Having Trouble with DIY Telecine (8mm) System

[boobootrasher]

Hi, looks like this chap has it sorted!

http://www.cine2digits.co.uk/

[hansvane]

Hi there!
Have been reading through this tread (ouch...what a lot of information!) for quite some time....but it's great information to learn from everyone's failures and successes. Meanwhile I've bought myself another Eumig Mark 610D (I now have one for projecting and one to play with).

As I have a'transfer box', I want to use this first, instead of the Areal image method. The first results I have with this box are satisfactory...but the flicker (because of non-synchronisation) makes 'real-time' capturing unfortunately un-useable.

When I opened the Eumig unit (on the 'backside') and saw the construction of the shutter blade, I was wondering if if might be possible to use a small laser (from a laser pointer) and a detector somewhere on that 'back' side to be able to detect the exact position of the blade. As my friend is an electronics designer, I'm going to ask him for some help on this idea. In order to become a bit more familiar with the whole thing, I do want to pick up the microswitch method first.

I've also mailed Jeff Dodson on Cinecap (or possibly it's predecessor), but got the reply that it was only available via MovieStuff...which does not help me here (since I don't want/cannot purchase the hardware). Can anybody help me out here, so I can start my attempts? (I've got over 20 hours of Super 8 material I want to capture...so I'm dying to get this thing going!)

Thanks very much for any response

Richard

[avz10]

It seems as if there has been more activity on this thread- I got stuck last year and havent moved since. If anyone has been able to get everything right-please post.

I got stuck when half way through the film, some frames were not captured, and tried other triggers, but got confused with all the circuits!!

[hansvane]

Hi all!
Ronypony and avz10.... thanks for your replies an assistance. Although I've pretty much succeeded in setting up the control section, I also expereince problems while caputing larger reels of film (about half an hour or so). Although in the beginning everything is OK, in the last part the system misses a lot of triggers. I do understand that 'avz10' has got the same problem. It might be a result of a less-then-ideal position of the microswitch, but ass the left reel becomes fuller, I've got the impression that the tensioning system (which we use for sync-ing) becomes less 'involved'. This results in a lot of missed triggers...so the last 10 minutes of my reel are not useable. I first thought it was due to the fact that the projector became hot (after one-and-a-half hour), but now I'm pretty sure it because of the fuller left reel.
My plan is to look at the light triggering circuit as proposed by avz10, but instead of using blade reflections, I want to make a setup with a small yet powerfull laser and detector (and probably some pulse-shaping and timing hardware). I'll keep you guys posted. Any other ideas, input or comments are very welcome!

[avz10]

Thanks- perhaps after a year I will try again! Just remember- no difficult circuit drawings, make it clear!

Keep well
Albie

[ronypony]

I don't think this thread will ever end....it goes on and on

OK its back to the original micro-switch trigger.....its not ideal that's for sure however I am still using this method to great effect...in the thread I described a little mod to make the triggering of the switch more reliable...it involves a little bit of triangular plastic and a small nut and bolt....see the pic below



The plastic tensioner will eventually move the switch as it fills up with film as hansvane suggests...even by a tiny amount will cause mis-trigger of the switch and erratic capture of frames....thats where the little mod comes in....you can adjust the nut and bolt to ensure that the switch cannot be moved to the right by the tensioner.

I have successfully captured a 200ft reel without a single mis-trigger of the switch...thats a lot of film. My suggestion is to keep your capture footage short...maybe 6 mins of film is ideal or two of the small super 8 reels on one 200ft reel....you can always stitch the films together should you need to in your editor. Remember guys this unit is for amateurs....it was allways meant to be that way

I agree that a more reliable and robust method of triggering the software is most desirable and I know several DIYers out there have achieved it....I think the laser and photo-diode could work if its perfected...first past the post wins a prize

I tell you ...in the meantime while we wait for the solution to appear you can achieve excellent results by capturing (as many feet as you like) in real time...just shoot off the lens into your camcorder...transfer to your computer and use Virtualdub and its deinterlace filter to post process your transfer and you will be amazed at the quality you can obtain.......

The holy grail of triggers for this unit is out there...lets keep looking for it and share.

peace and love to all

[Pennygal]

Hi (and welcome to me),

I'm bumping up this thread with a few questions. As you will probably gather, I am not very technical, but I would love to figure out how to set this up. I've worked with a professional device before as an assistant, and now that I have a few films to convert, I would love to figure this out. If this doesn't work out, I'll resort to filming off the wall, but I hope I can do better.

Now first of all, can someone tell me why I would need to hook up a separate light source? Why wouldn't I just be able to use a bulb with lower wattage in the original socket?

Second, I would ideally like to skip the whole streaming to the computer bit, and to just capture to my digital video camera. Can I do that?

Third, I read somewhere that you can use a magnifying glass instead of a field lens, is that true?

Thanks in advance. I'm really looking forward to learning more.

[ronypony]

Hi Pennygal

1.You don't need to hook up a 'seperate' light source. There are two options for you as far as a lower wattage light source goes.

a) The bulb needs to be 20w if using a halogen...most are a g4 socket fitting so you need to swap out the original bulb socket for a g4 version.

b) You could also use a low watage low heat LED light source...also a g4 socket fitting.

Dont forget you also need to diffuse the light ...so you have to fit some material to achieve this...you can buy glass opal diffuser or use white opaque plastic which does the same job but is much cheaper.

Leaving the original bulb 'holder' in place allows you to mount a 50mm circle of diffuser glass or plastic (see the photos in the thread)




2. Yes of course you can use any camcorder to record the 'floating image' off the lens. Even an HD camcorder as long as it has at least a 12x optical zoom to focus in on the lens image.

3. No you cannot use a magnifying glass. The focal length will not be good enough. Source a good Plano-Convex lens at least 100mm in diameter...they appear on ebay all the time.

[ronypony]

here ya go pennygirl...this guy sent me two of these lenses which are perfect for telecine...he ships worldwide


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110544362221&fromMakeTrack=true&s...tchlink:top:en

[Pennygal]

Thanks for the reply.

So I changed the bulb and took apart a Super 8 Editor machine to get the cloudy plastic screen piece out .

I set up the projector with the magnifying glass already, and in the camera viewfinder I caught the gate. I didn't try with film inside yet, but if I got this far I imagine it would work, right? I plan on replacing it anyhow because its all scratched up. My local junk store has some slide projectors for next to nothing. The lens looks just like the Plano Convex. Would it be possible to use one of those?

So far:


Now I've seen people talking of using a reversed SLR lens to project. What does that add?

[Pennygal]

here ya go pennygirl...this guy sent me two of these lenses which are perfect for telecine...he ships worldwide


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110544362221&fromMakeTrack=true&s...tchlink:top:en

I don't want you to think I'm cheap. I just don't have the patience to keep this project waiting.

[Pennygal]

Wait, so if I am skipping the mirror, do I still need the black box? I assumed not, but it looks like that is what others have done.

[ronypony]

The better the lens you have the better the capture. You can use any lens you like as long as it has a decent focal length and produces a nice sharp 'floating ariel image' on the surface of the lens. This is what you focus your camcorder on after all.

The mirror box is used to reverse the captured image so it is the correct way round...however you can use the 'horizontal flip' function of your software editor to achieve this after you have captured your footage. So no the mirror is not important...in fact its another dust collecting surface to worry about...better to leave it out in my opinion.

It does not matter that the diffuser material is scratched..it will do the job anyway.

This method of transfer demands a good plano convex lens to assure success.Get a good lens, you wont regret it

Dont know anything about reversed SLR lenses ..sorry.

[Pennygal]

No its the magnifying glass that is scratched, not the diffuser.

You are right about getting a good convex lens, so today I went scavenging around all the DIY shops in the city for any type of lens that could work, but the only thing I could come up with was a new magnifying glass. WHERE THE H am I meant to find one??!
Short of having one made to order by an optician, I am out of ideas. The seller you directed me to on ebay does not seem to have any 100mm lenses.

Soo, I tried setting it up with the new magnifying glass (which also had a few scratches) and maybe its extra strength or something because it just blew the light completely out of proportion. Its strange because with my old one (pictured above) I really DID get the gate in the viewfinder.

[Pennygal]

For anyone else who may be looking for a lens, I found this magnifier to work:
http://www.amazon.com/Around-Neck-Hands-Free-Magnifier/dp/B001BXLTXW/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UT...750262&sr=8-15
This also fits the specifications, and as a bonus has its own stand so no need for building:
http://www.amazon.com/Table-Magnifier-Flexible-Neck-Glass/dp/B000X7YW0Y/ref=sr_1_13?ie...750262&sr=8-13

[ronypony]

You have misunderstood my message. The link I posted is for a 113mm lens....not 100mm.

The lens featured in the link is perfect for telecine and very cheap for such a good lens with great optics.

The seller ships quickly world wide.

The magnyfying glasses you mention will not give the best results I dont think.

The aerial image must be clear and sharp. Only achieved with a plano-convex lens.

I have just built another unit to sell using this very lens. As I say I purchased 2of them and they arrived in the UK

from the USA within 1 week.

[hansvane]

Dear friends….although it has been a couple of months (sorry for the delay!), herewith the next entry to this never-ending tread: We’ve been ‘playing’ with the good old Eumig 610D (we actually took one apart and fortunately were able to reassemble it…but more about that later!). Don't know if the pictures are visible enough...but let's give it a try!

Initially I’d tried the setup with the microswitch in the film tension path, but quickly found out that this was not ideal: at the end of my (large!) reels of film, the tensioning device acted differently, thereby not producing regular ‘clicks’ of the microswitch, which caused me to loose quite a number of frames (as most of you I’m also using Cinecap). And cutting up all the movie reels I’ve got here into small parts is not something I’m looking forward to!

Together with my friend Frank, we’ve found an alternative triggering solution with a switch, activated by the little ‘inhibitor arm’ that controls the film transport (see red arrow in picture 1, taken from the opened ‘backside’ of the Eumig 610D). For every transport of a frame, this axis moves forward (in the direction ‘out of the picture’), so it is an extremely predicable and stable indication of ‘a next frame’. This arm is in the 'outwards' position when the film is to be transported, and 'inwards' when the film should not move. This means that you CANNOT use it as a transport signal in the 18 fps mode, as it is then always in the 'outwards' position. But it is perfect for the 9 fps mode, as it then changes position every timeslot. The edge of the signal gives a perfect reference. It also works nicely for the 6 and 3 fps modes. The switch itself is mounted on a small metal part which we’ve fixed to a small opening that was already present in the frame of the motor. We had to take care that this positioning was done in such a way that the shutter blades did not interfere!


-picture 1: overview with position of inhibitor arm.

We’ve fitted a switch made out of two contact springs, that is pushed open every time the inhibitor arm moves forward. This already gave a very stable signal (also at the end of the reel), but the resulting avi-file from Cinecap still had flicker.

Next step we took was adding a circuit that converts the switch signal into a stable mouseclick. This is done by a circuit that is able to
A. set the pulse length: just short enough to produce a stable ‘mouseclick’
B. delay the pulse so that it coincides with the moment that the frame is stable (synchronise capture moment)
With this additional circuit (created by Frank), we can shape and delay the trigger pulse (it actually produces the mouse signal to Cinecap, since Frank built in a stripped-down mouse!). When we observed the signal from the switch, we saw that the contact is bouncing when it opens, so shaping proved necessary in order to avoid illegal triggers.


- Picture 2: inside of the pulse shaping box

Especially at the higher fps projector settings (like 6 fps, which can be considered as a high speed for capturing!), we’ve still had some flicker. This is of course due to the fact that although the frames of the movie are projected for a longer time, the blades of the shutter still "chops" the image into short bursts of light at a rate of 44 fps. When you try to capture that using a camera that runs as 50 or 60 fps, there is a fair chance that you capture the dark period between images...

So... we’ve decided to take the 610D apart and try to get rid of the shutter blades. As we did not have access to a system to ‘machine them off’ (like ‘another Frank’ clearly describes on his page: http://www.cine2digits.co.uk/), we’ve cut off the parts carefully with a pair of pliers, while the motor and transformer have been taken out and the shutter was still in its original place. (In this way we hoped to get less ‘debris’(small, loose parts) as by cutting them off with for example a Dremel tool. This actually seems to work well (the material is rather brittle and can be cut off carefully) and we were able to remove the shutter blades in order to create a bladeless shutter. Of cause the resulting edges are not as smooth as when you machine the blades off, but this does not matter. Furthermore, you don't have to take apart the whole machine, saving a lot of time and less chance to screw things up. For instance, the angle under which the shutter is screwed on the axis is critical.

The numbers in the following picture (look carefully!) describe the actions to be taken in order to remove the transformer and the motor assembly. Please note that this procedure is entirely at your own risk and there is a (good) chance that you destroy some parts rendering the whole projector useless!!!

- Picture 3: disassembly of the motor, in order to get to the shutter and remove the blades

1. Take off the power and open the backside of the projector (2 screws)
2. Remove 2 screws to take out transformer. It is still connected with the wiring..so an extra hand is helpful here…there is not much space inside the projector and everything is build together very tightly!
3. Remove 3 screws to unlock motor assembly. Notice the 2 power leads that can be released.
4. Please notice the exact path of the belt on top and remove this! Note the belt tensioning arm (with spring!) which is necessary to make sure that the belt is getting the right tension at all times. The little spring of the arm is easily lost in the process, so remove it as a precaution, and place it back at assembly again! The little tensioning arm has to be moved downwards in order to be able to take out the motor.
5. Set the projector to 0 fps (the setting above the 18 fps, clockwise direction), in order to create some space to move the motor assembly along some white plastic parts of the speed selector. It’s now possible to carefully take out the motor assembly.
6. Now the shutter (still firmly mounted and positioned on the axis***!!) can be reached and the blades can be cut off in parts carefully. Make sure to collect all small debris so that it does not end up in some mechanics of the projector!
7. Reassemble the motor and then the transformer, connect all wires, put the springs and belt back in place and…the projector is now ‘bladeless’!

***One big word of warning: during disassembling we also loosened the screws that lock the shutter wheel assembly to its axis and when we reassembled the whole thing again (…what a job…;->) we found out that everything worked…except for the film transport. Closer examination showed us that the shutter has to be placed on a very particular position on the axis, since otherwise it will not switch on/off the film transport. It’s a very clever mechanism that relies on a small spring and the curved shape of the shutter surface…probably very difficult to describe…but not really interesting here. Anyway: we made the mistake of changing the shutter position to the axis…. and have worked a whole evening (with the help of another ‘virgin’ Eumig 610 and quit some ‘trial and error’) to get it fixed again…So: DON’T LOOSEN THE SCREWS THAT FIX THE SHUTTER ON THE SHUTTER AXIS!!!

With the bladeless shutter, the time to capture a movie frame with Cinecap becomes much easier and all flicker now is totally gone and the signal is rockstable, also towards the end of large moviereels. If anyone is interested, I can post some movie fragments that I’ve captured. (Maybe with the bladeless shutter the pulse shaping box (as described above and as shown in picture 2) becomes less critical and may be left out at all ?!?)

Meanwhile we’ve also changed the 100W projector bulb for a 50W ‘regular halogen lamp’ with a diffuser made of some plastic. I do think that the spectrum of the original lamp was better than that of a (regular) halogen lamp, because the colors are not so nice anymore. I’ll have to check this again and maybe replace the original projection bulb (despite the fact of the intensity gradation from the bright middle towards the darker outside). I’ve also experienced that since the images I now capture are much more stable, also the ‘grain’ becomes annoying (I project them via a prism and a standard commercial movie-box). I’ll have to start working with an aerial image…but need some help with the lense…I'll read the recent part of this post again and will see if they also deliver to the Netherlands?

Quite a long story…quite a lot of work. Don’t know if this is ‘the holy grail’ as Ronypony describes it…I’ve got a very nice and extremely stable avi from Cinecap now….but it sure is a challenge to take your 610 apart (never dreamed to do this without my pal Frank!)! Hopefully some parts of the description and pictures might be useful for others?

Cheers, Frank and Richard

[hansvane]

Please let me know if you need bigger pics to illustrate. We can also publish the schematics of the pulse shape box.
By the way: just ordered one of these Plano-convex lenses from the USA seller that RonyPony suggested. Expected to arrive around July 7...so I'll keep you posted. (The thing was twice the price...because it has to be shipped around the world...but what the heck...after so much work done ;->)

Richard

[Pennygal]

You have misunderstood my message. The link I posted is for a 113mm lens....not 100mm.

The lens featured in the link is perfect for telecine and very cheap for such a good lens with great optics.

The seller ships quickly world wide.

The magnyfying glasses you mention will not give the best results I dont think.

The aerial image must be clear and sharp. Only achieved with a plano-convex lens.

I have just built another unit to sell using this very lens. As I say I purchased 2of them and they arrived in the UK

from the USA within 1 week.

Oh gee Rony, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
What can I say, I'm an idiot . For some reason when I saw 4.4", I was thinking cm, and searched for a 10" lens. Of course I couldn't find one. The plano convex you linked is cheaper with delivery than I paid for my magnifying glass.

So just to confirm, once I set up the lens, I can just film straight off the glass, right? I understand I will need to reverse the image, and I will be getting the black between frames, but is that all?

[ronypony]

Ah good I am glad you were able to sort things out regarding lens size.

Yes once you mount your lens you will be able to achieve a nice 'floating aerial' image that you can use your

camcorder to focus on. I think your camcorder will need to have at least 12x optical zoom or 10x with

a macro lens adapter fitted.

You can then transfer your films in real time e.g. 18fps.

Make sure you set your camcorder to manual focus and manual exposure. White balance setting is

also important.

Real time captures can be very acceptable in terms of quality if you take your time.If you do

experience too many moving frames you can always edit them out in your software.

As I mentioned there is no real need for a mirror if you have software with a 'horizontal flip' function.

This will reverse your captured footage so that it is the correct orientation.

Good Luck

[ronypony]

Hi Richard

Many congratulations on achieving your stable solution to the micro switch problem.

I was aware of the part of the projector that you have used to trigger the switch but could not work

out a way to mount a microswitch so that it would be triggered by the little moving piece of metal. I

am afraid I do not have the confidence to take a Eumig 610d apart as you have done....I just know

that I would mess things up when I reassemble it

I like the little circuit board that your friend has designed to stabilise the triggering of the mouse

clicks.

Could this be used to improve the triggering of the mouse clicks even with the original tensioner

method of triggering the switch ?

I don't mind capturing smaller lengths of film and then stiching them back together in Vegas e.g. 15

metre reels

If so I would be most interested in paying your friend Frank to build me one

Also Richard I would be grateful for a clearer photo of the switch you constructed that the inhibitor

arm triggers and the method used to mount it. Was it easy to construct and mount ?

This would be a big improvement on the 'tensioner' method.

Thanks

Michael

[hansvane]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your reply....the switch is a very simple one (will get back later with a clearer picture!) and is mounted on a home-made piece of metal (aluminum strip bend in such a way that the shutter blades do not hit the switch...). Surprisingly enough, the motor assembly already had a spare hole, with which we could easily mount the holder (strip)...we even did not need to drill there!
I'll try to make another picture this weekend. Will get back on all of this! Cheers Richard

[jorler]

Hi guys.

I am making some slow progress with my setup. Got my LumiLED light going today, which is exciting.

I just discovered that the shutter opens and closes 3 times per frame. For some reason I thought it was one shutter openning per frame, so I built a opto-transister trigger (see pic) that I hoped to setup by shinning the LED through the shutter.

(Excuse my crude circuit skills)

So now that I found that the shutter cannot be used for triggerring, and that the shutter should ideally be removed altogether, This machine , which is a very old ELMO type, operates with the motor turning a wheel which drives the outside of the shutter, which in turn drives the rest of the mechanism. (see photo)


So removing the shutter would mean I need a new way to drive the projector, so I am wondering it its possible to do this with the shutter still in?...or do I need to do major surgery?

The next strange thing this machine has, is that it seems to have some sort of trigger itself. In the next photo , you can see a white plastic cogged wheel. There is a micro switch which opens and closes based on these plastic cogs, and there is some sort of feedback system to the motor speed control. The one side of the cog is for super8mm and the other side (which has more cogs per revolution) is for standard 8 mm. I am wondering if I could use this microswitch for my trigger, but then I would have to break the existing circuit, which I am not sure what it does.


So my choices I have to make are: Should I remove the whole shutter , resulting in requiring a whole new way to power the projector, and I need a good place to connect my trigger.

I thought I would put this dilemma of mine out there, maybe someone may have some good suggestions for me.
Thanks in advance.
Clive

[ronypony]

Hi Clive

I think removing the shutter is going to present you with more problems than solutions...for my money I would leave that one alone....the little cog on the other hand appears very interesting to me. Without knowing the projector you are using it is difficult to know exactly what the function of the cog is, but I am sure you could work out what it actually does. Could it be related to some kind of electronic shutter mechanism ?
There must be some kind of control knob/switch that changes the operation of the switch/cog arrangement when the projector is running in super 8 or standard 8 mode....is there ?

If it is possible to use the microswitch as a trigger for frame by frame capture ? ...rather than break the circuit you could 'tap' into it using 'scotch locks'.....like these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/100-SNAP-LOCKS-SPLICE-CONNECTOR-SCOTCHLOK-SCOTCH-LOCKS-/16038640...item2557c65b94

This would mean that the original circuit remains intact. Try to work out what the existing microswitch operates...seems eminently promising to me.

What is the model of Elmo projector that you have ?

Please let us know how you get on.

Mike

[jorler]

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

Its a Elmo FP-A. Its a real antique

Here is a picture of one.:


I have a few ideas to try before i wreck the whole thing

will let you know how it goes.
thanks again
Clive

[jorler]

Hi guys.
This project is certainly keeping me busy

Ok, I have reached the stage where I am looking for the aerial image. My lenses are plastic ones that come off one of the old Sony video projectors, and I am not sure if they have a large enough focal length. Playing around, I put 2 of these lenses together, and I managed to get a pretty clear image.

So its like: [projecter]--->[lens1]->[lens2]---->camera

Any comments about distortion are welcome. The nice thing is that my camera which only has 10X zoom, can fill the frame at about 6X zoom.

The other thing I am a bit disturbed about is that I need to set my camera to a shutter speed of 1/1000 and make the iris very small (3db) , as the light seems to be too bright. I am using a 3W lumiLED. As a result of these camera settings, the picture quality does not look anywhere as nice as when I look at the aerial view with my eye. Does anyone else have a similar expereince?

Maybe a second diffuser will tone down the light intensity...that is if the light being too bright is an issue.?

Thanks for reading this.
regards
Clive

[ronypony]

Sorry about delay in replying to your post...have been away on holiday

Hmmmm I set my camcorder to a shutter speed of 1/50th...white balance setting is also important as well as using manual focus and exposure.

I use a 20 w halogen bulb behind a good opal glass diffuser.....even opaque acrylic plastic will do the job....I have no problems with brightness at all.....I get a nice even illumination with zero hot spots. I don't know why a 3w LED would be too bright. Try the 1/50th shutter speed at about an F4 exposure setting.....experiment with the distance of camcorder from the lens....you should be able to get almost exactly what you see with the naked eye into your camcorder...quality of your lense.s are critical when it comes to sharpness of image achievable.

How about getting some transfer efforts up on you tube or the like so we can see what your getting...it might help to give you appropriate advice.

Also if you need to announce that you have posted please dont hesitate to private message me.

[rivera]

Hi everyone, I have read the posts from the start and compared the results I have with others. I have modified an eumig 845, not the 610D most of you seem to have. I have been working on the telecine for the last months and found out that you can make a telecine out of almost any super 8 projector (... making some specific mods, of course...). i am in the last steps of building it but i can foresee that the hurdle i will struggle the most is the Software. I have not found any place where I can get Cinecap. Seems that in order to get cinecap you will have to buy a workprinter telecine. I have technical knowledge that has helped me to solve most of the problems, but without the software I will be stuck. Does anyone knows of a simmilar software to cinecap?. I refuse to believe that its the only software solution to film capture. Or does anyone have a way to purchase a license and download the software?...

Greetings!

[John DS-8]

CineCap stopped offering their software over a year ago. A program called VIDEO2PHOTO
can capture frame by frame and store each frame as a picture file or combine into a avi file. It also allows you to correct each frame remove frames ect. Another question is adjusting frame rate to match the original film speed. If I locate a program I will post it.

On removing the shutter from the Eumig 610 I read about dismantling the projector, wow hard work...I took a needle nose pliers to each stutter fin and gently pried back an forth just a bit for about a minute and those pot mettle fins broke right off. Left a little tab behind but not enough to interfer with the image.

I like the idea of use of the small control arm, the one that prevents the claw from advancing the film in slow speed on the 610. I will make a bracket to come down from above that holds a micro switch against it. That way I wont get bounce from simple contacts. And I can make the unit adjustable so I get a decent pulse.

Check out http://www.theimagingsource.com/en_US/products/cameras/firewire-ccd-color/dfk31bf03/ it a $590 camera that can be used to make HD images of each frame. Read http://www.cine2digits.co.uk/ as he has some great ideas on software development as well as using a flash to take capture each frame. Hope it helps

[Nick_S]

Hello everyone,

With great interest I have been following this topic and have gone ahead and built my unit. Some of the contributions here, have been really good at highlighting problems encountered and ways around them.

I have used the Eumig 610d, bought from fleabay. I modified the shutter wheel, cutting off the blades with a dremel. Then I modified the gate aperture so that the whole of the 8mm frame is exposed to the 20 watt halogen lamp. By the way, these projectors are a nightmare to take apart. Make sure you have plenty of time on your hands and it is worthwhile getting a copy of the service manual for setting up spring tension on the claw mechanism and take up reel tensions.

I have been involved in a little PIC programing, which is my prefered choice to make a frame counter and output to a modified mouse. I have copied Franks idea (http://www.cine2digits.co.uk/ thanks Frank) of using a Hall Effect switch. The micro Neodymium magnet,(fleabay) about the size of a full stop, was superglued to the claw inhibitor arm. (best to use plastic tweezers). The hall effect switch then positioned in close proximity to the inhibitor arm, has worked really well. The hall effect switch does not suffer from click bounce, and is perfect for the job.

Software used is Cinecap, if you google Dodcap you will get the links to download the software. You have to pay for the licence in order to get the V1.4.

On reflection, it was a lot of headache and time to get the whole thing working, but the results make it all worth while + the really good tips given on this forum.

The pictures show the location mounting of the Hall Effect Switch, my frame counter and control box with green digital display.

Nick