A wireless remote shutter release originally targeted at Fujifilm mirrorless cameras.
The remote uses the camera's native Bluetooth Low Energy interface so additional adapters are not required.
furble is developed as a PlatformIO project for the M5StickC and M5StickC Plus (ESP32 based devices).
The following devices have actually been tested and confirmed to work:
- Fujifilm GFX100S (@adrianuseless)
- Fujifilm X-H2S (@val123456)
- Fujifilm X-S10 (@dimitrij2k)
- Fujifilm X-T200 (@Cronkan)
- Fujifilm X-T30
- Fujifilm X-T5 (@stulevine)
- Fujifilm X100V
- Canon EOS M6 (@tardisx)
- Canon EOS RP (@wolcano)
I found current smartphone apps for basic wireless remote shutter control to be generally terrible. Research revealed the main alternative was attaching a dongle to the camera, of which there were many options varying in price and quality. I really just wanted the Canon BR-E1, but for my camera.
- scanning for supported cameras
- initial pairing
- saving pairing data
- connecting to previously paired camera
- shutter release
Given reports from the community and access to additional cameras, it seems many (all?) Fujifilm cameras use the same Bluetooth protocol. Reports of further confirmed working Fujifilm cameras are welcome.
With access to a Canon EOS M6, I was able to implement support for it. Other Canon cameras might work, but I suspect the shutter control protocol will be different. @wolcano kindly implemented support for the Canon EOS RP.
Android supports snooping bluetooth traffic so it was trivial to grab a HCI log to see what the manufacturer supplied camera app was doing.
For all supported cameras, a snoop log of:
- scanning
- pairing
- re-pairing
- shutter release
was analysed with Wireshark.
It was then an experiment in reducing the interaction to the bare minimum just to trigger the shutter release.
The best way is to repeat the previous steps, analyse the bluetooth HCI snoop log with Wireshark, implement, then test against the actual device.
I wanted a complete solution out of the box to have:
- bluetooth low energy
- physical button
- visual indicator (LED or display)
- battery
- case
- low cost
My search concluded with the M5StickC from M5Stack. The M5StickC has since been EOL and replaced with the M5StickC Plus.
The M5StickC is an ESP32 based mini-IoT development kit which covered all of the requirements (and more). At time of writing, M5Stack sell the M5StickC for US$9.95. The M5StickC Plus sells for US$19.95.
The project is built with PlatformIO and depends on the following libraries:
- Battery Sense
- only the voltage to capacity function is used
- M5ez
- severely butchered version to work on the M5StickC
- M5StickC
- M5StickC Plus
- NimBLE-Arduino
PlatformIO does everything assuming things are installed and connected properly. In most cases it should be:
- clone the repository
- plug in the M5StickC
platformio run -e m5stick-c -t upload
- OR plug in the M5StickC Plus
platformio run -e m5stick-c-plus -t upload
The top level menu has the following entries:
ConnectScanDelete SavedSettingsPower Off
On first use, put the target camera into pairing mode, then hit Scan. If the
camera advertises a known, matching signature, it should appear in the list.
You can then connect to the target camera, which, if successful, will save the
entry and show the remote menu.
Upon subsequent use it should be enough to hit Connect, selecting the
previously paired device and leads to the remote menu.
From the remote menu you may choose to disconnect or control the shutter.
- error handling is atrocious (it'll probably crash, then restart, which is OK, the M5StickC boots quickly)
- improve the device matching and connection abstractions
- especially if more cameras get supported
Inspiration for this project came from the following project/posts:
- https://github.com/hkr/fuji-cam-wifi-tool
- https://iandouglasscott.com/2017/09/04/reverse-engineering-the-canon-t7i-s-bluetooth-work-in-progress/
Related projects: