Alternative for Remote Switch RS-80N3?

[robvonk]

I think 50 euro is quite much for a 'cable and button'. Does anyone know of a replacement by a third party?

Rob

[Sketcher]

An alternative is the TC-80N3, which provides additional features such as enhanced timing, interval, sequence & other functions. I'm very pleased w/mine.

However, your other two requirements of being 3rd party and less expensive don't apply. The TC-80N3 is a Canon product which rings in at just over $100.00.

I'd be interested as well if anyone's found a reasonable alternative to Canon's tethered releases.

[pwagner]

You can control the camera from a computer using the USB port. That should be easy to reverse engineer. Then you could buy a Palm handheld and program that as your remote. Oh wait... I forgot, you are trying to spend LESS money. Sorry. ;)

[BrettD]

I made one for under $5.

Mine is a small plastic box with a 3 position sliding switch: (off, halfpress, and full press), and a 1m cable that plugs into the camera.

Making a convenient plug was the trickiest part:

I soldered tiny pin connectors to the end of the wires, and then held them in the exact postiion of the triangle arrangement in the camera with a dot of blu-tac. Then poured an araldyte mold around them. Once it was dry, i just filed it until it fitted in the small 10d hole.

From memory, if these are the pins:

A
B C

you connect A and C for a half press, and join B in as well for a full press.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Nice work Brett!

I bet you'd have some buyers if you went into business :)

[BrettD]

Thanks CDS, but if I charged for all the time fiddling with the araldyte molded plug, my product would cost more than Canons :-(

[robvonk]

I was thinking about creating one myself too. But indeed how to create a good plug.

As this is a digital photography forum, would you mind share a picture of it? :)

Rob

[BrettD]

Can I post an image directly to this forum (if so how?), or do I need to get it somewhere else online and post a link to it?

[martcol]

BrettD wrote:
I made one for under $5.[/b]
Sound cool! 8)
[b]:
... Then poured an araldyte mold around them. Once it was dry, i just filed it until it fitted in the small 10d hole.

From memory, if these are the pins:

A
B C

you connect A and C for a half press, and join B in as well for a full press.


BrettD, you sound like a proper techie. I'm currently working on making my own 14-1600 f1.4 L IS USM lens. I've been having a few difficulties getting one Pringle tube to fit into another. I think that Araldyte mold trick might be the way fwd. If I get into trouble, can you help with the lectrics? :D

M

[chris maddock]

martcol wrote:

BrettD, you sound like a proper techie. I'm currently working on making my own 14-1600 f1.4 L IS USM lens. I've been having a few difficulties getting one Pringle tube to fit into another. I think that Araldyte mold trick might be the way fwd. If I get into trouble, can you help with the lectrics? :D



You're going about it the wrong way, Pringles tubes are the wrong size.
What you need is a couple of Coke cans and an old-style glass Coke bottle. Cut the top & bottoms off the cans to make the body, and araldite the bottle in to make the front element. Use plenty of araldite to get a good dust-proof seal.

;-)
Chris

[RichardtheSane]

You're going about it the wrong way, Pringles tubes are the wrong size.
What you need is a couple of Coke cans and an old-style glass Coke bottle. Cut the top & bottoms off the cans to make the body, and araldite the bottle in to make the front element. Use plenty of araldite to get a good dust-proof seal.
But aren't you forgeting something, you need IS, a vital part of the lens that is. Now I know how IS traditionally works, but we are talking improvements here, so a total redesign is required.
The idea of IS is to reduce camera shake, how very dull. IS really stands for Image Shakeometer, so what you need is a spoon on top of the lens with an egg on it. Egg falls off, image is shaking.... (sorry :) )

[CyberDyneSystems]

I've had brilliant succuss with tennis ball cans and galvanized buckets and some big heavy glass ashtrays as elements. For IS I use the tried and true gerbil on a wheel.....

[daveh]

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
For IS I use the tried and true gerbil on a wheel.....

Scary... I was typing a gerbil-powered IS joke and then scrolled down to see that it had already been done :D

[martcol]

You guys are so far off and obviously not taking me seriously. I'm rushing out to patent my design... Mind you BrettD, that Araldyte thing, for that, I'm gonna make you one too! CyberD, I reckon you've seen my plans - I've already thought of the ash tray. I've found that ashpherical glass to be sooooo cool, it distracts from any dust spots... 8)

[Marignan_1515]

well well well. would like to come back to the subject of $5 remote switch....
I would like to see some pictures and get some alternatives too.. anyone has find a connector that can match? I'm not a very good DIY enthusiast....

[robertwgross]

I've been down this road.

Canon selected that weird connector specifically because there was no duplicate commercially available on this planet.

If you are good enough to duplicate that connector, then more power to you, but it might be very difficult.

---Bob Gross---

[robvonk]

BretD,

You can't upload pictures direct to the forum. You need to store it somewhere else. After you did that. You can inlucde it here with (img)urltoyourpicture(/img). (Replace brackets with square brackets). Or just add a link here. I can store it for you too.

Rob

[mkaplan]

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
I've had brilliant succuss with tennis ball cans and galvanized buckets and some big heavy glass ashtrays as elements. For IS I use the tried and true gerbil on a wheel.....
I thought the Gerbil & wheel was your external power supply for the camera? ;)

[mkaplan]

Sketcher wrote:
An alternative is the TC-80N3, which provides additional features such as enhanced timing, interval, sequence & other functions. I'm very pleased w/mine.

I know that for a lot of us budgets are low (or non-existant) but I agree with Sketcher, the TC-80Ne is a great tool. You can do many things with it. It goes way beyond just being a trigger. You can read up a bit more on it here:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/tc-80n3.shtml

[cowman345]

Anyone know a place I can get a cheap TC-80N3, or perhaps a used one? The cheapest place I can find is still around $124...

-dave-

[BrettD]

Ok, (hope the link works) here is an image of my home-made cable release, it probably won't win any design awards, and if I use it a lot may buy a real one.

I really only want it for really long bulb type exposures for star trails etc... where I can't sit still holding the shutter button for an hour.

The inset image is the soldered pin connectors, before araldyte and the final heat shrink:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/deltonb/cab_rel.jpg

My current project is a 'kinda' macro ring flash for under $50 AUD (25-30 US$), I plan to butcher a stepping ring, and add some white LED's all around it, powered by a bank of 3 AA's in belt clip switching case. (turn on, take pic, turn off)

They are only 2000 mcd each, so I will need a few, and the range will be short, but that's all you need for macro, I want it for when the lense is

[Marignan_1515]

good job! thanks for the picture. It's help to figure out some way to do it.

[robvonk]

Indeed good picture.

I was thinking too difficult. This seems a good solution for hobbyist (what i am) use.

Thanks for sharing. Now lets get working on it :)

Rob

[BrettD]

To take this thread slightly off topic, with regards to the LED flash I am building, it occurs to me, that the 10D doesn't really see colour, each photosite sees that the bayer filter above it lets it see. Presumably these have spectral peaks of light they pass through.

Would I be better off with sets of red green and blue LEDS, rather than wasting light producing unnessesary wavelengths with white LEDS?

Does anyone know if these kind of specifications are available on the 10D bayer array filtering capabilities?

[Osmium]

BrettD,

another option for your macro flash is to get hold of those "single use" camera bodies with flash. You can often get these for free at local one-hour processing outlets. They have a 220uF capacitor and are powered by a single 1.5v AA cell. Easily triggered. Four around the lens should work. Then trial and error for the exposure. No problems with white balance which you might encounter trying to adjust separate r/g/b leds.

[BrettD]

Osmium,

I had considered this, but I don't know how to trigger them at the right time.

Have you any ideas on how to trigger these from the 10D?
Do you know what speed they could even synch to (1/200th)?
Since they are designed for disposable cameras, are they in any way inferior (maybe only have 100-200 flashes in them)?

My reason fort he LEDS was a simple manual on and off, means the camera can meter normally.

White balance will indeed be an issue, even with so called 'white' LEDs, they are really very blue, and have a strong spectral peak at about 470nm, and a smaller more rounded peak at about 590nm, but this is only 50% of the blue peak.

However, these conditions are at least constant, so I can batch process all photo's the same way for colour correction if needed.

[Osmium]

The hot shoe on the 10D should be able to be used to trigger any "non-Canon" flash unit - BUT READ THIS LINK FIRST:-

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/G1strobe.html

In my opinion, you will need to use an scr to trigger the flash units and you might want to consider using an opto-coupler to isolate the trigger contacts. You could use the AA battery and a series resistor in the led side of the coupler to hook to the hot shoe contacts. Make sure that no other connection from any other parts of the circuitry to the camera is possible. Protecting your camera is a high priority! [Protecting yourself even higher - see note below]

As far as synching is concerned, these little units are just like any other flash. The synch speed of the camera is the determining factor.

Longevity? Don't know. I've played with these units and even had one operating as a strobe (fast flashes) but I really couldn't say how long they would last... then again, the price is right and it's easy to get spares!

PLEASE NOTE: If you are in any way uncertain about the electronic concepts or components I've discussed above, then I would strongly recommend that you don't use this approach. These units develop around 300v across the discharge capacitor. This is dangerous and under some conditions potentially life threatening. Not to mention hazzardous to your camera! However, if you are well versed in electronics and electronics construction techniques then go ahead and have fun - the risk, however, is yours.

[BrettD]

Thanks Osmium,

I am really a software guy, just dabbling in simple electronics. I think I will try the LEDS first.

If it is no good (or I just feel ready for the challenge), I will try a real flash as you suggest. There are some hardware engineers at work who could check my circuts for safety.

Although it doesn't make much sense, I'd be much more worries about damage to the 10D than to me!

[CyberDyneSystems]

martcol wrote:
You guys are so far off and obviously not taking me seriously. I'm rushing out to patent my design... Mind you BrettD, that Araldyte thing, for that, I'm gonna make you one too! CyberD, I reckon you've seen my plans - I've already thought of the ash tray. I've found that ashpherical glass to be sooooo cool, it distracts from any dust spots... 8)

ashpherical Lens!

OMG! I am dieing! wiping orange juice off of my $2,000.00 monitor as we speek! roflmao

[CyberDyneSystems]

mkaplan wrote:
CyberDyneSystems wrote:
I've had brilliant succuss with tennis ball cans and galvanized buckets and some big heavy glass ashtrays as elements. For IS I use the tried and true gerbil on a wheel.....
I thought the Gerbil & wheel was your external power supply for the camera? ;)

A good guess,. bu tthe gerbils are stricly for gyrostabilaztion,.. that long vine that you saw connected to my camera,.. that was the power supply....

...it is attached to a magneto powered by a coconut shell water wheel a few hundred yards down river.

[CyberDyneSystems]

BretD,

That does look like a very nice job :)

For us that have no clue what aryldite is,. an alternative for such applications is a controlled glob of hot melt glue,.. which I have found works great as an insulator on low voltage applications.

But don't do this anywhere near your camera

[BrettD]

CDS,

Araldyte is a clear 2 compound epoxy resin, it typically comes in a dual syringe (with joined plungers). Once the 2 liquids have mixed, the 'glue' will set in about 5-10 minutes, going very hard (so you could sand and shape it if you wanted) after 12-24 hours.

Certainly do this a long way from your camera, and on a disposable surface. Gloves, protective eye-ware, and a mask are also reccommended (the fumes are very strong)

For insulation (look at the connectors in the inset) I used some small clear heat shrink. It also adds strength to my sloppy soldering!