About the MAXXUM Remote

The Maxxum remote is actually an electronic remote...that is, it does not use the old standard "plunger" shutter release cable that actually just "pushes down on the shtter button. (just a remote button)

This remote has three wires in it.....actually, it has two wires and a shield. This shield is the "common" that the other two wires get shorted to when you want the Maxxum to do something.

1. The first wire (red I think) is the AUTOFOCUS wire. When it is shorted to the braid shield, it will cause the camera to focus.
2. The second wire (white I think) is shorted to the shield in order to make the shutter release. If you short this wire without shorting the other, the camera simply releases the shutter without care for whether it is in focus.

I connected the Basic Stamp control to the shutter release wire ONLY. I did this because I figured that most of the shooting I would be doing would be with a fixed subject and an unattended camera. I didn't want the camera to get " hung-up " and not take a picture because of focus.

How about using the manual remote?

I actually cut the standard Maxxum remote in half and spliced stereo jacks and plugs in to allow me to either use the Widget or a stadard remote. In fact, I even added a plug to the widget so that the standard Maxxum remote can plug into it, and so I can take manual pictures even while the Widget is connected. (they are in parallel....and the focus wire is STILL connected to the hand remote!)

Why use a relay?

The answer here is quite simple...it was availible! Actually, there were three main reasons:

1. The first being that I wanted isolation between the Maxxum and the Widget circuitry. I didn't note it above, but the "common" shield on the camera ( the place the other read and white wire gets shorted to) seems to set at about +4v as compared to the other two wires. Not knowing what that voltage could be with fresh or dead batteries....and seeing that it was actually more positive than the lines I was shorting to it....I elected to look for wither optoisolator or relay isolation.
2. I wanted a dead Widget to have no effect on the Maxxum. If the widget lost power, or malfunctioned, I wanted to keep the camera from damage, or even going berzerk and shooting the entire roll of film.
3. To know that one of my main goals here was low-power, and that an opto-isolator would have been a better choice, but I didn't have one on hand, and I was not sure how much current I had to drive. On a positive note, I used a very efficient reed relay...with about a 300 ohm coil, so the current draw is less than 20mA. Since the shutter is clicked fairly infrequently, this should NOT be a large current drain. (more of a drain in long exposure bracketing mode though) The Reed relay is quiet, and should have along life. ( but, the optoisolator would have been the way to go)

Why use a 4 toggle switches for command inputs?

This, quite frankly, was what I had availible. I really wanted some sort of rotary switch that gave me a HEX output (like those used to select SCSI targets...a thumbwheel of sorts), but I just didn't have it. Having a dial with names of the various cycles would be the best.....but thats not in my budget.

I would recommand this as the first feature enhancement for this beast.

Why are there no LED or status displays?

In a single word... POWER. I was trying to save power, and LEDS waste power. I also thought that it would be feedback enough to hear the camera shutter going off. Yes, when you start getting into those long times between exposures ( once a day, or once a week), you will not see the dead battery if it happens...but I think you can check that by looking at the camera film advance number to see if it has been advancing as expected.

Except for the dumb command toggle switches, the motto for my projects in general is"KISS"...keep it simple stupid.

Whats this FAST/SLOW switch all about?

I actually implimented this with a faux Basic Stamp called the Turbo Stamp. It has a slide switch that allows you to run it in either its 4MHz standard speed, or 16 MHz Turbo mode. In Turbo mode, everything happens at 4x the speed.....so it adds even more choices to the command table.

How did you pick these features/settings for the commands?

1. I wanted these features in a camera, and have never been able to get them . (except to do it manually)
2. I wanted to choose setting that had a "chance" of being remembered. Yes, some of the bracketing has alot of overlap, but if the user was not going to be able to input an exact number directly, this was the best I could do. BTW: Because of the TURBO switch, you actually get the rated commands, and those running at 4x the speed as well.... .two modes in one! ;-)
3. Because this is implimented in a Stamp, it can be changed. As I get ideas, or as people email them to me , I will add them into the code/widget.

Performance and/or Bugs.....

 As of this moment, I don't see any, but this critter is only 2 days old. I have to try and look at the timing of all of this by setting the camera up to photograph a clock. I will report on this as I make progress.

Future Enhancements?

The first I can see is to get rid of the command switches for a simpler rotary switch.
Get rid of the relay for some sort of Optoisolator.Get better at mechanical assembly and make it look less like a "hack job".Add a TTL trigger/arm input to allow for external electronic events to feed into the Widget.

Can I get one too?

I was actually thinking of trying to produce a few of these for sale. I think they are very usefull, but I am not sure how many Maxxum users would want one.....or how many other cameras use this type of release. If you have more info on either of these, please email me with it . I thank you in advance.

Is that all there is?

Yes, but lets not forget how programmable this thing is. You could:

1. Add a TTL input so that your Stamp can take in some external event as either an ARM or TRIGGER for the shutter. (you could have multiple inputs as arms and triggers....but please remember the inherent slowness of the STAMP and basic...this isn't a high speed control)
2. Connect this box to a tilt and swivel tripod and program the widget and the tripod to pan and shoot such that you had a full 360 degree view all around. Using the widget to time all of this, you could do a sort of time lapsed photo of 360 around a point.
3. Add a feature that synchronizes a flash with an event so that you could do some sort of open lense flash "painting". Together with the tilt and pan tripod, you could use the flash to "paint" particular portions of a scene as the widget is used to control flash timing. (and perhaps even tripod control)

Direct links to stuff here

Schematics

Basic Stamp Code

Minolta FAQ

Quentin Lewis' Homepage

Parallax Basic Stmaps
 

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