Les Pounder at Tom’s Hardware demonstrates a build using an RP2040-based board with CircuitPython to trigger taking pictures on a mobile phone.

In this tutorial we will make a simple trigger using a Raspberry Pi Pico and a few components. The code for the project is written in CircuitPython, a version of MicroPython from Adafruit that enables us to turn our Raspberry Pi Pico into a USB device, in this case a mouse. We can then press a real button to trigger the camera to take a picture.

This project is ideal for capturing nature shots. Our Android device can be positioned near to where the animal feeds or drinks and, using a long USB cable, we can be hidden out of sight and not scaring the creature. It can also work for selfies / group portraits that require you to stand further back from the camera.

See the build on Tom’s Hardware