Tag: Genlock

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Tips on Arduino Console w/ Double Dongles

When genlocking in dual dongle configuration a serial terminal such as Arduino IDE’s console can be attached to MewPro #0 that is on the back of GoPro #0 (see top-right of the following figure).

double-config-w-PC

Any sensors or switches can be also installed to the board and they will work for starting/stopping of all cameras.

Note: In single dongle configuration the controlling GoPro #0 has no MewPro board attached. So the method described in this post is not relevant.

Tips on Arduino Console

  1. Output displayed in console is nothing but I2C command sent to Dual Hero Bacpac.
  2. Console settings are: baud [57600], enter key emulation [Newline].
  3. Compile MewPro with #undef UART_RECEIVER_DISABLE (this is the default).
  4. The I2C command you type in is not displayed at all but don’t worry it is surely sent to GoPro #0.
  5. To start recording type “SY1”. This will start all cameras.
  6. To stop recording type “SY0”. This will stop all cameras.
  7. Power on/off all cameras is done by “@” and “PW0”, respectively.
  8. Change mode command “CM” and so on works only for GoPro #0.
    In order to distribute the changes to other cameras, type “td”.
  9. “UM” command is special. The command is not sent to Dual Hero Bacpac but sent to all cameras.
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MewPro Cable and MewPro 2

Two new products, MewPro Cable for genlocking GoPro and MewPro 2 for general purposes are available in our shop.

MewPro Cable

cable-1
MewPro Cable is designed for genlocking GoPro Hero 3+ Black cameras. It has a microcontroller ATtiny1634 inside the plug enclosure and controls camera into 3D capture mode as easy as just plug the connector into Herobus socket. For genlock purpose it is interchangeable to our previous product “MewPro 1 w/ SMD parts, Herobus connector and Arduino Pro Mini compatible (soldered)”.

As there were many requests from our customers that if there were a plug-and-play genlock solution, now we sell bare plugs as well as fully assembled/soldered, plug-and-play packs with cables and Dongle(s). But we should say soldering a lot of wires to small plugs and dongle is extremely weary task. So if you order a plug-and-play pack please allow us minimum of 4 days before ship.

Product page: MewPro Cable

An article, introduction to MewPro Cable is to appear soon.

MewPro 2

mew2-1
MewPro 2 uses the microcontroller ATtiny1634 and is a redesigned version of MewPro 1 that used in conjunction with Arduino Pro Mini. All signals of Herobus and the microprocessor are broken out to 2.54mm pitch pins for hand-soldering convenience. ATtiny1634 can act as complete I2C slave, hence the new board comes without I2C EEPROM that is emulated.

Product page: MewPro 2

An article, introduction to MewPro 2 is to appear soon.

Compare MewPro Specs

The following is the comparison table of our MewPro line of products:

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MewPro in Jǐnán China

MewPros to synchronize a 40-camera motion capture system for studying bats during flight, Hunter McClelland (hgm at vt dot edu) a researcher working with Shāndōng University, Jǐnán, China, and Virginia Tech University told us today.

The following photos are courtesy of Hunter McClelland, Dr. Rolf Mueller (project leader), Matt Bender (senior code developer) and the team of researchers:

Many GoPros with MewPro
Many GoPros with MewPro
Dual Hero and Genlock Dongles
Dual Hero and Genlock Dongles
Flight tunnel
Flight tunnel
Soldering wires to MewPros and Dongles...
Soldering SMD parts and wires to MewPros and Dongles…

We are very glad to hear about this kind of user reports. 🙂

Bug Reports

The above team of researchers also found some issues in MewPro+Dongle system including:

A) start-frame error, i.e. cameras begin frame 1 of their videos at different starting times.
This turned out to be a bug in Genlock Dongle code and should be fixed now.
B) inner-frame delay, i.e. cameras are not taking pictures at exactly the same time.
To genlock every scan line must nearly attain image sensor’s performance limit. So we don’t think this is a bug in our system and/or signaling.

These kind of bug reports are also welcome as MewPro is an open source project.

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MewPro Cable Is Coming

A new product MewPro Cable is coming on the next month. It is targeted at possible MewPro Dongle or genlock users who has less room at the back of GoPros on their rig.

MewPro Cable has following features.

  • PCB fits within Herobus male connector casing.
  • Compatible with MewPro’s version w/ Arduino Pro Mini etc.
  • Works with MewPro Dongle.
  • For genlocking delete/align unnecessary/necessary pins.

That is, the current product MewPro w/ Arduino Pro Mini will be shrunk to the size of PCB (green) in the photo below:
gopro-connector
(Note: The PCB in the photo is a fake and not an actual one because it is not ready, yet.)

The price will be the same as before.

Technical Details

MewPro Cable uses AVR ATtiny1634 as microcontroller and this is different from current MewPro that uses AVR ATmega328.

Since ATtiny1634 is newer than ATmega328, it has a sophisticated, perfect slave I2C hardware. This new I2C architecture enables us to eliminate the necessity of external I2C EEPROM in order GoPro camera to recognize MewPro as mimicked Dual Hero System.

To use ATtiny1634’s great I2C hardware, we made WireS library from scratch. The library is usable under Arduino IDE and downloadable from GitHub (https://github.com/orangkucing/WireS).

The following photos are a prototype of MewPro Cable using ATtiny1634.
using-protoproto-bottom

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