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Using Canon camera to control external devices

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Offline mark12345

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Using Canon camera to control external devices
« on: 26 / March / 2009, 08:28:40 »
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Some friends and myself are considering building an autonomous camera unit, with which to take panoramic photographs. The project requires the camera to be connected to a controller of some sort, which will receive data from various sensors. As the total weight of our payload is limited, I would like to know whether it is possible to set up the camera to process external data, and send commands to external units (such as a servo), thereby using the camera to control the entire system.

I am completely new to the CHDK concept, and my general programming knowledge is limited. My apologies if this is a topic that has already been covered, or if this post would be better addressed elsewhere. Any assistance/advice will be greatly appreciated.
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Offline RaduP

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Re: Using Canon camera to control external devices
« Reply #1 on: 26 / March / 2009, 16:47:16 »
Well, it should be possible if you are willing to hack the camera. For example, you can use the output for the LEDs to talk to your microcontroller, and you can hack the buttons so that the microcontroller sends commands to the camera.
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Offline PhyrePhoX

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Re: Using Canon camera to control external devices
« Reply #2 on: 26 / March / 2009, 17:09:40 »
btw such a thing has been adressed at least twice in the forum before, search for pano or something like that. basically it is like radup said.
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Offline RaduP

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Re: Using Canon camera to control external devices
« Reply #3 on: 26 / March / 2009, 17:28:02 »
Actually, now that I am thinking of it, you don't have to even hack the camera, you can use a phototransistor, and you can use the USB port to send signals to the camera (but that's really slow, I think something like 20 bits/second).
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Offline mark12345

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Re: Using Canon camera to control external devices
« Reply #4 on: 27 / March / 2009, 03:24:26 »
Thanks a lot guys, I did a search as suggested and got a lot of useful stuff. Will be sifting through it later.
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