From breadboard to protoshield

Tests on both the light and sound circuits on breadboard were promising. They tests did show a great deal of false triggering and I believe this was due to the bad connection nature of breadboards.

I took both circuits and layed them out on protoboard. This allows direct connection to the Arduino.

Tests so far are very promising.

soundTrigger circuit with microphone in the background

stormTrigger V3 layed out and working well

soundTrigger rising

Playing with an electret microphone and a simple circuit.
A Mega328 samples the noise generated by the circuit and triggers a camera on the output via an opto-isolator.

Schematic in Eagle

Bread boarded Prototype

Measuring I/O performance

Performance looks promising. Measuring a triggering delay of 35uS (microseconds).
Arduino sketch to follow...

Version 3 - New Design

Hotshoe mounted
Built-in sensor
Coincell battery operation
Single LED feedback
Automatic setting & operation

35mm x 25mm x 15mm volume to work within.

Shown is the enclosure mounted on 7D.

Stacked PCBs. One uC PCB and one I/O PCB with a board interconnect.

The stormTrigger

Back to September 2011.

A quality camera triggering device is expensive.

The need for a lightning trigger was highlighted to me while staying in Hat Yai for a few days. Setting up a tripod on a balcony then setting the camera to long exposure mode, and continuously pressing the shutter, hoping to capture a lightning strike proved to be very hit & miss.

I have been playing with Atmega microcontrollers for a few months now, developing my understanding of programming and interfacing with sensors.

I set about deciding upon the specifications.