New VC Diffusion Lamp House

[cardiomac]

This is a demo video of a new LED based variable contrast lamp house I'm building for the Omega D series enlargers. The final product will be very similar to my Model 2 lamp house. I am interested in any feedback anyone has to offer. Thank you.

http://youtu.be/bg-lBWiLZlU

 

[fotch]

Looks great. Does it only work with the phone?

 

[cardiomac]

Looks great. Does it only work with the phone?

Thanks.

It works with any Bluetooth 4.0 IOS device. That includes the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, the latest iPod, the third and fourth generation iPad, and the iPad mini. Android devices are not supported.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Very, very interested. I'm currently using an Aristo VCL400 with brand new replacement tubes. Would like to compare notes.

Will get in touch tomorrow evening. Have a number of observations and questions, but ran out of time tonight...

Ken

 

[jon.oman]

Very interesting........

 

[Bob Carnie]

How strong is the light output, have you measured it against lets say an 150w bulb in the enlarger ? if the out put is strong I am interested.

 

[MartinP]

One thing that springs to mind, how about turning off the Bluetooth-device display during exposure? If one has a long exposure to make it would be easier to have the display off than to shield it, and the pseudo-metronome is great.

It looks very interesting

 

[cardiomac]

How strong is the light output, have you measured it against lets say an 150w bulb in the enlarger ? if the out put is strong I am interested.

It's pretty bright but I'll do some objective comparisons to a 150W condenser head this evening and post the results here.

One thing that springs to mind, how about turning off the Bluetooth-device display during exposure? If one has a long exposure to make it would be easier to have the display off than to shield it, and the pseudo-metronome is great.

The app just sends a burst of data at the beginning of an exposure to a microcomputer in the lamp head. The microcomputer does the actual timing. The phone can actually be shut down during an exposure and the timing will still proceed correctly.

The light from the phone set at lowest brightness (still quite visible in the darkroom) seems to be paper safe at a distance of 12 inches or so but I haven't rigorously tested it. The colors for the buttons were chosen so as to have minimal effect on photographic paper. However if you wanted to be absolutely sure, your options are to sleep the phone, cover the display with a red gel (like from an office supply store), or simply flip the phone over on it's face.

Thanks everyone for their comments.

 

[ic-racer]

I can't tell from the video but is the contrast controlled with LED intensity or time? Does it require two exposures?

 

[cardiomac]

I can't tell from the video but is the contrast controlled with LED intensity or time? Does it require two exposures?

Only one exposure is needed. The blue and green LED's are set to specific brightness levels at the beginning of each exposure and are held there throughout the exposure. The brightness levels are chosen so that mid gray is held fairly constant throughout the contrast range. Contrast is set in the conventional way from 0 to 5. Future versions of the software will allow user calibration of contrast for a specific paper/developer combination.

 

[Robert Ley]

This head looks very neat!! Are you considering building and selling a Beseler 45 version? The line would form behind me if you did.

 

[MattKing]

Thanks.

It works with any Bluetooth 4.0 IOS device. That includes the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, the latest iPod, the third and fourth generation iPad, and the iPad mini. Android devices are not supported.

For those of us who don't choose to live in the iWorld, an Android or other low cost option would be very nice.

 

[cardiomac]

For those of us who don't choose to live in the iWorld, an Android or other low cost option would be very nice.

Sorry, it's out of my hands. The Bluetooth hardware manufacturer provides API's only for iOS software development so even if I wanted to write for Android I couldn't. Moreover, Google provides no native Android software support for Bluetooth 4.0 and only a couple of recent devices even have hardware support. Those that do provide only minimal, proprietary, third party support that is often broken with Android software upgrades. With the high degree of fragmentation among Android devices, creating apps that work on a majority of devices in the market - while depending on specific hardware being present in such devices - is difficult at best and impossible at worst.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Rather extensive PM sent. Apologies for the length...

Ken

 

[Trond]

Great work! Pity that it doesn't work with Android devices. How about a version which could be connected to a conventional timer, with some additional controls to set the grade?

Trond

 

[Edwardv]

I would love to have a LED light source for my Beseler V45

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Another longish PM sent...

Ken

 

[David Brown]

How about a version which could be connected to a conventional timer, with some additional controls to set the grade?

Trond

Seriously! I'm not giving up my f/stop timer ...

 

[Trond]

Seriously! I'm not giving up my f/stop timer ...

Same here, I can't imaging replacing my StopClock Professional with a mobile device touch screen interface.

Trond

 

[Pavel+]

I'm trying to keep an open mind but even if the iPhone did work as well as my RHDesigns analyser 500 .... I don't want to be called when I am in my sanctuary. I would LOVE to have this LCD technology though so I don't have to bear under that Ilford 500 fan - that never goes off (even though it is supposed to) So count me in with the optimists that there may be a version compatible with the RHDesigns timers or analyzers.
Good luck!

 

[jon.oman]

Will this work with the iPod Touch? It would be nice to avoid the phone calls as well!

 

[bdial]

+ 1 on the convential timer interface, no interest at all in trading my f/stop timer for the phone.
Another nice feature would be the ability to control the blue and green LED independantly for splitting.

 

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

I'd like to express my interest in a replacement for my well-loved Ilford 500H, which I use on a De Vere 504. I hope to get more out of the 500H, but I fear the day when it gives up on me might be sooner than later, and it would be great to have a replacement. I do not want to replace the De Vere 504, amazing build.

Ideally, I would prefer not to control the new head via an iDevice (which I own several of) but either a traditional timer, or a dedicated unit, letting me control grades in 0.1 increments. It would not need to be a StopClock style timer, just simple time and grade, focus, expose, burn, and a foot switch.

 

[cardiomac]

Will this work with the iPod Touch? It would be nice to avoid the phone calls as well!

Yes, it works with the latest iPod Touch, the iPad with Retina display, and the new iPad mini. If you do use an iPhone, as I do, the phone may be placed in "airplane mode" which turns off the cell phone features but preserves WiFi and Bluetooth. Just be sure to turn the Bluetooth back on after switching into airplane mode as it is turned off by default.

The 1.0 version of the software is available on the app store but will be replaced with the 1.1 update within a few days. The 1.0 version was for demonstration only. The updated version of the app has been submitted and I am just waiting for Apple to review it. Version 1.1 has a more fully paper-safe interface and accommodates user preferences for sound, tenth-second timing, and tenth-unit contrast control.

A host of features are planned as I develop my iOS coding skills. When control is in software rather than hardware, the limit of what is possible is only one's imagination.

 

[Mark Fisher]

Really impressive....your other heads on your website also look very nice.....saving my pennies