Sunday, June 22, 2008

Casio EX-F1 remote shutter mod

So, the last thing most people do with a brand new $1000 camera is start cramming a screwdriver into stuff and popping it open. Luckily, I was stupid so you dont have to be! In this case, stupidity paid off bigtime. Turns out the remote shutter release isnt some fancy schmancy USB device, its just three wires! Casio even conveniently labeled them for me: GND, Half-Shut, Shutter!



Thanks for the labels!



Just a simple single sided board, nothing hiding on the back.




Now.. to find out where to get some of those funky USB connectors.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you made any progress to modifying the EX-F1 remote? I'm very close to purchasing an F1 myself and have quite a few projects/mods in mind for it. I did some digging about that funky USB connector and came arcross this blurb on wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Universal_Serial_Bus#Mystery_micro_plug

Kerman said...

Sadly, i have not. I have the parts here for a wireless remote control, but had some issues with the transmitter/receiver board.

Ive put an order with my casio dealer for a spare USB cable, but he claims casio wont yet accept orders for them. It would be great to find a source for those connectors! thanks for the link! It looks very similar to a russian cel phone cord i saw, might order a few just to check.

Anonymous said...

If you're having a problem getting hold of the USB cable, how about you just put a 3-contact socket such as 2.5mm audio jack into the button housing.

You could then build or buy other remote release devices (audio/light/microswitch activated), each with 2.5mm plugs on, and just swap them as needed.

Of course, if you use 2.5mm jacks, you may as well wire them in the standard way, so that you could use standard Pentax cable release devices in there as well:

- tip: Shutter
- ring: Focus
- sleeve: Common

Shorting ring to sleeve activates autofocus (half-press)
Shorting tip to sleeve releases the shutter

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the pictures, I have the same camera and I need a automatic shutter to do some time elapsed videos so I'll try to make a mod with a PIC microcontroller and a couple transistors to do automatic pictures every whatever time I set it up too. And also I could use a IR sensor to make a wireless shutter with an IR remote controller. If anyone is interested my email is twistx77@gmail.com