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Are you tired of explaining to your family that they have to remain still until the camera timer triggers? on every family celebration the same history. I always wanted a remote shutter so I don’t have to rely on the camera timer, and if I can construct one for few bucks, much better!

The software CHDK adds to Canon cameras functions that are not present by default, in my case I have a Canon S95 and CHDK lets trigger the shutter when a 5V signal is detected on the USB port.

I did the triggering device using a wireless doorbell I bought on eBay for less than 4€.

The doorbell was too big to be portable, so I removed the part of the circuit that generates the melodies and redistributed some components.

An other problem was the power, the 2 AA batteries that the doorbell uses are quite large and heavy for the low power needed by the device, also we need to put 5V on the USB so the camera can be triggered but the 2 AA batteries only gives 3V.

Two  CR2032 batteries in series gives 6V and are much less tiny, the doorbell circuit works fine with 6V and the USB of the camera can handle this voltage also, so I won’t need to make any voltage conversion.

To attach the 2 button cells to the doorbell I made a simple circuit with the holder for the batteries and a switch to shutdown the circuit and avoid discharge the batteries while they are not in use.

To improve the aesthetics of the remote I have made a fiberglass case.