Dreaming Robots Camera Axe 5 User Manual - Page 3

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Introduction

The Camera Axe is a tool for photographers to trigger cameras or flashes based on signals from

various sensors. It is useful for catching phenomena that happen too quickly for human reflexes,

like photographing a popping balloon, a shooting bullet, or a milk droplet splash. Other uses can

be to catch things photographers don't want to wait around for like birds flying to a bird feeder

or surveillance of people walking down a hallway. The possibilities are endless. This document

describes the operation of the Camera Axe 5 and the Camera Axe 5 Shield hardware and menus.

This manual was written for the Camera Axe 5.2 software. Other versions of the software function

similarly but there will be some small differences in operation.

For those who like learning from videos there is a large (and growing) collection of videos about the

Camera Axe at http://www.techphotoblog.com.

Differences between Camera Axe 5 and Camera Axe 5 Shield

The Camera Axe 5 is a fully assembled and tested device. It comes with a rechargeable battery and

a USB cable to do the recharging or to upgrade the firmware. It also comes with a custom designed

enclosure. The extra third LED on this board is used during charging. It is orange while charging

and green when charging is finished. The circuitry in this version is also optimized to use around 3-4

times less power than the Camera Axe Shield to enable long battery life.

The Camera Axe 5 Shield is a kit that must be soldered together. The user must supply an Arduino

Uno (or compatible) development board and a way to power the device. Since this version gets it's

power from the Arduino there is no power switch. This version does not come with an enclosure.

This shield version does use the same software and has all the same functionality as the standard

Camera Axe 5 in a much cheaper package for the DIY/Maker crowd.

Hardware

The top of the both versions has a display screen, a number of buttons, a power switch (not on shield

version), and two LEDs. The third LED on standard Camera Axe 5 is used to indicate when the

rechargeable battery is fully charged by turning from orange while charging to green when charging

is complete. On the sides are two of plugs to attach the camera(s) and/or flash(s) and up to two

sensors. The standard version also has a USB port used for charging or reprogramming the Camera

Axe. The shield version gets it's power from the Arduino board and the Arduino board has a USB port

for programming.

The microcontroller used in the Camera Axe is an ATmega328 with the Arduino bootloader installed.

Arduino is a common open source platform that makes programming microcontrollers like the

Atmega328 very easy. For more information about how to load new version of the Camera Axe

software or to start making your own modifications visit

title=Programming.

Display

The Camera Axe uses a 2" X 1" LCD capable of displaying 128X64 pixels. This display is

used to provide input capability using the menu functions described below and feedback to the

user.

Power Switch

The shield version has no power switch. To turn the power on/off on the shield version you

http://www.cameraaxe.com/wiki/index.php?