how do i make a noise activated shutter

[wendellt]

hi people hapopy new year
my first newie question fior this year

i read somewhere on the forum about nosie activated shutters a device that woudl trigger a camera shutter on cue with a noise(baloon popping)

someone here made one relatively simply and theres some to purchase what's the best option for for a d2x or d200?

thankyou in advance

i can compensate anyone who wants to build me one

best

Wendell

[gstark]

Wendell,

Are we talking about a device that triggers the shutter, or one that triggers the flash?

The flash trigger is fairly simple to construct - Jaycar probably has a kit - and anyone handy with a soldering iron should be able to whip one up in a few hours.

For one that triggers a shutter, you need to interface with the camera and its shutter, which is a much more complex task.

[ATJ]

Wendell,

As Gary says, a noise activated flash is easy peasy. I made one years ago from a kit. It was very simple.

I'm wondering if you might be able to use the same sort of kit and then interface it to a remote control, like the ones that Poon sells. The remotes are only around $16 so it wouldn't be a lot of money to pull one apart and replace the button with the sound circuitry.

[wendellt]

Wendell,

Are we talking about a device that triggers the shutter, or one that triggers the flash?

The flash trigger is fairly simple to construct - Jaycar probably has a kit - and anyone handy with a soldering iron should be able to whip one up in a few hours.

For one that triggers a shutter, you need to interface with the camera and its shutter, which is a much more complex task.

if the device im thinking of triggers the flash only what's the point of it unless you had the shutter on long exposure to capture the flash

im sure i saw a device that triggered the flash and inversely triggered the shutter too or maybe im just thinking of somethign else

thankyou

[ATJ]

if the device im thinking of triggers the flash only what's the point of it unless you had the shutter on long exposure to capture the flash

The one I made I would use in a darkened room and put the camera on bulb. You could even adjust its sensitivity so that even a faint noise would trigger it. I had some shots of dropping a golf ball into a cup of water.

[jdear]

I bought a kit from Hi Viz which triggers the flash which freezes the object while the shutter is kept open.
Some photos from their website of the kit in use are here

This is really effective... why don't you want to leave the shutter open for any length of time?

You might be more after some rapids by elinchrom which fire at an insane speed to freeze action.

Jonathan

[gstark]

Wendell,

if the device im thinking of triggers the flash only what's the point of it unless you had the shutter on long exposure to capture the flash

Exactly, and as Andrew says: you set the camera to B in a dark room, and then you open your shutter.

Your noise triggers the flash; you then close the shutter.

Working this way is very generic.

Working with a shutter means, as I said, interfacing with either the camera electronics, or with the electronics of a remote shutter. In that latter case, I guess that you could close the contacts of the switch on a wireless remote, but your timing issues become even more severe than with the flash scenario.

Yes, timing issues .... you may also need to consider that there will be some lag between when your sound triggers the flash (or shutter) and when your flash goes off, or when your shutter opens.

Let's take a somewhat extreme example - you want to get a shot of a bullet traveling through the air. You need to place your camera in a location that will have the shutter open when the bullet passes by that location.

if the camera is too close to the gun (the source of the trigger noise) then by the time the shutter opens, the bullet has already traveled past that location.

Similarly, if you're wanting to get the the bullet entering a target, you need to time your shot so that the shutter (or flash) is triggered just prior to the bullet entering that target.

[johnd]

Wendell, this is the sort of electronics that TasAdam plays around with. Adam is a member of this forum, so it may be worth asking him.

Cheers
John

[Steffen]

If you get one of those $20 aftermarket wired remotes it should be easy enough to modify it and make it work with a sound trigger. That should give you a noise activated shutter.

On second thought, I don't think you even have to modify it. AFAIR, they have a little socket to connect another wired remote (so you can hook multiple of them together). You could just plug your sound switch (JayCar kit?) in there...

Cheers
Steffen.

[Biggzie]

The first thing I would do is buy a cheap remote cable switch to suit your camera. Then open it and see if there is a switch that can be unsoldered. If there is, you can solder in a relay across the switch to trigger from an external source. A relay would be the easiest to connect.
The next thing you need to do is find something to trigger it. So you have to ask yourself what type of sound you want to trigger it with, and also what sounds would falsely trigger it.
If its just a trigger at a volume level, you could get someone to whip up a simple level triggered device with a cheap microphone. If you need to isolate the sound, then you might need to add sound tone circuits to the trigger so you can tune out false triggering sounds, and you may need a directional microphone or some sort of sound barrier/reflector to stop other sounds from false triggering.

I made a simple sound level trigger years ago from a LED Level kit. (not for a camera)
Basically I made a LED level kit and tuned it to what I wanted, then changed 1 of the LEDs to an opto-coupler to trigger another circuit. That way I could see the ambient sound levels from all the other LEDs like what you see on a sound system as your playing music, and I could turn the knob to change the thresh hold level of the Opto-Coupler trigger.
(I hope you can understand that)

[Viz]

http://www.makezine.com/images/04/p102_109strobe.pdf

I read this a while ago, and I think it is primarily to operate the flash, but might be able to be modded to control a wired remote. From memory it is pretty expensive, but had options to control gain/sensitivity etc. You might be able to look at the circuit diagrams and do it much cheaper yourself.

[blacknstormy]

Wendell - SteveGriffin made one a while ago - it's how he took his reject egg shots for the one egg challenge .... and I know that he also got some great shots of an exploding balloon using the trigger.
maybe send him a pm and have a chat?

[Yi-P]

You can build the sound activated remote through the release cable, but the problem when you are after high speed photography, the delay lags.

The D2X shutter lag is about 40-45ms. That is, you are losing at least 45ms (1/22 sec) time as the sound is activated (excluding the trigger delay). On a very high speed object, it might have flew away or it exploded/impacted already.

Im not sure which way you want to use your sound trigger as, but if you are after something really fast, a flash trigger would be more of an option. If you are after something for fashion/studio shots which activated by sound, the cable release method can work.

[tasadam]

I would be able to modify the circuit in my remote to incorporate a sound trigger. I am sure it would be easy, I'll give it some thought.
I could make a modification to the receiver circuit - the one on the camera - that detects sound, or I could make a sound detection device that fires the remote transmitter, but there would be more work in that.
If there were a real need for the "microphone" to be remote to the camera, I could build a custom transmitter that has the mic in it, giving you the scope to place it anywhere. But really, a plug to the receiver and a mic on a cable would be a better option if you did need remote sound detection.
If you want to PM me some more about your ideas of what you want to use it for, I will be happy to consider this when coming up with a mod to my design.
Cheers.