Very brief instructable to give a circuit that makes a good simple remote for canon compact camera.
For use with CHDK.

What it does:
Allows both a remote shutter button as well as making it so that any IR remote control (e.g. TV remote) can be used to remote control the camera.

What this instructable contains:
A circuit diagram.
A few pictures of the remote control that I made.

Warning: I accept no responsibility for any damage you do to your camera, all I can say for certain is I made one of these and it works well with my Canon IXUS950IS.

To use the remote module described by this instructable you will also need the USB camera cable used to connect the camera to the PC as well as having CHDK loaded on the camera running a remote script.

For the rest of the info on the software side of this project and USB plug wiring details see the '''CHDK remote cable Wiki'''.

Circuit picture:

Step 1: Circuit Diagram

CHDK link for the rest of the info need to make a remote.

A good point made by jphphotography is that different cameras may need different voltages.

You may be able to find what voltage your camera needs from http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CameraFeatures

Using 3 alkaline button cells (1.5v each) this circuit gives a 4.5V output from the push button and about 3.9V from the IR receiver (the slightly lower voltage from the IR receiver is due to the diode). I think these voltages are likely to be high enough for most cameras, but if the IR receiver voltage output is too low I would suggest using a low voltage drop diode (e.g. a Schottky diode).

Notes on alternative power supplies:
I would not recommend powering this circuit off anything other than small batteries like button and coin cells. The small batteries have high internal resistances which can act as a bit of a safety mechanism if anything goes wrong.

The supply voltage for the IR receiver should not exceed 5v, nor should the signal voltage to the camera.

Notes on the IR receiver:
There are probably a lot of other IR receiver modules that could do this job the SFH 5110-38 was just what I had to hand. You may even be able to salvage a suitable receiver from a broken TV (or anything which had a remote).
Normally when using this type of receiver you would have to use some form of power supply smoothing and use a full 5V power supply. Because this circuit is so simple there is little to interfere with the receiver so it still works very well.

Here is the circuit:

Step 2: My Remote

I decided to make the remote as when I came to start making some other instructables I thought a remote would be useful for allowing me to leave the camera set up on a tripod.

Here are a few pictures of the remote I made: