beep... beep... blink... blink...
 
Lil Bang (Sound Trigger for Cameras)
camera, pic micro, project

Lil Bang (Sound Trigger for Cameras)

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Introduction

Now that I can take pictures of lightning I decided that I also want to be able to trigger my camera with sound. The design I came up with has the following features:

  • Controlled by a PIC micro (PIC16F886).
  • Adjustable sensitivity
  • Adjustable delay – i.e. the user can set how many milliseconds after the sound event the picture should be taken. (My uncle says it would be a lot better if there was a setting to define how much BEFORE the event it should trigger the camera – but that’s another project – for my Nobel prize later this year…:)
  • Operated from battery and/or external power brick.
  • Completely decoupled from the camera by opto couplers, so that no harm can be caused by the circuit to the camera.
  • Can be used with any camera that has a remote control input (direct, IR or otherwise).
  • Can also be used to trigger any other electronic device, e.g. flash
Meet Lil Bang – little bro of the Big Bang 🙂

If you like this project and would like to build it yourself all the necessary information on it is below. If you don’t feel adventurous enough to build it yourself but still would like to have it I can prepare you a kit or a fully built unit – drop me a line for more info.

Hardware

The hardware is made up of two distinct parts: analog input circuit and digital processing.

The sound signals are picked up by a small microphone recycled from an old tape recorder I got rid of recently.

The microphone used is salvaged from an old tape recorder I discarded some time ago.

After a lot of research on the internet and some trial and error I settled with the LM386 as the input amplifier. I used the typical application circuit for maximum (200) gain from the datasheet to make sure it has enough sensitivity to pick up the smallest noise if needed.

Schematics

At the core of the circuit is a PIC16F886 microcontroller doing the rest of the work. The output of the audio amplifier goes directly to one of the comparator inputs of the PIC. A reference voltage is set using a pot (R2). The internal comparator is used to decide if there is a high enough signal coming from the microphone. If yes the shutter is triggered.

The camera is connected to this circuit through a standard 3.5 mm stereo jack. I used the same pin layout as in the lightning trigger project so that I can use the same (modified) cable release.

The camera terminal uses a standard 3.5mm stereo jack. I made the pinout compatible with my lightning trigger.

The circuit is, as always, electrically decoupled from the camera by two opto couplers.

Front of the custom made PCB
Back of the custom made PCB

Operation

A short demo of Lil Bang in action:

Unfortunately, there is a bit of latency between the picture and the sound of the video and the trigger seems to trigger before the sound event. Obviously, this is not the case. But you still get the idea, don’t you?

After start-up the device is in calibration mode. Here the user can set the sensitivity of the circuit. The calibrate LED blinks every time it would trigger the camera if it was armed. This way it can be easily set to the desired level by using the pot (R2).

Once the desired sensitivity is set, pressing the Mode button (which is the built-in button of the rotary encoder) will take us to the next setting: Delay. Here the user can set up a certain delay he or she wants to have between the sound that triggers the shot and the actual shot. The delay is displayed on a four digit 7 segment display, in ms (milliseconds). At the moment, any value 0-255 ms can be selected using the rotary encoder. This is enough for my purposes, so I didn’t bother writing the code for higher numbers. If there is demand for higher numbers I will implement the necessary changes.

Once the desired delay is set another click of the Mode (rotary encoder built-in) button arms the device. In this mode the camera is put in metering mode (although it is recommended to use the camera on manual settings to avoid any unwanted delays when the triggering event happens). Any sound that is loud enough to light up the calibration LED in calibration mode will trigger the camera after the pre-set delay.

Another click of the rotary encoder button puts the device again in calibrate mode.

To save on power consumption the delay amount is only shown when it can be changed.

You can download the source code from the project’s repository.

Possible applications

Note: The above links point to other people’s photos that were not made with my trigger. I included them for illustration purposes only.

Some sample photographs from photographers using the above trigger

Fredric Frennessen capturing color bounced off a speaker:

George D. capturing a “storm in the glass”:

Rich Johnson creating a water hat for the family:

Claus and Christian Christensen managed to catch a bullet:

Update 6/8/2013

I just won Lifehacker’s “Best Camera Hacks” competition with this entry!

127 Comments

  1. obsoehollerith

    Nice work.I haven't seen your schematics,but it seems to me that if you incorporate some kind of pulse stretcher with an adjustable pulse width,your beautifully made trigger could be used in a wide range of applications beyond photography. Excellent. Keep it up.
    Rick in PDX

  2. Viktor

    What other applications do you mean? I think I could modify the firmware for stretching the pulse even without changing the hardware (although it would be nice to have a dedicated LED for that setting). I would love to hear more details on this from you.
    Thanks for stopping by!

  7. Ahmet

    Hi, this is really nice project.. I am kind of working this kind of project but i stuck on the software side.. I'm just wondering if there is any way to i can get the source code.. I will really appreciate that.. thanks

  9. ElectroNick

    Regarding your Uncle's desire to trigger *before* the event happens I'd say not all is lost – the devil is in the detail, as always 🙂 . Say, you're taking a picture of a bullet hitting an apple. Move the mic closer to the rifle than to the apple and it might just trigger before the bullet hits the apple. But that's probably the only shot I can think of like that. I hope your Uncle is into firearms 🙂 Everything else really does require a time machine to trigger before the event happens … Bummer!

  10. ElectroNick

    Sorry, I was thinking of your Uncle and forgot to ask the question I had 🙂

    I see a Focus output on the schematics. Does that mean that you're not using manual focusing mode to shoot high speed triggered pictures? How does that work? I thought the camera's AF mode is going to be way too slow for that? Or is this used for something else?

    Great job on the project and the PCB!

    Cheers!

  12. Viktor

    That output is probably wrongly named focus. What it really does is pressing halfway the shutter release button. You are right, the camera has to be set on all manual mode. I should have named it something else, like "arm" or "ready"…

  19. Marco

    Hello, my name is Marco, I'm from Brazil and I really liked his project, he is much "lighter" than the others I have seen on the web.
    I wish I nandasse the price and mode of payment to my address which is mpenharbel att yahoo dot com dot br.

  45. Anonymous

    Very, very nice project! This one and the Zeus Lightning Trigger!
    Can you pls send me the source codes? Thanks a lot in advance, Vitya!

    drkkwell at gmail dot com

  51. Anonymous

    Hi dude, you did excelent work here! 🙂
    May you send me a source code for MCU and PCB design? Or something of this?
    Email address is:

    3sprej [at] gmail [dot] com

    Thank you very much!

  67. Unknown

    I would love to purchase one of these from you. If your willing to make me one. Please let me know the fee and How I should procede. I could use it asap since I just burnt out my 30 year old unit. Yours looks perfect… je135 at mac dot com

  70. Ahigh

    Hey I would like to get one of these sound-based camera triggers. Yours looks like the nicest one that I have seen so far. Let me know what would be required for me to have one set up. You can visit my website at forum.goodshooter.com to see what I would like to use it for.

  83. Viktor

    I'm afraid I can't send it to you. However, you have the full schematics above so you can design your own. Also, my PCB is designed with parts I have, so it wouldn't do much good to you anyway.

  99. Unknown

    Good day, love the design I would be interested in purchasing one. It would be a great teaching tool for some of my high school classes. I've been looking for something like this for a while. a.doliveira@live.ca can you please let me know your price and I'll you know if it is in out budget. Thanks in advance!

  127. Pingback: DIY 3D Printed Camera Dolly with Pan and Tilt Head – Viktor’s DIY Blog

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