FIREMANJIM
Custom Trailcameras
Got to playing with this a few weeks ago. Wanted to build a wireless blackflash extender that can be added to a homebrew camera as well as a commercial camera. I found a thread on here where Roger (TCScout) had done some work with one earlier. So I took his info and started building on it. Here is a link to his thread:
http://www.hagshouse.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=34448
So I started building on what he did. Had some PCB boards built. Man these things work great. Out to 80 feet it works 100% of the time. Adding one to a Homebrew is a peice of cake. No worries at all there. So I decided I wanted to add one to a commercial camera. I got my hands on a UWAY VH200B Blackflash commercial camera and cracked it open. Mounted the transmitter and transmitter board inside it. The UWAY VH200B works on a 10.5v system. So I found some positive and negative power points and wired them in. Next I had to find a power source that was only ON when the LED Array was on. Found that fairly easily. Wired it all up. So I programmed the Picaxe chip on the Transmitter board to turn on the negative side of the Power to the transmitter and to keep that power ON for 2 seconds. Then it takes away the power to the transmitter. All that is needed for my system is a single channel transmitter and receiver. Roger used a 4 channel transmitter and receiver in his project. Here is a picture of the Transmitter board:
Here is the Picaxe Code:
'Picaxe 08M2 chip
Main:
high 0
pause 2000 '2 second button hold
low 0
end
On Roger's system the 4 position dip switch was mounted on the camera with the transmitter. Well I did not want to put the dip switches with the transmitter inside a commercial camera so I devised some new code and new system so the dip switches that controls the Extender Array ON times can be inside the extender instead of the camera. I also used the VTT output on the receiver board instead of the 1 of 4 channels as Roger did. Essentially the VTT goes HIGH anytime the receiver receives a signal. So therefore a single channel transmitter/receiver can be used eleminating the need for a 4 channel set up. Here is a picture of the board in the extender:
Here is the Picaxe code, the times on this code and be easily tweaked to be used on any camera set up. These are for the UWAY VH200B set up:
'Picaxe 08M2 chip
SYMBOL SWITCH1 = PIN4
SYMBOL SWITCH2 = PIN3
SYMBOL SWITCH3 = PIN2
SYMBOL SWITCH4 = PIN1
DISABLEBOD
INPUT 1
INPUT 2
INPUT 3
INPUT 4
OUTPUT 0
MAIN:
IF SWITCH1 = 1 THEN
GOSUB TIME14SEC
END IF
IF SWITCH2 = 1 THEN
GOSUB TIME24SEC
END IF
IF SWITCH3 = 1 THEN
GOSUB TIME34SEC
END IF
IF SWITCH4 = 1 THEN
GOSUB TIME6SEC
END IF
GOTO MAIN
TIME14SEC:
HIGH 0
PAUSE 15000
LOW 0
GOTO MAIN
TIME24SEC:
HIGH 0
PAUSE 25000
LOW 0
GOTO MAIN
TIME34SEC:
HIGH 0
PAUSE 35000
LOW 0
GOTO MAIN
TIME6SEC:
HIGH 0
PAUSE 6000
LOW 0
GOTO MAIN
As you can see by the layout on the board and the programming on the chip Pins 1-2-3-4 all are inputs. They are looking for a HIGH signal. The Dip switches control which pin goes high when the VTT output goes HIGH. This works great!!! I learned ALOT while working on this project. Here is a picture of the Actual Wireless Extender Unit. I will post up some videos from the UWAY VH200B without the extender and with the extender tonight.
http://www.hagshouse.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=34448
So I started building on what he did. Had some PCB boards built. Man these things work great. Out to 80 feet it works 100% of the time. Adding one to a Homebrew is a peice of cake. No worries at all there. So I decided I wanted to add one to a commercial camera. I got my hands on a UWAY VH200B Blackflash commercial camera and cracked it open. Mounted the transmitter and transmitter board inside it. The UWAY VH200B works on a 10.5v system. So I found some positive and negative power points and wired them in. Next I had to find a power source that was only ON when the LED Array was on. Found that fairly easily. Wired it all up. So I programmed the Picaxe chip on the Transmitter board to turn on the negative side of the Power to the transmitter and to keep that power ON for 2 seconds. Then it takes away the power to the transmitter. All that is needed for my system is a single channel transmitter and receiver. Roger used a 4 channel transmitter and receiver in his project. Here is a picture of the Transmitter board:
Here is the Picaxe Code:
'Picaxe 08M2 chip
Main:
high 0
pause 2000 '2 second button hold
low 0
end
On Roger's system the 4 position dip switch was mounted on the camera with the transmitter. Well I did not want to put the dip switches with the transmitter inside a commercial camera so I devised some new code and new system so the dip switches that controls the Extender Array ON times can be inside the extender instead of the camera. I also used the VTT output on the receiver board instead of the 1 of 4 channels as Roger did. Essentially the VTT goes HIGH anytime the receiver receives a signal. So therefore a single channel transmitter/receiver can be used eleminating the need for a 4 channel set up. Here is a picture of the board in the extender:
Here is the Picaxe code, the times on this code and be easily tweaked to be used on any camera set up. These are for the UWAY VH200B set up:
'Picaxe 08M2 chip
SYMBOL SWITCH1 = PIN4
SYMBOL SWITCH2 = PIN3
SYMBOL SWITCH3 = PIN2
SYMBOL SWITCH4 = PIN1
DISABLEBOD
INPUT 1
INPUT 2
INPUT 3
INPUT 4
OUTPUT 0
MAIN:
IF SWITCH1 = 1 THEN
GOSUB TIME14SEC
END IF
IF SWITCH2 = 1 THEN
GOSUB TIME24SEC
END IF
IF SWITCH3 = 1 THEN
GOSUB TIME34SEC
END IF
IF SWITCH4 = 1 THEN
GOSUB TIME6SEC
END IF
GOTO MAIN
TIME14SEC:
HIGH 0
PAUSE 15000
LOW 0
GOTO MAIN
TIME24SEC:
HIGH 0
PAUSE 25000
LOW 0
GOTO MAIN
TIME34SEC:
HIGH 0
PAUSE 35000
LOW 0
GOTO MAIN
TIME6SEC:
HIGH 0
PAUSE 6000
LOW 0
GOTO MAIN
As you can see by the layout on the board and the programming on the chip Pins 1-2-3-4 all are inputs. They are looking for a HIGH signal. The Dip switches control which pin goes high when the VTT output goes HIGH. This works great!!! I learned ALOT while working on this project. Here is a picture of the Actual Wireless Extender Unit. I will post up some videos from the UWAY VH200B without the extender and with the extender tonight.