Credit Card Sized Pocket Intervalometer for DSLRs





This is my first project to use Atmega328P standalone without any Arduino based boards. The advantages I found in doing so is the size of your project is considerably reduced, the thickness of the enclosure that you need to make or 3d print whatever is reduced. Most important is your project looks so neat and well made.

What is Intervalometer

An intervalometer is a remote trigger to your DSLR cameras, which makes it possible to click photos periodically with a given shutter speed and given delay. In simple words it tells camera when to take photo. With an intervalometer, you can push the camera to its best limits.

Do I need one?

Yes, you need one if you are interested in photography and like to do some creative stuff with your DSLR, rather than just taking photos and processing and publishing them.

How to use an intervalometer??

Well, watch the video on how to use. Pocket intervalometer

Using the intervalometer, you can trigger the camera at the interval set by you either in minutes or seconds or addition of both. Camera will take the photos only when you click on start shooting, as shown in the video.

Description--

The board consists of an Atmega328 chip soldered at the back side of the board. It needs the crystal oscillator of 16MHz to function properly. The chip is programmed using another Arduino Nano connected to the programming headers given on board. The board is equipped with a micro usb type a port for powering up the microcontroller. DO NOT GIVE MORE THAN 5 V on USB. 
Total 5 switches for selecting the menus plus one reset switch is provided for selection.

 Select switch is used for selection of the menu navigating inside the menu.
Left switch acts as back button from the menu.
Up and Down switches is used for increment or decrement of values.
Right switch is used for storing the values in memory.

Description of Menus in the program--
  1. Photos to take--- Select the number of photos to take and press right key to store
  2. Delay--- Set the delay according to time required to clear the buffer of your camera. (Advisable to set at least 2 s)
  3. Set time value (Tv in min and s)-- You have to set your DSLR in bulb mode for using the intervalometer in values other than fractional times (like 1/20s, 1/2000s, etc). If you want to take photos with 1s shutter speed, then still you have to store Tv in minutes as 0. For photos having fractional Tv, set the Tv in camera and in intervalometer, set Tv in seconds as 1s. 
  4. Confirm--- Double check the values you have set on the display.
  5. Ready to shoot--- Once confirmed the values, you can press RIGHT key to start shooting.
Once the shooting is finished, it will ask you to start again if you want or you can just reset the microcontroller and move to processing.

Advantages over conventional Intervalometers in market---
It uses Optoisolator from Toshiba Semiconductors Inc. It isolates the camera ground and the 5 V supply ground. The optocoupler makes it completely safe to operate. The intervalometers available in market make use of transistors in which small current flows through the camera making it vulnerable to damage, though the possibility of happening this is very negligible.   


Uses--
I have used this to make night sky time lapse as well as star trail photography. Can be used during day time as well.  

Specifications--
  1.  Pocket sized intervalometer
  2. Standalone Atmega328 microcontroller
  3. Optocoupler for separating the camera pins from other circuitry on board
  4. Micro USB for power in
  5. 2.5mm jack supporting Canon DSLRs
Link to code


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. I sell on Tindie

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