DIY wireless camera remote

July 9, 2006 10:32 PM

How to make your own wireless camera remote. Man buys Minolta 5-D, can't find a remote for less than $30 on eBay; can't find any that are wireless; goes to an electronics store, buys the parts; makes his own wireless remote; then takes pictures of himself skating, using the remote!
I love diy stories like this. (Warning: popups at the linked site.)
posted by Lynsey (22 comments total)

He can spend $700 on a DSLR but not $30 on a remote?
posted by delmoi at 10:42 PM on July 9, 2006

Well, he couldn't find a wireless remote. The $30 remote was wired. He did end up spending about $80 total though.
posted by puke & cry at 10:50 PM on July 9, 2006 [1 favorite]

did ali g write this?
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus at 10:54 PM on July 9, 2006

He bought a wireless remote kit and did some minimal wiring to hook it up to his camera. Meh.
posted by cillit bang at 10:58 PM on July 9, 2006

Call me when he bolts together a couple of steppers and adds a micro for automatic pan/tilt to follow him with ultrasound or IR sensors.
posted by IronLizard at 11:14 PM on July 9, 2006

This would be impressive if instead of just using radio frequency signals to control the camera shutter, the remote sent a 30' long arc of electricity through the air, shattering a chamber of solid quartz crystal in which the camera had previously been encapsulated and signaling a trained monkey to run from atop the operator's shoulder to the camera (which is a 50s-era Leica, and which the monkey must set manually (he has a light meter on a lanyard around his neck)) where he operates the shutter.

This, though. Meh.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:04 AM on July 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

Hey guys, I just bought a BMW, but I can't find a cup holder that matches my interior for under $5. Where can I get some raw plastic material in the right colour, a plastics molding device, and some good CAD software?
posted by Mikey-San at 12:14 AM on July 10, 2006

Wireless remotes are for the lonely.
posted by Jimbob at 12:19 AM on July 10, 2006

And he can't be bothered to lace his skates up properly.
Also, someone should mention the dangers of men in spandex shorts.
posted by Balisong at 12:24 AM on July 10, 2006

Being someone who likes to make things, I really enjoy such links myself. If you want to find more stuff like this, hackaday.com and makezine.com are two good sources, not to mention instructables.

Unfortunate that these MetaFilter users are such shit-eating pigfuckers. It may not be an exceptional post, or the *most* intense hack, but it definitely doesn't deserve this kind of response. Only the responses in this thread are worthy such scorn.

If only this guy could hack up a wireless remote to shut off annoying comment-shitters... Oh... wait... yeah. There's MondoMeta, also home-brewed, in the spirit of this post.
posted by fake at 12:54 AM on July 10, 2006

Unfortunate that these MetaFilter users are such shit-eating pigfuckers. It may not be an exceptional post, or the *most* intense hack.

The problem is it's not intense at all. It's so banal. I mean should we celebrate some random paper mache sculpture hosted on a site with tons of popups? No? What about a geocities site?

Those are about as impressive as this 'hack'.
posted by delmoi at 1:00 AM on July 10, 2006

I eagerly await your positive contribution of a well-written post full of intense hacks.
posted by fake at 1:10 AM on July 10, 2006

fake:

What's funny isn't that he built something on his own. That's always cool. The comedy opportunity lies in the fact that he complained about the cost of stuff on eBay and then spent twice that building it in an effort not to spend a lot.

Again:

DIY == kickass

irony == funny
posted by Mikey-San at 1:50 AM on July 10, 2006

I eagerly await your positive contribution of a well-written post full of intense hacks.

like these?
posted by delmoi at 2:22 AM on July 10, 2006

Nice post, I missed it. Unfortunate that in threads, it seems like all you do is bitch.

Anyway, this is now almost as much thread shitting as complaining about the post, so I'll stop.
posted by fake at 2:32 AM on July 10, 2006

fake:

So instead of reading my post that explains what you're complaining about, you're off playing detective and bringing irrelevant shit into the thread. Somehow you're NOT shitting the place up? At least the rest of us are talking about the thread we're posting in.

Take it to MetaTalk, for fuck's sake.
posted by Mikey-San at 2:37 AM on July 10, 2006

Jesus Christ, people. Maybe you guys soldered together your own motherboards from scratch and built yourselves wall-sized displays from LEDs, but I can't do any of those things. I think this guy's wireless remote is pretty cool.
posted by redteam at 2:51 AM on July 10, 2006

I'm wondering why he started with the reference boards, rather than just getting a kit.

Using the Keeloq system is overkill -- that's a rolling code system designed for car remote locks, and unlike the TI system, it wasn't trivially broken.

Of course, if it was a case of "I had them lying around from another project", then hey, that was the right answer. But for just a simple camera remote, the rfPics (basically small microcontrollers with a small radio onboard) are the right answer for short distance RF command and data streams. If you've seen the tire pressure monitor systems some cars have, these chips, combined with a pressure sensor, are one way to do it.
posted by eriko at 4:55 AM on July 10, 2006

It would have been easier to build one of these.
posted by Gungho at 5:29 AM on July 10, 2006

More impressive if he'd just used wood and rubberbands.
posted by HTuttle at 5:41 AM on July 10, 2006

I fucking hate how O'Reilly Publishing (through "Make:") has turned the world of cool, well-made projects on the web into a cesspool of trivial, poorly made shit. Shit that some douchebag with too much disposable time and income threw together, spending twice as much money (not to mention time) as just buying something great off the shelf.

Fucking hipster blogtards and their goddamn 37Signals Google Maps with Flickr iPod. Fuck them.
posted by blasdelf at 1:13 PM on July 10, 2006

Heh, blasdelf has Gmail. Hippy.
posted by redteam at 6:40 PM on July 11, 2006