Homemade Telecine

[David Brown]

Yes, I will need 4 rollers to widen the pinchroller/motor assembly.

Watts do not translate to a known brightness for me. Led household lights that are equivalent to old 60-75 watt light bulbs are ~800 lumens. So this led you chose is 600 lumens, that should be pretty bright. I have used some battery powered leds during this 8mm project, often there are multiple leds. More spacing from the difuser can blend out the hot spots. That also reduces the overall light level.

Thanks for the rollers in advance.

I have made some 16mm adapters for the old Wolverine spindles. Possibly it will fit other 8mm holders too. The reels will be offset 3/4" off the Wolverine frame. Also have made some 8mm/16mm roller pulleys. I tried to keep these small and just as I am writing this I realize I overlooked including a bearing. That might still be added, but the pulley spins very well on the bolt as is.



Also wondering / thinking outloud if it's possible or even worth having both 8mm and 16mm transports always available. Some adjustment would be needed for the reels and pulleys. The pinch roller could simply remain 16mm wide.

On to the pinch roller!

[Stan Jelavic]

One of the issues with my setup is long exposures due to the low power light source. Ordered the 10W light chip from amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DPRZK8G/
Hope this fixes the issue.

[Stan Jelavic]

OK fixed the Liveview issue. Used the shutter pin instead of focus pin (half shutter). Now I can wrap up the version2 of the board and place the order. The new version will have the tune buttons on it. One of the new boards will be for you David. Sorry did not ship the rollers today. Will do it tomorrow. Will qty4 be OK?

[Stan Jelavic]

Maybe just luck David. I will send you the rollers today.

[David Brown]

You did say the DSLRs shouldn't need a mask.

I can't use the rollers right now. The white "tires" might be silicone. They are easy to change and have more traction than the black. That might not matter, I don't know how much pulling force is needed.

Just wanted to say that I think you have a gift finding things online! I have never found anything other than black rubber or sometimes yellow. I bet the yellow is aged and hard.

Here is what I have now.

[Stan Jelavic]

Checked the gate under the microscope to see what the cause is of smudging around the edges.




As the images show, the cause is a few burrs and rough edge from the printing process. Not a bit issue. Can be easily
fixed.
Actually I think the gate opening should be wider to allow for larger overscan. That way if the film shake is excessive the edges can be trimmed
without cutting into the image area.
Now to the next issue.

[Stan Jelavic]

Here is the link David:
https://www.fruugo.us/recorder-parts...2325-124662196
I still have some left and can send you a few.
It should work with the 16mm film if two are mounted side by side and the rocker redesigned to accommodate two of them.
The toothed roller should also work with this controller.
Had an idea how to mitigate the film shake without cropping the border. Just open up the gate to get a larger image. With that the shake will be outside the image area. Pretty simple. This makes the design simpler i.e. allows for more shake that gets fixed in the post.

[David Brown]

Stan, do you have the a link to the white rubber roller? There is only one in the pictures below.

I think that just the same width rollers can move 16mm film. I tried to test that and remembered that the wolverine board is now defective.

Two rollers could be used side by side. The Rocker would need to be widened. I had to remove the circular ends to clear the wider 16mm film. I'm also using some dual 8/16 rollers I found on thingyverse. They are too big, will need to make my own.

I also found a 35mm roller (with teeth). It can also be made smaller, but if it is to be motorised it will need some more thought.

[Stan Jelavic]

The issue is not with the Liveview timeout. It is disabled. I believe it is a glitch on the trigger pulse that may be causing the issue periodically. Will have to hook up a scope to it.
The transport works pretty good.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PC2HaA23sbnENSbb7
There are some issues that I noticed. The gate has some fluff or something in the right hand corner. Will have another look. It creates like a cloud shape in the image.

The scan process is very slow due to MagicLantern raw image processing.
The light source is not bright enough causing long exposures.
The gate pressure has to be set right in order to reduce the amount of film shake. Too much of film shake results in a
large amount of cropping.
Here is the final cut.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CcX...ew?usp=sharing

Have not spent much time on your sketches. Looks like you have some very good ideas there. Will have a closer look tomorrow.

[David Brown]

That sounds great. I get it now!

All cameras time out on live view, I think it has to do with the battery and a preset sleep timer. Good luck.

I have an awful time sketching with a pencil, so I have been sketching in 3D. These pictures were built by eye and not precisely measured (except the films). It has been a little slow just making cubes, stretching, and cutting holes. Better for me when visualising everything. I could print this, but it will be sloppy and there is more to do.

I don't know how to plan around a light source yet. The box could be smaller. The goal was to keep each film centered so minimise camera movement between formats.

Let me know if anything grabs your attention.

[Stan Jelavic]

Actually it is not that bad. Check if sync is too short or too long. If it is too short:
- turn tune switch on
- turn up switch on
- turn down switch on and observe the sync getting longer and longer (longer stepper runs)
- Once close turn up and down switches off
- Now using the up and down buttons (yes there are up and down switches and buttons) get the stepper to sync up
- turn tune switch off. This stores the new value in flash.
- recycle power

If the sync is too long then the down switch on first followed by the up switch. The rest of the procedure is the same.

The next time you use the scanner you do not have to go through the above procedure. But if you notice after a long run that the stepper is getting out of sync, then turn the tune switch on and then adjust the stepper by using the up and down buttons on the board to tweak the sync.

Tried this on with the scanner and it does work. My problem now is with the Magic Lantern. It times out on me. I get a few clips in and then camera clicks out of the Live Preview. Will have to study the forums.

[David Brown]

That's a lot of steps. I'll guess more steps equals more speed. I thought I'd send you a length of 16mm. That won't help until there is a gate, not to mention the roller. I have modeled the 3 films and began with 35mm thinking I'd work my way down. I thought that 8 & S8 could use the same gate if there were two apertures in the same gate. Going slow, every day I feel a little better!

[Stan Jelavic]

Use Launchpad to debug the tuning firmware.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UqUHzfSsDEESTXVZ7
Due to the complexity of the code it is necessary to run the Code Composer debugger. The three resistors are the pullups on:
- tune switch
- tune up
- tune down
It all works now. Here are the tests:
- tune on
- toggle up switch several times and the count goes up
- tune up switch on first then down switch. after a minute the count went up to 1000.
- repeated for down mode
- tune switch off, the count gets written into the flash
- power the board down and up, the count gets read back from the flash correctly

The next steps:
try the new code in the target
add r8/s8,16mm tuning

[David Brown]

Yes, I don't get much done in a day!

I did print the 16mm takeup reel. Surprised to find half of the film is kodachrome and the rest is B&W. It's a 7" reel, 400', so there is probably 200' on the reel.

[Stan Jelavic]

One issue with the large gate is the light distribution. It has to be even across the gate. I am trying to get the new MSP firmware working with tuning included. Got the code done but have not tested it yet. Once that is done I will do a test clip and make sure that the film shake is still within bounds and then complete the new board. The new board will have the tuning mode. After that will look into 16mm and possibly 35mm.