TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

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Crispy
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Number of books owned: 1500
Country: UK

Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by Crispy »

Many many thanks for this; I've found the correct serial number and the camera is recognised in chdk.

Is it possible to run chdk and twocam at the same time? Is chdk supposed to offer a live preview of what the camera sees?

Confession: I also had remote enabled in chdk which is also probably why I couldn't connect to the cameras using chdk...

One of my cameras is missing so I've only been able to try twocam with one camera; would this cause the programme to fail?
dtic
Posts: 464
Joined: 06 Mar 2010, 18:03

Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by dtic »

Crispy: great.
Is it possible to run chdk and twocam at the same time? Is chdk supposed to offer a live preview of what the camera sees?
I don't think you can run them at the same time. The camera is locked to one instance of chdkptp. TwoCamControl has no live preview and is made to take photos as quickly as possible. There is a live preview in the CHDK gui though but that GUI is a bit slower to work with I think. You'll have to choose.

From a speed POV I think it makes sense to zoom out the cameras a bit so the whole page and some extra margin will reliably be included in each photo even if the book/platen moves around a little, then capture all pages quickly without preview and finally batch crop all pages afterwards. That can be quicker than zooming in more and then preview and fine tune the book position for each individual photo.

duerig: time only, all the setup parts could be made more automated I think. Patch away. Or fork it. Another possible thing to build in, or make as a separate script, is a preview of the most recently saved R and L images (measured by date modified timestamp or filename increment) in the project download folder.
3feet
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Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by 3feet »

bookscanner.jpg
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After going through the installation process step by step i am getting errors when attempting to capture an image.

Both cameras start up, they can be zoom in and out etc.
A directory is created when a new project is started.
The problem is they don't take an image.

Hopefully the screen grab will give more insight into the issue.
Any help greatly appreciated

Robert
3feet
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Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by 3feet »

Sorry, a few details that might help.

Using Windows 7
Canon a1400 cameras
I can run chdkptp by it self and take images with both cameras

Robt
duerig
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Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by duerig »

Upthread, it was mentioned that there might be an issue with chdkptp versions >650.

Try going to https://www.assembla.com/spaces/chdkptp/documents and getting version r592 for windows. Perhaps that will be a decent workaround. Let us know if that doesn't seem to help.
3feet
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Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by 3feet »

Duerig not sure if your comment was meant for me, if so, i was using r547 and also tried r592 as suggested.
The result was the same.
Not sure what to do next to resolve this issue.
Any suggestions welcomed.
dtic
Posts: 464
Joined: 06 Mar 2010, 18:03

Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by dtic »

3feet wrote:
bookscanner.jpg
After going through the installation process step by step i am getting errors when attempting to capture an image.
Hi. Have you set the camera to continuous mode? If no then try this: Power on the camera without connecting it to the PC, press "func" button, go to the menu item that allows setting continuous mode and turn it on. Power off the camera and try TwoCamControl again.
3feet
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Country: Australia

Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by 3feet »

Big Thanks Dtic it is working really well now.
I have tried a few other software packages and i'm liking this one for its quick and simple operation.
So far it appears to be really robust and has no apparent slow downs and glitches that plagued my other setups.
For a preview i'm bringing up windows explorer and opening the directory that the images are being stored. It updates and moves to the latest images automatically.
Attachments
twocamcontrol.jpg
dtic
Posts: 464
Joined: 06 Mar 2010, 18:03

Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by dtic »

Great that it works now! I will make one more small update to the program some rainy summer day in the weeks to come and update the setup information with info on continuous mode.
dtic
Posts: 464
Joined: 06 Mar 2010, 18:03

Re: TwoCamControl - fast two camera chdkptp photos (Windows)

Post by dtic »

TwoCamControl
version 151121
Made in Autohotkey by nod5.dcmembers.com
Free Software -- http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
Tested in Win7 x64

news:
- One tab to setup folders and cameras. One tab with readme/information.
- Preview button for use when setting up a project (*not* live preview while shooting). After zoom and focus lock press preview to see two images in your default image viewer. If they are blurry unlock and relock focus and try again.
- Options for zoom steps, parameters for chdkptp, and mouse and keyboard controls.
- Option to start a user chosen extra process (e.g. another script of your choice) when the project starts and pass the project name to that process.
- Should now work with the newest versions of CHDK and chdkptp.

download here
http://nod5.dcmembers.com/downloads/TwoCamControl.zip
The zip contains .ahk source (plus .ico icon file) and .exe binary.
md5 hashes
19151908a34fdc5c9e994400533971d8 *TwoCamControl.ahk
d201703a1a9e2b9325f07f98ecdc2e2a *TwoCamControl.exe
71328aaa1ae9f15b74c9062ce82bd948 *TwoCamControl.zip

(The old version, in case someone wants is, has same the path except with filename TwoCamControl141001.zip )
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