Shutter willnot fire in DSLR Focus or Maxim

[Fay]

Ok having aged 20 years I am still plodding on with this new drive!!!!!!!!!

Now I hope, last big hurdle is that the Canon  shutter will not fire in DSLR Focus. It had a couple of times during the last couple of days but not now. The focus moves but not shutter movement in focus mode or bulb. Checked port is the same in prog as in Device manager, 50 times.

I just tried to connect it in Maxim & message came up "hardware failure posted by camera driver" I am thinking cable here. Please, has anyone got any advice, so I can start to relax

[JohnP]

Fay - just remember DSLR Focus has always been a 'dodgy' prog & even in the past you have had issues so it is not necessarily something wrong with what you have done.... maybe you should try a different LX prog..

John

[Fay]

well being that Maxim threw up a problem with it, I am wondering about the cables. DSLR focus had been working fine for a very long time on old drive. I did take that version off & put on new drive, but makes no difference.

MICK , have a couple of beers & come up with an answer, perhaps a bit of cable testing!

[Fay]

Does anyone know if that blue cable should be attached to anything? Serial to camera.

[Mac]

yup

[Fay]

Oh, really, wonder where?  I am getting excited

[mickw]

MICK , have a couple of beers & come up with an answer

OK, Done - might need more though 

The LX adapter or whatever is presumably a 9 pin D plug thing into a USB adapter.
The program that is controlling the camera via the "adapter" needs to be told what the port is that the adapter is using - It is probably NOT a USB port.
You could try the programs settings and guess what it is (like I did and got lucky) or you could take a look at the Windows, System, Device Manager, Hardware etc.

I am not clever enough or pissed enough to offer any further assistance 

[Fay]

Mick, thru the haze  did you notice my picture above?

[mickw]

Yep

[mickw]

Sorry about that - Mac started it 

Really need to see the other side of the plug where the wires are connected.

But I'm guessing that the broken wire is the shutter release.
I'm assuming that you have 3 connections, one of which has a blob of solder but no wire (there's a clue in there    )

[Fay]

can't see a blob, i was looking for a clue. have sent a mail to astronomiser, where i got it from.

[mickw]

Post a picture of the other side of the plug where the wires connect

[Fay]

[mickw]

It looks like the red wire goes straight down the middle.
The bare wire (that the red wire is twisted round just goes to the bit that looks like claws that the whole wire sort of fits through.
Roughly in line with where the red wire connects, there seems to be a blob of solder.
That is where the blue wire lives 

Possibly

[The Thing]

I would say Mick was probably right. We really need to see inside the other end to see what the blue wire is connected to.

[RobertM]

My cable has all three wires connected, the braid goes to the earthing post and each of the other two go to the center connectors.

[Fay]

I would have thought that the blue is too short to have fitted where the red is. Where is your blue connected Robert?

[RobertM]

On mine the third wire is clear plastic but has the same function.

[Ian]

has it ever worked? The blue wire is very short and the crimp's not been crimped. I would think a discussion with the supplier's quality control is it order looking at that...

[Fay]

well camera has always been intermittent, but worked fine for the last few months, I have always blamed the program. I gor the cables from Asreonomiser & have mailed him to ask where it should go. So the camera can work without it being connected , I assume, as it has.

It does not look as though it has been used, I agree

[mickw]

Fay did you say somewhere that the camera focussed but the shutter didn't operate, and was this in the "manual and bulb" mode ?

If this is what happened then it's possible the plug wasn't pushed in enough.
The tip of the plug and the sleeve of the plug are the connections for shutter release.  The ring of the plug and the sleeve are the connections for focussing (These are only used with the Canon cable release not any of the LX adapters).
If the plug wasn't pushed in far enough, the tip of the plug may have lined up with the focussing connection in the camera.

And I agree that the blue wire does not look like it was in use.

[MarkS]

In that plug there is a ground wire , a wire to control the focus and one to control the shutter (which I guess is the blue one).

It looks like the blue wire has taken the whole mechanical strain (because of bad assembly)and has eventually broken.  It would explain intermittent problems in the past.

If you have some kind of continuity tester you can check if the "unused" solder blob is the one that connects to the tip of the plug.

Mark

[Mac]

Fay cant make today,
do you want me to bring my soldering iron.

The canon system needs both ring and tip connected, one is the focus, one is the shutter.



Mac

[mickw]

Mac you will only need "focus" if attaching a lens and using autofocus.
Or does DSLR Focus/Maxim focus a camera lens ?

[Mac]

Mac you will only need "focus" if attaching a lens and using autofocus.
Or does DSLR Focus/Maxim focus a camera lens ?

dslr wont really focus the lens as the focus and shutter are operated at the same time,
so the autofocus wont react that quick, if you build a cable with a time delay between the focus and shutter, it will focus and then take the photo.

but.

if you are using the camera with a lens in manual focus or with a telescope attached.(same difference)

The camera is still looking for the focus input, true, its not going to focus, but if it dosent see the input
it wont fire the shutter.

Mac.

[mickw]

The camera is still looking for the focus input, true, its not going to focus, but if it dosent see the input
it wont fire the shutter.

Er, the one I made does  

http://www.beskeen.com/projects/dslr_serial/dslr_serial.shtml

Halfway down the page - DSLR Focus drawing

*But I don't control my focus from the capture program, I do it manually*

[The Thing]

I used a mono plug I had lying around, the ring and tip are one, so focus and fire instructions are the same thing using my cable. Works fine.

[Mac]

That's really weird.

On my one (Canon 350D), it wont fire if the focus input is missing.

strange.

Mac.

[Fay]

I have done a lot of testing. It was not firing & then suddenly was fiting 8/10 times.

Focusing is done with the scope, by the way.


It did a couple of weird things, suddenly the laptop just went off, everything just went off.

In DSLR Focus, it went from focus to capture without any instructions.

I don't like erratic, makes me edgy when outside.

I am sure the blue wire has never been attached. No answer from Astronomiser yet.   

[mickw]

It did a couple of weird things, suddenly the laptop just went off, everything just went off.

You've seen Poltergeist ?     


And you still go down the garden in the dark     

[Tony G]

You may as well take up knitting with me Fay on tuesday nights. 

Tony G

[Fay]

Sounds good, Tony. need a new scarf!!!!

[Fay]

Spoke to Andy at Astronomiser, today. He said that the blue wire probably was never attached, as it does not have to be, In early days he used to attach but not later.

He said that the wire showing at the end of the blue could be shorting on the case so to cut it back out of the way. If I still have a problem, he said to send it back to him, even though I bought it from him a long time ago.
Wonder if that has been shorting since I had it!

[mickw]

Cutting it back wouldn't be a bad idea although it makes you wonder if there's also a bare wire flapping around at the other end.

I'd be tempted to cut it off then send it back anyway.
Quality might have improved by now.

[Ian]

I would certainly crimp the end on properly as well. The plug needs to have strain relief or every little tug will be taken by the copper conductors. If he's given you the choice of sending it back, I'd take it.

Kudos for Astronomiser supporting their customers like that though