Digital Servo - Camera Shutter

[KarbonBird]

I am having problems with torque on the HS-55 servo I have installed to trigger my camera - it is unable to apply sufficient pressure to full depress the shutter button.

I have the following servos available: HS-56 and a digital servo (torque 1.9 kg - speed 0.09).

Question is - is it possible to drive a digital servo from a standard JR 770S receiver or do you need to have some kind of interim circuit to drive it?

[kandrews5725]

I'm fairly new to the RC AP world, but so far the best solutions I have found to remote shutter control on your camera would be to skip the use of a servo and use either a USB zoom/shutter controller as seen here:

http://www.blip.com.au/item.aspx?itemID=14

or spend no money at all and hack the firmware on your camera so that you can set it up to shoot in intervals, or timelapse.

I have a Canon Powershot A640 and have had great results with the firmware hack here:

http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK/FAQ

Now all I do is set up my camera to take a picture every 5 seconds and set up my downlink with the live video feed from my camera and I can see what I am shooting.

Cheap and easy. That's the way to go.

Hope this helps.

Keith

[SeismicCWave]

I use a Hitec HS 65 to push the shutter on my Leica D-Lux 3. Most servos will have enough power to push the trigger. It is just a matter of mounting the servo properly. Also instead of using the servo arm pushing on the shutter try to fabricate a servo wheel that moves like a cam.

[KarbonBird]

I use a Hitec HS 65 to push the shutter on my Leica D-Lux 3. Most servos will have enough power to push the trigger. It is just a matter of mounting the servo properly. Also instead of using the servo arm pushing on the shutter try to fabricate a servo wheel that moves like a cam.

Thanks ... do you have a pic of your setup?

[trireme]

I am using a timer. I love it. My camera just takes pictures ever 5 seconds. It was under $10 in parts. I am triggering the autofocus stage, and then the shutter. You need to solder lines to the camera, but other then that its pretty easy. I have a 2 gig card in my camera, so I can hold about 700 shots, so thats about an hour at that speed. Then I just copy what I like from the camera, and format. Saves the pain in ass of dealing with a switch. Just aim the heli and hold the hover. And the camera will just shoot.

[KarbonBird]

I am using a timer. I love it. My camera just takes pictures ever 5 seconds. It was under $10 in parts. I am triggering the autofocus stage, and then the shutter. You need to solder lines to the camera, but other then that its pretty easy. I have a 2 gig card in my camera, so I can hold about 700 shots, so thats about an hour at that speed. Then I just copy what I like from the camera, and format. Saves the pain in ass of dealing with a switch. Just aim the heli and hold the hover. And the camera will just shoot.

I have the continuous shutter also but have found the best method is to get the heli to a reasonable height then trigger the shutter - this is important because on continuous shutter mode the first shot determines the settings for the rest of the 500 shots you take. The readings on the ground will be significantly different on the ground to what it reads in the air. Also I don't use autofocus - only infinity!

[SeismicCWave]

Thanks ... do you have a pic of your setup?

I am not very familiar with the workings of this website. I will try. OK, I think I just did. You will noticed that I did not follow my own advice. I couldn't use a servo wheel fabricated into a cam because there is a ridge around the shutter button on my camera. The cam would have hit the ridge before the button. So the best I could do was to create a slope on the servo arm.

[KarbonBird]

I am not very familiar with the workings of this website. I will try. OK, I think I just did. You will noticed that I did not follow my own advice. I couldn't use a servo wheel fabricated into a cam because there is a ridge around the shutter button on my camera. The cam would have hit the ridge before the button. So the best I could do was to create a slope on the servo arm.

Thanks for that info - that does seem to be the logical way of working the shutter. Strangely though I have another rig almost identically set up and it works flawlessly. I can only think that the shutter button requires significantly more force to activate it - so I will have to make the most of it and just get the alignment up perfectly then it should be OK...

[trireme]

I have the continuous shutter also but have found the best method is to get the heli to a reasonable height then trigger the shutter - this is important because on continuous shutter mode the first shot determines the settings for the rest of the 500 shots you take. The readings on the ground will be significantly different on the ground to what it reads in the air. Also I don't use autofocus - only infinity!

Hmm, so you must be using a software type continuous shutter, I am using a 556 timer chip, it just like it pushes and holds the button. So it can still stay in auto exposure mode, not a problem.

As for the autofocus, its nice for take shots of buildings, near them, I wouldn't use infinity. And the camera does go to infinity np when its got a wide view infront of it. Just a thought.

[KarbonBird]

Hmm, so you must be using a software type continuous shutter, I am using a 556 timer chip, it just like it pushes and holds the button. So it can still stay in auto exposure mode, not a problem.

As for the autofocus, its nice for take shots of buildings, near them, I wouldn't use infinity. And the camera does go to infinity np when its got a wide view infront of it. Just a thought.

The camera I use has a continuous mode shutter - unlimited until the card is full. I only use manual settings on the camera as I don't like having the the camera guessing settings for me as I have found it often doesn't make allowance for the fact that it is in a heli! The lowest I go is 1/1250 for shutter speed. The only option I use on auto (on occasion) is ISO. I do like your idea of a chip timer though so will look into this...

[trireme]

the kite ap guys do it, that where I got the idea. Most designs are using a 555 timer.

http://www.gentles.info/KAP/Pencam/pencam.htm

This design is what I based mine on, but I used a 556 chip, and linked one timer to the other, so I could set an autofocus stage. I also used 1M pots so I could adjust the timer.

This whole thing will weigh less then a servo too.