Hi guys,

I've been using my Canon S90 camera for "digiscoping" birds, which means attaching it to my spotting scope and using the spotting scope as a gigantic telephoto lens. It works surprisingly well, the only disadvantage being very shallow depth of field. And camera shake.

Using CHDK firmware on the S90 unlocks a bunch of features that the G-model cameras have, but the S models have crippled. One of these features is a USB remote shutter release.

I bought the shutter release, which connects via the mini-USB on the camera, installed the firmware, and it works fine. It lessens the camera shake, but doesn't eliminate it because there is a short, fairly stiff cable connecting the remote to the camera.

I'd like to make this a wireless connection somehow. Is there a way to do this, possibly with bluetooth? The camera itself doesn't have any bluetooth capability, so I'm envisioning two little battery-powered dongles, that are somehow paired to each other, probably using a computer.

Does anything like this exist?

Thanks!

Jim

Don't know if such a thing exist...

If not, have you considered / tried a mini-USB extension cable? Longer and hopefully softer - but might or might not work,
depending on what liberties the designers of the shutter release gizmo have taken...

The only bluetooth battery-powered-dongle things I've seen are for audio. In other words, plug a dongle into your stereo's headphone jack, pair it with a set of bluetooth earphones, and now your stereo is bluetooth.



You don't actually need to use a computer to pair a standalone bluetooth dongle with a headset. You simply hold down the pairing button on both devices until the blinky lights tell you they're paired. Not that that's going to help you here, I don't think, I just wanted to mention it since your post mentioned it.



With my understanding of the way bluetooth devices work, I don't think you can solve your problem here with some kind of bluetooth dongle. I think that the host has to talk directly to the connected USB device so that the host can read the device's serial number directly and that the device driver can work. When you plug a bluetooth USB dongle into a computer, the computer isn't trying to talk to the device on the other end of the bluetooth connection. It's talking to the bluetooth dongle, and then the bluetooth dongle reports the types of capabilities that it wants to expose (audio, microphone, etc.).

What you're looking for here, is some kind of wireless USB hub, something designed specifically to "cut the cord" on USB devices. Such a thing wouldn't use bluetooth, since USB can have data rates faster than bluetooth.

I wonder if such a thing exists?

Hm, googling:

http://www.iogear.com/product/GUWH104KIT/

Wonder if something in that category would work?

Oh, one other thing:



Based on that description, we can't even be certain that the shutter release device is even a true USB device at all. It might just be something proprietary that *happens* to use the USB jack on the camera.

Yeah, a softer extension cable might be your better bet. Or a longer one, with the extension making a loop on the ground between you and the camera, to remove all vibration transfer.

Finally, you might find that, even after you do all of the above, that your problems aren't due to vibration from the shutter release cable. Maybe it's vibration from somewhere else, maybe even internal to the camera such as the shutter itself.

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/USB_Remote

Seems you're right. They're just switching in USB power to the USB port which the firmware detects as a "keypress".

All you really need is some sort of bluetooth IO module with corresponding pc/phone side app and the io module pins connected to the USB socket correctly.

Does not need to be Bluetooth.

Quickly scanning that linked CHDK material, it appears that any remote control that can cause a relay contact closure, or equivalent, will be enough.

The remote merely needs to provide a pulse of DC voltage to the mini USB input to the camera.

There are lots of remote controls sold for all manner of applications. Some online hunting should turn up some useful variants for this application.

It certainly seems that the simplest approach would be the use of a much longer USB cable.

It might not be exactly what you're after, but I can highly recommend any of the TriggerTrap devices for a multi-purpose camera trigger. If you happen to have a couple smartphones handy, you can tether one to the camera, and sync a second one wirelessly as your remote trigger.

I have the Arduino, Android, and IOS models, and I should really use them more often. Most recently I modified the arduino edition to add a photobooth mode from the AUX input. Lots of fun!

In that case, would two pieces of wire connected to a mini-USB connector on the camera end, the other end connected through a momentary contact switch to a 9-volt battery, do the job?

tanstaafl.

Yes - IF the camera survives the 9V as opposed to 5V that's normal for USB. I'd put a voltage regulator in between to get the expected voltage.
Or maybe 3x AAA batteries in series for ~4.5V would do it (at least while fresh), while it's on the lower end of the voltage spec...

My interpretation is that the voltage needed to be in the range of 3 volts up to 5 volts.

So three AA batteries in series would be perfect. If they are alkaline or lithium, they will last for years.

In the link he quoted above, a wiring diagram is given for something very similar to that. But it uses a CR2032 button battery, not a 9-volt. You wouldn't want to hook up a 9-volt to a USB plug.

Of course it doesn't, but given that the OP explicitly said that they wanted wireless I was just confirming the behaviour of the "interface" and that Bluetooth would indeed work.

As would a long USB cable, a battery, a potato or lemon with positive and negative metal terminals.....but of course, none of those are wireless.