ADHD - A Darkroom Helper Deluxe: A vibe-coded F-Stop Timer to help me stay focussed

Yeah, I know, yet another DIY timer for yet another DIY LED head.. Even worse, this one comes with a display and a companion app, which I am sure a lot of people think is completely unneccessary. It is just a personal project with very little use for mostly anyone but myself. I still post it here, as some people may find it interesting. Also I will have some questions for some of the stuff I plan for it, I hope to get answers from the great community here.

And I have a few very specific reasons why I wanted to go that way:

• I love to tinker and this is also a great project to learn so many areas – I never built an app, so it was a great personal project to combine my love for photography and curiosity for learning (vibe-)coding.
• I needed a timer for my DIY enlarger without spending too much money. The whole setup with the enlarger and timer came out at under 150, as I was able to reuse a lot of stuff I already got.
• I have been printing on and off in the darkroom for over 30 years. But take looong breaks between sessions. Also passing on the torch now and my kids start to join me in the sessions. While this is great, it also adds to the distractions and my ‘focus problems’ (pun intended). So the visual guidance I get for various steps from the timer helps not just my kids to focus on the creative aspects of the darkroom work but also help me not messing up simple procedures

What did I want out of the project?

• Base the timer around my way of working without locking me in from trying new approaches. My go-to workflow is geared towards using teststrips for print evaluation instead of purely measured values that are placed on a grey scale. It helps me getting to my vision of a enjoyable print faster than starting with a ‘technically’ correct work print first.
• Simplicity to use: I have a RH Designs Analyzer I’ve loved for many years. But the interface is not super intuitive for the more advanced functions, especially after a longer darkroom hiatus. Also it is not as suitable for splitgrade as the dual channel stopclock. I wanted to overcome both issues with an easy to use timer for SG, as my main way of working is splitgrade printing. This resulted in visual representation of process steps, such as tray development, teststrip sequences, dodge&burn
• It had to be based on an open and off the shelf tech stack enough so in the future I can build new functions quickly, such as supporting different light sources, e.g. my 500H or WS2812 based Neopixel panels

How was it built?

• The LED enlarger head and all cases are 3D printed.
• LEDs are PWM controlled from a Pi 5. The relay is only still there to toggle safelights
• Use a macro pad as the interface for improved ergonomics and to avoid having to build too much hardware myself (something I don’t have the capabilities to).
• It has a 5inch bright display, made darkroom safe with a dark red gel filter (fogging test passed)

So what are the main functionalities?

• Fstop timer
• Dual channel splitgrade mode (main mode) with automatic filter changes on LED heads
• 3 teststrip modes:
  • Incremental
  • Full / local
  • Testgrid with both grade exposures on the same sheet
• Sensor probe to easily find a proposed paper grade and ballpark starting times for soft and hard grade teststrips.
• Dodge and burn sequences programmable on timer or via webapp.
• Probably the most controversial part: A companion wbeapp to store my print notes in a DB including the printing map that can be synced to the timer.
• Process timer to support factorial development
• Print resizing tool using the sensor probe for accurate basetime calculation
• Standard stuff like metronome sound during exposures, a foot switch, voice activation, etc.

Here is a more detailed writeup of the timer main functionalities:

Below some impressions.

Had a quick look at the writeup on your website and the example images - looks really neat! The DB integration with the burn & dodge patterns is probably unique in the world. Nice touch! A lot of work went into this project; congrats on bringing it to completion!

Thanks for the nice feedback, much appreciated! It is amazing how AI can support people less technical than you and other folks on here with getting to a quick prototype, while still learning a lot along the way. And it was fun!
On another note: I know from following other threads on this forum that you made a few LED heads before. Did you by chance ever use a Neopixel panel for that? I want to build a brighter version and look into this as an approach. But I am unsure if it will be able to provide the full contrast range. I read about the intrepid enlarger that it has issues reaching a full G5, which in normal printing wouldn't be that much of an issue. As I do splitgrade almost exclusively though, this may not be good enough. Well, maybe I should ask this in a dedicated thread to get more visibility and others could chime in as well with their experience, but I thought it may be worth a shot asking here in context.

jseidl said:

Yeah, I know, yet another DIY timer for yet another DIY LED head.. Even worse, this one comes with a display and a companion app, which I am sure a lot of people think is completely unneccessary. It is just a personal project with very little use for mostly anyone but myself. I still post it here, as some people may find it interesting. Also I will have some questions for some of the stuff I plan for it, I hope to get answers from the great community here.

And I have a few very specific reasons why I wanted to go that way:

• I love to tinker and this is also a great project to learn so many areas – I never built an app, so it was a great personal project to combine my love for photography and curiosity for learning (vibe-)coding.
• I needed a timer for my DIY enlarger without spending too much money. The whole setup with the enlarger and timer came out at under 150, as I was able to reuse a lot of stuff I already got.
• I have been printing on and off in the darkroom for over 30 years. But take looong breaks between sessions. Also passing on the torch now and my kids start to join me in the sessions. While this is great, it also adds to the distractions and my ‘focus problems’ (pun intended). So the visual guidance I get for various steps from the timer helps not just my kids to focus on the creative aspects of the darkroom work but also help me not messing up simple procedures

What did I want out of the project?

• Base the timer around my way of working without locking me in from trying new approaches. My go-to workflow is geared towards using teststrips for print evaluation instead of purely measured values that are placed on a grey scale. It helps me getting to my vision of a enjoyable print faster than starting with a ‘technically’ correct work print first.
• Simplicity to use: I have a RH Designs Analyzer I’ve loved for many years. But the interface is not super intuitive for the more advanced functions, especially after a longer darkroom hiatus. Also it is not as suitable for splitgrade as the dual channel stopclock. I wanted to overcome both issues with an easy to use timer for SG, as my main way of working is splitgrade printing. This resulted in visual representation of process steps, such as tray development, teststrip sequences, dodge&burn
• It had to be based on an open and off the shelf tech stack enough so in the future I can build new functions quickly, such as supporting different light sources, e.g. my 500H or WS2812 based Neopixel panels

How was it built?

• The LED enlarger head and all cases are 3D printed.
• LEDs are PWM controlled from a Pi 5. The relay is only still there to toggle safelights
• Use a macro pad as the interface for improved ergonomics and to avoid having to build too much hardware myself (something I don’t have the capabilities to).
• It has a 5inch bright display, made darkroom safe with a dark red gel filter (fogging test passed)

So what are the main functionalities?

• Fstop timer
• Dual channel splitgrade mode (main mode) with automatic filter changes on LED heads
• 3 teststrip modes:
  • Incremental
  • Full / local
  • Testgrid with both grade exposures on the same sheet
• Sensor probe to easily find a proposed paper grade and ballpark starting times for soft and hard grade teststrips.
• Dodge and burn sequences programmable on timer or via webapp.
• Probably the most controversial part: A companion wbeapp to store my print notes in a DB including the printing map that can be synced to the timer.
• Process timer to support factorial development
• Print resizing tool using the sensor probe for accurate basetime calculation
• Standard stuff like metronome sound during exposures, a foot switch, voice activation, etc.

Here is a more detailed writeup of the timer main functionalities:

A Darkroom Timer Deluxe – Features and Workflow

The software for A Darkroom Helper Deluxe is not intended for a universal darkroom workflow that fits everyone. It is a personal project to build a tool designed around my concrete use cases. it is…

adarkroomhelperdeluxe.wordpress.com

Below some impressions.

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Click to expand...

Wow!

jseidl said:

Did you by chance ever use a Neopixel panel for that

Click to expand...

No; one of the reasons is that those aren't very suitable for color work and that's where my interest is. I bet it'll work OK for B&W.
The grade 5 issue may be a concern, but frankly I'd give it a go all the same. The wavelength of blue leds in an RGB system is generally 450nm, which should be good enough to hit grade 5. If it doesn't, your only option is to go with discrete leds at e.g 425nm.

koraks said:

No; one of the reasons is that those aren't very suitable for color work and that's where my interest is. I bet it'll work OK for B&W.
The grade 5 issue may be a concern, but frankly I'd give it a go all the same. The wavelength of blue leds in an RGB system is generally 450nm, which should be good enough to hit grade 5. If it doesn't, your only option is to go with discrete leds at e.g 425nm.

Click to expand...

Got it, thanks! I think I'll just try it out then.