Posted on Leave a comment

Herobus Connector

This post is to compare two similar connectors: GoPro and iPod/iPhone.

Quite a few people have once tried to plug their iPhone plug into the GoPro receptacle (aka Herobus connector). Don’t do that again because it doesn’t fit and it may damage the connector.

Two connectors are the same in pin configurations (i.e., the number of pins, the pitch between adjacent pins, depth and so on) but different in “keys”. To see how keys are placed, look at the following photo and investigate the areas marked by red lines:
female
⇧ GoPro and iPod receptacles (female connectors)

Each of four corners has a different key. Thus if you cut or bend some plastics or metal plates of your iPhone plug, it will become loose and will not mate GoPro.
male
⇧ GoPro and iPod jacks (male connectors)


Part Numbers
For GoPro Herobus: JAE DD1B030HA1R500, DD1B030VA1, DD1P030MA1 (male), and JAE DD1R030HA1R1300 (female). Ridax sells a compatible type of JAE DD1P030MA1 (male).

Note: iPod/iPhone Dock Connectors are produced by JAE, too, but the part numbers are unknown because they are Apple’s proprietary.

Posted on Leave a comment

Syncing GoPros

A few people asked us whether or not MewPro could sync two or more GoPros. The answer is YES if you don’t need genlock.

Here is the wiring for syncing:
manyGoPro

This is basically the same to the connection already posted in “GoPro from CANON Timer Remote Controller“. In that article we used rather expensive Canon TC-80N3. But in case that syncing is everything then we can use another cheap remote controller such as: Canon RS-60E3, Rowa Japan RS001 or compatible wired shutter releases for Canon DSLR cameras. (For this blog is dedicated to GoPro, we aren’t going to explain further about general wired shutter releases for other manufacturer’s DSLR cameras although they are also usable.)

A wired shutter release is nothing but a switch of chattering free. When the switch is closed every GoPro’s D2 line get to the GND level and this makes start recording each video (or shutter) simultaneously.

In the figure above diodes are added between D2 and switch. These are necessary to protect the GoPros as each of them is powered by a different battery.
Note: In order to achieve the logic level GND the diodes should be shottkey barrier or low drop (less than 500mV) diodes of same type (eg. 1S4). Don’t use general diodes as they usually have drop off of 1V.

Posted on Leave a comment

Underwater Video w/ MewPro and Laser Pointer

No Wi-Fi available in underwater. Waterproof cable remote releases are very difficult to make. But here is a solution: Laser pointer and light sensor!


Videographing Materials
In order to take the demo video below we used the following:

  1. GoPro Hero 3+ Black
  2. MewPro w/ Arduino Pro Mini
  3. Microsemi Wide Range Visible Light Sensor LX1971 (cf. PDF manual)
  4. 532nm (green) laser pointer

(Schematic to connect LX1971 with Arduino)

Note: We used a green laser because red is more prone to attenuate in underwater. More specifically we enclosed el cheapo green laser module (marked “TIM-311G-1A” possibly made in Taiwan?) in DIY housing or second-hand unused underwater torch casing, and went scuba diving.


Demo
The following video is taken by Osamu Morishita, Urashiman D.S. Ogasawara by using the above-mentioned system. As you may know these rays are very sensitive to diver’s bubbles thus without help of MewPro and laser it is nearly impossible to shoot from the angle in the demo.


⇧ “Kannuki Rock”, Is. Minami, Ogasawara, Japan. School of bigeye jacks and flight of cownose rays.

M_20141116-017
⇧ Using MewPro laser remote w/ GoPro (photo by Urashiman D.S. Ogasawara)

IMG_6008
⇧ Prototype version of MewPro board w/ visible light sensor LX1971 and Arduino Pro Mini.

Posted on Leave a comment

Using Video Motion Detect Board

MewPro Video Motion Detect board is ready for purchase. This automatically does start/stop recording on GoPro Hero 3+ Black. And here is two demos and a How-To.


Demo Videos

In order to experiment with video motion detect, preparation of the following items should be enough:

Requirements

1. GoPro Hero 3+ Black
Older GoPro’s doesn’t work with MewPro. (GoPro Hero 4 Black must be OK, but we don’t promise this.)
2. MewPro board
SMD parts and Herobus connector are soldered.
Note: Don’t solder an Arduino Pro Mini to your MewPro board as its micro processor has not enough memory and is too slow to deal with video signal.
3. Teensy 3.x or GR-KURUMI
Our shop doesn’t sell these micro processor boards. Please purchase one of these items at somewhere.
4. MewPro VMD (Video Motion Detector) board
Necessary SMD parts are soldered.



Three boards 2-4 (MewPro, Teensy 3.x or GR-KURUMI, and VMD) are soldered to form a BacPac™.
teensyVMD-top
⇧ Teensy 3.1 w/ MewPro and VMD

And the BacPac™ is attached to the Herobus receptacle.
VMD-housing

Using the BacPac™ is fairly simple: Place GoPro and push the power button on. After 5 seconds (or pre-configured period of time) the motion detect algorithm starts; the BacPac™ keeps a watch on the composite video signal on Herobus™. If it finds a movement then it commands GoPro to start recording video, and if no more changes then it orders the camera to stop and waits for another motion.

We made two demo video using MewPro (The Video Motion Detector BacPac™ appeared in the following makings of corresponding demo is the final prototype of the production version):

Video 1:

⇧ Auto captured video by a movement of kitty. No trim, No edit.


⇧ Making of Video 1 (captured manually by a human using iPhone 5c)

Video 2:

⇧ Video 2: Auto captured video by a movement of kitty. No trim, No edit.


⇧ Making of Video 2 (captured manually by a human using iPhone 5c)


How To Use MewPro Video Motion Detector Board

The following are the photos of MewPro VMD board w/ SMD parts soldered:

text-VMD-board
⇧ Top view

text-VMD-bottom
⇧ Bottom view

Three SMD parts (U1, R4, R5) need not to be mounted if the companion board is Teensy 3.x. Also if the companion board is GR-KURUMI then solder jumpers on SJ3 and SJ4 are necessary. Schematics of the board is here. Through holes look like 600mil 28pin DIP are for Teensy 3.x and the ones 600mil 24pin DIP are for GR-KURUMI and MewPro board.

We designed the VMD board so that Teensy is mounted on the bottom (i.e., front side of GoPro) and GR-KURUMI on the top (i.e., back side of GoPro). Please investigate the following photos carefully and solder the three boards in correct directions.

c-teensyVMD-back
⇧ Teensy 3.x: View from GoPro back

c-teensyVMD-top
⇧ Teensy 3.x: View from GoPro front

c-kurumiVMD-back
⇧ GR-KURUMI: View from GoPro back

Note: Please don’t forget to solder two pairs of two pins and 2×5 pins red-circled in the above photos.

After soldering VMD board with Teensy or GR-KURUMI, and MewPro, connect it to PC and burn the MewPro application (To do so please refer the general instruction using MewPro).

In order to use VMD, it will suffice that the source code of MewPro application is modified at the following lines in MewPro.ino:

//********************************************************
// j_VideoMotionDetect: Video Motion Detector
// Video motion detect consumes almost all the dynamic memory. So if you want to use this then #undef all options above.
#undef USE_VIDEOMOTION
// The part of code utilizes the following library except GR-KURUMI. Please download and install:
// https://github.com/orangkucing/analogComp
//#include "analogComp.h" // *** please comment out this line if USE_VIDEOMOTION is not defined or GR-KURUMI ***

And change the lines like this:

//********************************************************
// j_VideoMotionDetect: Video Motion Detector
// Video motion detect consumes almost all the dynamic memory. So if you want to use this then #undef all options above.
#define USE_VIDEOMOTION
// The part of code utilizes the following library except GR-KURUMI. Please download and install:
// https://github.com/orangkucing/analogComp
#include "analogComp.h" // *** please comment out this line if USE_VIDEOMOTION is not defined or GR-KURUMI ***

(If you are to use GR-KURUMI, keep the last line above untouched.)

Note. There are two threshold parameters of sensitivity in j_VideoMotionDetect.ino as well as some code fragments for debug. Please refer the comments written in the file.