I went a different route. I used a Nikon remote cord with the 10 pin on the end.
This thing: http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Produc ... lease.html
Taking out the screws out of the handle shows two micro-switches inside. It is a two-stage switch. The requirement for the shutter to operate is that the metering has to be active. Somehow Nikon arranged the power supply to provide the shutter firing voltage from the meter side, i.e. No meter on, no shutter. First half of the press turns on the meter and auto-focus, pressing more trips the shutter.
What I did was go to All Electronics in LA (Online catalog too.). Maybe $3 at most. They have a molded multi-wire that looks like the Nikon wire strain-relief grommet and it just about fits the Nikon remote handle perfectly with the molded strain relief. The ends are bare so you can attach them to whatever circuit you are doing.
I used the Arduino Uno as my timer. Problem is I had to leave the auto-focus off as that part can vary the timing depending on how fast the lens gets a lock. Not a big deal, but I have to manually focus. The meter works normally and fires the shutter in a fixed shutter lag as specified in some sites that review the camera for shutter lag. I think mine is 43ms with focus locked to OFF.
So when I press the remote for SW1, it operates the meter and flips the power on to SW2 so when I press further down on the button, it has the voltage to fire the shutter. That SW2 going active has the 43ms delay from SW2 triggering (closing), mirror flipping out of the way, and shutter activation.
My circuit had to keep the shutter from firing for 400ms so the flashbulb could come up to peak burn. So tripping SW2 for me, fires the PF-330 flashbulb off a 14 volt lithium battery via one relay in the "Relay Shield," and the Arduino Uno also times out a second relay delay (that I can easily set in the program) for the shutter to operate 400ms later (Actually 400ms-43ms or 357ms I think it was?). Actually there might be a third relay I used that operates the metering circuitry first, Relay 0 maybe? Been a while since I built it.
I was going to use a dual-trace scope with a mike and check the shutter trip signal and the quiet time once the shutter fired on Bulb and get my own lag time, but some published site's did that work already so I didn't need to. With the Arduino Uno, the timing is pretty accurate as it is since its microprocessor has an internal clock. Got me away from playing with the 555/556 timers too that had all sorts of triggering issues with times. Those were a pain for the couple of days learning the Arduino language. Plus their "Relay Shield" plug-in with 4 high current 120 volt 10 amp relays has LEDs next to each that gives me a visual cue as to the timing.
Worked pretty well in the field too. Kids never seen old-style flashbulbs go off and blister up so it was like a new light show to them.
Mack
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