I understand all of that, my Arduinos have worked at Shuttle launches 2010-11. I had no problems, they were in Pelican cases and well protected. Even with all the forces, the Arduinos were 400 ft from the launch pad, the Duemilanove's worked great. I just looked and I can't get Duemilanove's anymore. No stock. So I will have to go to Uno R3's unless there is something more reliable.

I am running with RTCs already I am concerned about the Ardino dying. I have them running in inaccessible areas for a year with battery and card changes in cameras about 2-4 weeks. I have heard of mini's passing away after only weeks but I want a smaller footprint and longer battery life so I was thinking of using Sparkfuns Arduino Pro 328s. I have had few problems with the full size boards which I still want to use for some applications but smaller would be an asset.

I am putting together time lapse controllers for long term shooting. I had seen a forum post about reliability of some Arduino boards. Does anyone have experience with the Arduino Pro from Sparkfun? The Minis can be not so great long term from what I hear.

Thx

There is some LANC source code available through this site, http://micro.arocholl.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:lanc&catid=35:arduino-article&Itemid=54, about middle of page is a line with a link to the source code.

I really hate doing this stuff at the last minute!

Well everything! I got the hardware, my issues are with the programming, as I said I don't know a lot but I can make adjustments. Did you take a look at the Control your camera blog post and code? I want to power up the camera and start it recording a minute or so later and the turn off later, although turning off is not necessary since it can just run out of recording space and batteries. Powering up and turning on is the main thing.

Thanks

I forgot to add that we are a museum project with very little money. Check out our Website http://www.thelastshuttle.com or our Facebook page "Space Shuttle Project". Now I have to grovel to get more Arduinos and RTCs for next week.

thanks for listening

I have very little coding skills and no time to learn unfortunatly. I am shooting the landing of the "Last Space Shuttle" and I have a problem. I have Arduinos I want to use to turn on some cameras, via LANC, and set them to record at a certain time. I have the hardware with a RTC using RTClib.h library. The LANC sketch I want to use uses a button to set record  >http://controlyourcamera.blogspot.com/2011/02/arduino-controlled-video-recording-over.html#comment-form< I want to turn on the camera via LANC, which is included in the commands, and then record at a certain time and date. Sorry but time is short and I need to have this going pretty quick. The landing is next Tuesday or Wed. I have to get the hardware built by Saturday to fly Sunday or Monday.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Transistors and Mosfets don't provide enough isolation. I am running 1 to 4 cameras per controller and focus as well as shutter lines for each camera. Each camera has to be isolated from the other cameras or you get strange interactions and possible feedback of voltage for any of the cameras connected. I have tried it with transistors and not had great results. I have heard lots of good stories about frying of cameras when not properly isolated. Anyway any ideas on low current optoisolators? I have a few more things to try this week.

For "The Last Shuttle Project" I have been using Pelican boxes, 1010, 1020,1040 and so forth. These boxes have a rubber liner so instead of cutting this out I have just used foam to jam the boards into place. It holds them in place pretty well in spite of the forces involved in the launch, a lot of shakin'. Some of our cameras are 500 ft or so from the pad, pretty close!

Well i figured all that out but at this moment all of my camera controllers use optoisolators not relays. I had one prototype with a relay but I am using OKs to keep current down and size small. Just trying to figure the current thing out at the moment. I picked up a couple of 4N33 (OKs with Darlington transistors) yesterday to test and see if I can use them with 1-5mA if so that may be the ticket. I am also going to futz with my current crop of controllers and see if I can reduce the OK current to around 20mA. I have about a dozen at the moment I am using for shooting the space shuttle launch. I also have 4 arduino's I am using as well. I may use more in the future. I really like the fact I can program them for a week or more of launches, the launch time changes every day, so it makes life a bit easier.

The optoisolators are controlling cameras not flashes.

And if you haven't gathered I am a newby at this sort of thing. Learning electrical design on a project by project basis.

Thanks

Ok so I was told by another guy that using that level of current was the proper way to go about this but I guess that is wrong as that is the max current. I guess that using the test current would be close to reality as far as current needed to saturate the transistor. I'll build up a test board and do some experimenting.

Thanks, any other ideas or pointers?

The 2 OKs I am using at spec are NTE3086 (40-50mA) and PS2501-4 (50mA). These are close to the max current for the led. The electrical characteristics lists a lot lower current rating.

Here are the datasheets
NTE3086
http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/nte/NTE3086.pdf

PS2501-4
http://www.cel.com/pdf/datasheets/ps2501.pdf

Hmmm, maybe I should see if I can reduce the current to around 20-30mA. I am using a NTE3086 in several of my Deumilanove's at 40mA Total current is output is about 143mA when everything is working. I guess I would also be better off using OKs with higher CTRs. The NTE is only 20% but 4n25s I think are 200-300% so that would be a better choice. Looks like a redesign time for some of them.