On projects where I use the Freefly Ember, I’ve built a custom remote start/stop system using a microcontroller and RC transmitter – it connects to Ember’s GPIO port to trigger recording.
I’d like to ask:
Will the Spark’s EXT port support this kind of direct external trigger (simple high/low logic)?
Is the EXT port similar to GPIO (electrically)?
Will you share pinout and specs for custom control hardware?
WiFi/app control is nice, but in some setups (like cable cams or drones), a wired or radio-linked trigger is essential.
Can we trigger a multi camera rig with Spark frame accurately? Our application requires multi camera system synchronized with our high fps changing lights. For now we are using machine vision cameras but the image quality isn’t as good as cinematic cameras.
It will be a game changer if we can sync multiple cameras at 1000fps with our lights. We use it to capture photometric data, volumetric data, and build Gaussian Splats.
Hi Jingyi, thank you for your interest! This is a very valuable application scenario. Could you let us know what level of synchronization accuracy you require, and where the sync signal will originate? Also, if you can outline the specific workflow, that would help (since I know machine vision cameras usually stream data directly to a PC, which is different from how Spark works).
Put it in a simple way, we wanted to trigger each frame with a falling edge signal through a 3.5mm or 2.5mm stereo port, or GPIO port. Minimal latency will be great so we can synchronize across multiple cameras frame by frame.
Sure—the GPIO port can be used for this. Alternatively, we have a dedicated sync interface that also supports your frame‑by‑frame trigger scenario. We’ve received your email!