Wolverine-Hawkeye Telecine

[Stan Jelavic]

Full test of the first board. All tests passed:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/TtHwmh6gNcErTSow6

13 more to go.

[Irwin Singer]

Hi, Stan. Irwin Singer here. I haven't heard about the V12 board I requested a month ago; I'm row 15 on your gdoc. How's it coming? My Wolverine showed up several weeks ago, but I'm holding of using it until the V12 is ready (and I order the optics). Thanks,

[Bruce Davis]

Hi Stan, Kamel and David, beautiful to see all those populated boards.

Stan can I remove the capstan from my Hawkeye and simply replace it with a pulley "Kamel's Smooth_Pulley_Round_Hole" or one of the original Wolverine rubberised pulleys. With the current firmware at 1FPS its not functioning anyway, will anything be affected if the motor is unplugged and removed.

Reason for removing, if the film has to be manually rolled back (without disengaging through the pulleys), the toothed pulley can damage the film emulsion if not very carefully and slowly done.

Regards - Bruce

P.S. Due to the Sony CMOS STARVIS sensor (IMX178LQJ) having 14 bit capability and a larger dynamic range, does this mean it will have much better white and dark area detail.

[Stan Jelavic]

Hi Irwin. I have 14 boards done and working on front panels and switches now. You are no 15 so possibly in the 2nd batch that should be coming up as soon as I am done with the first or it might be sooner is there are cancellations. There is also one request for the parts only which could put you in the first batch. Will keep you posted.
Bruce, removing the motor will not cause any issues. You can use Kamel's smooth pulley.
Sony Starvis could give better dynamic range i.e. better performance in very dark and bright areas. WE use WDR so it is hard to estimate how much better it would fare.
Regards,
Stan

[David Brown]

Bruce The last time I ran my Hawkeye, I replaced the capstan with the smooth pulley. With the capstan in the center position, the smooth pulley rotates as the film moves. That means that even if you did not want to have it force the film forward, it will set off the alarm when the film stops moving. You might want to disconnect the motor's wiring and leave the encoder wired.

[Stan Jelavic]

That is a good point David.

[Bruce Davis]

Hi David, thanks for the reply, I was not aware that an alarm was incorporated into the electronics of the capstan motor. Does this mean that the motor has to remain connected, or at least the encoder, that would mean leaving the motor in situ or somewhere inside the housing.

That does not seem as simple as Stan thought, that removing the motor totally would not be a problem.

Quote "The last time I ran my Hawkeye, I replaced the capstan with the smooth pulley." I assume you printed the one in Kamel's "Optional" folder "Smooth_Pulley_Square_Hole_v27" (or similar) to fit onto the "Back_Toothed_Pulley_Capstan.

I would much rather remove the capstan motor completely, is the alarm programmed into the MSP430 chip?

Stan, will you make firmware available for the v12 boards so that the Hawkeye can be used without the capstan motor.

Regards - Bruce

[Stan Jelavic]

Hi Bruce, you can disconnect the capstan and there is no problem at all with that. But if you connect the sonalert or a beeper to the sonalert output on the interface board, then the somalert will start beeping because the monitor is not providing the pulses. But as far as I know you do not have a sonalert on your machine, right?

Here is how this works. The capstan monitor cct from the back of the motor sends the pulses to the MSP while the capstan motor is turning. If the pulses are present then everything is ok and the MSP does not provide the capstan output. If the pulses stop or are not there because the capstan has been removed, then the MSP will pulse the capstan output. The capstan output pulses are connected to the capstan motor and will pulse it trying to clear the jam. But if the motor is not there then the pulses will not do anything.

The capstan pulsed output is also routed to the optional sonalert pads. If you get a sonalert and connect it to these pads and have the capstan motor monitor connected than the sonalert will beep if there is a jam which could be useful even if the motor side is not used. And that is what David is saying. If you leave the capstan motor in with the monitor connected only (monitor has its own wires at the back of the motor) and connect the sonalet, you will get the warning beep when there is a jam. The motor will not try to clear the jam but you get the beeps.

Let me know if this is not clear.

[Bruce Davis]

Stan, many thanks for the extensive explanation and quick reply, I have never connected a somalert or beeper and have never heard an audible alarm when a film jammed. So it is safe to remove the motor without being annoyed by beeps.
Regards - Bruce

[Stan Jelavic]

No problem Bruce. Glad I could help.
BR
Stan

[David Brown]

Bruce. I should have said that I replaced the toothed pulley with the smooth pulley.



That was back when you were working on the tooth spacing and the wobble. I put it in as a place holder and found it does contribute by dampening the take up force.

Here is the Sonalert.



I think if you cut the red or white wire, the motor will not run.



I like the alarm, but I plan to put a switch on it. I'm also hopeful Stan will introduce a stop command for the claw motor. Then even if I am watching, and my attention drifts, the alarm will get me back. If I leave it running all night, it won't wake me and shut down!

[Bruce Davis]

David, thanks very much, for the very detailed explanation, I did not know about the Sonalert and had never heard my Hawkeye beep when the film jammed. So I have two options, can remove the motor completely or print and fit the smooth pulley.

David how did the 2mm x 3mm dia brass tubing work out, was it a nice snug press fit over the 2mm motor shaft. If you use the brass tube make sure you grind down to smooth the sharp tip of the set screws, otherwise they will damage the soft brass surface and cause problems in getting the Back pulley off and back on.

Was the 16mm lens the right choice, did you find it provided better results, are you going to upgrade to a 4K camera.

Regards - Bruce

[David Brown]

Hey Bruce, Thanks for the heads up on the brass tubing. It arrived so soon I threw it in a box for now. I've been focused on an adjustable lens mount. I have been fitting it on a "printed circuit board" and I'm about to try it on my V7 board.

I'm using an intermediate platform that will have separate adjustments in X & Y. The std lens mount is not centered on the film in Y, and an R8mm frame is offset about 50% from S8 in X.

That's one reason I would not recommend the 16mm lens to anyone. Extra effort to switch between S8 & R8. There is no electronic centering with the 16mm, the image uses most of the sensor.

Another reason is it is f5.6, two stops darker than the 12mm lens.

I think the image looks as good as the 12mm, but is larger. That might matter, but it might not be perceptible depending how it is viewed. I would likely publish at 1920x1080 (1440 with side bars). Then if viewed with a 4k monitor the image is simply doubled by the playback device.

BUT: The intermediate lens platform mount won't need to be adjusted if you only have S8 film.

AND: Dark scenes can be recorded slowly with Stan's extended shutter.

The 4k Sony chip is appealing for the extra 1/2 stop of light, and the larger pixel array might provide some electronic centering for the 16mm. Now capturing @2592x1944, the 4k chip is ~4kx3k, it might be enough to electronically center the image for both S8 & R8 films. That would be a calculation for Stan!

I fear the price will be too high.

There are cheaper 4k board cameras out there. I think the hardware and software from I.S. is very good. I have a 4k camera I bought as a microscope and hoped it might be also used for 8mm capture. The software is very limited. I have only color balance and basic exposure controls. It was cheap!

Stan, wouldn't you say that with Hawkeye and your part time job you are working full time!!

[Stan Jelavic]

Yes David it does feel like is a full time job. Since you do not see appreciable difference between the 12mm and 16mm lenses there is no good reason for going 16mm.
But the new camera (DFM 37UX178-ML) will offer much faster FPS and increased dynamic range will provide improvement in mixed dark and light scenes. An example is dark street and bright sky with white clouds. Also, the sensor has some really good reviews so perhaps the overall picture quality may be better.

[Bruce Davis]

Hi David & Stan, with the smaller sensor size of the DFM 72BUC02-ML and using a 16mm lens, in one respect is good because your utilising the whole sensor, but having to physically adjust the camera between S8 & N8 is not ideal.

Not sure how the 16mm macro lens would work out with a larger sensor such as the IMX178LQJ (8.5x6.8mm compared to 5.76x4.29mm), will have to leave that to Stan. Are the 16mm lenses not available in F2.8 or better.

I only have one 7 inch reel of N8 the rest is all S8.

Am currently using VideoFred script to upscale to 1440 x 1080 and I leave the LCD TV to add the black bars, I feel this is a better way to do it.

Have found that with really grainy film, Film9 can give better results in removing most of the grain.

The IC Capture software has a bug, in that once the framing has been adjusted (centered) in Partial Scan, if capturing is stopped and one returns to live view, the film frame is no longer centered. This is a pain because when re-starting the capture one has to re-center the film frame. This has not been addressed with the latest updated to v2.5 of the software (I do not know what was fixed in v2.5).

Regards - Bruce