Hi folks,
So in yesterday's post I asked three questions.
And said I'd answer one of them.
...
Only one, because I don't know the answer to the other two.
So why was that hardhat there?
To keep the sun off a camera that was underneath it.
I didn't want the camera to overheat.
It's been hot.
Today's temperature max was 34.5℃
...
Why a hardhat?
I was improvising, and that's what I found.
A few cable ties held it in place.
...
I wanted to make a time lapse sequence of the
sedimentation tank filling.
...
The camera has some features that I tried out for the first time.
It can be controlled from a phone app and it has a built in time lapse mode.
The camera's software is also updated from the phone app.
...
So here I am yesterday afternoon, playing around with the settings on
this camera, trying to work out the easiest way to make this time lapse.
I had two options for getting the result I wanted:
Set it to time lapse mode, with the longest interval between shots, leave it up there for a while, bring it back down and render the pictures into a sequence
using video editing software.Control the camera from my phone. Every few hours throughout the day,
turn it on from the ground and take a photo. Repeat until the
sedimentation tank is full and then render the pictures as above.
...
First, I checked out what the longest interval in time lapse mode is:
1 minute.
Damn, no where near long enough.
Okay, well there goes that idea.
...
Then I decide I'll test how far away the camera can be from the phone
before the signal drops.
I'm outside, at work. End of the day. Everybody else has gone home.
I test it by taking a photo with the camera, from my phone, then walking a
few steps back and taking another.
I do this until I'm about 15 metres away.
...
That might be enough, but I wasn't confident I'd be able to
successfully reconnect to and turn the camera back on from the ground
after it being off for a couple of hours. The whole process seemed a bit
hit and miss...
So I go inside and sit down.
I'm messing about with the phone app when it tells me a
software update is available for the camera.
Well, okay.
I follow the prompts and after a bit of waiting, the update is done.
I then decide to check the time lapse interval again, just because. Not sure why really.
...
I couldn't believe it, the time lapse intervals had changed with
the update. Now the maximum time was 60 minutes.
Fortunate coincidence?
...
So that settled it. I took the camera, climbed to the top of the lime
silo. Got it positioned, and started the capture...
Then I decided it needed some shade from the heat of the sun. Especially
since the camera was inside a watertight plastic case.
So I climb back down, look around, find the hardhat, get some cable
ties.
Climb back up, position the hardhat, tie it in place.
Then I went home, satisfied that through the night and the next day it
would be ticking away, taking a shot every hour.
The night shots wouldn't be any good for the time lapse, but I could just delete those.
...
I was a little disappointed then, when I climbed back up there after 24
hours and found that it had only taken four photos before the battery went flat.
Four.
Here they are:
So they do look good, can't complain there.
Not that the fourth image shows much, with it being night and all.
But I was expecting a few more.
You see, I assumed that the camera would turn itself off between shots. Or enter some kind of power-saving mode to conserve battery.
This camera can record high definition video for about 70 minutes before a fully charged battery goes flat.
I'm not a hardware expert by any means. Not even close, but the camera only has to use power to run a timer and take a picture once per hour.
Surely it could last longer than four hours on a charge doing that?
...
Computers have been able to turn themselves off with a software command
for eons.
Literal eons mate.
Before that, you'd shut down a PC and see this at the end of the process:
You had to physically press the off switch to finish the job.
...
Maybe turning on from an 'off' state is a completely different story?
...
My assumption could be more unrealistic then I think.
Well anyway, I tried.
It didn't work.
No big deal.
...
I'm off work for a few days from tomorrow.
When I get back I might try the other approach I talked about; using the
phone to control the camera.
...
Have a good one.
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