SingMai SM03 Came to a Dead End

[dellsam34]

We've discussed a then promessing project from SingMai here before in this thread, Unfortunatly I have some bad news regarding the FPGA capture device SM03 and other similar products from the same company, I let you read the e-mail I got from Daniel:

Hello Xxxxx,

I am very sorry, but we have made the decision to withdraw the SM03 (and other module products) from sale.

I would like to explain the reason behind our decision.

The SM03 uses proprietary designs and these are implemented in a FPGA (field programmable gate array). The SM03 was designed using an Altera FPGA. You may be aware that there is a now a worldwide shortage of electronic components just as demand as increased (e.g. the increase in electric car sales). Overnight we were not able to source the device from any franchised distributor and they were not even accepting back orders. No date was given as to any expected deliveries and that is still the situation 18 months later. We had some stock of FPGAs and we bought some from a China company. However the FPGAs we bought had an error in the device code which made us suspect they were not original parts. We could still buy these parts but the price is now more than what we sell the SM03 for, so that is not viable.

So we made the decision to redesign the SM03 to use a new FPGA company’s devices. To replicate the Altera part we had to use two devices which caused issues because we had to split the design. The new devices were missing some features that the Altera one had but we thought we could design around that.

We have managed to get an SM03 working, but testing a batch of the boards always gives one or two that fail (have noisy outputs caused by timing issues). Despite all our efforts (and help from the FPGA manufacturer) we have not been able to solve the problem. We don’t want to ship a ‘working’ part only for it to give problems later. There is no alternative device we can use that meets our performance/features/price requirements.

It is not just the FPGA, other components we have had to source from non-franchised distributors or use more expensive versions of. And we, of course, are not the only company facing these issues; just last month a company we know well who have been trading for 28 years have closed their business because of component supply issues.

I am so sorry to make this decision, but the last thing I want to do is supply a product that we are not certain of and proud to sell.

I am sorry for the long explanation, and truly sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.



Kind regards,



Daniel.

[pandy]

Component shortage is expected to be heavily reduced and overall situation improved at the end of this year so it is not clear to me why not hold project until situation improved...

[Alwyn]

That is a shame. I'll just have to stick with my ES 15 and EH 57 TBCs.

Seriously though, it was great to see someone having a crack at a modern device.

[dellsam34]

Component shortage is expected to be heavily reduced and overall situation improved at the end of this year so it is not clear to me why not hold project until situation improved...

I don't think they are folding but there is no viable option as of right know, So I take that message as "we wait and see". He did mention in another message that they are moving back to Asia, So there must be some plans in the horizon

[pandy]

As i understand this message they are just before commercial deployment of the product and because overall problems with supply chains they are unable to begin regular production. They tried to use other components but or they not work in reliable way or they way more expensive than previously planned.

To be honest it is quite strange - this will be niche product - don't expect too many of them to be sold - mostly for professional use anyway - so my bet is that potential buyers can accommodate +100$ in increased costs of components.

But perhaps there are other factors involved and not shared with us...

Sad as from many years i say that this approach is the most obvious and best.

[dellsam34]

They do sell other products hardware and software and licenses, They do design and service as well, Most of their clients as far as I know are corporations and governement, whether in video production, surveillance and security, media archiving ...etc.

In another newsletter dated after the above message:

Changes


Some of you may be aware of the worldwide component shortages that have been affecting many industries. At the same time demand for components has risen (for example, the increased used of electric vehicles) and this has left us with increasing difficulties manufacturing our modules.



To provide unique products with exemplary performance, we use FPGAs to implement our proprietary designs. These components are now almost impossible to source (at least at a price which makes the product viable). It is also difficult to ensure with certainty non-franchised parts are genuine, so we can offer the performance and reliability guarantees our customers expect.



We have tried to use a new FPGA manufacturer, but the changeover is complex, so we have decided to stop selling all of our modules.

For those customers who have already bought a module from us, we will continue to offer support and honour the guarantee as before.



We hope this is a temporary move, and as soon as we can reliably source genuine components our modules will once again become available, starting with the SM01 and SM03.





On The Move



We are taking advantage of the measure above to relocate manufacturing back to Thailand. This will occur (or is planned to occur) during April. Our email and website will remain the same and we can still be contacted throughout the move, albeit with a possible small delay before we answer any queries.



If you wish to contact us regarding any of the above please do so by emailing daniel@singmai.com



IP Cores



Throughout all the above our IP cores will continue to be offered - indeed we will be adding a few more in the coming months.

[pandy]

I know, also read excerpts from Daniel blog - seem this is personal/family related decision about moving from Scotland to Thailand so probably there is many factors behind not only components supply issues. Anyway wishing them all the best.

[clashradio]

We've discussed a then promessing project from SingMai here before in this thread, Unfortunatly I have some bad news regarding the FPGA capture device SM03 and other similar products from the same company, I let you read the e-mail I got from Daniel:

Hello Xxxxx,

I am very sorry, but we have made the decision to withdraw the SM03 (and other module products) from sale.

I would like to explain the reason behind our decision.

The SM03 uses proprietary designs and these are implemented in a FPGA (field programmable gate array). The SM03 was designed using an Altera FPGA. You may be aware that there is a now a worldwide shortage of electronic components just as demand as increased (e.g. the increase in electric car sales). Overnight we were not able to source the device from any franchised distributor and they were not even accepting back orders. No date was given as to any expected deliveries and that is still the situation 18 months later. We had some stock of FPGAs and we bought some from a China company. However the FPGAs we bought had an error in the device code which made us suspect they were not original parts. We could still buy these parts but the price is now more than what we sell the SM03 for, so that is not viable.

So we made the decision to redesign the SM03 to use a new FPGA company’s devices. To replicate the Altera part we had to use two devices which caused issues because we had to split the design. The new devices were missing some features that the Altera one had but we thought we could design around that.

We have managed to get an SM03 working, but testing a batch of the boards always gives one or two that fail (have noisy outputs caused by timing issues). Despite all our efforts (and help from the FPGA manufacturer) we have not been able to solve the problem. We don’t want to ship a ‘working’ part only for it to give problems later. There is no alternative device we can use that meets our performance/features/price requirements.

It is not just the FPGA, other components we have had to source from non-franchised distributors or use more expensive versions of. And we, of course, are not the only company facing these issues; just last month a company we know well who have been trading for 28 years have closed their business because of component supply issues.

I am so sorry to make this decision, but the last thing I want to do is supply a product that we are not certain of and proud to sell.

I am sorry for the long explanation, and truly sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.



Kind regards,



Daniel.

I was about to order the SM03 and then I saw this post. If you go to the website and click Add to Cart, it seems to be available to order. I'm waiting for a reply from Daniel before I pull the trigger.

[dellsam34]

I asked him if he still has some units with the old chips but he hasn't responded yet, I was thinking of getting one too since these will be hard to get, Keep in mind that these are not plug and play, they will send you a diag kit to do some tweaking, So make sure you get the old units otherwise you will be pulling your hair if you get a new unit and it has problems.

[clashradio]

I asked him if he still has some units with the old chips but he hasn't responded yet, I was thinking of getting one too since these will be hard to get, Keep in mind that these are not plug and play, they will send you a diag kit to do some tweaking, So make sure you get the old units otherwise you will be pulling your hair if you get a new unit and it has problems.

Oh wow thanks dellsam34. After scrolling their site I got the impression it's plug n play. In my message to Daniel I specified my use is for laserdisc only. Maybe the old units are the ones with CVBS-only input and not the newer Y/C addition.

[dellsam34]

It's a hardware plug and play but being an FPGA there are some intial settings that you have to go through via a special j-tag connector or something like that, I forgot exactly the details but it is not like the Doomsday duplicator for laserdisc or vhs-decode, And I'm certain the instructions will be very clear even for someone who never installed a light bulb on a ceiling.

[dellsam34]

There is some good news, I got an e-mail from Daniel, The SM03 is back with a new design, Now it's housed in a box, Good to know that it can capture NTSC-4.43 and PAL60, I still don't have any update on when it will be available, I will update the thread as soon as I receive new updates, Here is the link:
https://www.singmai.com/Modules/sm03.html

[Alwyn]

Thanks for the update.

[Sharc]

Thanks, looks promising.

[Alwyn]

Any Londoners out there? We need somebody to check out the SM03 in May:

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/SingMai-Vision-No-41-Meet-SingMai--Exhibition-plan...id=kJqm0f-O6Y0

[dellsam34]

The SM03 has been discounted to £895, Still cheaper than the cheapest high end gear that uses SDI output, and way cheaper than the TBC-1000, Here is the new manual.
The option to divide the screen and watch the changes on one half and the original in the other half is priceless.

[Alwyn]

Anybody recommend an SDI>USB Ingest device?

I did ask Magewell about it's "USB Capture SDI Plus" but it only outputs Progressive (this was the device Singmai had paired with the SM03 but no longer recommend it due to user feedback):

"Yes, USB Capture SDI Plus supports for standard SD-SDI inputs (525i59.94 and 625i50).

However, the output to USB is a progressive format after being de-interlaced."

[dellsam34]

Look into Blackmagic devices, they make them in USB, TB and PCIe configurations.

[aramkolt]

Soooo has anyone actually tried the SM03 and compared it to the other options out there? Hard to drop that much without some trusted 3rd party reviews versus other well known/inexpensive conversion options. Dellsam34, do you plan to get one? Would love your review.

The manual makes what's possible look impressive, but hard to say if similar results wouldn't be better achieved in post-capture since there are some different schools of thought in terms of capturing the video as is (sans time base errors), so I don't know that the various enhancements during captures are ideal or not, since you can't go back to the original if you are capturing a modified version.

Theoretically, VHS_decode should be the most future proof, but with this, you wouldn't have to deal with the super huge file sizes and multistep process.

[Alwyn]

@Dellsam, thanks for that, your opinion on the ultra studio recorder 3G? BM has told me the embedded audio will be passed-through.

Soooo has anyone actually tried the SM03

My understanding is that this is a new version, so the old is probably not representative (if there are actually any in the wild).

[dellsam34]

Not sure if that's a US dollar but it retails for $125. Yes they all pass audio as SDI is a serial connector contains video, audio and related data.

[Alwyn]

Not sure if that's a US dollar but it retails for $125.

Aussie dollar $189, sounds about the same.

[dellsam34]

Daniel the owner of SingMai has passed away, It's sad to see the title of this thread becoming reality, RIP.

[lollo]

Sad news