Simple sound trigger for cameras and flashes
Experiments with the external trigger function in my EOS 400D inspired me to develop a simple do-it-yourself sound trigger. The circuit detects sound pulses that exceed a certain pressure level. The sensitivity of the trigger is limited, but high enough to detect popping champagne bottles, bursting balloons or eggs hitting the floor. It can trigger cameras as well as flashes, as both are activated by the same mechanism of short-circuiting two wires.
The Circuit
The electret microphone is connected in the usual way with R4 and C3. I used the MCE-2000, but any other electret type will do. If you need more sensitivity look for a high V/Pa ratio mic. This value is usually specified in dB. C3 forms a high-pass filter and blocks the DC component in the mic signal. The voltage divider R1-R6 sets the polarisation voltage of the transistor slightly below the conduction threshold which is about 0.7V. Now, if the mic generates a positive signal, is adds up to the polarisation voltage and opens the transistor. The collector voltage is now pulled down from VCC to ground. The falling edge triggers the 555 for one pulse (mono-stable operation). The pulse duration is set by R3 and C2 according to the formula
Higher values for C2 or R3 result in longer pulses. The output pin of the 555 can be connected to an opto-coupler or an NPN transistor. The fist option provides some additional safety for the camera or flash unit.
Warning!
In older flash units the trigger pin is connected directly to high voltage. In
such cases an opto-triac or opto-thyristor should be used. Special care must be
taken to avoid electrical shock!
The values of most components can vary between about -20% and +50%. The transistor is an NPN small signal type, e.g. BC547-550. If using a modern CMOS version of the 555 timer (e.g. LMC555, TLC555) the supply voltage can be reduced to less than 3V allowing operation from two 1.5V batteries.
The schematics of the circuit for Eagle can be downloaded here.
Usage
Before use the polarisation voltage has to be adjusted with R1 to obtain maximum sensitivity. Turn the voltage up slowly until the timer has triggered. Now go back a little to get below the threshold - ready. Turning the voltage further down reduces the trigger sensitivity. This might be useful in some situations.
Now you have to adjust the trigger pulse duration with R3 according to your needs. For high-speed photography it's a good idea to block the trigger for a few seconds after detection by selecting a long pulse duration. This helps to avoid secondary triggering due to ricocheting champagne corks, falling glass fragments and so on. Longer trigger pulses also allow to use the serial image mode of the camera to shoot multiple images after detection.
Example images
The pics above were shot by triggering the camera directly. The shutter lag is clearly visible in the right picture. If you need more information on shutter lag issues, have a look here or here. For real high-speed shots the flash unit must be triggered as in the pics below.
It is important to limit the flash duration by reducing the flash power. Values of 1/32 and 1/64 gave good results on my Canon Speedlite 430EX. At higher flash outputs the fast moving parts are blurred. By moving the mic away from the balloon the captured phase of the burst can varied. I used a small tube as a blowgun to puncture the balloons with a screw.
In the image above left the sensitivity of the sound trigger was too high, so a "parasitic" sound pulse was captured.
Links
http://www.doc-diy.net/photo/shutter_lag
Shutter lag measurements for the Canon EOS 400D
http://www.impulseadventure.com/photo/shutter-lag.html
Comparison of Shutter Lag & Startup Delay
http://www.doc-diy.net/photo/eos_wired_remote
Remote trigger pinout of the Canon EOS 400D
http://www.moet.com
Supply for popping cork experiments
you are absolutely right, RESET should be connected to VCC for better stability. 10nF at pin 5 is also recommended, but I achieved good results without the cap. It depends on the application.
Merci!
Excellent article. Juste une remarque concernant le 555. La broche 4 (reset) doit être connectée au 5V. La broche 5 à un condensateur de 10nF à la masse.
Ceci pour une meilleure stabilité du composant.
I try in english (but my english is very bad, sorry)
The pin 4 of 555 must be connected to the supply voltage.
The pin 5 to a capacitor 10 nF to the ground
For a better stability of this component
Cordialement
Bernard
When in 'Start system', the LED blinks 3 times, the camera shutter is opened (must be in BULB mode), tere is a 0.5 sec delay and then the PIC waits for the sound trigger signal. When it gets this, it waits for the set time and then triggers the flash, waits 0.5 secs again and then closes the shutter.
The delay time will be done with a 16 position hex BCD switch, which represents a time delay (in tens on milli secs). After the sound trigger is activated, the circuit waits for the set time before firing the flash.
I haven't got the components yet, so haven't yet tested it. Also I'm am not sure if having the hex BCD switch setting the delay in 'tens of milli secs' will work, maybe it should be 'milli secs'
Thanks,
Patrick
I need a sound trigger to set off a flash unit for track and field athletics. Obviously the sound is a pistol report, unfortunately
a .38 calibre so the report is quite loud. How can your project
be adapted for the large inital sound produced. Any help would be gratefully received.
I was wondering if you could create an optical trigger so I can use the flash from my Canon EOS 350D camera to trigger a slave flash.
A friend and I tried to create the "Lullaby DIY Universal Flash" but we can't make it work. (http://lullaby.homepage.dk/diy-camera/usoft.html)
Of course you can trigger the cam only and use the cameras sync contact to fire the flash.
I have a question, if I use an old flash unite, the sound trigger the camera and the flash in the same time. I can catch the light from the flash en the sound event with camera?. I recently build an similar project (http://lullaby.homepage.dk/diy-camera/usoft.html), I used 2 moc3020 one for flash one for shutter but I have a de-synchronization (delay) between external flash and shutter
thanks
rec
you can delay the trigger slightly by moving the mic away. One meter distance makes delays about 3 ms (speed of sound / distance). I'll think about a delay stage for the circuit.
Cheers,
luk
Looking forward to playing with this now and getting some great shots. Would love to have the ability to delay the trigger by small amounts (in the milliseconds range) to capture bursting balloons or eggs at various stages.
Thanks and well done!