Med-o-Mat

Da soll bitte noch einmal jemand die Nase rümpfen über die seltsamen Automaten in Japan:

Med-o-Mat: Für den schnellen Prostatakrebstest zwischendurch...

Sun 21 March 2010

Ixus Remote Control Cable

The alternate CHDK firmware I am running on my Ixus 55 gives you the possibility to remote trigger the camera with a modified USB cable.

By attaching this cable to an Arduino board you can control your digital camera in all kinds of projects.

The aim

The camera should take pictures when the arduino "tells" it to do so. Since this is only a proof of concept right now, I will be using a button that is attached to the arduino as a trigger.

Basic layout

The button and the USB cable are wired up like this to the arduino:

The following code will make the arduino power the USB cable for 10ms when the button is pushed.

/*

*/

const int camPin =  13;    // USB pin 1 connected to digital pin 13
const int buttonPin = 7;   // vcc of button
static int pressed = 0;    // variable to remember button state
int buttonState = 0;       // initialize button state

void setup()   {
  pinMode(camPin, OUTPUT);          // initialize camPin as output
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);        // initialize buttonPin input
  digitalWrite(buttonPin, HIGH);    // set buttonPin to high 
}

void loop()
{
  buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);

  if (buttonState == LOW && pressed == 0) {     // as soon as the button is pressed
    pressed = 1;                    // pressed state is set to "1".
                            // This way the following commands will only executed once,
                            // regardless how long the button is pressed.
    digitalWrite(camPin, HIGH);             // set camPin to high
    delay(100);                             // wait for a 1/10 of a second  
    digitalWrite(camPin, LOW);              // set the Cam off  
  }

  if (pressed == 1 && buttonState == HIGH) {            // reset pressed state, as soon as the button is released
    pressed = 0;
  }
}

The camera script

Now the camera has to take a photo as soon as the arduino powers up the USB port. This is archieved by activating the remote capabilities in the cameras CHDK menu at Main Menu > Miscellaneous Stuff > Remote Parameters > Enable Remote and loading this simple remote script.

Tue 09 March 2010

New Cam

After my beloved Canon Ixus 55 was stolen with my backpack a couple weeks ago, I have bought a now photo camera. This time I did not get a Canon again but chose a Panasonic with the cryptic name DMC-FT2. Although this cameras functionality can not be extended with firmware hacks like Canon cameras with CHDK (yet) it features another nice trait: The tough housing is supposed be watertight up to a depth of 10m, drop, cold and pressure resistant.

I took some nice underwater/semiunderwater pics already and they look really good:

Thu 04 March 2010

Easterhegg 2010

Nach zwei Tagen Vorbereitestress und 5 Minuten vor Beginn auf der Bühne fertig gestellten Folien hat der RepRap-Vortrag wie am Schnürchen geklappt. Sogar der RepMan hat trotz massivem Gezicke beim Testen nach dem Umzug in den Vortragsraum brav gedruckt, als es darauf ankam.