Remote Camera Trigger

[floydbloke]

Here are a clip and some stills showing some fun I had this afternoon with a modified light sensor, a PCF8574 with a 4066 switch, and my sons HotWheels ramp. I built a remote shutter trigger for my camera to capture the car (or truck in this case) in mid-air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh4RZXVmRNk
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24654705@N ... 328768986/

[mightor]

Those are some awesome results! Next try doing the water drop hitting the surface thing, that'll be a nice challenge, I bet!

- Xander

[floydbloke]

Those are some awesome results!

Dankjewel

Next try doing the water drop hitting the surface thing, that'll be a nice challenge, I bet!

Next weekend's project

[doc222]

Great pictures and results.

Doc

[nxtreme]

Makes me wish I had a DSLR or a camera with a remote triggering system . I'll have to look up the pinouts of my camera.

One question. You had two light sensors for the light "barrier" to trigger the camera. One looked like it had been taken apart. Did you mod it to laser or are both still original?

[floydbloke]

I'll have to look up the pinouts of my camera.

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was just a matter of shorting the pins. I also happened to have a spare remote shutter with a nice long cable that I could pull to bits to have a plug with a snug fit to the camera

One looked like it had been taken apart. Did you mod it to laser or are both still original?

One was laser modded. Thinking about it you could probably get away with a single original light sensor if you mounted it under the track and made a small hole in it (the track). Alternatively you could build something with a touch sensor as well I guess.

[doc222]

I wonder if the new magnetic sensor would work too? Those cars are metal i think, the older one back in the day were.

Doc

[azhepcat]

Very cool! I'm trying something similar except I'm using the ultrasonic sensor and I'm trying to capture hummingbirds. Would an electronics noob be able to figure out how to hook up the 4066 to one of the prototype boards(Hitechnic or Mindsensor)? Right now I have one of the servo motors pushing the button on the remote and it's not fast enough. Pin-outs for my Canon remote are short 1 and 2 for focus, short 1,2,3 or 1,3 to shoot.

Thomas

[floydbloke]

Would an electronics noob be able to figure out how to hook up the 4066 to one of the prototype boards(Hitechnic or Mindsensor)?

Absolutely, I'm very much an amateur myself so it had to be simple for me to be able to do it. Here are the pin-outs:



I suggest using manual focus. Connect one of the outputs of your prototype board (PCF8547) to pin 13 of the 4066. Connect pins 1 & 3 from your camera to pins 1 & 2 of the 4066. Then in your NXT program, instead of turning the motor, tell the PCF8547 to set the appropriate pin to high. This is equvalent to pushing the button on the camera remote, so after a few moments pull the pin down again.

I'm not sure if using a 4066 is the best, or even the right, way to do this but for the price of one I thought I 'd give it a crack and it worked for me.

Edit: hmm, not sure why pasting the image link didn't work. Anyway, do a google image-search on 4066 and you can have a look at the pin-outs

[mightor]

Your image is broken. You can try this one instead:


- Xander