scanning and downloading at the same time

Everything camera related. Includes triggers, batteries, power supplies, flatbeds and sheet-feeding scanners, too.

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Drake Ravensmith
Posts: 70
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 05:16
E-book readers owned: Kindle 3
Number of books owned: 0

Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by Drake Ravensmith »

Okay I figured out what the problem was. When I installed the latest Connectify update, it changed the name of my software router to "Connectify-Drake-Ravensmith". My eye-fi cards obviously didn't follow this change so they were defaulting to my desktop router upstairs. So I guess I would take a pic, the card would send it upstairs, the router would then send it back downstairs, and it would finally appear. I updated the cards, removed my physical router, and completely disturbed my cameras in the process despite the fact that I was super careful and I scanned a book to check how bad it was and it was still off but the book came out fine anyway.

The book was a new paperback and I couldn't get any real speed going so I ran a test. While busying my hands with something else, I used the foot pedal to continuously take photos relying solely on the audio cues to determine when to depress the trigger. After five minutes (yes I used a timer) I had taken 92 pics off of each camera. It then took just shy of 2 mins 30 secs for the cameras to finish transferring the last 40 pics each and 'catch up' to where I was at. Since I could never scan a book that fast myself, I assume that the cards are now working just as fast as they were when I first tested the thing and are only 5-10 secs behind at any given time. If I ever get the cameras back into place, I'll be golden again.
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daniel_reetz
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E-book readers owned: Used to have a PRS-500
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Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by daniel_reetz »

So, sorry for asking a question like this, but what you've learned here is that Eye-Fi cards can keep up with normal scanning speeds, given an 8 megapixel camera?
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Drake Ravensmith
Posts: 70
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 05:16
E-book readers owned: Kindle 3
Number of books owned: 0

Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by Drake Ravensmith »

Yes. When I first started, if I thought I had missed a page or accidentally done a page twice, I could just wait a few seconds for the transfer to finish and check. However, it should be noted that I never set a breakneck pace like some of the scanners here.
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Drake Ravensmith
Posts: 70
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 05:16
E-book readers owned: Kindle 3
Number of books owned: 0

Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by Drake Ravensmith »

I went ahead and scanned a 300 page hardback focusing on maximum speed versus religiously checking the monitors. The whole thing took less than ten minutes and the cards matched pace beautifully.
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daniel_reetz
Posts: 2812
Joined: 03 Jun 2009, 13:56
E-book readers owned: Used to have a PRS-500
Number of books owned: 600
Country: United States
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Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by daniel_reetz »

Fantastic. It would be so great to have NO WIRED CONNECTIONS at all. And Eye-Fi is almost as cheap as some of the cable triggers people have been using.
aeturneus
Posts: 54
Joined: 23 Dec 2010, 13:57

Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by aeturneus »

I'm having a similar issue to Gerard - the pictures don't start to transfer until a few seconds after the last photo has been taken. Not sure why this would be the case, but it's something I need to solve.
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Drake Ravensmith
Posts: 70
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 05:16
E-book readers owned: Kindle 3
Number of books owned: 0

Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by Drake Ravensmith »

I don't know what would be causing that problem. Have you updated the card's firmware? Have you tried asking around the eye-fi forums? Contacting customer support? How far away from your router are you? Any other information on your setup you can provide?
aeturneus
Posts: 54
Joined: 23 Dec 2010, 13:57

Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by aeturneus »

Firmware is updated. The router is about 4 feet away, and it behaves the same way whether it is connected through my router or directly to my macbook air.

I'm using a 4gb X2.

I'm poking around the forums, I will post here if I turn something up.
aeturneus
Posts: 54
Joined: 23 Dec 2010, 13:57

Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by aeturneus »

I think the delay might be camera-specific - I'm using an A495. It's about 10 seconds whether endless memory mode is enabled or not. I'm thinking about booting CHDK to see if that fixes the problem. The only problem with that is endless memory mode is not compatible with a FAT-16 formatted bootable filesystem.
aeturneus
Posts: 54
Joined: 23 Dec 2010, 13:57

Re: scanning and downloading at the same time

Post by aeturneus »

Ok, I've formatted the Eye-Fi card, put CHDK on it, and made it bootable. So my A495 now boots CHDK on startup, but doesn't have endless memory mode. That's ok, as I plan to use a remote trigger that will run a script to clear the camera memory when you hold the trigger down for 5 seconds.

Making these adjustments has reduced the idle time from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. So, now 5 seconds after I press the shutter button, images start streaming over to my macbook air, each one taking a few seconds to move over (they are around 2.1mb each). So it's not perfect live streaming, but it is relatively automatic.

Disabling autofocus and using a remote trigger with a CHDK script may further decrease the 5 second delay between taking a picture and streaming it over. I'll let you know any results in that regard when my remote triggers arrive, hopefully next week.
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