Remote button for Canon Elph 160

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BillGill
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Remote button for Canon Elph 160

Post by BillGill »

I am looking for a remote push button to operate a Canon Elph 160 in the new scanner I am building. I looked around and found mention of the Ricoh CA-1, but that seems to be older and I'm not sure if it is available any longer. Can anybody suggest a good push button? I could probably build one, but by the time I got through hacking up the stuff I need to do make one I would probably spend as much or more as buying one.

For that matter is there a commercial video/push button splitter available? I could always stand to have a good view of the page I am shooting without having to crane to look at that little bitty screen on the camera. I found the info about building one, but it looks like a kind of a complex project. I'm not sure I am up to it.

Thanks,
Bill
duerig
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Re: Remote button for Canon Elph 160

Post by duerig »

As far as I know, there is no official way to hook the Canon ELPH 160 up to a remote. The only two methods I know about both involve installing CHDK.

First, CHDK lets a camera be controlled directly via a computer. So you could use something like TwoCamControl or Pi Scan or chdkptp to control it.

Second, CHDK has a mode that detects power changes on the connected USB cable and triggers the camera based on that. Using this, a number of people have come up with remotes that involve plugging a USB cable and a switch to interrupt power momentarily to trigger the camera.

-Jonathon Duerig
BillGill
Posts: 139
Joined: 18 Dec 2016, 17:13
E-book readers owned: Calibre, FBReader
Number of books owned: 7000
Country: USA

Re: Remote button for Canon Elph 160

Post by BillGill »

I understand about needing CHDK. What I am looking for is a commercial button that can be used to trigger the camera, using CHDK. That is the second way you mentioned. There is information about how to construct a button, but there is also mention of the Ricoh CA-1 that is supposed to be usable for triggering the camera. However, as I said, the CA-1 is an old design and I don't know if there is anything similar currently available. So I was hoping somebody here could let me know without my having to dig in and actually do the research for myself. I tend to be lazy that way.

As I said I could probably rig one, there is plenty of information on how to do it. But if I can buy one it will probably be no more expensive, it appears the Richoh was around $20, and a lot slicker than anything I would create.

Bill
duerig
Posts: 388
Joined: 01 Jun 2014, 17:04
Number of books owned: 1000
Country: United States of America

Re: Remote button for Canon Elph 160

Post by duerig »

I have not seen anyone try the Ricoh CA-1 remote on the ELPH 160 so I can't say whether that would work. I don't see many other obvious alternatives.

However, a simple solution might simply to use one of these and a USB charger:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1620

Rock the switch back and forth once per trigger. Not as convenient as a momentary switch, but likely still effective.

-Jonathon Duerig
BillGill
Posts: 139
Joined: 18 Dec 2016, 17:13
E-book readers owned: Calibre, FBReader
Number of books owned: 7000
Country: USA

Re: Remote button for Canon Elph 160

Post by BillGill »

That is interesting. I'll have to think about that. I'll keep the link until I have time to think about it.

Thanks,
Bill
BillGill
Posts: 139
Joined: 18 Dec 2016, 17:13
E-book readers owned: Calibre, FBReader
Number of books owned: 7000
Country: USA

Re: Remote button for Canon Elph 160

Post by BillGill »

Well, I couldn't find anything that I could confidently use, so I went ahead and built my own remote trigger. Taking a hint from the article I found about using remote triggers (http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/USB_Remote) I chose to use an inexpensive wall charger. Here is the result. The USB cable from the camera plugs into the wall charger. The door bell button will be mounted at a convenient location on the scanner. When the button is pressed the camera takes a picture.
RemoteTrigger.jpg
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The construction was fairly straight forward. I started by carefully prying apart the wall charger and pulling out the guts.
RemoteTrigger-(1).jpg
RemoteTrigger-(1).jpg (67.08 KiB) Viewed 10022 times
Then I had to find the + voltage land to the USB connector. When I had found that I carefully cut the land so that it was no longer connected. I used a DVM to check and make sure that the land was actually disconnected.

Then it was time to start drilling. I looked the charger over carefully to make sure that I was drilling a hole where it wouldn't interfere with the insides. I drilled a hole in the case just big enough for the cable to fit through. For a cable I chose an old telephone cable I had on hand, figuring I had enough of those around so that I could afford to sacrifice one. I cut the ends off and pushed one end through the hole into the case.

I stripped the outer casing off of the wires so that the 2 insulated wires were exposed. The next step was to drill a hole just big enough for the 2 wires to go through in the circuit board, choosing a location where there were no lands. Stripping the 2 wires I soldered them to some solder pins sticking up through the board so that when the wires are shorted together they apply +5 Volts to the +5 connector pin.
RemoteTrigger-(5).jpg
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I used some hot melt glue to stabilize everything, and fastened a tie-wrap around the cable so that it wouldn't pull through the hole in the case. I slipped everything back together and tie-wrapped the cable on the outside of the case, adding a dose of hot melt glue there as well.
RemoteTrigger-(3).jpg
RemoteTrigger-(3).jpg (40.82 KiB) Viewed 10022 times
So now I just plug the charger into an electric outlet, connect a USB cable from the camera to the charger, and use the door bell button to trigger the camera. I don't have it installed yet, my new scanner is out in the garage waiting for paint to dry.
RemoteTrigger.jpg
RemoteTrigger.jpg (57.25 KiB) Viewed 10022 times
Bill
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