shutter speed measuring with Arduino

True, the device I built was for a leaf shutter. So maybe it is not the right approach here. Still, the linearity should be more important than the absolute shutter speeds.
 
Fancy. 😀 I can't wait to build mine and get it working. Still hoping the parts will be here next week... and ordering the laser next week once I get paid.

Go go gadget shutter tester!
 
Shield connections

Shield connections

Marcelo,

Nice job! Just what us old camera owners need!
I got the Adafruit LCD shield board as you recomended and got it up and running on the Arduino. After assembling the board and mounting it on the Arduino I realised there was no way to attach signals to the Arduino anymore; the LCD shield blocked all the headers. But looking at your Arduino setup, yours has sockets on all the connection on top of the shield, making it easy to make your connections. Did your kit come like that or did you change the headers?
Attached is a pic of my shield, clearly showing the different headers used.
 

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Thanks Robert!
You are right, my LCD shield was pimped-up. 🙂
I mentioned this briefly at the end of post #8.
The first time I assembled that shield, found the same problem as you. As I intended to use this display shield for experimenting, I bought some extra-long pin sockets from RS Components (can't find the P/N) and replaced the original headers. You can always solder the wires on top of the pins, this is acceptable for a "permanent" set up, but not so for experimenting. Sorry for not emphasizing this enough.
 
You made a great mod to the LCD shield to make it much easer to use. It looks like it would be very difficult to unsolder all the header pins on mine and replace them with the pins that you used. Did you have the forsight to do this before you assembled it? And this is a strong hint to other members who will use this display: subsitute socketed pins for the ones in the kit! I believe wire wrap sockets would work, but I have decided to add a "breakout" shield between the Arduino and the display for use with other projects as well.
 
I didn't realize the problem until one of the headers was already soldered. Then, I used some solder-wick to remove it (not really difficult, the PCB tolerated it well) and replaced both headers. As this shield is is meant to be a prototyping tool, this is a serious design flaw, otherwise it´s pretty useful.
 
I have no idea what an Arduino is, but I have an inexpensive shutter tester that I bought on ebay for cheap and it is irreplaceable. No more guessing if the shutter is firing properly. Now I know. Unfortunately the testers won't show if a shutter is capping, but a test roll will give you that info. The testers WILL show shutter bounce though, which is more than handy. I ended up selling a 1937 Rolleicord that I liked due to this problem. Paul Ebel said that it just wasn't feasible to fix, and the best thing was to replace the shutter from a donor or sell the camera. Every "new" camera that I get, the first thing I do is ck the speeds and write them down on a stickey for further reference. You can usually count on older cameras being a stop slow, but sometimes they actually run fast.
 
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