March 29, 2024

Benjamin Better

Better Get Computer

A slide carousel with a DSLR attached to its lens output

Digitize Your Slide Deck With This Arduino-Powered Slide Carousel

If you are over a certain age, you likely keep in mind the ambiance of a pre-Powerpoint 35 mm slide display. The wobbly screen remaining unrolled, the darkened area, the smooth hum of the projector’s fan, the a bit grainy photo on the monitor and that unmistakable click-whoosh-clack seem as the projector loaded the up coming slide. These days you are going to be difficult pressed to discover everyone eager to set up a display and darken the home just to look at a couple of shots, so if you still have any slides lying about you will almost certainly want to digitize them. If you’ve also retained your projector then this doesn’t even have to be that tricky, as [Scott Lawrence] exhibits in his most current venture.

[Scott] made a set up to specifically link a DLSR, in this scenario a Nikon D70, to a Kodak 760 slide carousel. The attachment is manufactured as a result of a 3D-printed adapter that matches on to the Nikon’s macro lens on one aspect and slides snugly into the carousel’s lens slot on the other. The adapter also retains an IR transmitter which is aimed at the camera’s receiver, in get to induce its remote shutter release perform.

The carousel’s original light-weight source was replaced with a compact LED studio light-weight, which permits for precise brightness regulate and of system stays nice and awesome as opposed to the primary incandescent bulb. The light, digital camera and carousel motor are all managed by means of a central consumer interface pushed by an Arduino Leonardo which can immediately progress the carousel and instruct the camera to acquire a image, thus using the tricky perform out of digitizing substantial stacks of slides.

[Scott] options to make the application and STL files obtainable on GitHub quickly, so any person can go ahead and flip their projector into a digitizer. If you have misplaced your projector nonetheless, a easy 3D-printed slide adapter for your camera also functions for modest slide decks.

https://www.youtube.com/view?v=x3WkqTZ-UXk