantly slower on the P setting then it does the green camera. It says something about processing.  I don't have a stop watch but It appeared more like 5 seconds on the 'P' setting and less than 2 seconds on the 'Green Camera' setting.  Try it on the green camera and see if yours is faster too.

[Bones]

Javman,  Last year, Bill ay Pixcontroller announced that the Sony S600 and S650 were unsuitable for trailcams because they were too slow, but the S 750 worked just fine.   The W120 might end up being the same.. It sounds like the 130 and 150 will work just fine. Even if Mark figures out the timing, the camera might be too slow. I am not sure another board is the answer.
  Gkowen, The P setting is for manually programmed settings. IF you use this setting, you have to manually program your settings into the camera. This is the setting that I use on my cameras, and there is no dfference in speeds.
  You guys are messing with new cameras that no one has figured out yet.
Bones

[gkowen]

That was my point. My w150 is faster than my W80 on the green camera setting, but much slower on the P setting.  Javman mentioned he used the P setting so I thought it might speed up if he uses the green camera setting.  I will set the camera settings for the P and see if it speeds up.  The DRO setting is one thing slowing it down. It sped up considerably when I turned the DRO setting off in the 'P' mode.  Turning the Auto-Review off speeds it up as well. Now it is almost the same timing on the 'P' and the Green Camera setting. 

Javman, see if it doesn't work faster after turning off the DRO setting and the auto-review.

[javman]

Thanks for the ideas guys. I'll try them tonight, but I had tried it before with the green camera setting, so I'm not too hopeful.

Bones - Yeah it might be too slow. I figured someone had to try the new cameras Soon they'll be all over ebay for cheap. I think if this one can work with a time around 2.5 seconds it won't be too bad. Still better than my Moultrie I40's probably -- but I'll probably pick a faster one for the next cam.

[Machias]

You guys looking at the weather for Sat?  Looking like heavy snow is headed in and then two more systems early next week may bring enough snow to break the old record.  Not looking good at this point.

[bearbait]

 

[Machias]

 

[bigdave]

I saw the weather last night and this storm could mean a postponed get together. We'll keep a weather eye as the week progresses.

Hey, on another note, I figured one other thing that I'm going to get from this meeting. Noone else will get it..... just me.... ....do you know what it is?


A clean shop. I'll need to spend a little more time in there dustin' and sweeping and puttin' stuff away (hidin' my sheds) then we'll be ready to go.

Dave