Build your own device to control Canon DSLR's

Folks,

Over the last year I have designed and built a microcontroller based unit to control the shutter on a Canon 300D or 350D. The device (in conjunction with) a serial port shutter cable allows you to sequence exposures without the need for a PC in the field. You can sequence up to 99 exposures of 100 minutes each. You can also set the duration of a delay between exposures. Mirror lockup is also supported.

The unit can be built by anyone with the ability to follow some simple circuit diagrams and lay these out on a stripboard. I reckon the parts for the unit will cost less than €30, maybe even cheaper.

I have decided its time to share this and as such have written an article describing how it works, how to build it. All the necessary circuit diagrams and firmware is available for download. I plan to publish a neat stripboard layout and gerber files for a full PCB over the Christmas period.

You can read the article here;

webtreatz.com/content/view/45/1/

I do hope that one or two consider building the unit. I find it invaluable even in my observatory.

Have fun!

I will just add that I have a number of other projects under development including a focus control unit for telescopes! I will publish these as articles too once they are through the development cycle!

Thats mighty impressive Dave, a very nice peice of work, Can I ask, in the first diagram, you are using +12v and -12v, is the -12v a typo, did you mean gnd=0, just wondering.

I'm deffo going to build this one, thanks for sharing !

Dave you are right -12v is just another way to annotate ground. The Americans tend to use -12v rather than gnd. The Germans use 'erde' and the French just don't bother at all

Jeepers!!, I never heard it been called that, you learn something new every day. what a non intuitive way of doing it !
It might explain why some of those LXD mounts didnt work out of the factory :lol: did anyone tell the chinese of this ? :lol:

Nice job, Dave, and dirt cheap too! There's a similar unit being advertised in the back of S&T for over $100 and it doesn't do as much as yours

Couple of quick Q's. You are supplying your 78L12 12v regulator chip with 12v. The normal supply voltage for these chips is 14.5v - 35v. I don't have the specific specs for the UA78L12 (which may accept a 12v input) but it may not be able to continue supplying a regulated 12v output if the input drops below 14.5v - say as your battery voltage drops. This may or may not be a problem for your electronics.

Q2 - What for the double 1N4148 diodes coming off the UA78L12 output?

Happy Christmas to you and Carol,

Phil

PS - You should do an article for Sky&Tel - I'm pretty sure a lot of peoplewould find it extremely useful... and it gets you a bit of free publicity for your website and for future projects you might want to produce commercially!

Q2 - What for the double 1N4148 diodes coming off the UA78L12 output?

Beg pardon - that's supposed to be "coming off the Common leg of the regulator?"

Phil.