Speed Checker

If you have a sound card on your PC you can load a freeware program that turns your PC into a decent digital oscilloscope. Shine a light through your lens and trip the shutter. Monitor the other side with a photo diode.

Kilgallb said:

If you have a sound card on your PC you can load a freeware program that turns your PC into a decent digital oscilloscope. Shine a light through your lens and trip the shutter. Monitor the other side with a photo diode.

Click to expand...

I understand that but as far as I can gather the photo diode is something which is to be manufactured by oneself. That's certainly fresh water for people having confidence with electronics, and not practical for electronically illitterate people like me.

Or maybe somebody can point-out some ready-made product that would fit the purpose?

Diapositivo said:

I understand that but as far as I can gather the photo diode is something which is to be manufactured by oneself. That's certainly fresh water for people having confidence with electronics, and not practical for electronically illitterate people like me.

Or maybe somebody can point-out some ready-made product that would fit the purpose?

Click to expand...

You make it to be harder than it need be. A search on eBay yields results like this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/One-Diode-L...258389?hash=item1a0f9033d5:g:76AAAOSwh-1W38z5

wiltw said:

You make it to be harder than it need be. A search on eBay yields results like this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/One-Diode-L...258389?hash=item1a0f9033d5:g:76AAAOSwh-1W38z5

Click to expand...

OK please help me to understand.
I buy this object.
The thing that looks like a LED is the sensor.
The trimmer regulates the signal. One plays with that until obtaining working results.
On the other end there are three contacts.
Two of them are for electricity.
The little beast wants to be fed with 3.3 V - 5 V. Either batteries or main adapter.
Third contact is the signal that must be sent to the sound card.

The three contacts appear to belong to some sort of connector.
One should find a connector and solder to it, on the other side, two wires for alimentation and one wire with the soundcard pin.

The three contacts are marked: VDC, a loudspeaker sign (or is it Ground sign), an DO.
Is "DO" Diod output?

Can you tell me the name of the "jack" for a soundcard?
And the name of the connector that would fit the connector of this board?

Or should I solder the wires straight to the board contacts?

get a photo diode, 2 leads... one to each wire of an 1/8" jack that plugs into your sound card mic input of the computer.... done deal! you dont need all the other stuff.

this is what the diode is n does

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodiode

put the diode on a small board so it sits nicely in the camera.
download audacity, it will see the photodiode as a micraphone because the diode produces a voltage when light hits it.

http://www.alliedelec.com/panasonic...=30980760979&gclid=CO2K_vja0swCFQNkhgodTwcMCg


btw you can cut the wire off an old earphone that has the jack you need.

paul ron said:

get a photo diode, 2 leads... one to each wire of an 1/8" jack that plugs into your sound card mic input of the computer.... done deal! you dont need all the other stuff.

this is what the diode is n does

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodiode

put the diode on a small board so it sits nicely in the camera.
download audacity, it will see the photodiode as a micraphone because the diode produces a voltage when light hits it.

http://www.alliedelec.com/panasonic...=30980760979&gclid=CO2K_vja0swCFQNkhgodTwcMCg


btw you can cut the wire off an old earphone that has the jack you need.

Click to expand...

Well, that's even easier!
Let's talk quality now.

Would any photodiode or any "photosensitive module" do the job, or do I have to look for specific label values?
Could I buy a photodiode that does not produce enough current, or produce it but with a certain delay?

I understand there's not much soldering to do. I have a friend with a soldering station that I don't see since a while...

quality? are you using this for business to certify shutters?... hahahaha how much quality do you need?

ive got an old 1960s tube duel trace techtronics ocsiliscope with a special triggered capturing device that weighs 60+ pounds. it works as good as this photodiode gizmo. the diode gizmo weighs about 10mgs.

it reproduces well. id say for home use, its as good as anything you can get off ebay for under $100.

i just found a photodiode in my electronics junkbox of parts i probably bought by the pound at a radio fest. i have no specs for it, i just hooked it up n it worked. i built mine in 1980 when cooledit was the free sound program to use. audacity is the same program.

as a light source i use a bright led headlamp. it does a good job to about 1/1000th only because none of my old cameras go above that.

radioshack has photodiodes n photo transistors. buy one for $2, twist the wires together n give it a try? you may be surprised how talented you can be.

OK I'm definitely on the self-construction path now!