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A forum to ask questions, post setups, and generally discuss anything having to do with photomacrography and photomicroscopy.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

barnack-bill
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Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:55 am

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Post by barnack-bill »

I recently bought a wemacro rail which works well with my Sony camera but was a bit inconvenient with my digital microscope. The digital microscope software takes a picture when a screen button is clicked. I found that this tended to cause vibration, better if I could stand away from the table . Also it was tedious on a large number of steps.

So I knocked up a simple pcb.

Image


Actually it is a true Cap’n Bodge-it job. Just an old USB mouse board with a 2.5mm jack plug soldered across the LH mouse microswitch. Windows doesn’t mind an extra mouse, it just takes the command from the most recent event so I can point the real mouse’s pointer at the screen button and let this board do the clicking under control from the wemacro controller. I’ll disable the LEDs and put it in a little project box sometime.


One lead plugs into the wemacro controller and the other into a usb port and it works perfectly.

Image

Pau
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Post by Pau »

A clever idea!

It could also be implemented to fire a DSLR like a Canon EOS when tethered to the computer
Pau

Saul
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Post by Saul »

Thank you, I hope now my Nikon 1 J4 (which has no remote input or infrared, wifi only) will work with DslrDashboard/WeMacro !
Saul
μ-stuff

mawyatt
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Post by mawyatt »

Very clever :D

I would think we all have lots of old mice hanging around, seems you could do same with old wireless mouse also??

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

barnack-bill
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Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:55 am

Post by barnack-bill »

I don't see why not. The connections to the jack plug are body = earth (ground); ring (autofocus) not used, earthed within controller; tip = switch wire.

At your own risk if you try it!

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

:smt038
Chris R

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Probably a good idea to measure first, to make sure that everything's "ground" is really the same. It's easy to get off by a few volts here and there.

--Rik

barnack-bill
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:55 am

Post by barnack-bill »

I agree though on investigation I think the Wemacro shutter switch is a pair of clean contacts from a physical pcb relay and the body of the jack plug should be called 'common' rather than 'ground'.

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