Hey great project! Thanks for sharing this. I've been a big fan of CHDK for a while now but have not made use of the remote shutter release function. I have 2 questions. 1) Did you have to run a script to use it? 2) Can your remote shutter release control the video record button? or only the shutter? I have some also created a few CHDK tutorials on my channel. Glad to see someone else out there doing it too!
Found your project interesting and very simple. Two questions: which contacts on the USB pinout did you use, and have you synced two cameras with this rig?
@haggismcbagpipes Thanks, good looking video. I too am happy with this camera. A question I have is which USB jack on the camera do you plug the remote into? I'm not clear on that. There is a small one and a bigger one. Thanks for your help.
@BigNate84 Thanks :) At one time you did have to run a script to use the remote shutter release, but they have since integrated the functionality into CHDK. You can still script it if you want. There is no built-in way to control the video record button, but you could probably script it fairly easily. Funny, I watched your CHDK RAW video some time ago! Thanks for that :)
@azopene The smaller of the two ports is the USB connector. It is the same port you'd use to plug the camera into your computer to take pictures off of it directly if you weren't using a card reader.
@haggismcbagpipes Thanks for the response! Good info. First I'll have to build a little project box with a button like you did in this video. If I can get that to work then maybe i'll try to write or find a script to gain control of the video record button. Its been a while since I took Programming in C. Hopefully I can figure out the art of CHDK code writing. That way I wont have to get out of my seat to start recording. It takes a lot of work to be lazy!
@azopene Yes, the switch is a momentary type, normally open. Go read up on the CHDK firmware, there are several ways it can handle the remote shutter. The default setup in the firmware is you press the button once for half-press, then release and press again quickly for full press. There's also a mode where you press and hold the button for half-press and when you release the button, the shutter will fire. Have a look at the CHDK homepage.
Thanks, I liked that it was simple to do. Have a look at the schematic I posted a link to above. It will show which contacts on the USB pinout I used. The simple answer is that assuming your USB cable is standard, the red and black wire will be your positive and negative leads respectively. I have not sync'd two cameras with it. It should be easily possible to do, you'd just need to wire in a second USB cable to connect to the second camera.
The other way you could be sure you got the right pins on the USB cable would be to take a multimeter and probe a standard cable while it's plugged into a power source (computer) and find the positive and negative pins. That would tell you which pins to wire up to. The schematic I have shows pin 1 to be the positive +5V and pin 4 to be ground (-)
@haggismcbagpipes Thanks appreciate it. I wonder why Canon didn't include this and other functions this camera is capable of when it's just a matter of a little more software. Maybe the manual got too big.
@azopene I took a USB cable that worked with the camera and removed the end that would normally plug into the computer. There are four wires, only two that we care about. The black goes to the battery negative and red goes to positive. I also tested this with a volt meter to be sure the polarity was correct. I have updated the description of the video to include a couple links that may help, including a schematic for the circuit.
Hi Is the switch a momentary contact type? How about focusing? I'm concerned with how this device handles the camera's half push for focusing? Thanks ruko
@BigNate84 Have a look at the CHDK scripting stuff, it's in a fairly simple dialect of BASIC (or lua if you want). You can see an example at the link I posted in the description to this video that doesn't look too bad. You'd probably just have to figure out what to call to press the video record button from the script. I hear ya on the lazy thing :)
Hey great project! Thanks for sharing this. I've been a big fan of CHDK for a while now but have not made use of the remote shutter release function. I have 2 questions. 1) Did you have to run a script to use it? 2) Can your remote shutter release control the video record button? or only the shutter? I have some also created a few CHDK tutorials on my channel. Glad to see someone else out there doing it too!
Found your project interesting and very simple. Two questions: which contacts on the USB pinout did you use, and have you synced two cameras with this rig?
@haggismcbagpipes
Thanks, good looking video. I too am happy with this camera. A question I have is which USB jack on the camera do you plug the remote into? I'm not clear on that. There is a small one and a bigger one. Thanks for your help.
@BigNate84
Thanks :) At one time you did have to run a script to use the remote shutter release, but they have since integrated the functionality into CHDK. You can still script it if you want. There is no built-in way to control the video record button, but you could probably script it fairly easily. Funny, I watched your CHDK RAW video some time ago! Thanks for that :)
@azopene
The smaller of the two ports is the USB connector. It is the same port you'd use to plug the camera into your computer to take pictures off of it directly if you weren't using a card reader.
@haggismcbagpipes Thanks for the response! Good info. First I'll have to build a little project box with a button like you did in this video. If I can get that to work then maybe i'll try to write or find a script to gain control of the video record button. Its been a while since I took Programming in C. Hopefully I can figure out the art of CHDK code writing. That way I wont have to get out of my seat to start recording. It takes a lot of work to be lazy!
I know nothing about diodes. I think this polarity protection is an excellent idea. What size did you use?
@azopene Yes, the switch is a momentary type, normally open. Go read up on the CHDK firmware, there are several ways it can handle the remote shutter. The default setup in the firmware is you press the button once for half-press, then release and press again quickly for full press. There's also a mode where you press and hold the button for half-press and when you release the button, the shutter will fire. Have a look at the CHDK homepage.
Thanks, I liked that it was simple to do.
Have a look at the schematic I posted a link to above. It will show which contacts on the USB pinout I used. The simple answer is that assuming your USB cable is standard, the red and black wire will be your positive and negative leads respectively.
I have not sync'd two cameras with it. It should be easily possible to do, you'd just need to wire in a second USB cable to connect to the second camera.
The other way you could be sure you got the right pins on the USB cable would be to take a multimeter and probe a standard cable while it's plugged into a power source (computer) and find the positive and negative pins. That would tell you which pins to wire up to. The schematic I have shows pin 1 to be the positive +5V and pin 4 to be ground (-)
Hello again,
Did you take your video with the SX30? Just wondering.
@haggismcbagpipes
Thanks. I'm working on a radio controlled version and I'll maybe post a video when I'm done. Providing it works of course.
@haggismcbagpipes
Thanks appreciate it. I wonder why Canon didn't include this and other functions this camera is capable of when it's just a matter of a little more software. Maybe the manual got too big.
@azopene I took a USB cable that worked with the camera and removed the end that would normally plug into the computer. There are four wires, only two that we care about. The black goes to the battery negative and red goes to positive. I also tested this with a volt meter to be sure the polarity was correct.
I have updated the description of the video to include a couple links that may help, including a schematic for the circuit.
Hi
Is the switch a momentary contact type? How about focusing? I'm concerned with how this device handles the camera's half push for focusing?
Thanks
ruko
@azopene
That would be sweet, I'd love to see that. Good luck with it!
Hi again
How about a wiring diagram for the unit? Specifically the USB connection to the camera.
Thanks
ruko
is there any chance u can show a video of u using this one the camera please.
@azopene Indeed I did .. so far I've been quite happy with this camera.
@BigNate84 Have a look at the CHDK scripting stuff, it's in a fairly simple dialect of BASIC (or lua if you want). You can see an example at the link I posted in the description to this video that doesn't look too bad. You'd probably just have to figure out what to call to press the video record button from the script. I hear ya on the lazy thing :)