Canon S100 and CHDK / SDM

Wind Watcher

New beginnings always start somewhere....and in this case....an S100 Firmware dump for CHDK port and eventually a SDM build....

Not there yet....by a long shot.....but work is beginning on the Canon S100.....lot's of potential here....for this camera...even built in GPS....

WW

hqasem

CHDK is now available for the S100 for all known firmwares including: 1.00D, 1.00E, 1.01A, and 1.01B. It supports booting from a single FAT32 partition - no more dual partition business.

Wind Watcher

Hussam,

Great news.....

Now we need to get SDM working....!


Time for a new camera!

WW

hqasem

WW- great idea. I contacted microfunguy and will keep you posted.

Be ware that the S100 replacement will be announced during Photokona in September. But it did take from Sept till April to port CHDK for the S100. (Sept till March for the S90 and Sept till Dec for the S95).

Dave Mitchell

Although what Hussam says is true, as yet ACID will not download a build for you. The builds have not yet appeared on the official download website for CHDK or CHDK-DE (which is where ACID looks for builds). At present you have to go to the CHDK Forum porting thread for the s100 to find a build to download.

As soon as the builds appear on the official download sites, ACID will find them.

Wind Watcher

Thanks Dave,

How about SDM - any early build for the S100?

WW

David Sykes

It depends if I finish installing my 3D TV and computer system in the living room.

If so, we may have a bootable build this weekend.

"There are the known knowns and the known unknowns but there are also the unknown unknowns ".

David

hqasem

Dave- by "official" do you mean "stable"? Because the S100 builds are available from the CHDK trunk release candidate:

http://mighty-hoernsche.de/trunk/

I believe ACID does not download from the trunk. [feature request? ;)]

Thanks!

Wind Watcher

I am all in.

Placed order for new Canon S100 today.

Hope to have it my hands mid next week.

I will post the firmware version as soon as I get it.

Flight test will follow shortly....most likely over the Atlantic ocean....stay tuned.

Even bought flight insurance this time around... ;-)

WW

Dave Mitchell

I'm in the process of modifying ACID so it offers the choice of 'stable' or 'trunk'. As well as the s100, CHDK builds for the g1x are also available from the 'trunk' site.

Wind Watcher

Time to play!

S100 showed up early.

Next firmware deep dive....stay tuned.

WW




Wind Watcher

This camera was borne with firmware 101B.

Lucky for me there is an Alpha build available.....hopefully a SDM version soon!

WW

Kappix - Ramon

Hi Jim,

I wonder if this camera is able to shoot at a 5 sec interval by making use of one of James' peanuts. The S90 was not capable of doing that - is missed every 5 second interval due to the time it needed to focus and prepare. Ten seconds was the only option. I have no experience with the S95.

Can you give it a try if you can?

Thanks!

Ramon

hqasem

SDM now boots on the S100... Stay tuned. @Ramon, I'll try to give it a try.

Jasja

Ramon, I used a USB trigger for my S95, but it does take some time to focus indeed, I usually stick to a 10 second interval. That is still 6 photo's per minute, so quite a bit... :)

Could not find anything on the GPS in the specs of the S100, have I missed something?

Kappix - Ramon

Thanks, Hussam, Jasja.

So the S90 needs time, the S95 needs time. I tend to think that the S100 needs its time as well. So, eager to hear from you, Hussam.

Frankly, to me that's a bit of a con. In the early days I shot with 10 seconds interval too, but decided to switch to 5 secs, thinking that it would crank up efficiency. Never returned to 10 secs ever since.

Ramon

Dave Mitchell

Just a quick note to say that I've replaced ACID with a version which lets you choose either the 'stable' or 'trunk' versions. The s100 and g1x are only available in the trunk at present.

OSX, Windows and Linux versions are available, but as yet I have not produced the German and Spanish versions.

My program which scans the 4 websites daily looking for new SDM. CHDK and CHDK-DE builds (and hence prompts me to update the Acid tables) has also been updated to scan the 'trunk' site as well as the 'stable' one.

David Sykes

If you are willing to accept images that are half maximum width and height, 'Low Light' mode allows you to shoot at 3.5 fps in Continuous-shooting mode.

Shutter speed will also be higher because the minimum ISO is set higher (320 on S95).
That can be done because the signal/noise ratio is doubled due to four sensor pixels being used for each image pixel.

Presumably, time-lapse can be faster as well.

David

hqasem

@Jasja- The Canon S100 has a built-in GPS to Geo-tag images, and a GPS Logger as well! See Page 109 of the S100 User Guide. GPS Logger will log even while the camera is switched off. You can download the GPS log using the supplied software (which I never use).

hqasem

@Ramon- According to the clickPAN-USB operating manual, the USB triggers a shutter every 10 seconds - mine does every 8 seconds (that worked for the S90/S95). When I connect the BLU pin to the +ve pin, it takes a picture every 3 seconds. I tested this configuration on my S100 running CHDK, and it did not skip a single shot. It acquired focus, took the picture, and had extra wait time as well. I use 3x AAA batteries.

Hope this helps.

hqasem

@Dave- Thanks a million. I download and ran ACID 1.10 on OSX. Upon extraction, it creates a directory named "null" inside "Trunk CHDK", but everything unzips correctly to the "null" directory.

Dave Mitchell

@hqasem - my bad - now fixed!

Wind Watcher

Progress continues.

Heaving lifting (hopefully with kites ;-) will start latter in the week after I get a new high speed 16 GB SD set up.

Did run Dave's program (as noted by hqasem above. See screen shot below. Thanks Dave!

Now need some help from David Sykes to get the SDM build going (hqasem, I see your note above, please send the link).

Many things to test out with this near identical twin to my S95....the built in GPS...including just how accurate the height measurement (if at all) will be.

See initial image of the S100 below.

WW






David Sykes

@ww

I emailed you yesterday asking for you to assist in testing after hqasem went offline.
I did not receive a reply.

Have to work on other things now.

David

Wind Watcher

David,

Sorry, missed the e-mail.

Free time this week for testing. Sent e-mail reply with KAP script / SDM commands.

WW

Ric Merry

With the advent of CHDK and soon to be SDM it sounds like this may be my next camera. I tried a couple S90's and hated the ergonomics of the little buttons with my big mits. The latest user reviews on DP sound like Canon has addressed some of these issues however battery life still sounds week. Excerpts below on the review I read which gives me new hope.

"...changed the ergonomics of the buttons...easier to hit on purpose and harder to hit on accident...pesky control wheel on the back that always got spun accidentally-tighter now...took the +/- control of the wheel and it makes you bump the top and THEN spin it -- so it's near impossible to accidentally change...control wheel around the lens is tighter".

hqasem

Ric- you should try one in a store before you commit. As for me, battery life has not been an issue for the S90/S95. I fully charge the battery the night before I KAP.

Wind Watcher

Flight testing with the new Canon S100 camera and alpha builds of CHDK / SDM are now underway over the WW Chester Springs proving grounds.

As with any new endeavor and alpha builds of hacked camera computers...a few things need to be worked out.

- Pros:
- Alpha build of CHDK and SDM are now available
- KAP script loads and runs
- Like the large single partition SD cards
- GPS works great and includes height!

- Cons:
- Alpha build of CHDK and SDM are now available
- shoot_movie_for command not working yet
- TV (fixed shutter) mode is a bit flaky with the shutter speeds moving around
- Sweet spot for sharp image ..... still looking....bit suspect in initial review

- 1st KAP Flight:
- Soft wind out of the North....
- Used my big 8' Rukkaku to get clean air at over 200 feet.
- Set new Canon S100 on my auto KAP rig and raised the rig to about 200 feet.
- High confidence in kite and wind....took my two dogs for a walk
- Dog 1 takes off in corn field...loose half hour tracking dog 1 down
- Wind speed suddenly goes from 10 mph to 20+ mph and building in force
- Not a fun time dragging a big 8 foot Rukkaku out of the sky
- Sustained structural damage to one Stratospool
- Had to use spider web walk down method
- Recovered the KAP rig and S100
- After much effort, recovered the big 8 foot Rukkaku, amazingly the P400 wrapped carbon tubes held up under the force.
- Pictures - still sifting - shot over 500 Raw files and over 500 JPEG files, as noted under the Cons above - few issues to work out.

Below is a Light Room screen shot of a ground based SDM KAP script showing the different shutter speeds and exposure levels with the S100 camera in the TV (fixed shutter speed mode).

Enjoy WW




hqasem

@WW- microfunyguy is working hard on SDM and is aware that "shoot_movie_for" does not work yet. It may have to do with the different button layout and/or dedicated movie record button.

How was the battery life after 500 RAWs/JPEGs?

EDIT: "shoot_movie_for" now works.

Wind Watcher

Thanks for the update hqasem, I have been working a bit with microfunyguy on this. Glad to hear the "shoot_movie_for" command is working. Suspect it is the new dedicated video button on the S100.

Battery life looks excellent. I set the camera up for my normal WW low power consumption mode for long KAP flights. The camera was still firing away after the 500+ images. I thought it may be lower performance with the GPS eating into the power but so far it looks good.

WW

Jorre

Got the camera and got CHDK and my supersimple KAP script working, yeeeaah! No flight testing yet, but I hope I get it in the air this week, either by copter or by kite, no matter what.

Any further experiences with the S100 yet? Do you e.g. use the image stabilization or do you switch it off?

Jorre