homebrew remote for Canon EOS 350D

I recently made my own remote for my 350D.



Numerous people have built their own remote controls, but all the designs that I have seen use two separate momentary switches to control the auto-focus and shutter action - both of which are handled by the single shutter button on the camera body itself.

Rather than have two separate buttons for activating the auto-focus and the shutter, I wanted to reproduce the functionality of the camera body shutter button, and have a single button, with a half-press controlling the auto-focus, and a full-press controlling the shutter.

My total cost was $1.30, and that was for the 2.5mm stereo plug (as everything else was scavenged from various appliances and other devices).

See this page for wiring and construction details of the remote.

Cheers,
Martin.

 

Nice work. I looked for ages to find a 2-stage switch without luck. I ended up just buying the Canon remote. Far easier due to the wierdo plug that is used on the 10D/20D/30D.

 

Nice clean work there mate

WHy oh why does the d70s use an uncommon connector style

 

How did you go about building this? Sorry i have never done to much electrical work and cannot see how its done clearly.

 

That looks great Martin, excellent work!

Kyle, you can get MC-DC1 clones on Ebay for under $20, not bad really!

 

How does yours look?

 

here is one i made last week, everything was sourced from jaycar and cost $10 all up. 2 push switches, one toggle switch, 3 core cable, and the box.

 

[AFX]Northy - do you have to depress both the focus and shoot buttons to shoot? the reason i ask is other plans that i have seen that look very familiar to yours, they have to hold the focus and shoot buttons down together.

 

press the focus button to focus, then press either the shoot and hold it down to keep shutter open ( when shooting in bulb mod) if on timer just press it down, the switch is for when shooting in blub mode you can just turn it on and have as long as you like. and switch it off when your done.

Corey

 

having said that, i was using it with my old FILM SLR the other night, and couldnt for the life of me work out why it didnt work, then remembered I had to mod my FILM remote for the DSLR. on the film body, you do need to push both buttons to shoot. not so for the DSLR. so your mileage may vary.

 

have you got a source for that wiring plan? i know it looks pretty simple, but i havent done much wiring or soldering so....any help is a lot too me

cheers
ben

 

the tip on the plug is the common, in my pics its the gold wire with no coating as it was the shielding in the cable i used, the next section up the plug is the shoot wire (white in my pic) and the next bit is for the focus (red in my pic), so common + white = shoot and common + red = focus. sorry i dont have a wiring diagram as i just soldiered up all the wires and shorted them out to see what would happen.

 

Nice work with the two-stage switch.

I also made one up the other day using the wiring diagram from this link (don't follow the posted images, they buggered up numbering and colouring), but had to buy all the parts.

1 x AA battery holder which already has an on/off switch (very compact).
2 x push button momentary switches (tiny low profile ones, not like those on [AFX]Northy's).
1 x 2.5mm stereo plug.
5m of nice and flexible 3 core (or 2 core with shield) cable (I may need all this length one day).

I got all parts, except cable (Jaycar), from Dick Smith.
Cost $13, but about $10 if all sourced from Jaycar.
I couldn't find any of the low profile switches at Jaycar though.

Works a treat, and nice and easy to assemble.
The two stage switch is a great idea, but it's not that hard to press one button to focus, then another for the shutter.
However, if you press the shutter button only, it will still focus, but immediately operates the shutter.

Might post some pics, but my soldering skills are pretty dodgy.
The last time I used one was...ummm, I can't remember...

 

i built one that doesnt work and i cbf fixing it yet.

It should all work but when i went to dicksmith to get the 2.5mm stereo plug they didnt have any. So the way around it was to use a 3.5mm plug and then a 3.5mm to 2.5mm converter.... the only thing is the idiot gave me a 3.5mm to 3.5mm plug.... why they have 3.5mm to 3.5mm i do not know

 

cheers [AFX]Northy and bscampbell, very helpful info!!

 

sorry one more thing, so i take it this already comes with a SPST toggle switch that would be used for when in bulb mode?

cheers again.
Ben

 

Nice work there people. If you want a fully programmable remote this mob sells them
Hutech Canon Camera Accessories
EOS201 Canon TC-80N3 camera controller modified for digital Rebel (300D) and Rebel XT (350D) $175.00
Bit dear though, thats US dollars!
A mate got one, you can program into it when and how long, now many exposures to take.

If you want to run the whole shooting match from a pc/notebook then there is this

 

You mean it has 3 'points' coming off it and not 6?
If so, then yes (ie. it has 3 'points').

 

I'm using two microswitches at slightly different offsets, so depressing the button half way down causes one microswitch to close, and fully depressing the button causes both microswitches to close.



Cheers,
Martin.

 

cool nice work. just priced some micro switches as i dont have them lying around.. they arent as cheap as normal push on switch.

im going to give it shot this weekend. just using two push buttons and the dse battery holder with a switch already in it.

will post pictures of how i go.