How would I most easily create a mechanical intervalometer for a digital camera?

Question

i.e. a battery powered device which presses a digital cameras capture button at some constant interval of ~60 seconds.

Would it be an easy project for someone with little experience with electronics?

The camera will be in a water-tight housing (a large housing with space for somethings as big as the camera itself) a few meters underwater. Hence why i dont think a wireless remote control device will work.

There seems to be two devices I could just buy which would do the job, the MicroBot Push and the Tempus All TEMPUS ALL Mechanical Intervalometer but I don't want to pay 150 dollars for something so simple.

Any advice appreciated!

Why would you ask about a mechanical design on a site expressly devoted to electrical engineering? — Dave Tweed, May 11 '18 at 12:12
How do you intend to turn the camera on and off remotely, or are you just hoping to drop the chamber and let the camera run until the batteries die? — Carl Witthoft, May 11 '18 at 14:39
what model and make is your camera? most likely there is allready some external function for triggering the camera electronically trough the remote trigger interface. Wether or not the canera is in a watertight housing matters little. building a mechanical system that works in similar enviroments is harder. So you would use the remote trigger system just with exotic equipment. — joojaa, May 11 '18 at 15:36
@SolarMike This particular camera (Nikon 1 J5) has an in-built interval function but it only works for photos, not high frame rate video — BarnOwl, May 11 '18 at 16:11
@CarlWitthoft Yes the camera will only be under water for 30 - 60 minutes at a time. I'm not allowed to alter the housing and it doesn't have any water tight ports for cables to enter through. — BarnOwl, May 11 '18 at 16:14
@joojaa Its a Nikon 1 J5. It has an in-built interval function but it only works for photos not high frame rate videos. It doesn't accommodate a wired remote, just has a WiFi conection which can be used to remotely take photos via a smartphone app, from what I have been told that app does not have an interval function. — BarnOwl, May 11 '18 at 16:19
@BarnOwl it would have been helpful to specify video in the original question - perhaps you should update it... — Solar Mike, May 11 '18 at 16:45

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 11 '18 at 14:41

You may find your objective obtainable via the world of Arduino in concert with radio control servos. The Arduino will support direct connection to a single servo without requiring an external driver circuit, while the programming can be custom tailored to your camera's requirements.

The mechanical aspect is going to be limited only to your fabrication skills.

A quick brain flash resulted in a search for "arduino servo shutter release" and discovered that others have created this type of mechanism.

YouTube video of one project

There is also an Instructable project that covers camera types with cable releases, electronic "cable" releases, and mechanical releases.

This last link covers many aspects quite comprehensively and may be your best initial resource. With Arduino, if someone else's program doesn't meet your requirements, it can be easily modified.

thanks for that, the youtube video is exactly the type of thing of thing I want to make. Unfortunately the camera doesn't accommodate a cable release and I don't own the camera so I dont really want to mess with the electronics as the instructable suggests doing. — BarnOwl, May 11 '18 at 16:27
There is a mechanical segment to the instructable using a servo to depress the shutter button. It's a bit of a distance down the instructable. There are others of this sort out there as well. One of them showed a two stage sequence, but used a remote control. The mechanicals would still be valid, however, the code would have to be modified. — fred_dot_u, May 11 '18 at 17:22

How would I most easily create a mechanical intervalometer for a digital camera?

1 Answers1