The solonoid is pretty cool ........
shypan said:
I've pulled out a cheap little Polaroid PDC5070. This is for work, so I don't have to watch a column of sludge settle, all day.
Oh and the camera with the solonoid is pretty cool, I'll have a look at that.
This looks simple until you consider:
Most all DC has an Auto Shutoff that has only a max. period of maybe 5 minutes. To work around this you must either take a picture or focus the camera for it to stay alive for another period.
So if you wish to take a picture every 30 minutes, you have to press to focus (using the above 5 min. sample) at least 5 times to keep the camera ON. That means the camera has to be connected to an external power supply and the solenoid actuating power pulse has to be able to make the Focus pressure correctly, and not activate the Record function. The alternative is to take a (out of focus) picture every time the solenoid is actuated. And only when the time is correct must it Focus for a few seconds and then Record.
So you see all this is not as easy as the first appear.
Edit:
The alternative is to buy a used camera with a Interval recording mode.
I know the Minolta Dimage 5 & 7 works great, I have the 7.
They have been out of production for some time but still sell at a premium.
(around $150 on Ebay)
Edit 2:
Some cameras with IR remote can use this:
https://www.dellaenterprises.com/
Edit 3:
If you can live with the limited resolution of a web cam, then the software is available:
"For PCs, Webcam Timershot – part of Microsoft’s PowerToys package of free add-on software – does much the same as Gawker (minus the split-screen ability and having the option to record your desktop): specify an interval, and Webcam Timershot will take pictures from your web-cam and save them to a location you choose."
Note that there are now one meg webcams available for about $100.