posted June 12, 2006 05:58 PM                

quote:

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Only as a quick information:

During my development for NTSC compatibility on request of my US
customers, I had been contacted by the German/French "Lumiere" film
club to offer something for the 16 mm community and show/sell it on
the big trading fair in Waghäusl (close to Heidelberg/Mannheim in
Germany).
As I received a lot of telefone calls and requests even of the German
Elmo repair guy, I interrupted the NTSC developments and created
adaptions for 16 mm projectors, togehter with newly designed sync
controllers that now all have the option to be delivered with NTSC
compatibility.

There are two models of interest:

the first (cheaper) one is the Elmo specific synchronizer, which
"only" outputs a master signal for the internal Elmo regulation. I
called it P1008GS-DDS. The "DDS" stands for Direct Digital
Syntersizer. It is a frequency syntersizer, that can generate any
frame rate at crystal accurancy. You have a small LCD screen which
shows the frame rate with up to 8 digits, f.e. 2.400000 means 24 fps.
With two foreward/backward bottons you can set the cursor to any of
the digits and then increment or decrement it with a dial. This way,
you can adjust the synthersizer to any frequency, even to the exotic
american tv frame rate.
There is also a memory available for 10 preset frame rates which is
not erased with power on reset. So you can adjust 10 of your
favourite frame rates and access them quickly using the memory
positions, just like radio stations on your radio receiver.
When I deliver a unit, I set the memories to 16,666666 - 18,000000 -
24,00000 - 25,00000 - 23,69700 - 21,00000.

the second (more costy) unit is called P1008-DDS and is for all
projectors which work with a DC motor. Prepared interfaces are
available for Bauer 8/16 models. Braun models don´t need any
interfaces for regualtion and Elmo can be connected directly, too.
It is more costy, because these projectors have no regulation unit
in-built like the Elmo has, the synchronizer does the whole job (even
better than the rather simple Elmo ESS circuit can do). The good
thing is, that my regulation system contains a frame memory of in
total 256 frames. So any start and stop delays of the projectors are
fully compensated and it is no problem at all, to control a 16 mm
machine like the Bauer P8 or the Bauer selecton. These machines
receive a user applicable interface board, that senses the rotation
of the projector shutter and reports the number of turns to the
synchronizer. So the synchronizer can slow down or speed up the motor
according to the regulation needs at a certain time. People here do
show thier 16 mm prints with full DVD sound instead of the terrible
optical sound. Other people use the units to control projectors with
full coat tapes or to transform their full coat tapes into CDs or
impulse 1000 Hz-tapes. Everything can be controlled with this units
and we have the perfect bridge to the digital world.

prices: P1008GS-DDS: EUR 299.-, P1008-DDS: EUR 399.-

My next steps in development will be:
1. for active film shooters: a digital flash sound recorder, linked
to the PC contact of the camera, based on a Microtrack 2496 recorder.
2. a Elmo GS1200MO interface, that bypasses the often faulty DDS
regulation of the Elmo. The result will be a much more precise
regulation with frame memory and the possibility to interrupt and
resume projection.

Best regards to all of you!!!

Pedro

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