Sound Trigger Photography

[Dbl]

The last few days I've been building a couple of gadgets for high speed photography. I actually have a specific project that will require this but needed to get these constructed.

I built two boxes, one a sound trigger that will fire a flash when a sharp sound is picked up. The second is a Beam Trigger Box which uses a photo gate and laser beam to sense when an object is passed through the beam. That one has a lot of possibilities. Think aim the beam at an area outside a feeder and wait for a bird to fly through it triggering camera and flash for example.

Spent the better part of a couple of days for the Beam Trigger because I had a lot of trail and error getting every thing to function the way I needed it to. The sound trigger was a couple of hours start to finish. Each box ran about $25 dollars in transistors, circuits, resistors, switches, etc. The sound box with flash delay you can actually purchase in a kit from the inter web for around $18. The beam box I've been conversing with a nice gentleman from England who came up with the design.

Here are a couple of hastily shot photos of the boxes themselves.

The Beam Breaker Box. I found a cheap laser pointer that I shine at the photogate. I am in the process of building a structure that will hold all this together for some high speed photography (Think guns )

And the sound box. If you do a search for Hiviz you will find the kit I built for this one though it is not contained in a box, I added that.

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I did take a pellet pistol and shot a strawberry but I need a dark background to make it work which I don't currently have, here is the lame attempt. At least the sound trigger works well. That is the pellet to the left.

[sanka]

Awesome pics. I've heard of doing the same sort of thing with a plain old tape recorder.

I think you've got it perfected though.

[Nymph]

That is way cool.... can't wait to see what else you get with that rig.

[finnbay]

Holy C#@pola, Dan! Some pretty neat stuff! Do you work for "M" and 007 in your off time?

[MARINERMAGNUM]

**Sigh** and to think I was doing yard work all day......

Way too complex for me,but VERY impressive!!

Nice work Mac....uh,I mean,Dan.

[mmeyer]

Very cool indeed Dan, I can't wait to see to see what you come up with for these.

[Dbl]

Thanks guys for the comments! Believe me if I can build these and get them to work it can't be too tough! I want to get busy experimenting with the Beam breaker but need to build an adjustable stand to hold the transmitter and receiver. A little welding and I should have something workable.

That would be the best way to do the water drops. I was thinking it would work well for hummingbirds near a feeder as well, you can trigger both the camera and a flash. Mike L. did you hear that?

I am going to start gelling lights, changing backgrounds etc. for some different looks as well. So many ideas and so little time!

[JayinMN]

Wow! Those are some awesome shots!

[hondarider550]

The boxes look like they could be complicated... I love the idea though and your photos give me some ideas myself. Are you thinking about manufacturing these and maybe selling them or would you help some of us to put a set of our own together??

[Dbl]

Honda, no intention of selling kits but if you want details just PM me and I will get you some links to build your own or buy pre-built. I did just stumble on a digital delay unit that looks like the real deal! The cost is $160 which is pretty cheap compared to a few others pre-built units out there, though not as cheap as building your own.