Hi I have a Yongnuo Flashlight YN 560 III.
I am looking for making a arduino based trigger for flash, to use it for high-speed photography. The trigger happens based on change in light, sound or pressure.
Can some one share your knowledge on doing this, with as less or no modification to the flash?
Thanks,
Anil
Google is your friend. USe it.
Well I did do that before posting here.
Most of the resources if found, relate to opening the flash and soldering an extra swith.
This would definitely void the warranty, which is something i want to avoid.
Thanks,
Anil
You don't have to open it if you have access to the hotshoe contacts, or a PC socket.
You can often find flash extension cables can be simply hacked to give you a handy shoe and tripod mount, and they're quite cheap.
Depending on voltage, use an opto-triac or opto-coupler.
Google really is a great resource for this stuff.
Most flash units have a PC / flash sync socket. If yours does not then you can buy a hot shoe to PC cord adapter very cheap.
Here's a couple on ebay. Amazon also has them.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Generic-Flash-Hot-Shoe-Adapter-with-PC-terminal-vintage-5225019-/380681362726?pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories&hash=item58a2609d26
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Off-Camera-Strobe-Flash-Hot-Shoe-pc-Sync-Adapter-/390680789090?pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories&hash=item5af663c062
Once you have a PC connector you can connect the flash to the Arduino as per Nicks page. See the 4N35 at the bottom of the diagram. Nick did exactly what I did - cut the end of a pc cord and connect to an Arduino through a opto-coupler.
Be careful about the flash trigger voltage. Old flash units can have very high trigger voltages. Newer units tend to have much lower trigger voltages. If you have an older model you may need to add extra protection between the flash and the Arduino.
For general information on camera/flash trigger, you need to Google a bit more. There are many resources on line and many are open source and have full schematics and code to download.
After measuring the max current and voltage of my flash trigger, I realized I could hook it directly to the Arduino pin. I included a 10k resistor just in case. Of course that is not true of all flash units.
sbright33:
After measuring the max current and voltage of my flash trigger, I realized I could hook it directly to the Arduino pin. I included a 10k resistor just in case. Of course that is not true of all flash units.
Yes, you want to be careful of old flashes, which were made in the days of mechanical cameras, and the camera did not mind having the whole flash pulse to power the xeon tube going through the hot-shoe. IIRC, some Vivitar 283 flashes were measured to put 600 volts through the hot-shoe. I've also read reports that even purely mechanical cameras would have carbon buildup on the hot-shoe after years of using high voltage flashes.
the camera did not mind having the whole flash pulse to power the xeon tube
You would vapourise shutter contacts with the actual flash tube current.
The flash tube is typically powered from around 350 to 500V, but the actual trigger voltage is much higher, up to a couple of kilovolts.
However, the trigger is usually derived from from the lower flash tube voltage via a simple step-up transformer.