using DR-40 coupler for S90 with battery door open?

joniverson wrote:

I recently acquired a Canon S90 and a DR-40 coupler so I can use external DC. However, much to my disappointment, there is power only if I go through the hole in the closed door. If opened and the jack plugged directly into the DR-40, when I try and turn on the camera, no power. So, is there any way I can power the camera with the DR-40 and open door? I wanted to be able to insert and remove the SD card without having to remove the camera from the tripod each time. My guess is that there must be a switch activated when the battery door is closed that is in an open state when the door is opened. Perhaps I could defeat the switch somehow with a shim (toothpick)? That is, only if I knew where the switch was.

Yes, there's usually a switch on cameras of that generation. I don't have an S90, but on my D10 there's a plastic bump on the door which engages a small white plastic switch next to the battery. Holding the white plastic bit in with a paperclip allows the camera to start. The D10 door is probably quite different from S90, the switch on yours could be near the hinge mechanism.

With CHDK it's possible to make a special build that spoofs the door switch in software for many cams (this works because the switch doesn't actually prevent the camera from booting, it starts, notices the switch is in the wrong state, and shuts down). The S90 port doesn't currently have this feature, but it could probably be added.

Note that removing/inserting the card while the camera is running is probably a bad idea.

Thanks for the info. Yes, a paper clip did the trick. There was a little small switch that, once depressed, the camera would come on. However, it's not really worth using the DC adapter. I can't get the lens to retract nor take any RAW images. I'm almost certain it's because of poor current from the power supply because using internal batteries, I don't have these issues. I was worried about battery life but after using the camera, I don't think I'm going to have to be concerned.

I'm not familiar with CHDK.  I'm going to assume it's a program that resides on the SD card and changes/ modifies camera function.  I really wish this camera had RAW file availability in AUTO mode.  So far, only the other modes offer RAW but not AUTO.

Ok, so I tracked down the CHDK program and installed the files.  It took a little detective work, but  I now have RAW files in auto mode which is very good.  One thing I'm going to try and do though it have it set to boot up when the camera does.  Right now, I have to manually load it each time.  I just wanted to test though before going further with the program.  Thanks for the suggestion!

joniverson wrote:

Ok, so I tracked down the CHDK program and installed the files. It took a little detective work, but I now have RAW files in auto mode which is very good. One thing I'm going to try and do though it have it set to boot up when the camera does. Right now, I have to manually load it each time. I just wanted to test though before going further with the program. Thanks for the suggestion!

To have CHDK start automatically, you need to make the card bootable, see https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/Prepare_your_SD_card

Briefly: Canon uses special, canon-specific "BOOTDISK" string to identify bootable cards, (not the normal bootflag the OSes use). This can be set within CHDK using the "make card bootable" menu item, EXCEPT...

for cameras like S90 which were released before 2011, the camera can only boot from FAT16 (or FAT12) partitions. Since FAT16 only supports up to 4GB, you must create a multi-partition card if you want to use more space. The simplest way to do this is using one of the setup programs "Stick" or "Chimp" linked from the wiki page above, although you can do it with gparted or similar.

FWIW CHDK also allows you to control the camera from a PC and "remote shoot" where the files are saved directly to the PC. Depending what you are doing, this may be a useful alternative to keep the door open and swapping the card. See https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/PTP_Extension

Thanks for the info. Yes, a paper clip did the trick. There was a little small switch that, once depressed, the camera would come on. However, it's not really worth using the DC adapter. I can't get the lens to retract nor take any RAW images. I'm almost certain it's because of poor current from the power supply because using internal batteries, I don't have these issues. I was worried about battery life but after using the camera, I don't think I'm going to have to be concerned.

That's odd. FWIW, I have 3 cheap amazon knockoff power supplies I've used with a several different powershot models and haven't seen anything like that.

reyalp wrote:

That's odd. FWIW, I have 3 cheap amazon knockoff power supplies I've used with a several different powershot models and haven't seen anything like that.

It was just as I thought, a poor connection between the plug and power supply cord.  Once that was reinforced today, no more camera issues.