Using a Palm Pilot to Control a Canon Camera

[aj sellarole]

Hello,

 

I have been thinking, I own a Rebel XT, and I was hoping to find out

if anyone knew whether the infared Remote Control Programs that work

on the palm pilots (mine's a Tungsten T|3) to control televisions

would also work to control a shutter on a camera.

 

What would I need to know? are there specific codes or something?

 

Thank you all, Bye

[paul -]

Is the palm pilot capable of "learning" an infrared code shot at it directly from another infrared remote, like some universal TV remotes? If so, it should work. Someone here (Puppy Face, if memory serves) seems to have reported success in using a "learning" TV remote which had greater range than the Canon remote.

[akajohndoe]

I've used IR remote programs on a T3 that could learn and control my AV devices; however, they learn from an existing remote. What IR remote do you have for the XT?

[akajohndoe]

Found the link to the Palm software I used. It was called OmniRemote from http://www.pacificneotek.com/. There are others, that's just the one I liked.

[steve_dunn2]

<p>I know you're not the first person to have asked if some IR device other than the Genuine (overpriced?) Canon remote could control a Canon camera. It's not something in which I'm interested so I haven't paid a lot of attention.</p>

 

<p>But according to Canon's Web site, the Rebel XT uses the same IR remote as a couple of dozen other current and historical Canon cameras. If you can find a remote control program which can save/load IR codes as files, and find anyone else using the same program who has programmed it to work with any other Canon camera which uses the same remote, you're all set. That might be a bit hard to find, but there's probably a user forum out there for such software. Or maybe Google could find you something; there are a number of folks who have Web sites dealing with doing geeky things with cameras (building their own wired remote controls, for instance) and if one of those folks already figured this out, they'd surely post about it on their site.</p>

[aj sellarole]

Yes, my palm pilot is capable of 'learning' the IR signal, but I don't know how I would let it learn unless somehow the camera itself was emitting a signal. I don't have an existing remote, I was trying to avoid buying one.

 

Thanks everyone

[akajohndoe]

Typically, the device, be it a VCR, Camera, TV, DVD, ..., whatever, does not emit the signal; it receives the signal. The remote control emits the signal. This is why you need the remote to teach the learning remote.

 

Perhaps you could rent one for a day?

[akajohndoe]

One other point: You don't state why you want to remote control the camera; however, you should be aware that the IR in the typical PDA has nowhere near as powerful a signal as the typical A\V remote, so the range would be much less as well.

[stephenwagnerphoto.com]

I've used Omni Remote. It worked pretty good, but the driver didn't work too well with the keyboard driver. That may or may not be an issue for you. One nice thing about the program is you can create macro functions to release the shutter "X" number of times at "Y" seconds apart. Great for time elapse. The only technicality is that you need a Canon remote to create the IR signal that the Palm needs to "learn." If you have one, can borrow one from a friend, or take care of that small programming detail in your neighborhood camera store you'll be fine.