huw_finney Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 All the pure digital ICs have been soldered on now, powered it up and it lives. Have a bit of a problem programming it, my adaptor is a parallel port thingy and the laptop visible 'aint got one. Time to dig out a PC with one. Or has anyone got an ALtera USB Blaster they can lend me?<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgoodman Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Love those kitchen workshops! Good work, Huw! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frederick_muller Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Holy s(&^t, Dr. Frankenstein ... the thing actually has a pulse? This is like watching God at work ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug herr Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 I am completely gaberflasted. Thanks for showing us your progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob F. Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Nice scope you got there, Huw. My old RM503 won't sync any more, and I haven't yet figured out why. I just got me a Velleman LCD handheld, no bigger than a digital multimeter, to try out and play with. What do you do for a living? I'm an old Air Force radar tech, turned counselor. You are inspiring me to get busy with some project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger_michel Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 if a regular guy can build a digital M with junk lying around his kitchen, why can't leica do the same over a long weekend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
working camera Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 That's not a bad commercial stock shot, Huw. You've got a nice retro (1980s) annual report thing happening... cheers C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_ Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 <I>if a regular guy can build a digital M with junk lying around his kitchen, why can't leica do the same over a long weekend?</I><P> Because there's a <I>huge</I> difference between building a one-off B&W prototype and a product that's manufacturable with great battery life that hits a sweetspot wrt market demand, and at low-enough costs (including developing a custom ASIC for the processing, and getting all of the regulatory approvals) to at least believe there's a decent ROI at the end of the tunnel. Not to take anything at all away from Huw, here - he's doing a superb job! www.citysnaps.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
working camera Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Gee wiz James, The shop bought one has to be in RGB colour. Much harder task than Huws grayscale version. It would take Leica something like two long weekends... at least... Pppphh geeze. and at any rate our Huw is just not any old bloke he's our Huw! Leica AG could not afford him. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennyboy Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 I think the dreaded PCWorld sell legacy parallel ports that will connect up VIA USB - strange as it sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huw_finney Posted February 25, 2006 Author Share Posted February 25, 2006 For colour simply change the sensor (I wanted a monochrome camera, the colour sensor in the same with filters) and post processing software on the PC. Make that a long weekend plus one day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huw_finney Posted February 25, 2006 Author Share Posted February 25, 2006 Ben, they don't work with my programmer, but a PCMCIA adaptor will, just ordered one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCL Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 I laughed in the beginning....now I'm salivating. This is like going to the serial movies when I was a kid. Can't wait for the next episode. Huw...this is downright incredible. When done, at least, you deserve your own article in Popular Electronics, Pop. Science, Pop. Mechanics, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_shriver Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 What are you anticipating for current draw, and thus battery life? Huw's made a clever design bargain here. His project needs much less processing power (CPU horsepower) than the commercial color digital cameras. First, he doesn't need to do all the complicated processing to get a high-resolution image from the Bayer filtered color sensor. (Splitting luminance and chroma, interpolation, etc.) Second, he doesn't need to do JPEG encoding, which is quite complicated. He's just writing raw sensor data to flash. Nastiest software he's got to manage is the FAT32 filesystem on the flash memory device. Plus the flash programming algorithms. By the way Huw, check if the docking station for your laptop has a parallel port. For instance, current ThinkPad laptops delegate the serial ports to the docking station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huw_finney Posted February 25, 2006 Author Share Posted February 25, 2006 "Because there's a huge difference between building a one-off B&W prototype and a product that's manufacturable" ah yes but that is a simple (albeit long) task. "with great battery life" I reckon on a week standby or 500 to 1500 shots per set of alkalines (pro rata). "that hits a sweetspot wrt market demand" my sweetspot and it seems quite a few other Leicaphiles here "and at low-enough costs (including developing a custom ASIC for the processing" FPGA 17 dollars one off price. FPGAs have really hammered the ASIC market in the last couple of years and an FPGA to ASIC route is offered by many fabs (and it's factory upgradeable) "and getting all of the regulatory approvals" battery powered, no mains stuff, EMC easy it's in a metal box, lead free just buy the right bits and no need for approval in the UK it just has to meet CE, this can be a folder explaining why it would pass all the tests you haven't done. "to at least believe there's a decent ROI at the end of the tunnel" ah the rub, I couldn't have as much fun for the money if I bought a DSLR (or even a Digital M) "Not to take anything at all away from Huw, here - he's doing a superb job!" Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huw_finney Posted February 25, 2006 Author Share Posted February 25, 2006 John, sussed (bugger!) I have even thought of a fiendish way of doing the FAT16. I could go colour (see previous post) doing the image stuff on a PC would be much easier than in camera, hey I could convert my .RED format to someoneelses (?) RAW format (the Nikon format has been reverse engineered and is on the web somewhere) and let a PS plugin do all the work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotografz Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Huw, maybe you could give Thomas Knoll at Adobe a shout. When a couple of us Contax ND guys asked him to add the ND RAW files to Adobe Raw because the factory RAW developer was unusable, he made it happen. Even sent us the Beta versions to offer suggestions. If the Geniuses at Kyocera had done that in the first place, maybe that ND camera could have survived and evolved. Anyway, just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony_senzaorbi Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 "<i>if a regular guy can build a digital M with junk lying around his kitchen, why can't leica do the same over a long weekend?</i></p> Because there's a huge difference between building a one-off B&W prototype and a product that's manufacturable"</p> Puh-leeze. W/all due respect to Leica and fans who defend them to the death, Leica's problem is everything has to go through committees and meetings and pass through the hands of who-knows-how-many suits with no knowledge of cameras or photography let alone digital, each with his own career being first priority. Huw risks what he spends on parts, but he doesn't risk taking the fall for a failed project and losing a cushy six-figure job. All I can say is kudos to Huw and hoorah that the kind of initiative that spawned people like Marconi, Edison and Bell (to name only three)is still alive and kicking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin m. Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 "if a regular guy can build a digital M with junk lying around his kitchen, why can't leica do the same over a long weekend?" First off, let me say that I'm completely in awe of Huw for tackling a project like this. Kudos to you, Huw! But.... Huw's camera has yet to produce an image of any kind yet, let alone an image of the quality people paying Leica prices are going to expect, so all the "yay Huw, boo Leica" comments seem really off the mark until his camera actually proves it can function. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watts Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 <i> if a regular guy can build a digital M with junk lying around his kitchen, why can't leica do the same over a long weekend?</i><br><br> I think it is worth wating until the M2aD is actually built and proven capable of taking usable photographic images before we get too carried away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennyboy Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 So, in terms of programming the FPGA, presumably it's along the lines of programming PLC's but on a somewhat larger scale? Or are we talking apples and oranges? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watts Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Looks like Kevin beat me to it with the same thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huw_finney Posted February 25, 2006 Author Share Posted February 25, 2006 I don't do pessimisum, worst case I blow up the sensor, it would make a fantastic piece of jewlery! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_ Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 My gut feeling is he'll get there and with a great image... www.citysnaps.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Let's just give kudos for Huw's immediate and past steps and not bother analyzing whether he will fail in future developments. I admire your abilities Huw. <thumbs up> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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