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New firmware 3.03 for H3+B

Just a quick note about the firmware for HERO3+ Black Edition v03.03 (September 2, 2015). This firmware works fine with MewPros.

Note to Genlock Dongle users: Dongle’s software also needs update as it emulates a version of camera hardware; both the master camera and the slave camera (or dongle) must have the same version. The source code in GitHub is now modified to use with the current version 3.03 so please download and install it to your dongle.

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How To Make MewPro Cable

This post is for those who bought our MewPro Cable products WITHOUT cable (i.e. for customers of plug-only MewPro Cable) and to explain how to solder your genlocking units.

For genlocking the wires among plugs and Dongle must be soldered by yourself. It shouldn’t be so difficult task nevertheless the through holes are really small. But if you like everything to be inside of the plug enclosure then it never be easy or you must be a true wizard/witch of soldering.


Solder Wires to PCB

MewPro Cable is basically a reduced/shrinked version of MewPro 2 board. So please refer the post “How To Use MewPro Genlock Dongle”, too.

Wires to the board in the plug are shown as in the following figure.

Wires of MewPro Cable
Wires of MewPro Cable

Use smaller through holes for soldering as larger holes will be needed for future update of the firmware.

plug-assemble-board

Before soldering these wires to both plug and Dongle, don’t forget to thread a strain relief (the black, cylindrical part with legs in the above photo).

Plug casing can be closed as in the following pictures.

Assemble the bottom half
1. Assemble the bottom half

Assemble the top casing
2. Assemble the reminder

Note: If once the lid clicked closed it’s impossible to open the cover of plug again without breaking black plastic tabs.


Updating Firmware

MewPro Cables are shipped with the genlock firmware installed. But in future possible firmware updates by yourself may be preferred.

In order to upload a software to ATtiny1634 microcontroller, you’ll need some temporary testing wires, which we use is shown below for example, as well as a Sparkfun FTDI Basic Breakout – 3.3V (or its clone).

Sanhayato TTW-200 Testing Wires
Sanhayato TTW-200 Testing Wires

Sanhayato TTW-200 can be purchased in Japan only from this site.

These wires can be used as in the following.

plug-upload

Connections between MewPro and FTDI are:

MewPro FTDI
GND GND
3V3 3V3
RXI TXD
TXO RXD
GRN DTR

Resources

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Dongle w/ Reset Switch

Today I prepared a tailor-made system consists of five MewPros and one Dongle for a patron of our shop.

The regular customer saw our latest blog post and liked to update their system to fulfil those “Tips” or conditions written there as soon as possible. 🙂

The following is the image of the unit:
dongle-w-reset

There is a hazard switch (as usually seen in a car), which is the reset. The button is known to be useful in the following cases:

  1. After assembling MewPros, GoPros, Dual Hero, and Dongle(s), some cameras are power on and some off. This is a normal situation but a bit unstable. Then please try pushing the reset button for getting the same effect as detaching/attaching all MewPros and Dongle.
  2. After powering on the master camera, sometimes we see an alert message “3D SYNC LOST”. In this case please wait until power goes off automatically. Then please push the reset button before the master camera’s power button. It will solve the problem.

Remark: If you are one of other MewPro 2 customers and also like to update ATtiny1634’s fuse (B.O.D.) or firmware please contact us. Generally, we will give firmware updates free of charge.

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MewPro 2 in Germany

Last week I went to Germany and saw a 3D rig made by a customer.

The system consists of a lot of GoPro Hero 3+ Black’s and MewPro 2’s.
goprogopro2

Tips To Make MewPro + Dongle System

I realized the following six points/hints while I was there in Germany:

1. Random Power-On Bug

Here in Japan I’ve never known such a bug existed, but in Germany I also experienced that some GoPros do power-on randomly even after they received the power-off, “PW0” command. The bug is fixed now at GitHub (cf. dcc9a4f783ba381f5caa646a835adb78884ea01d)

2. Better Connect RESET

For small sized genlocking system I thought it was overkill to connect all RESET pins of MewPro’s and dongles each other; because if something wrong happens then simply detaching/attaching the MewPro or dongle will solve the problem. However, if it is a large system involving a lot of GoPro’s and MewPro’s then connecting RESET and pushing reset button on Arduino Pro Mini of the dongle much helps to solve the unstable situations.

3. Daughter Board As Hub

Genlock Dongle is shipped with a complementary daughter board (photo: below).
daughter
As you can see, the board has the identical design in soldering area of Genlock Dongle: There are aligned/connected pins for HSYNC, TRIG, VSYNC, GND, RESET, and TXD. Using the board as a “hub” to MewPros, after finished soldering to the hub you could use six (or five if you don’t connect RESET) wires connecting each group of pins on the board to the corresponding pin on the dongle. Soldering like this way is much easier than soldering all the wires directly upon the dongle.

4. Keep Soldering Joint Shortest

I realized the following pitfalls in soldering wires:
joints
Wires and solder joints should not touch the camera body (photo: above) as they pry up the herobus connector and cause insufficient contacts.

promini
Wires and solder joints should not touch Arduino Pro Mini board of Genlock Dongle (photo: above) as they cause short circuit.

5. Temperature Controlled Soldering Iron Recommended

Don’t use old soldering irons before the sensitive electric era. Newer Atmel microcontroller forgets firmware or bootloader or everything, or dies if it is too hot.

6. B.O.D. Enabled

Distributed power system with a lot of batteries and wall chargers like GoPros + MewPros + Dongles + Dual Hero should have B.O.D. (Brown Out Detection) enabled whenever possible. Otherwise while connecting elements followed by an element a small amount of power might be unintentionally supplied to it through signal lines, even if the power lines disconnected or off, and its microcontroller will be likely to runaway because of insufficient voltage. According to this observation from now on our MewPro 2 will be shipped with bootloader in setting B.O.D. 1.7V.

Note

It is our pleasure to know/see how MewPro products are actually used. So please don’t hesitate to invite us! Our staff will go to your place immediately. 🙂

And please pronounce MewPro as /mjuːproʊ/ in English or cat meows/miaows + Pro(fessional). The author was very surprised in Germany that they say it differently.