Python to trigger USB square wave pulse for camera

Question

I'm sorry if this was posted somewhere, but I'm trying to trigger a FLIR camera for acquisition using a USB port. I already purchased a USB split cable, and have queried the ports, so I know exactly which one I want:

Bus 003 Device 092: ID 1004:633e LG Electronics, Inc. G2 Android Phone 

I also checked the FLIR camera and it can be triggered for acquisition in principle with any 3-5V pulse.

I just would like to know how to send out a pulse via Python to one of those channels.

What is the best Python package for doing this? I saw pyusb. Is that the best and simplest to use?

Answer 1

Python has a library for nearly everything:

From xkcd.

It unfortunately does not include a module for "make USB do things it wasn't built to do."

You can't send single pulses over USB. It isn't designed to do that.

The port information you showed is about a connected device. Looks like you had an LG phone plugged in to your computer.

You can get a USB to serial adapter, and twiddle the output signals through pyserial to send your command to the camera. You can directly change the states of DTR and RTS. Your RS232/USB adapter must provide those two outputs on the RS232 cable.

You'll probably need a bit of hardware to convert the signal levels. The RS232 signal levels aren't really directly compatible with modern electronics. A small relay or a couple of transistors (at most) should do.

Another alternative would be to write a small program for a small microprocessor with a USB connection (like an Arduino Nano.) The program would listen for commands from the PC and activate its outputs as needed. You'd also have to keep the signal levels in mind.

In either of the above cases, you could use an optocoupler to provide the signal to the camera. The camera would typically only need to have two connections (trigger and ground) shorted together to make a photo.

Answer 2

You can buy a USB-Serial converter with "TTL" output that should be appropriate to trigger your camera. Various modules are available, very inexpensive.

Engineers and programmers frequently use them for microcontroller development, and they're used by hobbyists for modding devices as well. They usually have a standard USB-serial chip such as the Chinese CH340, the FT232RL or the CP2102 etc. They require no drivers on computers, but I think you'll want to refer to this answer on getting them working on an Android phone.

If you send a 0xFF character with 9600/8-N-1 you'll get a single negative-going 5V->0V pulse of width 104 usec (it idles high). That can be easily stretched and/or inverted if it doesn't directly suit.

If you send a 0x00 character with 9600/8-N-1 you'll get a pulse 9*104us long, or almost 1ms.

By changing the baud rate to 300 and sending a 0x00 you can get a pulse 30ms long (see below). 30ms = 9/300 seconds.

Similarly, you can set the baud rate very high (the above type supports 921600 baud) and send a 0xFF to get a very short pulse (just over 1us).