Strobotics

Ok I have finally had a little bit of time to work on things (will be short lived as I’ve just bought a house and moving in the next couple of weeks Aghh!!).

Things are getting very close to reality after many design changes, the very nearly final Strobit Trigger base board, aka a modified Ardiuno BT board, with the Bluetooth removed and now fitted with the RFM12B SMD Tranceiver module and an external SMA antenna connector. The Eagle 3D side of things still needs work as some components are not shown and the inductor for the DC-DC converter is incorrect, but you get the basic idea right!

Why have I gone to a non-dedicated trigger board?

Well a couple of reasons, initially to cover myself from any patent issues that might have arrisen had I used a dedicated wireless triggering device, but mainly to allow better expandability. Why have a dedicated trigger with all the fruit and only use half of it, this way dedicated boards can be used, i.e. standard trigger, or sound/light trigger, sequences etc. Another reason is that the Ardruino is very well established and supported in the open source community, especially when it comes to the firmware libraries etc, it’s already been done. also I can use these in my robotics hobby as well, not just for photography.

Ok onto the board features:

• Fairly compact same size as ArduinoBT
• Standard Arduino Pin headers, so should be able to use with existing shields.
• Will operate from as low as 1.2V, so should work from x1 NIMH AA easily enough.
• RFM12 Tranceiver, up to 300m range (as per datasheets, although it does depend on the datarate)
• SMA connector so you can connect an external antenna for better reliability and range, or remove the SMA connector and use a piece of wire as the antenna.

What is left to do?

• Well the design is pretty well done, I want to get some prototypes made so I will be sending it off very shortly for fabrication.
• Different variations of shields need to be done, first one being stock standard strobe type of triggr, input and outputs, then others as needed

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Due to the number of requests for help in getting a link operation with the RFM12 tranceiver, I’ve set up a dedicated topic on the forums.  http://forums.everythingrobotics.com/index.php. Please post any cries for help there, that way no information is lost in the comments of my blog or my email inbox

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During the development of the StrobIt Open Trigger Project I’ve been using the HopeRF RFM12B Tranceiver as the RF module. The learning curve was fairly steep so I’ve decided to create a series of How-To articles so that others can easily get the module up and running fairly quickly for their project of choice. So far I’ve already slated these for use in a few other projects around the house, both robotics, home control and weather station related.

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Well I finished the two prototype boards tonight with some minor changes and a bit of troubleshooting, still lots to do though.  I now have them triggering.  Will be testing further over the next few days to get indication of range etc.  So far it is only syncing at 1/100.  I will be posting more details , schematics, firmware etc as well as I get time.

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What did I say in my last entry about murphys law and my RFM12 header boards?  Guess what arrived in the post today lol…..

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The RFM12 module is a pain to prototype with due to the 2mm header (won’t fit into the breadboard), so I’ve whipped up a prototyping board that brings out the pins to a standard header.  It’s been it sent off for fabrication today so I should have back in the next week or so.   I’m trying out www.batchpcb.com for the first time so will be interested in how they turn out.

In the meantime I’ve soldered on some wires but I don’t really like it.

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