Infra-red Remote Intervalometer for Nikon Cameras

My Nikon D90 camera lacks an interval timer mode. So doing night-time time lapse photography in a mode of say, expose 29 sec, wait 1 sec, repeat, is extremely time consuming. The shutter release button would have to be pressed manually every 30 seconds. Imagine doing that for over an hour... Obviously this should be automated.

There are a number of commercial intervalometers available, but what is the fun in that! In this project, an Atmel AVR microcontroller is used to make an inexpensive intervalometer. It controls the camera via infra red.

Unlike many other DIY intervalometer projects, the only user interface consists of a single button! Teaching it the exposure and delay times is done in a very natural way.

The default firmware for ATTINY2313 has a 0.5 second time resolution while ATTINY13 uses a 0.2 second resolution. Exposure and delay times from 0.5 seconds up to several hours are possible. Exposures are repeated infinitely. This is more than sufficient for night-time time lapse photography.

If you want to add a cabled shutter release, consider getting a ~$7 nikon 2.5mm remote release adapter cable from eBay or for example http://pc-mobile.net/nikongps.htm

Step 1 Required equipment

You'll need the following:

- programming cable for AVR microcontrollers (!!!)
- desktop or laptop for programming
- some electronics components, totalling ~10EUR/$10, see Step 2
- small soldering iron e.g. 15W
- some solder

Indeed the only hurdle with this project is that you need a programming cable. These are not expensive, though, and can be used with many other Atmel microcontrollers.

Use whatever AVR programming cable you already have. Myself I had a self-made USBTinyISP USB programming cable http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/, same as in the photo, except I do not use fixed connectors but just 1-pin plugs at the end of each wire. AdaFruits also sell the USBTinyUSP as a kit for $22. Alternatively, http://www.sparkfun.com/ and their USB-connected Pocket AVR Programmer for $15.

If your computer still has a parallel port (LPT) you may use http://www.captain.at/electronics/atmel-programmer/ as a reference. Important are the "X2" connector pin-out and resistors R1, R2, R4, discard the rest of the circuit. This direct way of connecting the parallel port and an ATTINY microcontroller is a bit risky though. And you still need +5V, this you can get by sacrificing a USB cable, cut the cable in two, strip open the four wires inside the cable and connect the Black wire to GND and the Red wire to +5V/Vcc of the ATTINY, then plug the cable into the USB port.

Comments

[ikaros45]

Hi again,

Finally I had some time to play with this... and I was able to make the programme work on my arduino duemilanove.

But now I'm trying to get it on an ATtiny85 and it seems there are some speed problems, because it does not work.

I have been reading a little on this, and could it be because the internal oscillator of the ATtiny is working at 20mhz and the arduino has got one external at 16mhz?

Thanks very much for the answer.

Greetz.

[ikaros45]

Hello,

Very nice project.

I'd like to do it... but not exactly the same... I don't see the point of controlling the shutter speed from this little device, so I'd rather set the camera with the shutter speed and f number, waiting for a IR signal... and then shoot it from the small device.

There is no problem with that, right?

I just would like to know what "orders" or signals do I have to send to the camera so that it understands it's time to shoot.

I guess there is no problem also to do it with a PIC instead of an ATTINY, right?

Thanks in advance, and once again, outstanding work!!!

[jwagnerhki]

The source code for this remote is for long exposures over 30s (when shutter speed set to 'bulb'/'--') and for making repetetive exposures automatically (intervalometer function).

Already now you can leave the camera in P/A/S/M mode with self-selected shutter and or f number. And use this intervalometer.

However the project will repeat the shutter release constantly after the taught delay. For what you want, you will have to remove this auto repeat the source code as well as the "teaching" part.

I added the IR command sequence to the last page of the instructable. {2000us ON and 27830us OFF | 390us ON and 1580us OFF | 410us ON and 3580us OFF | 400us ON then OFF} repeated once more time after 63200us. The ON parts are 38kHz modulated so must blink the IR LED for 13us on, 13us off, 13us on, 13us off, etc etc.

Naturally yes you can do this also on PIC or other microcontrollers.

You can find my PIC source code from an earlier remote (not intervalometer) here http://omapalvelin.homedns.org/electr/d70remote/