Camcorder DCR-HC21 Sony

kruegra1

Has anyone tried to control basic stop/pause/record functions of a camcorder with a basic stamp?· How about this particular one.

I·have an underwater·housing·and some wires off the switches, that·seems straight forward, not sure on the camcorder side. ·

Mike Green

A pretty universal way to do this is to use reed relays with a 5V coil that draws less than 20mA. The relay contacts can connect in place of pretty much any switch and a Stamp I/O pin can control the relay.

Mouser # 816-9092-05-10 takes only about 15mA at 5V
Mouser # 816-9117-05-11 uses only about 13mA at 5V

Some reed relays have a built-in diode. You'll have to supply your own 1N914 or equivalent if not. This is connected across the coil with the cathode (banded) end towards the I/O pin and anode towards ground. The relay turns on when the I/O pin is made high and turns off when the I/O is made low or an input.

Post Edited (Mike Green) : 7/16/2009 4:54:22 AM GMT

Larry~

I have a dcr hc20 I think the 21 is very close to this unit. They both have IR remote I would look at control this way first unless you have the protocol info for this camera and can drive a usb or firewire port.

I can't help for about 3 weeks if your in a hurry sorry, If you can wait I could rig up a IR receiver and do some testing with a scope and get a few comands for you! I don't think it will Power on and off here is what my remote will do.

1··· Photo, Start / Stop

2··· Search forward and reverse

3··· Rew, Play and FF

4··· Pause, Stop, Slow

5··· Zero set memory, Display

6··· Zoom in/out

kruegra1

IR sounds promising.· And I ran across this last night.··And·as an FYI,·I don't have an affiliation with this company, found it referenced on some forum.····See attached spec sheet.· Looks like this does the sync for you and serial commands on the input side.

I am new·to the stamp and·signals so bear with me.·

Larry~

You don't even need the Elm chip. I searched Control L and found these two sites (below)
now that I know what its called I think I will mess arround with some control also

http://peoples.slavutich.kiev.ua/lanc/index.html

http://www.boehmel.de/lanc.htm

·

kruegra1

thanks

MichelB

Mike Green said...
A pretty universal way to do this is to use reed relays with a 5V coil that draws less than 20mA.

Mouser # 816-9092-05-10 takes only about 15mA at 5V
Mouser # 816-9117-05-11 uses only about 13mA at 5V

Dear Mike, according to data sheet of COTO, Switching Current of 9092 Series is 0.5 A and 0.25 A for 9117 Series, i.e. more than 10 x what you said. If the last one is used, is it to much for BS2?
Thank you. Best regards.

Mike Green

The numbers you quoted (0.5A and 0.25A) are the maximum contact currents, NOT the coil current. The coil current is the current that the Stamp has to supply to activate the relay. The contact current is what the switch contacts in the relay can carry. If you don't understand the difference, have a look at the Wikipedia article on relays: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relay.

Remember, the Wikipedia is your friend!

MichelB

OK Mike, I'm reassured, I know that·you know much more than many people like me. I appreciate all your interventions. Sorry for my poor English. Thank you again.

Mike Green

The Wikipedia is your friend ... in English, Spanish, French (fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relais_

Larry~

Well I spent a week messing arround with this and was able to bit bang a working unit, using a pic chip and picbasic, do any of the stamps have a uS pause command if so then it may be possable to do it with that chip and bit banging? I can power up power down record and stop record, my wife thinks Im nuts she just walked away shaking her head.