April 2015 - Orangkucing Lab

New versions of MewPro and Genlock Dongle software are available at GitHub. This time GoPro’s timelapse shooting is supported.

As well as the software updates the enclosure of MewPro Genlock Dongle, which is shipped after last weekend, is updated to have our company logo. Yawn…

How to update your MewPro and/or Genlock Dongle software

Both of our products have Arduino Pro Mini embedded. So these new pieces of software should be uploaded to the corresponding microprocessor. If you are the first time to burn software to MewPro please also refer our MewPro introduction here.

Step 1 Download the latest source code from GitHub:

Step 2 Launch Arduino IDE (If you don’t have Arduino IDE yet please download/install it from Arduino – Software).

Step 3 Modify the source codes to fit your needs. Especially if you use MewPro with Genlock Dongle the following are required:

(MewPro.ino) old: boolean debug = true; -> new: boolean debug = false;
(MewPro.ino) old: #undef USE_GENLOCK -> new: #define USE_GENLOCK

Step 4 Upload the software by using FTDI. To do this it is convenient using a temporary header with MewPro like this

or with Genlock Dongle like this

FTDI, L-shaped pin header, paper clip and Dongle

Using temporary header with Genlock Dongle

Note 1: If your MewPro or Dongle is connected to GoPro camera or Dual Hero please detach it by herobus connector before uploading. This is because Genlock Dongle has wires soldered to UART pins (TXO and RXI) and camera or Dual Hero may interfere with signals between FTDI and MewPro/Dongle.

Note 2: MewPro’s EEPROM must be set to “master” if it is used with Genlock Dongle. However, if you buy MewPro (w/ Arduino Pro Mini soldered) with Genlock Dongle from our shop then your EEPROM has already been set to so and you don’t need to touch it.

Remarks

Timelapse of 0.5 seconds or 1 second is not possible if you use Dual Hero System or MewPro. So please set the interval equal to or more than 2 seconds otherwise GoPro will automatically rewrite the setting to 2 seconds when the bacpac is recognized.

Also timelapse of 2 seconds seems unstable if you use Genlock Dongle. So it is safe to set interval more than 2 seconds.

In our experiments on GoPro timelapse mode failings to set one of admissible time interval caused firmware corruptions of GoPro camera. So if timelapse doesn’t work for you we suspect your firwmare also might has been corrupted. In case please re-install GoPro’s firmware again.

MewPro PCB is sold without casing. We describe here how to make an attractive enclosure from “Frisk” by yourself.

Parts List

Frisk breath mint candies in plastic cartridge: This is sold at any convenience stores found across Japan. Unfortunately, Frisk packages in other countries are different from ones in Japan, so you might want to import them from Japan.
MewPro w/ SMD parts and Herobus connector (soldered): In order for MewPro PCB to fit in Frisk, Arduino Pro Mini must be soldered by yourself.
Arduino Pro Mini 328 3.3V 8MHz: Genuine Pro Mini or any clone will do.
Wires and solders: and some skills…

The essential part is the Frisk plastic casing. Its depth is 10.5mm and this is almost the same as GoPro BacPac’s 10.0mm!

Left: MewPro w/ SMD parts and Herobus connector (soldered); Right: Frisk case sold in Japan — Left: MewPro w/ SMD parts and Herobus connector (soldered); Right: Frisk casing sold in Japan

Instruction

Cut the MewPro PCB a bit. Take care not to cut any conductive traces!

Solder the Arduino Pro Mini board to the reverse side of the MewPro board.

Cut Frisk.

Voilà! MewPro is now inside of Frisk. Its size can be compared to bacpacs of Dual Hero System.