DSUSB With Nikon D5000

[beschmid12]

I received my DSUSB Saturday. Plugged it in and connected my Nikon D5000 to it. I ran the dsusbcheck utility, and everything works except the camera shutter. I've verified that the DSUSB is working and the cable appears to be good. But my Nikon D5000 won't open the shutter. By playing with the 3.5mm plug, I have found that the shutter will work if I short the center ring to the tip. Jumping the tip to the inner ring only causes the display to go dark, and it relights when I remove the connection. I know the center ring is labelled "reserved" in the manual, it appears to go to what is labelled Focus on the camera connector. Does it connect to anything in the DSUSB? Seems that the camera wants the center ring shorted to the tip for the shutter release.

[dpanderson]

The pinout for the 3.5mm connector in the DSUSB is shown on page 5 of this document:
http://store.shoestringastronomy.com/Sh ... oteMod.pdf

Various cameras require different sequencing of the Wakeup/Focus and Shutter signals. It sounds like your camera requires both to be asserted in order to fire the shutter. In DSUSBCheck, try this:
1) Put the camera in Bulb mode and disable autofocus.
2) Click Assert Wakeup
3) Click Open Shutter. This should then fire the shutter.
4) Click Close Shutter. This might close the shutter.
5) Click Deassert Wakeup. The shutter should be closed now if not in step 4.

As for BackyardNikon, I don't own a Nikon camera so I can't troubleshoot that. I would say make sure it is configured for a remote shutter mode that provides the signal sequence above. I have also heard from customers that some cameras require both the DSUSB and the camera's normal USB connection to be in place to work properly.

[beschmid12]

Solved! Thanks. Yes, the camera needs both cables. The images are transferred over the USB cable, shutter control is done with the cable from the DSUSB. Camera must be in manual mode, with bulb mode selected. Autofocus must be off. The Close Shutter button does nothing with this camera. Open Shutter and AF/Wakeup must both be asserted, deasserting AF/Wakeup closes the shutter.

If anyone wants to get this working with astroberry/KStars/Ekos/indi, let me know. I finally found all of the incantations for that as well.

[Hendrik40]

I am not going to open another post since I have exactly the same camera, a Nikon D5000, and really wish to be able to command from the pc and take pictures much longer than 30 seconds.

So far, I have done the following steps:
Nikon cable connected to pc as per the picture below using the "USB connector 24" and USB port of pc.

usb cable to connect to pc as per Nikon D5000 user guide

2024-09-13_17-15-29.jpg (21.48 KiB) Viewed 111 times

Shoestring cable connected to the "Accessory Terminal 23" and another USB port of pc.

ports

2024-09-13_17-20-57.jpg (8.68 KiB) Viewed 111 times

My DSUSBCheck connects to the camera, as the led switches on and colour changes as required. The camera is on, in Manual and Bulb mode. I try the sequence: Open Shutter and Assert AF/Wakeup and later Deassert AF/Wakeup, but nothing happens.

[dpanderson]

Hendrik40, do you have autofocus turned off as bschmid12 has done?