STROBIST - Home Made Triggers... UPDATE!!

Jambo_84

Jambo_84

Messages
408
Name
Rob
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi everyone, I was recently talking to my uncle who takes an interest in my photography and I was telling him I'm thinking of buying an old Nikon SB-24, 25, 26 or 28 with some cheap triggers (Cactus or similar) then got onto Pocket Wizards and the differences between the two (including price!).

He works in electronics (hardware & software engineer, lives and breathes it) and popped up "I'll have a go at making some for you if you like and we'll try get the reliability & range somewhere near the PW's!". Naturally I said yes it's a great idea so once I manage to find a suitable flashgun we're cooking with gas.

I'll keep you updated on progress & post some piccies when they are finished...
 
david1701 said:
very interested I'm an electronics student so anything I can get will be very very interesting
Click to expand...

No probs David, I'll keep this post up to date through all stages including problems we encounter along the way
 
Having DIY'ed up a Flash cord before (binned it as soon as I got some wireless triggers, wouldn't want to risk it for the day a wire frays/shorts while I'm not looking and ruin an SB600), it is remarkable how simple it essentially is to make a Non-TTL cord. The only real key is making sure the hardware is reliable and safe for the flash.
 
lol making the remote trigger, not a longer cable. This is basicaly what I want to do for my final year project but with ettl and other stuff (to make them think its clever enough)
 
If he can make one as reliable (or even close to as reliable) as pocketwizards but cheaper he could stand to make a mint :)

Oh and if he needs any testing, I'm willing to spare some time to help out! (y)
 
Actually, i may have a go with one of my mates.

I'm on the final year of a 4 year electrical + electronic eng degree, and so is my mate.

I'm sure we could come up with something along the way..
 
david1701 said:
I may be hassling you a lot in the future ant :D
I'm a first year on the masters course at exeter
Click to expand...

Haha, good luck with the course.. It got rather challenging last year for me.

Apparently it's one of the more difficult courses you can do at uni. I can vouch for that... :/
 
yep I think it's us and the med students......... grrrrrrr

upside is I'm too busy to go out so spend my loan on kit not booze :D
 
haha, that's what i did...

Student loan paid for a brand new car, and a bit of camera equipment.

And people say that students are poor...
 
There are so many gadgets that are simple to make. I have made quite a few, but nobody seems interested. As long as you can buy it,why bother making one. Thr snag is the final finish,making it look commercial.
 
Just an update on this:

I handed over my camera, a Nikon SB-24 and a male-male PC sync cable to my uncle yesterday. I left it with him for a few hours then went back to his house to see how he was doing. He had the PC cable cut in half, one half from the camera to a small circuit he had built then from this circuit to the flash so effectively the flash was triggering via the cable and this circuit in the middle was just a measure to make sure my camera didn't get killed.

The voltage my camera (Canon 40D) gave out was 0.7v and the flashgun was measuring at 5.37v.

The design will incorporate a whip antenna (like Pocket Wizards) and he was telling me there are 2 types of radio transmitter/recievers (can't remember the names) but we will be using the faster type of the two.

Talking of speed, this is where he thinks will be the most challenging part. As the triggers will be working on 433mhz frequency (shared with many other things including car central locking keyfobs!) he wants to program a microcontroller to verify the signal so as to only fire when the signal is received from the trigger and not something else using the same frequency nearby. The problem with this is the speed in which it all happens. We are aiming for a delay around the PW delay (1/2000 or 0.5 milliseconds) so he is going to have to come up with something that verifies the data extremely fast, he mentioned only verifying a certain number of packets and not all of them so it's faster and should be relaible enough not to be triggered by external sources.

I've taken the camera & flash away now as he's done all he needs to with them, hopefully in a week or 2 I can post some piccies of it and let you know what the results were of the 1st tests.

Rob.
 
Isnt there a version of the PIC with a built in wireless module?

Failing that you can certainly get cheapo wireless modules to drive from a PIC.

If anyone had the TTL specs then it should be p;ossible to knock something up that does the whole thing.

For a basic trigger the electronics would be very simple - there is after all no complexity to the information that needs to be sent.

I would guess that all the cheapo ebay triggers send is a repeated two byte signal.
 
who? said:
I would guess that all the cheapo ebay triggers send is a repeated two byte signal.
Click to expand...

I think these are based on the transmitters used for remote garage door openers.

I can understand the thinking about confirming the data but I wouldn't bother with this is it would waste a bit of time and mean you may need to use a slower shutter speed.

The worst thing that could happen without the confirmation is the flash could be triggered by something else. Not really a problem if the shutter isn't open.


Steve.
 
wouldn't a wireless pic be a bit slow?
surely the point of data confirmation is to increase the reliability, even at range
getting to the point where I have to reach for text books to keep up with the thread :D
 
Steve Smith said:
I think these are based on the transmitters used for remote garage door openers.

I can understand the thinking about confirming the data but I wouldn't bother with this is it would waste a bit of time and mean you may need to use a slower shutter speed.

The worst thing that could happen without the confirmation is the flash could be triggered by something else. Not really a problem if the shutter isn't open.


Steve.
Click to expand...

Hi Steve, I know what you're saying but I want to avoid just producing something that I could buy cheaply off eBay (like the Cactus for instance). I want to aim more for Pocket Wizard standard but cheaper!

If we are finding that it's not syncing fast enough he can always reprogramme the microcontroller without the verification but hopefully he will come up with a system that verifies fast enough :)
 
wouldn't a wireless pic be a bit slow?
surely the point of data confirmation is to increase the reliability, even at range
getting to the point where I have to reach for text books to keep up with the thread :D
 
david1701 said:
wouldn't a wireless pic be a bit slow?
surely the point of data confirmation is to increase the reliability, even at range
getting to the point where I have to reach for text books to keep up with the thread :D
Click to expand...

Lol, I'm struggling to answer the questions! It's my uncle who is in the electronics business, I'm in the print industry and have no idea about this kind of stuff after the basics!!
 
Looks like an excellent place to pick up some tips for mine, cheers for the link David :) Didn't you say you're gonna have a go at making some too? Would be interested in seeing you're results if you do, we can compare and see what we did differently (y)
 
my plan was for my final year project but its kinda scuppered because of what these guys are doing - uni might think I have poached the idea - would need to talk to my tutor.

My plan was for ttl remote power maybe a lappy to control it all, just so its complex enough to get me some marks.

Really loving these things thought, I mean if you could set power individually from the TX on the screen, and have a beep to confirm all the flashes are ready, with an improved range over my current ebay triggers it would be brilliant :D
 
Current state of play at
http://code.google.com/p/strobit/

I'm not convinced that much has been achieved in two years.

Are the ttl/interface specs available for different camera systems?
 
well supposedly they have just completed a v1 prototype - someone has pics of it on the blog :D and it would be just plain lush to have that set up homebuildable
 
Reading all this talk of building radio triggers makes me laugh. If you think that you can make a trigger at less than the cheap ones, you are living in cloud cuckoo land. For instance on the market now is a 12 channel remote control switch, consisting of a push button transmitter and a receiver complete with a 13 amp plug and socket. Total cost just 5 notes. Now try and make one for less. The transmitter chip I don`t think is on the market for sterters.
 
oldfella said:
Reading all this talk of building radio triggers makes me laugh. If you think that you can make a trigger at less than the cheap ones, you are living in cloud cuckoo land. For instance on the market now is a 12 channel remote control switch, consisting of a push button transmitter and a receiver complete with a 13 amp plug and socket. Total cost just 5 notes. Now try and make one for less. The transmitter chip I don`t think is on the market for sterters.
Click to expand...

Ok mate ;)
 
I think the idea is to add more functionality, reliability and range, at a cost less than pocket wizzards.

I think an anticipated cost is about 60 quid parts, but that might go up with AF assist lamps ect

and the v1 has a 30 m range with 2 brick walls in the way, so basically one side of a house to the other so beats the hell outta ebay triggers, also uses more common batteries and many other useful toys
 
oldfella said:
Reading all this talk of building radio triggers makes me laugh. If you think that you can make a trigger at less than the cheap ones, you are living in cloud cuckoo land.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the point is the actual process of making it rather than trying to save money.

I have built and modified a few cameras myself despite the fact that they can be bought. Some people just enjoy doing stuff without the need for a financial advantage.

Also it's a good way to learn how things work.


Steve.
 
Yes, you're totally missing the point oldfella, the point of it is to try and get good reliability and decent range, also have a couple of custom features that standard off the shelf triggers don't have. Cost wise it should only be around the price of say a set of Cactus v4's.

So laugh all you want, cloud cuckoo land will produce a lovely set of triggers for my SB-24 ;)
 
Jambo_84 said:
Yes, you're totally missing the point oldfella, the point of it is to try and get good reliability and decent range, also have a couple of custom features that standard off the shelf triggers don't have. Cost wise it should only be around the price of say a set of Cactus v4's.

So laugh all you want, cloud cuckoo land will produce a lovely set of triggers for my SB-24 ;)
Click to expand...
So you have the know how to design and make a radio trigger. I do not think so. All I see on these threads is the purchase of triggers. Put it to the test, somebody submit a design for same.
 
oldfella said:
So you have the know how to design and make a radio trigger. I do not think so. All I see on these threads is the purchase of triggers. Put it to the test, somebody submit a design for same.
Click to expand...

I don't think you've read this thread. I'll highlight a few points for you.

Hi everyone, I was recently talking to my uncle who takes an interest in my photography and I was telling him I'm thinking of buying an old Nikon SB-24, 25, 26 or 28...He works in electronics (hardware & software engineer, lives and breathes it) and popped up "I'll have a go at making some for you if you like and we'll try get the reliability & range somewhere near the pocket wizards"
Click to expand...

Lol, I'm struggling to answer the questions! It's my uncle who is in the electronics business, I'm in the print industry and have no idea about this kind of stuff after the basics!!
Click to expand...

There you go. But by all means carry on pooh-poohing the idea if it pleases you.
 
oldfella said:
So you have the know how to design and make a radio trigger. I do not think so. All I see on these threads is the purchase of triggers. Put it to the test, somebody submit a design for same.
Click to expand...

As welly rightly points out, you haven't been reading the thread properly. My uncle is the electronics guru who has the knowledge, I do not. Without blowing his trumpet he has designed and worked on projects far more complex than a set of tadio triggers.

I love the friendliness of TP so will say this in the most polite way possible - if you don't have anything constructive to add to this thread then please go and voice your opinion on another part of the forum where you may have something useful to say, here you are just being an idiot.
 
Reading this thread really does make me wish that I understood the hardware side of it more, I have to say that the prototype looks very well produced and I love the idea of either going for the speed or the distance, I really do think that this project if it carries on as it is will be a milestone in off-camera flash, a trigger made for strobists by strobists.
 
I'm part way through a Masters in electronics and there's a lot of people involved in this project with a lot of skills and it is very viable, as said above there are working proto-types in existence.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top