Build Your Own Ultra-Long Range Remote Camera Trigger

Even if you’re just dabbling in photography, you’ll probably want to purchase some sort of remote camera trigger. Basic remotes are very affordable and work with virtually every DSLR on the market. They make it easy to snap photos when you’re not standing behind the camera, such as when you want to take a self portrait. But those remotes have a fairly limited range. That’s why Foaly designed Silver, which is an ultra-long range remote camera trigger that packs in a lot of features.

The most basic use case for Silver is when you want to trigger the shutter release from far away. Silver utilizes LoRa transceivers that have a range of several kilometers, so distance is never an issue. Both the remote and the on-camera device are exactly the same — one just triggers the other. That’s probably overkill if you only want a basic long distance remote trigger, but it does open up many other possible uses. Any number of Silver modules can be used simultaneously, so you can trigger multiple cameras at the same time. And all of the settings for each module can be configured remotely on the fly.

Those settings include the trigger itself, the delay between the trigger and shutter release, an intervalometer to take multiple photos, timing settings to sync up your shots, and additional inputs that can be used to work with external sensors. The LoRa module for each Silver device is controlled by a 32-bit Microchip ATSAM4 microcontroller. Those, along with the display, buttons, and other necessary components, are soldered onto a custom PCB designed in KiCAD. The enclosure was modeled in Autodesk Fusion 360, and can be 3D-printed. If you’re interested in making your own Silver remotes, all of the design files are available on GitHub.