Remapping Shutter Button? - General Discussion and Assistance - CHDK Forum

Remapping Shutter Button?

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Remapping Shutter Button?
« on: 02 / August / 2013, 18:28:30 »
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Hi,
 
I have an a560 which had a broken lens cover, which I had to take apart the camera to fix. I managed to fix that, and in the process broke the zoom button. After a lot of fiddling I got the zoom working, only to find the shutter button has stopped working now, which is really more of an issue than the zoom was...

I'm completely new to CHDK, it was the reason I bought a cheap used a560 in the first place, but I can hardly test it out without a working shutter button!

Firstly, can anyone think of why the shutter button might have stopped working? I've checked all the connections and everything seems to be fine, and everything else on the camera is working normally, as far as I can tell.

Secondly, assuming it isn't possible to fix the actual button, is it possible to remap one of the other buttons to be used as the shutter button instead? I would probably use the display button, and make it long press for half press, and quick press for full press.

Thanks :)

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Offline ahull

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Re: Remapping Shutter Button?
« Reply #1 on: 02 / August / 2013, 19:04:43 »
I've not taken a 560 apart for a while, but I would suspect the ribbon cable from the button panel is the most likely suspect. Probably it is not inserted in to the connector correctly, or is damaged.

If you set up a script to auto-start, and the script takes pictures, chances are it would work... but it would be a little fiddly.
You should also be able to trigger the camera with a USB remote, if you set this up through the CHDK menu.

Re: Remapping Shutter Button?
« Reply #2 on: 02 / August / 2013, 19:15:26 »
Secondly, assuming it isn't possible to fix the actual button, is it possible to remap one of the other buttons to be used as the shutter button instead? I would probably use the display button, and make it long press for half press, and quick press for full press.
You don't have a shutter button to launch a script to read the DISP button and fire the shutter. But you might be able to write a script that runs at start-up that monitors the DISP button and takes appropriate action.  But the normal Canon menus would not be available to you at that point.

There are several other ways you could accomplish this but they almost all involve changing the CHDK source code and building you own personal version.
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Re: Remapping Shutter Button?
« Reply #3 on: 03 / August / 2013, 05:22:58 »
Thank you both for the help, for now I think I'll just build a USB remote shutter release, so that I can start to get to grips with CHDK a bit more. Once I understand scripts a bit better I'll investigate creating a script that runs at startup to monitor the disp button.

I'm now almost certain it's the button itself that is faulty, there is nothing wrong with the ribbon cable that I can see, so I'll look into buying a very cheap broken a550/a560 and combining the two to get a working camera. :)

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Offline ahull

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Re: Remapping Shutter Button?
« Reply #4 on: 03 / August / 2013, 07:55:37 »
Since you seem to be getting pretty good at stripping down and re-assembling your A560, then assuming the switch is actually faulty,  If you have a soldering iron, a magnifier, a steady hand and a bit of imagination, you could also unsolder the switch and solder in 3 very fine wires. While you are at it, add a couple of wires for the power switch. 

This would allow you to power on/off and trigger half-shoot and shoot, by shorting together the relevant wires. This would allow you to control and trigger the camera using a variety of methods.

If you do go down this line, don't forget to share the results with us.

The USB trigger is however, a lot simpler, as it doesn't require such fiddly brain surgery.

 

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