here is another Arduino based sound/light flash trigger http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=11

Posted at 7:30 am on Jun 14th, 2009 by momotarosan

Both of those rock!

Posted at 7:38 am on Jun 14th, 2009 by Etan

Just wanted to be the first to get the “How is this a hack?” comment in.

Srsly though, very cool stuff.

Posted at 7:39 am on Jun 14th, 2009 by Alchemyguy

hmm do u think it is possible to attach an flash sensitive optical sensor to it as well as a flash module? thus u trigger the flash of european speed cams while speeding on the highway. the module will then flash them back and render the picture useless. just a thought.

Posted at 9:18 am on Jun 14th, 2009 by nimrod

Any one notice that this pcb seems rather simple?

look at it…. it’s an instruction manual in itself if your familiar with the pic/propeller/whatever there using.

Posted at 12:04 pm on Jun 14th, 2009 by Zagro

flashing back is already used in special license tag holders but does not work at all – after scanning the chemical photography they can enhance the contrast easily and reveal the number.

Posted at 1:01 pm on Jun 14th, 2009 by Till

Cool!

For anyone with Canon cameras they can use CHDK for free to do some types of motion detection: http://google.com/search?q=chdk+motion+detection

The camera axe looks better for getting the timing exact, or for trigger multiple cameras.

Posted at 5:00 pm on Jun 14th, 2009 by robocat

Thanks to everyone for your comments.

robocat, chdk is a very slick piece of software. Chdk works on mostly point and shoot cameras like Canon’s powershot series. I really wish someone could get it working on higher end SLR cameras, but to the best of my knowledge nobody has. Even if it did work on SLR cameras it would not be solving the same problem. There is some overlap like timelapse. In general Camera Axe is more about extending your camera with new hardware which allows things to be very quick. Chdk modifies software and for things like motion detection is very slow in comparison. That said I really think chdk is nice software and would highly recommend anyone at all interested in trying it to do so.

Posted at 6:04 pm on Jun 14th, 2009 by ribblem

Long time reader, first time posting.

Just wanted to add that there is an alternative for high-speed photography triggering systems: http://www.hiviz.com/kits/products.htm

They sell kits that with a little mod, can achieve the exact same results at nearly 1/10 of the costs of the one stated by the OP.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

Posted at 9:11 pm on Jun 14th, 2009 by Dalton

i like how buttons are done, simple and practical

Posted at 10:36 pm on Jun 14th, 2009 by therian

therian: Except it looks like right is on the left, and left is on the right. I wonder why.

Posted at 2:01 pm on Jun 15th, 2009 by Curtman

This is because the buttons are soldered to the opposite side of the board. This means you need to mirror the button positions because the board is getting flipped. The pictures on the blog show this and if you think about it works.

Posted at 2:06 pm on Jun 15th, 2009 by ribblem

Ribblem, I guess the ghosting is happening because you are not using a strobe. If you trigger a strobe flash with camera I think you’d get much better results.

Posted at 3:00 pm on Jun 15th, 2009 by Concino

Thanks concino, the 580ex used to produce good results. Then I dropped it and I damaged it. I know what’s wrong, but I can’t fix it at a reasonable price so I need a new flash. If you have a canon flash (or something similar) you should put it into manual mode and it’s lowest power setting (1/128th for the 580ex). This will normally cause a 1/40,000th second burst of light which is more than fast enough to freeze the motion of things I’m doing.

Posted at 3:14 pm on Jun 15th, 2009 by ribblem

Am I the only one disappointed by not finding a camera attached to the head of an axe???

Posted at 3:52 pm on Jun 15th, 2009 by srilyk

@ribblem

CHDK can be used with an SLR or any camera: use a cheap point&shoot running CHDK to trigger the other camera.
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,3097.0.html

CHDK hackers are working on making CHDK available for Canon DSLR cameras:
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/board,33.0.html

I do love custom purpose hardware though!

Posted at 6:49 pm on Jun 15th, 2009 by robocat