Here’s how to build a Water Drop kit using a Raspberry Pi as a controller for a solenoid valve and camera trigger.
(Standard disclaimer applies, batteries are a fire hazard, wiring them up incorrectly can cause a fire, burning, etc., not to mention possible damage to equipment. Do so at your own risk, etc).
First, you’ll need to get yourself a solenoid valve. There’s loads of these on ebay for about €15.
We only need two GPIO pins, one for driving the solenoid valve, and the other for triggering the shutter of the camera. I used pins 17 and 18.
Since the solenoid is 12V, used a battery pack that takes 8 AA batteries, giving me about 11 volts, which works fine, and it’s more portable than needing an AC power supply.
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Actually, pics like these can be made much more simply. You need only a water container with a valve which can be set to create single drops at a modest rate. The drops fall thru a beam from a laser pointer falling on a photo cell. That is your “T=0” reference, and you only need to adjust the delay from that time until you trigger the camera. It is usually no problem to send the camera trigger signals before it is finished with the last one. You need to write no code, unless that is what turns your crank. I used a 555 timer and an adjusting pot with a knob.
“Doc” would be proud!
Imagine what he could have accomplished with today’s cool toys that we all take for granted?
http://edgerton-digital-collections.org/
Actually, pics like these can be made much more simply. You need only a water container with a valve which can be set to create single drops at a modest rate. The drops fall thru a beam from a laser pointer falling on a photo cell. That is your “T=0” reference, and you only need to adjust the delay from that time until you trigger the camera. It is usually no problem to send the camera trigger signals before it is finished with the last one. You need to write no code, unless that is what turns your crank. I used a 555 timer and an adjusting pot with a knob.