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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Time Lapse Package
Does the DigiSnap 2100 run off the large lithium battery as well or is it run from it's small internal battery? If it is from the small battery, should I replace it with a lithium battery if I want to be assured it is not going to run out over the period of many months? The large Lithium-Ion Polymer battery will power everything! If you've installed an internal AAA battery for configuring the DigISnap away from the housing, please remove it when using it in the housing. The external power will 'fight' with the battery, and end up making a mess. By the way, the DigiSnap will save all of it's configuration changes indefinitely, even without power applied... you don't need the internal battery to keep the settings. The camera however is a different story. There should be batteries installed in the camera, simply to keep it's internal clock and calendar going when the external power supply is not active. About how many images is the Pentax spec'ed for before its shutter fails? Good question... Pentax never responded when I asked :) None of the camera What is the most frequent frame capture interval you would trust with the Pentax camera and the digisnap? Could you do an image every 10 s? Or faster? An image every 3 seconds should be sustainable until the card fills. I work with the University of XXX and do educational work. Are you able to provide any educational discount? A great number of our systems go to universities, so there is no particular discount available there, but we can do purchase orders with universities. We are able to offer a quantity discount (and can even apply that to prior purchases if you remind us). Will your all-in package operate in UK (240 volt mains) or does it operate solely from battery? And can you ship it here? The Time-Lapse Package is designed to be autonomous, and operate from the internal battery, kept in charge by a solar panel. We can install an AC adapter (110-240VAC) in place of the solar panel if you like, so that AC keeps the battery charged. I was taking some interval photos from the inside the building to record the sunrise. I get the sun reflection and glare in the window. Do you have any suggestions how to eliminate that (polarizing filter for the camera or something similar)? Glass reflections are going to be an issue in many setups. Polarizers might help... worth a try! Fundamentally though, it's a tough problem. Minimize the distance from the lens to the window, use black felt to mask areas around the lens, etc. Clean the windows as much as possible, try to shade the sun from striking the glass in front of the lens... Do I need to reprogram the DigiSnap in case of power failure? The DigiSnap will retain its settings through any power failure, but the internal time-of-day gets reset to midnight each time the power is cycled. Let's say that I want to replace the memory card in the camera after a week. I disconnect the digisnap from the camera (because I have to take the camera out of the box) and replace the card. Do I have to reprogram the digisnap or it will continue taking pictures as previously programed? The cables should be long enough to remove the camera sufficently to remove the card. Once running, as long as you don't disconnect power to the DigiSnap, it should continue forever... regardless if the camera is attached. The camera seems to be working intermittently, what should I check? Most likely, its a configuration issue with the DigiSnap. When the DigiSnap wants to take a picture, it sends a signal to the camera, which electronically presses the camera's shutter release button. The camera may be asleep between pictures, so that signal has to be long enough for the camera to wake up, set the exposure, white balance, etc., then trip the shutter. We've found that the camera needs about 2 seconds for all of this to happen reliably. If it's intermittant, I suspect the DigiSnap may only be set to hold the shutter release for 1 sec... With the DigiSnap connected to a terminal, go to the Special Features menu. Make sure the External Output is configured as follows: If it's intermittant, I suspect the 2 sec period is only set for 1 sec... Sorry to be cryptic, but once you get into the menu, it should seem clear! We would like use our existing camera (i.e. Canon Rebel, Nikon D80, whatever) in your Time-Lapse Package. Is this possible? Each time we've worked with a customer that wanted to use their own camera, we've run into additional difficulties, slowing everything down, and creating multiple shipments. While we are happy to sell the package without the camera, I would ask that you send us your camera so we can make sure everything works before we ship. There are three fundamental issues, and any of them can be show-stoppers! Many customers have initially wanted to use their 'spare' cameras, but after discussing the details and expense of making it work with their camera, along with the benefits of using a new camera and fully tested system, almost all have decided to go with our recommended camera. There are some compelling reasons why we chose the Pentax! Honestly, we don't make much money selling the cameras themselves... there isn't much markup! Do you lease or rent this equipment out? Sorry, we design, manufacture, and sell the equipment, but we do not rent it out. You might suggest our product(s) to a local camera supply / rental company... you are not the only one to ask us! Is there a heater for the glass? No... heat = power, and lot's of it! With the internal dessicant pack, you should not have any frost build-up on the inside, and if you shield the front of the box, you can minimize external frost. Some photographers in the Arctic have noted some pleasing effects as the frost builds and dissipates, as long as it doesn't completely occlude the glass. Are there slots/holes to output cables? The housing is made of solid fiberglass, so it can be machined as needed. We currently add a 'gland' for the solar panel cable, and any number of these can be added for round cables. Holes for some odd cables can simply be sealed with RTV Silicone Rubber. Can we output a signal to a computer to put pictures up on the web? We have designed the system to be autonomous, for good reasons, and don't really have any 'hooks' for this. Also, it appears that some cameras don't like to have USB powered while taking pictures... connecting to a computer full time might be a problem. Can you use larger memory cards or attach to an external hard drive? The Pentax K110D/K100D can be used with much larger cards... as much as your wallet can buy! We do not have a provision for using an external hard-drive. Our site will have AC power available. Do we really need the internal battery pack? It certainly is possible to power the system from AC, but I strongly recommend to our customers that they avoid any dependence on available utilities, and consider the camera system an independent element. There are few places that will have 100% reliable AC power over the long period of an interesting project. Even places that have generator backup systems will have a momentary blackout, which can be enough to reset the DigiSnap timer. Battery backup AC units are certainly better, but it's much more efficient (power and cost) to power the electronics from a battery, and use AC or a Solar Panel to keep the battery charged. Rather than removing the memory card each time to extract the images, can we simply leave the USB cable attached to the camera? Certainly, but as always, there are some slight complications. The camera will go to 'sleep' between pictures, if the interval is long enough, to save power. If the camera is asleep, it might not wake up when you connect the USB cable to your computer. You may need to cycle the power on the camera, or touch the * button on the DigiSnap to have the camera wake up and take a picture. Once awake, you should be able to download images normally. This means that you will likely have to open the housing door to wake the camera, so there isn't much point to having the USB cable available outside the housing (where it's likely to corrode anyway). Do you have any references from experienced users as to reliability and user friendly status? We have a policy of not subjecting our customers to questions like this. I know it irritates me when people ask me to refer their product or company. However, we've been doing business on the internet for almost 10 years now, with literally thousands of customers all over the planet. If you can find more than one rational negative comment about us, I'll knock off $100 off the Time-Lapse Package. You'll find we are very responsive, and have solid products. I'm wondering if the fiberglass housing would be available in some color other than white? The housing only comes in one color, but since it's fiberglass and not plastic, you can paint it any way you'd like! How close can the recommended camera & lens focus? It will focus to about 4-5 inches at wide angle. Could you please tell us how to configure the DigiSnap to take pictures on a daily schedule? The Advanced Time-Lapse process is what you need. Connect the DigiSnap to a terminal, and start it up. You should see a menu presented on the screen. From the main menu, set the operating mode to ATL... [command M]. Enter the ATL menu... [command A]. There are 8 sequences that you can configure, but the majority of applications only need to use one. If you are going to monitor a parking lot during times of peak activity, you might use three different sequences to take series of pictures in the morning, noon, and evening. Many of the time-lapse packages are used to monitor construction sites, and configuring a sequence to take shots evenly all day long seems to be the most appropriate for most customers. If the scan the list of sequences listed on the screen, most likely they are all disabled. Let's configure sequence 1... the sequence number isn't important. Enter 1... Enable?: 1 Enter Q to exit the ATL menu... This will configure the DigiSnap to take 10 shots, one hour apart, starting at 1 minute after midnight. Obviously you can change the numbers to suit your application. Please note that the DigiSnap does not know the time of day... it was originally designed to get this information from a Coolpix camera, but when connected to an SLR camera such as the Pentax used in the Time-Lapse Package, it cannot read the time of day, so when it powers up, it presumes that it is midnight. So, this means that the above configuration will cause the DigiSnap to start taking pictures 1 minute after you power it up. This is convienent if you are going to be on site when you want the DigiSnap to start taking pictures... Set it all up, and cycle the power on the DigiSnap at the time of day that you want it to start taking pictures. The camera will start taking pictures one minute later, and take one picture every hour for the next 10 hours. The next day, the DigiSnap will start taking pictures again at the same time of day... day after day. If it's not convienient to be on site in the morning when you want to start taking pictures, you can configure the start time differently. For instance, if you want the camera to start taking pictures at 7 AM, but are going to be on-site at 4:30 in the afternoon to cycle the power on the DigiSnap, then you would set the starting time to be 14 hrs, 30 minutes. The means that 14 hrs, 30 minutes after you turn the DigiSnap on, it will start taking pictures. Play with the settings a few times to get comfortable configuring the DigiSnap, and convince yourself that you understand the process! Is there a way to start an ATL sequence after the desired 'Start' time? So if I set a 6am – 6pm active period and start the sequence ‘during this time’ it appears to do nothing until the next day. You can program multiple sequences to start at various times during the day. You don't need to make them contiguous either, you can set them to end at the same time. Once a sequence starts, the DigiSnap doesn't look for any other start times until that particular sequence ends. This means that overlapping sequences are ignored. Unfortunately when using SLR cameras, as in the Time-Lapse Package, the DigiSnap doesn't know the time of day. When using a Coolpix camera, the camera will report the time of day, which is very convienent. With an SLR, the DigiSnap simply assumes that it's midnight when it is turned on. If you set a sequence to start at 00:01 (one min after midnight), then the time-lapse sequence will start one minute after you power it up. If you know you are going to be on site, and start the DigiSnap at say, 4 PM, but you want your pics to run from 6 AM to 6 PM, say 1 shot per hour, then you can do this. Set up a sequence to start at 14:00, taking 13 pics, with a 1 hour interval. The next morning, it will start that sequence at 6 AM (14 hours from the power up), and run all day. You can also set another sequence to start at 00:01, taking 3 pics, at 1 hr interval. This will then start taking pictures 1 minute later, and take pics until 6 PM. The next day, it will execute the full-day sequence, and ignore this later one. |
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