Solving Issues with GB Timelapse

When I first purchased GB Timelapse to control one of my Canon timelapse cameras, I was having issues with it disconnecting from the camera, sometimes once a day, sometimes once every 5 minutes.

Through MUCH turmoil and experimentation, I found the source of the issues and want to post them here to save you all the time and trouble.

USB Extension Cables

My first problem was that the was camera disconnecting from the computer and from the GB Timelapse program. I discovered that this was the USB extension cables I was using.

I had purchased some nice USB 2.0 repeater cables that can be daisy changed up to 16 feet. This allowed me to put the camera away from the computer (so the computer didn't have to be next to the window).

I moved the computer to the window and removed the USB extension cables. 90% of my disconnect problems vanished.

The canon remote drivers that GB timelapse uses to communicate with the camera are very finicky about errors in communication via the USB cable.

Extra Shielding

To get rid of the remaining 10% of disconnect issues, I tried putting tin foil around the USB cable and then alligator-clipping the foil to the computer ground (the case) as an experiment (photos below) to see if it was picking up EMF noise.

Sure enough, this eliminated 9% of the remaining 10% of my disconnect issues, but it would still disconnect a few times a week, which was frustrating if it was in the middle of a great chemtrail capture.

Stainless Steel Shielding

Finally, I purchased some high quality braided stainless steel shielding and wrapped the USB cable in it instead of the foil. I then clipped the shielding to the computer case (ground) with an alligator clip.

This has eliminated all remaining disconnect issues and I have now run my camera for about 3 months non-stop without a single disconnect.

Here is a link to the braiding that I used:
http://cableorganizer.com/stainless-steel-braid/

I cut it so it actually covers nearly all of the cable. It even covers the noise-reducing metal bead/cylinder at the end of the cable. I then secured it at each end with a nylon cable tie (see photos below).

Raising Windows Process Priority

When I recently connected a web cam to the same computer for automatically uploading pictures to our server, I once again began having the same disconnect issues with GB Timelapse.

I solved this issue by Raising the Process/Thread priority from "Normal" to "Above Norma" for GB Timelapse. I figured perhaps YawCam (the web cam software that I'm using) was stealing just enough CPU time to interfere with the USB communication between the camera and the computer.

You can change a thread or process priority by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete (as if you want to reset the computer), then go to the Task Manager, then go to the "Processes" tab. Right click on GB Timelapse, then "Priority", then set it to "Above Normal".

I haven't had a single disconnect issue since.

I hope this saves you a lot of time and trouble.

If you have any problems or questions about doing timelapse, please feel free to let me know.