Building A Remote Control For A Cable Release Camera

wireless-shutter-for-mechanical-camera

A lot of the remote shutter and intervalometer hacks we see are simplified by the camera’s built-in Infrared or other shutter techniques. But this camera doesn’t have a simple way to electronically trigger the shutter. The Fuji x100 is a digital camera, but it uses a cable release mechanism. The box you see on top is [Andy’s] method of making a remote shutter release for it.

The solution for “remote” triggering is that black cable which physically attaches to the shutter button. Just depress the plunger at the opposite end and a picture will be snapped. This process is automated with the use of a hobby servo hidden inside the box. It’s driven by an Arduino which is also monitoring the receiver. You could use just about any remote thanks to the Arduino’s flexibility in interfacing with hardware (we would have gone with a Bluetooth module and our smartphone). [Andy] chose to use an RF remote and receiver for a different camera.

10 thoughts on “Building A Remote Control For A Cable Release Camera

  1. I use the receivers from the cheap one button ‘reverse and turn’ style of radio control cars for this sort of thing. You put a reversed diode in series with the motor output, and connect a solenoid. When the motor output’s polarity reverses, the solenoid pulls in. No need to use an arduino or a servo, and the build is cheap enough that I can just screw down the cover and not be tempted to cannibalize parts from it.

  2. I did something like this a long time ago. It was for a paraplegic girl in a wheelchair who wanted to take photos. I used a VOX circuit to detect speech, which triggered a relay to drive a motor. The motor turned an eccentric wheel. The eccentric wheel pushed on the cable-release and also actuated a microswitch which turned the motor off after one revolution.

  3. interesting, i just bought a “plunger” cable for a project just like this one only yesterday for 1$, except in my project it mimics a physical poke with a servo motor. great minds think alike no?

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