On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:28:12 +1000, David Eather wrote:
On 14/07/2010 10:12 AM, Jim Thompson wrote:
On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:43:00 -0500, Frnak McKenney
wrote:
On Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:09:49 -0700, Jim wrote:
On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:42:18 +1000, David
wrote:
On 13/07/2010 8:56 AM, Jim Thompson wrote:
Olympus SP-800UZ
I think you're out of luck.
HDMI and USB won't do it and there is no remote cable, RF or IR remote
you can play with.
Yep. Now entertaining electro-mechanical ;-)
Jim,
If you're taking that route, you might consider a "hobby" servo such
as these (or do a search on Hi-Tec):
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=9065
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=9064
You'd still need to build a frame to attach it to the camera (or the
tripod mount) and a linkage to translate the servo rotation to the
proper amount of pressure (several "cranks" are generally included).
Also, someone would have to design the electronics to take whatever
control signal you wanted to use into the "standard" pulse-position
signal. Know anyone who could help you here?grin!
[...]
Thanks for the pointer. My circuit design life is filled with all
kinds of fun stuff: Six years ago I did a R/C receiver/servo-decoder
chip design ;-)
Jim,
Here's your chance to do an R/C servo _encoder_ chip (just add die
and serve grin!).
By the way: there's an item in the latest Make magazine (#23) from
someone who used a 556-based design to drive a DC motor with a cam
to periodically trip a camera shutter. Not an on-demand kind of
gdget, but his goal was to able take aerial photos from a kite.
As for the mechanical stuff, a 'web search with the following:
camera shutter operate|press|release motor|servo
turns up a lot of stuff, including the following:
KAP | Building a Shutter Release Servo Bracket
http://www.uscoles.com/kapservobracket.html
You may or may not want to follow up on those suggesting attaching
the servo to the camera with epoxy or caulking compound. grin!
[...]
Will you be able to use the servo on the two position "shutter release"?
And will there be a noise problem for nature photography (especially owls)?
David,
Good questions (the questions are always the fun part grin!).
An R/C (radio control) servo is a "proportional movement" kind of
thing: depending on the pulses it receives, it rotates CW or CCW
some amount (up to a limit). It is capable, given the proper electronic
and mechanical attachments, of letting you use (e.g.) a joystick to
press a shutter partway or full down. What it does not provide is any
feedback, so you need to measure (and mark) how far you would need to
push the joystick in order to execute a "half-push" or "full-push".
On your second question, I understand your problem. Deer and hawks are
remarkably sensitive to the sounds my Panasonic FZ-50 makes when
focussing and snapping; I can disable the latter, but only if I don't
forget. grin!
Most of the R/C servos I'm aware of are based on tiny DC motors, and
have a slight "whine" to them as they operate. From what I've heard of
owls, I'd expect that one would be able to hear a servo operating;
whether this would affect them you'd have to read up on or test out.
Frank McKenney
--
War is repugnant to the people of the United States; yet it is war
that has made their nation and it is through their power to wage
war that they dominate the world. Americans are proficient in war
in the same way that they are proficient at work. It is a task,
sometimes a duty. Americans have worked at war since the seven-
teenth century, to protect themselves from the Indians, to win
their independence from George III, to make themselves one country,
to extinguish autocracy and dictatorship in the world outside. It
is not their favored form of work. Left to themselves, Americans
build, cultivate, bridge, dam, canalise, invent, teach, manufacture,
think, write, lock themselves in struggle with eternal challenges
that man has chosen to confront, and with an intensity not known
elsewhere on the globe. Bidden to make war their work, Americans
shoulder the burden with intimidating purpose, There is, I have
said, an American mystery, the nature of which I only begin to
perceive. If I were obliged to define it, I would say that it is
the ethos -- masculine, pervading, unrelenting -- of work as an end
in itself. War is a form of work, and America makes war, however
reluctantly, however unwillingly, in a particularly workmanlike way.
I do not love war; but I love America.
-- John Keegan / Fields of Battle
--
Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates
Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887
Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut mined spring dawt cahm (y'all)