I believe the that G2 uses the same circuit as the other Panasonic Lumix cameras. Panasonic did something different than Canon/Nikon/etc with how they wired the circuits. Most of the cameras have three lines, focus, shutter, and ground (shared by the other two). Where they differ is the shape of the connector. They all pretty much work the same way. Close the focus line, then the shutter line to take the picture.
Panasonic did something different where they use the same line for focus and shutter and itās controlled by changing the resistance over the wire. I just finished a Gadgeteer project that controls my Lumix (being reviewed now) and I had to handle the changing resistances myself. Unless CameraAxe makes Panasonic/Lumix cable, youāll have to build one yourself. Itās not that hard, I learned how to solder making it work
I wish I had known about this project when I made my Panasonic to extender hardware, would have saved an evening.
Got any Pics / Video of your project? i would love to see it and how you achieved changing the resistance. If you want we can look at making a module that supports this type of triggering?
I have a article that covers the Gadgeteer assembly (a remote controlled panoramic camera base), the app, and a Win Phone 8 app that controls it over Bluetooth. When itās posted, Iāll post a message about it here on this site. I did attach two images to this message. One is the circuit diagram for the Panasonic and shows how to short the resistance using NPN transistors.
The other picture is the actual circuit board and how it connects to an extender module. I just use two GPIO pins to enable/disable each NPN transistor, which closes the focus and shutter circuits. That board is whatever is the polar opposite of a good design, this is my first hardware project
Nice Solution, i would love to see the article especaily as it would be easy to use my DSLR module with your Winpho 8 app and bluetooth.
This would be realy easy to turn into a proper gadgeteer module. Are you planning on doing that?
I wasnāt planning on making a module, I never used a soldering iron until the day I made that thing. If your module is just closing the focus and shutter lines, all that is needed is to make a dongle that uses the circuit I had posted and wire it to a CameraAxe plug. Does your module provide a ground line?
I was thinking of a rev 2 of my module, software selectable for this method or standard operation.
Edit : is a 4 pole jack required ? Whatās the connector on the camera? The ground on the camera axe is where the + is on your cable so it will make it a little more tricky.
Iām assuming that you are treating shutter and focus are two circuits, sharing a common ground. To do the Pansonic, you would only need one circuit coming out. but your module becomes bit more complex.
Since CameraAxe doesnāt make a Panasonic cable, the user still needs to make a custom cable to go from your 3 pole 2.5mm jack to the Panasonic 4 pole 2.5mm plug. You might as well wire up that cable with the resistors and not mess with logic of your module. This also eliminates the need to do a software select for the mode of operation.
