Making a 3 sensors shutter tester - part 3

[@wibbley1]

Hi Alin and everyone. Thanks for making these three detailed videos & thank you for your kind words about myself. I welcome all feedback and comment, the more feedback I get, the better I can improve the product. Updates have been made after Alin's feedback and video has been made, below are some of the changes. 2.39 One can use a project box to make a film gate sensor, rails have to be glued to it, so it locates into the film gate, else it is (almost) impossible to align correctly. A better way is to 3d print a part as Alin has done, with the built in location plate. Open source 3d files are available. Details about making a film back sensor were added because so many people asked for it (or grumbled it was not available) however, using Lasers, I think, is still by far the better option. Make two sensor frames, one for vertical & one for horizontal shutters. 5.55 This is the problem with LED lights. Brightness is controlled by rapidly turning the LEDs on & off. The Shutter Tester code is so fast that it sees this rapid on/off as shutter activations. To use an LED light source, you need to use a Constant-Current, not a PWM driver. The cheap one that Alin shows, gives 100% PWM (i.e always on) only when both brightness and colour controls are tuned fully on. Users, like Alin has done, can make alternate light sources, however I am not going to detail how to use mains lights due to the risk of things going wrong. When & if I can find a suitable Constant-Current LED driver, which is controlled by PWM, I will add details. The Shutter Tester has PWM output functionality to control an LED light driver, however it is not detailed. 10.08 Press the BLACK button !!! :o) 😀 22.00 The user guide has been updated and describes what each line of the test data shows. 24.00 Pressing the blue button now toggles between the screen shown and a simplified, larger typeface display. 26.50 Coding would have been far easier if the user says what speed the camera is set too, rather than my guess-o-meter function. However, I thought it would be a pain for the user to keep having to input the speed they were testing at. If the camera is within 1/2 stop accuracy, the tester will 'correctly guess' the set shutter speed. 27.0 The total travel time of each curtain is shown at the bottom of the screen in larger typeface. The larger details at the bottom of the screen are actual values, not the average, because as Alin says, there is much information on the screen. It is repeated here in a larger typeface. The latest version has a simplified screen option, press the blue button to toggle between the screen shown here and a simplified view. 31.02 Pushing yellow displays 'reset average' on the screen. It also does reset the averages :o) The screen details do not get reset as these are not averages and show the last test results. I could easily change it so it resets the screen to 0. 38.50 A new mounting system is used. The breakout board is now mounted on the same bolts that holed the TFT screen (25mm bolts needed) and mounted vertically. A USB-C plug to USB-C chassis mount cable is used to mount the USB connector to the outside of the project box. 40.0 Rather than Dupont wires, JST-XH connectors are now used. The connectors are ganged (e.g 2/3/5/8 way) and not as deep. Makes wiring look much neater. Dupont wires can still be used. 41.30 Din connectors are now specified, as Alin later suggests. They are cheaper than the Ethernet sockets and complication of using odd-legs (and having to describe this in the build instructions) is eliminated. 44.50 A bag of 3.5MM jack plugs can be cheaply purchased from Aliexpress, so you could mount one of these on each of your film-gate sensors. Alternate is to buy individual pc-cables, they are only a few £ each. I opted for a single 3.5MM socket on the project box. As shown by Alin, the basic design can be adapted and changed to the users needs. I welcome comments & suggestions for improvements and changes. Best way is via the Photrio build & users thread.

[@AlinCiortea]

@@wibbley1 yeah, I realised I talked some BS (for example the averages on the bottom of the screen) but it was too late. I'll recheck your updates and order some more parts to actually finish the project. I'll also need some very thin wires to make all the connections inside the film gate sensor box. Any suggestions for what gauge to look for?

[@wibbley1]

@@AlinCiortea Hi, There are open-source pcb files available for film back sensor PCBs. icracer got some printed, he may have some spare. Worth sending him a DM. I did not use any hook-up wire in my film-gate sensor, instead, soldered the main cable directly to the sensor legs. If you have an off-cut of solid core Ethernet cable, (the stuff used for block wiring, not flexible patch leads) that works well for hook-up wire. Silicone hook-up wire is good as the insulation is soft & cuts easily with a sharp knife or scalpel, without damaging the wire. One can either buy short lengths or a boxed set of multi-colours. 22 gauge is what I have. Or, in the latest parts list, it shows some flat multi-core cable, this can be used. Top tip is to buy proper lead solder, not this horrible lead free stuff. Alas, Aliexpress is a minefield for solder. I have seen the same solder listed as 'lead free' and 'lead solder' Lead solder is described as its tin/lead mix, e.g 60/40. However on Aliexpress this is called 'tin solder' with no mention of the word lead. So I do not know if the products are lead or not, or if the listings do not use the word 'lead' deliberately to avoid legal issues and the product is proper lead solder. I bought a reel of 'Duratool' solder from my local Ebay as the reel states 'Sn60/Pb40

[@atf2940]

Very nice, congratulations. I understand that the code is only avalaible pre-compiled. That is the the author's very good right. In a DIY project such as this, however, I prefer to see the code, so that I understand what it is doing and make the one or the other change to better suit my needs. That is the main reason why I opted for an Arduino-implementation of a single-sensor tester. Gives me all information I need to adjust the shutter. But at the cost of tripling measurements, which makes my fingers suffer ... 😞

[@AlinCiortea]

@@atf2940 for me it's just the same as I wouldn't understand a single line from that code. Also, the author was very quick to improve on the code and answer any questions I threw at him.

[@arekguinness2342]

I am very impressed. And can you measure the central shutter with this tester? You would probably have to make a different board with sensors or one sensor, I think

[@AlinCiortea]

@@arekguinness2342 I haven't tried it but theoretically you could mask two of the three sensors and still get a reading from the third one. I'll pass on the question, because I'm sure implementing a third shutter type is quite easy. And in the case of a modular design, a separate sensor box with a single sensor can be designed and added.

[@wibbley1]

​ @arekguinness2342 The Shutter Tester (V3) will use 'single sensor mode' if only one sensor is triggered, so as Alin says, cover sensor 2 & M to use just one sensor (testing box-brownie etc). V4 is selectable 1, 2 or 3 sensors. The Arduino version auto-selects 1 or two sensors.