Part A. Soldering the unbuffered expansion board

Step 1: Take the circuit board labelled `Trigger Breakout v2.0'. Place 4 of the BNC connectors in positions P2, P3, P4 and P5 on the board. Secure the BNCs in place with tape and flip the board over. Solder each of the BNCs 4 pins.

Step 2: Next is the 5x2 header. This part has an arrow to ensure correct orientation. Place the header in position marked P1 making sure that the arrow on the header lines up with the arrow on the board. Secure in place and flip the board over. Solder each of the headers 10 pins in place.

Part B. Soldering the two buffered expansion boards

Step 1: Take one of the 2 circuit boards labelled `Trigger Breakout Buffered v2.0'. Repeat steps 1 and 2 from Part A with the buffered expansion board.

Step 2: Next, take one of the capacitors. Insert the capacitor into position C1 on the board. Either orientation is okay. Bend the legs of the capacitor back to hold the part in place, then flip the board over. Solder the capacitor onto the board. Clip the ends of the leads.

Step 4: Next, take the IC bus buffer. This part has a notch on one end. Place it at position labelled U1 on the board so that the notch on the part overlays the notched image on the board. Note: you may need to gently bend the pins to get them all to fit into the through-holes. Secure the part in place and flip the board over to solder.

Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4 for the second buffered expansion board.

Part C. Soldering the teensy ++ camera trigger board

Step 1: Take the remaining circuit board labelled "Camera Trigger v1.1". Place the remaining BNC connector at position P1 and solder in place.

Step 2: Next, place 3 headers on the board in positions labelled GND. Make sure they are in the correct orientation with the arrows on the part and board lined up. Solder in place.

Step 3: Finally, place the Teensy ++ microcontroller in position labelled U1. Make sure the to orient the part so that the USB overlays the label on the board. Flip the board over and solder all of the pins.

Part D. Enclosure assembly

Use Weld-On #3 or 4 to acrylic weld all of the laser cut enclosure pieces  (except the lid). It works best to do the front panel last.

• Line up one of the 1-1/2" length round standoffs in a corner of the enclosure with the screw hole. Secure in place with a 3/8" machine screw. Repeat for the other 3 corners. These standoffs will be used to hold the lid in place.

Part E. Puting it all together

Line up each of the PCBs with the appropriate holes in the floor, and secure the PCBs into the enclosure with the remaining 1/4" machine screws.

Take one of the ribbon cables with IDC socket connector ends. Place one of the connector ends into the header on the unbuffered expansion board. Make sure that it goes in the correct orientation. The arrow on the connectors should be lined up as shown in the image opposite. Connect the othe end to the header labelled "GND analog_inputs " on the camera trigger board. Double check that the arrows are line up before moving on.

Take a second ribbon cable. Connect one end to the header on one of the unbuffered expansion boards and the other end to the header labelled "GND external_triggers " on the camera trigger board. Double check that connectors are in correctly (i.e. the arrows are lined up) before moving on.

Finally, connect one end of the last ribbon cable to the header on one of the remaining unbuffered expansion board and the other end to the header labelled "GND camera_trigger_x4  " on the camera trigger board. Double check that the connectors are in correctly.

Building firmware

(coming soon)

Programming the Teensy board

From teensy website, download the teensy loader application. Follow the instructions given for each operating system.

• The Teensy Loader should appear as a small window. Press the button on the Teensy board.
• From the File name, choose "Open HEX File" and open camtrig-teensypp-2.0.hex
• click the Program button on the tool bar. The download should be very quick, perhaps too fast to see a tiny progress bar appear, but you should see the "Download Complete" message.
• Click the Reboot button on the tool bar. Your Teensy board should immediately begin running the program.

To verify that the Motmot trigger device is working correctly, you will need a signal generator and oscilloscope.

• Open Fview.
• Click on Windows - select external trigger
• Set query interval to 50 msec
• Reset ain overflow

1) Testing camera triggers

• Plug in oscilloscope BNC cable to the first BNC (labeled camera trigger) and check output. Repeat for the remainder of the camera trigger BNCs. In the current version of the program, this is the next 5 BNCs - they are labeled 'Camera Triggers 0-3 and External trigger 0'.
• Check that the output signal matches e.g. the default 20 Hz.

2) Testing external triggers

In the Fview windows are 3 buttons labeled Ext trig 1-3 as shown in Figure opposite. These are for user generated signals for triggering cameras or other equipment.

• Plug in oscilloscope BNC cable to the first external trigger - labeled `External trigger 1'.
• In Fview, click the button labeled Ext trig1. In the oscilloscope window you should see a signal. However no signal with Ext trig2 or Ext trug3;
• Switch the oscilloscope BNC cable to the BNC labeled External trigger 2. Now you should only see a signal when you click Ext trig 2 and not with Ext trig 1 or 3;
• Switch the oscilloscope BNC cable to the BNC labeled External trigger 3. Now you should only see a signal when you click Ext trig 3 and not with Ext trig 1 or 2;

3) Testing analog inputs

Use a signal generator to produce something like a sine wave. In the Fview window, click on the button `View analog input'. This will open a new window as shown in the figure opposite.

• Plug in signal generator BNC into the first analog input BNC labeled `Analog Input 0'. Place a grounded BNC over the remaining BNCs. You should immediately see a trace in one of the windows but the remaining 3 windows should be clear. In the current setup, this is the 2nd window.
• Repeat this procedure for the remaining 3 analog inputs. Each time you should only see a single trace.