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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Viktor's DIY: Lil Bang (Sound Trigger for Cameras)

Here's a great looking Audio Activated Camera Trigger....

Don

Lil Bang (Sound Trigger for Cameras)

Introduction
Now that I can take pictures of lightning I decided that I also want to be able to trigger my camera with sound. The design I came up with has the following features:

Controlled by a PIC micro (PIC16F886).
Adjustable sensitivity
Adjustable delay – i.e. the user can set how many milliseconds after the sound event the picture should be taken. (My uncle says it would be a lot better if there was a setting to define how much BEFORE the event it should trigger the camera – but that’s another project – for my Nobel prize later this year…J)
Operated from battery and/or external power brick.
Completely decoupled from the camera by opto couplers, so that no harm can be caused by the circuit to the camera.
Can be used with any camera that has a remote control input (direct, IR or otherwise).
Can also be used to trigger any other electronic device, e.g. flash

Meet Lil Bang - little bro of the Big Bang :)

If you like this project and would like to build it yourself all the necessary information on it is below. If you don’t feel adventurous enough to build it yourself but still would like to have it I can prepare you a kit or a fully built unit – drop me a line for more info.

Hardware

Read More...
http://diy.viktak.com/2012/02/lil-bang-sound-trigger-for-cameras.html

Friday, March 25, 2011

Zeus: trigger your camera with lightning

Introduction
I have always been fascinated by photographs about lightnings. While it is relatively easily to put a lightning strike in any photograph using image editing techniques :) I still prefer the real thing. Since photography is a hobby of mine, I wanted to be able to photograph lightnings. However, when I tried to do it without any specialized equipment, I didn't have much success.

The finished product.
I don't like the knob on the potentiometer, I just put it on for the sake of the photo - who knows when I will find a nicer one...

Reading a bit about the subject on the internet I found there are many designs/solutions available, to get around the problem. Since the price of the commercially available ones are too high for my budget (and let's face it, it's not much fun buying something ready made when you can also make it yourself), I decided to make one for myself for less.

I found many similar designs on different web sites and finally I came up with my own, which is - admittedly - very similar to one particular one I found on this photography site (only in Hungarian). I kept most of the design, but replaced the relays with opto couplers and put the whole thing in a plastic box to make it easy to drag around.

If you are interested to make one like this, please e-mail me. I can provide you with customized kits that contain as many or as few components as you need/like (from just a programmed microcontroller to a fully built and tested PCB) to suit your experience/skills. Please note, I do NOT provide the enclosure as it is very time consuming for me to make. The code for the PIC is also available on request.

Hardware

Read More...
http://diy.viktak.com/2011/03/zeus-lightning-trigger-for-cameras.html

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Solid State Relay Switched Mains Rig

Introduction

For a number of my upcoming projects I need a rig to test the functionality of a solid state relay that would be driven by a microcontroller and switch the mains for other devices. Having done projects with similar requirements in the past I remembered how much pain it was to test the solid state relay (SSR) with naked mains cables running around, etc. This time I decided to create a marginally more sophisticated setup that would allow a quick, easy and safe way to do this. Also, now that I have made this once, I can reuse this rig in any future project with zero effort. Making this took about a day's work - most of the time was spent on finding materials that suited my needs.