STROBIST - Home Made Triggers... UPDATE!!

rotherad said:
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.
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Agreed, although we are not following the SPOT project in terms of the design etc it's great to see an open source trigger that once finished people can make themselves and have a great set if triggers at a realistic price!! It may even bring strobist to the masses :D
 
oldfella said:
I wait in anticipation for the finished project.
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Well once mine are finished I'll post some pics and do some tests and I will be totally truthful with the figures and success rate so you may still get your chance to say 'I told you so' ;)
 
I wonder if your dear uncle would make the plans available, I'm following the spot project also, my knowledge isn't there yet (first year has too much mech in it) so I can follow but I couldn't do any serious design work without learning a lot more first
 
david1701 said:
I wonder if your dear uncle would make the plans available, I'm following the spot project also, my knowledge isn't there yet (first year has too much mech in it) so I can follow but I couldn't do any serious design work without learning a lot more first
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I'm sure he would be happy to share them David, we are just doing this for fun, not for any commercial purpose so once we have it all up and running I'll have a word!
 
david1701 said:
I wonder if your dear uncle would make the plans available, I'm following the spot project also, my knowledge isn't there yet (first year has too much mech in it) so I can follow but I couldn't do any serious design work without learning a lot more first
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DEAR uncle, you creep :) Knowing the theory is only a quarter of the prob, the soldering is another quarter, tools for making the cases is another quarter and purchasing the hardware is the last quarter. Did you know you cannot buy the male and female parts of the hotshoe. I had to make my own. :bang:
Still as we used to say in the RAF, Press on regardless :LOL:
 
oldfella said:
DEAR uncle, you creep :) Knowing the theory is only a quarter of the prob, the soldering is another quarter, tools for making the cases is another quarter and purchasing the hardware is the last quarter. Did you know you cannot buy the male and female parts of the hotshoe. I had to make my own. :bang:
Still as we used to say in the RAF, Press on regardless :LOL:
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He works for himself doing this kind of thing so his 'office' is like the alladins cave of electronics! He has all the gear and has ordered the parts this morning.

Yeh I know what you mean about the hotshoe, we thought about that. We ended up deciding to use the PC port on the camera & flash instead of making a hotshoe, the transmitter box will velcro to the underside of the camera to keep it out of the way when shooting. May not look as good but should still function just as well without coming up with a make-shift hot shoe.
 
For prototype purposes the hotshoe and case are irrelevant. Once you have a working design you outsource that to hk or china.

Soldering isnt an issue. For prototypes it isnt a problem, for full design you have them made.

The issue is the application design. The existing ebay triggers are very simple and work only to fire the strobe and indeed it would be doubtful if you could make them for the price you can buy them. with the ebay cheapies basically you have a transport protocol and a single signal.
The issue comes if you want to implement other functions and what camera range you want it to work with. Either you just replicate signals from the hotshoe pattern or you need to understand the communications protocol.
The first option is easiest but least clever.

I can see a project which uses a transmitter, a number of receivers and possibly a controller. The controller might allow you to alter the settings of each flash individually which I dont think is possible with any camera.

So for a uni project I would split into a hardware stream: phase one replicating the ebay jobbies, sorting the wireless range and doing simple firing; then moving on to other functionality.

On the software side: phase one, sort out the comms protocol between camera and flash and the TTL stuff; then move on to implement it; then step up to multiple flashes and power/zoom variation.


If anyone happens to have links to the TTL info for any brand...?
Tbh it sounds a better bet for a final year project rather than a first year.

Who?
(in "I used to be an engineer" mode)
 
yep :D as a first year I can follow (ish), I was planning on doing my own for final year but I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to considering I have seen all this stuff
 
The TTL specs are not freely available. 3rd party flash manufacturers have to back engineer the spec so there flashes will work with specific cameras.

To get TTL to work you won't be able to just use the PC port (I am pretty sure) you will need to have all the pins in the hot shoe connected to the wireless doohickey.

If you can manage this you will clean up, but you can put me in the sceptical but supportive camp!
 
I am not looking to achieve TTL, they are simply going to be radio triggers with decent range & reliability, everything else to acheive a correct exposure will be set manually. Also we are only making one set for my Nikon SB-24, not looking to produce these things commercially.
 
The very best of luck to you. I hope you get a trigger that does what you want. Forget those that say "why bother" its got to be fun. You might want to look at the link
HERE
From the strobist blog, might give you food for thought.

Mart.
 
oldfella said:
DEAR uncle, you creep :) Knowing the theory is only a quarter of the prob, the soldering is another quarter, tools for making the cases is another quarter and purchasing the hardware is the last quarter. Did you know you cannot buy the male and female parts of the hotshoe. I had to make my own. :bang:
Still as we used to say in the RAF, Press on regardless :LOL:
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If his uncle is an electronics engineer, I'd wager he knows his way around a soldering iron. And I'd say in a project like this, soldering is unlikely to be even a 1/16th never mind a quarter of the "problem". Tools for making cases? You can pick up cases from Maplin Electronics for a couple of quid! Why would he need tools for making cases?

Hurrah for great british.. negativity! Glad to see that we're all still quicker to pull a man down than to offer positive and useful advice or help.
 
welly said:
If his uncle is an electronics engineer, I'd wager he knows his way around a soldering iron. And I'd say in a project like this, soldering is unlikely to be even a 1/16th never mind a quarter of the "problem". Tools for making cases? You can pick up cases from Maplin Electronics for a couple of quid! Why would he need tools for making cases?

Hurrah for great british.. negativity! Glad to see that we're all still quicker to pull a man down than to offer positive and useful advice or help.
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Lol you got it in one welly, he uses a soldering iron better than I use a biro and yep, ready made boxes (PVC or similar) with a suitable battery compartment built in is the way forward (y)
 
Marvin d martian said:
The very best of luck to you. I hope you get a trigger that does what you want. Forget those that say "why bother" its got to be fun. You might want to look at the link
HERE
From the strobist blog, might give you food for thought.

Mart.
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Cheers Mart & thanks for the link :)
 
welly said:
If his uncle is an electronics engineer, I'd wager he knows his way around a soldering iron. And I'd say in a project like this, soldering is unlikely to be even a 1/16th never mind a quarter of the "problem". Tools for making cases? You can pick up cases from Maplin Electronics for a couple of quid! Why would he need tools for making cases?

Hurrah for great british.. negativity! Glad to see that we're all still quicker to pull a man down than to offer positive and useful advice or help.
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I am referring to you blokes, not uncle regarding soldering. The smallest box in MAPLINS is about 3 quid. The box has to be drilled etc. I was just stating facts. Stop trying to be clever.
 
look oldfella **** off, if people want to have a crack at it let em I can solder, theres been plenty of people with relevant skills up for a go, and sod it soldering is fairly easy with a bit of practice so get on board or go to another thread
 
david1701 said:
look oldfella **** off, if people want to have a crack at it let em I can solder, theres been plenty of people with relevant skills up for a go, and sod it soldering is fairly easy with a bit of practice so get on board or go to another thread
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:clap: :plus1: :clap:
 
Don't know if this is of any help, I know you said you weren't bothering with TTL but it may be useful.
 
neon you are legendary, I shall pass it along as it might help the guys that are looking at remote manual control on the SPOT project, trick the flash into thinking its a ttl slave while its actually simply being given a power setting
 
david1701 said:
look oldfella **** off, if people want to have a crack at it let em I can solder, theres been plenty of people with relevant skills up for a go, and sod it soldering is fairly easy with a bit of practice so get on board or go to another thread
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Ah well, if thats the way you feel, I shall move on to pastures new. :) There are plenty of threads on TP to keep me interested, but don`t say I didn`t warn you. There are plenty of other simpler things you can make to get you started on the electronics path. I still say you are jumping in the deep end before you can swim.
 
Let's just try to calm down a bit. This is an interesting thread but certain comments are unnecessary and uncalled for and if they don't stop posts will be deleted. oldfella, you seem to be stirring things up for no good reason, please try and keep things on topic.

Thank you.
 
oldfella said:
Ah well, if thats the way you feel, I shall move on to pastures new. :) There are plenty of threads on TP to keep me interested, but don`t say I didn`t warn you. There are plenty of other simpler things you can make to get you started on the electronics path. I still say you are jumping in the deep end before you can swim.
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Is he, do you read ? Its his uncle thats doing the graft, an uncle that sounds like he knows what he is doing.
 
Cheers neon, nice link!

Hacker - oldfella is stirring things up, I'm sure he will have something useful to say on a different part of the forum but he is ruining this thread.

dseered - exactly right, I'm not in at the deep end bacause i am not doing it!
 
The standard disclaimer apply, if you break things, you get to keep both halves. Do not assume that "keeping" both halves is trivial. This is especially true in (but not limited to) cases such as gaseous products (blue smoke), and matter annihilation. The owner of this site will definitely not help you put the parts back together, but feel free to contact him in advance if you expect annihilation of substantial amounts of matter to take place.
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Like it!
 
oldfella said:
There are plenty of other simpler things you can make to get you started on the electronics path. I still say you are jumping in the deep end before you can swim.
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So what? What's the worst thing that can happen?



Steve.
 
I have a CNC router/drill at work, originally bought to drill and cut PCBs which we don't make anymore, which we now use to make test and assembly jigs.

If you need any pieces made, let me know. I could make a piece which fits into the flash shoe if you like, although it may just be easier taking one off of an old flash.

We generally make parts out of a dark grey nylon material, up to 9mm thick.


Steve.
 
You make a wrong connection and fry the camera:shrug:

good luck with this, watching in anticipation to see how it goes
 
Steve Smith said:
I have a CNC router/drill at work, originally bought to drill and cut PCBs which we don't make anymore, which we now use to make test and assembly jigs.

If you need any pieces made, let me know. I could make a piece which fits into the flash shoe if you like, although it may just be easier taking one off of an old flash.

We generally make parts out of a dark grey nylon material, up to 9mm thick.


Steve.
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Cheers Steve, I'll keep that in mind (y)
 
Hacker said:
Let's just try to calm down a bit. This is an interesting thread but certain comments are unnecessary and uncalled for and if they don't stop posts will be deleted. oldfella, you seem to be stirring things up for no good reason, please try and keep things on topic.

Thank you.
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I have never been abusive to anyone, all I have said is, this project is a very complex one for a learner to start on. Why not try simple projects for starters, such as a safe sync for high trigger voltage flash guns. Doesn`t cost much, so if you make a hash of it just bin it.
 
fletch5 said:
You make a wrong connection and fry the
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Not really. The high voltage is at the flash end, not the camera end. The only bit which will connect to the flash will be (I assume) an opto triac.

The connection at the camera end will be a low voltage input stage pulled up by a large value resistor (I'm assuming again). Not much chance of causing any harm.


Steve.
 
oldfella said:
this project is a very complex one for a learner to start on.
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Jambo_84 said:
He works in electronics (hardware & software engineer, lives and breathes it)
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Not really a learner is he! How about reading the thread properly oldfella? And even if he was a learner, the project really isn't as hard as you are trying to make out.
 
oldfella said:
I have never been abusive to anyone, all I have said is, this project is a very complex one for a learner to start on. Why not try simple projects for starters, such as a safe sync for high trigger voltage flash guns. Doesn`t cost much, so if you make a hash of it just bin it.
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I know what you are saying but for the 5th or 6th time I'm not the one who is doing it, it's someone with many years experience
 
Messiah Khan said:
Not really a learner is he! How about reading the thread properly oldfella? And even if he was a learner, the project really isn't as hard as you are trying to make out.
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Thank you, hopefully he will actually READ what you have said :LOL:
 
Jambo_84 said:
I know what you are saying but for the 5th or 6th time I'm not the one who is doing it, it's someone with many years experience
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I am not referring to you, but the other members of TP who have never tried anything like this and may get themselves into deep ****
 
oldfella said:
I am not referring to you, but the other members of TP who have never tried anything like this and may get themselves into deep ****
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Surely that's their business and only they can judge their own competence.

The internet is packed with instructions and designs for things other people might want to make. Should we shut all of those sites down in case anyone damages something whilst trying to make it?

Everyone is different. Some people can't change a tap washer or wire a plug whereas others would be quite happy building themselves a whole house. I belong to that second group and I hate the idea of getting someone else in to do something which I can do myself.


Steve.
 
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