Remote Camera Trigger

I made a remote trigger using an MCT6 Optocoupler, some buttons, LED's, and 2.5mm stereo jack.
This will hopefully be able to connect to a microcontroller to take pictures at set intervals. By using the 2.5mm connector, this device should also work with the Canon EOS DSLR cameras. (Which I don't have, but I'll find one to test this on...)

Here are some details...

Opening the HP camera was more complicated than I expected. I had to remove about 15 screws, disconnect several ribbon-cables, and use more force than I am comfortable with with circuit boards. Eventually I got to the shutter button.

The shutter button has two different pressing modes. When you press the button down lightly, the camera focuses, and once you press it all the way down, it takes the picture. I used my multimeter to figure out which pins did what. I figured out that there one pin is connected to ground, the second to the focus trigger and the third to the shutter trigger.
Once I soldered some very thin wires to the button pins I spent some time putting the camera back together. I had to make a small hole in the top so the wires wouldn't be cut by the front cover.
Once I closed it, I soldered the wires to a 2.5mm female stereo connector. This is also used by the Canon DSLRs, so I figured it was a good idea to use it, since I'm planning to upgrade. I also used some heat-shrink tube to protect the tiny wires from breaking too easily.

After the camera was all set, I made a small circuit to trigger the camera. I used an MCT6 optocoupler from Fairchild Semiconductors to isolate the camera from the rest of the circuit. I then connected two button/switches that I found lying around, two resistors, and two LED's to show when each is enabled. The bottom cable assembly with three wires coming out is a 2.5mm male stereo jack that connects to the camera. The left red/white wires come from a homemade 5V power supply.
The full setup can be seen here. The circuit on the right is just a 5V regulator with some filtering capacitors I use for various projects.

The main goal of this project was to test the optocoupler and circuit before I test it with a much more expensive DSLR. I also wanted to see what was inside my old digital camera. Now that this works, I can connect it to a microcontroller and use it for long term time-lapse shots.

Here is a [bad]video of me explaining how it works.



This is the picture that was taken while making the video. The camera in the background on the gorillapod was recording the video.



Thanks to http://als-project.blogspot.com/2009/03/trigger-time.html for the pin-out for the canon trigger.

I'm Back!

It seems that I am not very good at updating this thing unless I am traveling.
I found a summer job in Switzerland, so I will again write about my life over there. I hope it will be interesting...
But before I get there, I need to get my work visa. After many weeks of waiting, I received my approval letter yesterday. Unfortunately the visa is in the consulate in Atlanta, and I am in Rochester. I am aware that I can mail my passport in and get it back, the problem is that I don't know where or to whom. Another problem is that the consulate is closed for holiday both today and on Monday. My flight is scheduled for next Friday, so I have some time. I just hope everything goes to plan.

I'll keep updates here of that process as well.

It's been almost a year...

...since I started this blog. The first post here is from May 11, 2007.

I seem to be bored right now (as usual) so that's why I'm writing here. Whoever knows me well enough knows that I spend most of my time being bored. I always have homework to do, but I never feel like doing it. My brain sort of stops working in the afternoon, so I can't really do much homework.

I really enjoy hanging out with friends, but many times, I end up sitting here at home. After hours of being bored, I usually just go to sleep early and hope for a more interesting day after I wake up. I think it was yesterday, or the day before, that I realized it's mostly all my fault. Being bored is not something I have no control of, but just the opposite. I believe that if I put my mind to it, I should never be bored! It's probably easier said than done, but I will try to keep myself occupied now more than before. I have never tried really hard to be busy, but I think it will be worth it.

This is funny though, since I am only writing this because I am bored (it's a start...) My guess is, that if what I say is true, and I try to keep myself occupied more, there will be many more blog posts. Another guess is that nobody reads this, since I haven’t written anything in a long time, but maybe someone will get lost in the internet and end up here (I don’t even know if that’s possible, but who knows…)

I think I've found something else to do, I guess that's it for today.

About this...

It's almost been a year since I set up this blog. I kind of stopped writing after I arrived from Russia.
So far I have mostly been doing schoolwork and things like that.
I did work on a fun little project though, I think I will write about how it all came to be later.
Here is a picture of the end result:



Aside from that, nothing of much interest has happened.
Maybe I'll just stick to writing about small things like the project. Unless my life gets more interesting, that's all I will have to write about!

Mobile Test Post

This is posting straight from my phone!
I hope it works.... And a picture too!

Update

Ok.... So I haven't written in a while.
I'm not too sad though. I don't think I have ever done all of my homework until now. I hope I can keep it up for the next 8 weeks. The most amazing part (at least to me) is that most of those homeworks are not being collected or graded. It was very hard to do some of them, since I had no idea how to do the math, it was frustrating. I started only doing a little homework each day and it ended up working. I have also been watching movies and random things like that.

All of the classes are still going well. On Monday, I spent three hours in the pool with the kayaking class. We are going to the river in two weeks, so this pool thing was like a quick introduction. Unfortunately, I'm still in pain from that.

This week I have more work to do than last week, and as usual, I'm not doing it. I don't know how I end up finishing it, I guess it just works somehow. On Friday I need to go get my car photographed somewhere so that the insurance company will insure it. I called the place they told me, and they don't work on weekends, so Friday seems like the best option.

I can't think of anything else to write. I know more things happened last week, but oh well.

First Days of School

Yesterday (Monday) was not too bad. I started by going to Physics class at 8am. I then got back to the apartment to figure out what I had or didn't have. I went to WalMart to buy some food and other things, then to OfficeMax to buy some more stuff. I tried to hurry because I thought I had my kayaking class at 4pm. I showed up a few minutes early, no one was there. After a while, I decided to check online to see if there had been any notes about the class posted after I last checked. There were. The class doesn't start until September 21st...
I then went to my Russian class, which is great, because there are only four students! I think that's one of the best class sizes for a language class.

Today I had Engineering Math at 10am. The professor seems pretty cool. The only problem was that the book we all bought is not the one we will be using, so I went and returned it at the bookstore. I also had Programming for Engineers. The professor there is in charge of all the robotics and stuff in the Electrical Engineering department, which is what I want to do, so I thought that was awesome.
After that was Complex Variables, which is yet another math class. I'm told the professor is from Hungary, which explains his accent, but he is a great teacher. I think the different accents help me stay focused, instead of listening to the same monotonous ones some professors have. Finally, I had Russian again. Now I think I will go to bed, I'm going to try to go to the gym tomorrow morning. I also start working then.