Thank you Alasdair! There have been other kickstarters for timers already and there are viable and very good commercial solutions out there already! I don’t think demand is high enough to support another one. And the light source is so specific to the enlarger that it becomes way too expensive to produce, which explains why cold light sources and such things are so expensive now. I just wanted to show people that this conversion can be done for less with a bit of ingenuity! Saved myself a good chunk of money by building this stuff myself! If you want a timer like this, check out the open source version linked in the description. Not a difficult build, you just need to find the exact parts!
Lilly Schwartz Well, maybe not a kickstarter, but a mini campaign to sell the circuit boards and parts. I would be happy to pay a premium to get the right parts and video instructions to put the board together. Then I could look at how I would convert my old Vivitar enlarger to have RGB LED light source after the colour head got damaged beyond use, band use it with the timer.
+Alasdair Dougall Do you have any experience with soldering through-hole components? Any Arduino / coding in C experience? If yes, I still have a few boards and can walk you through the assembly process. It’s not super easy to assemble, quite fiddly in fact, which is how I killed my first screen. You also need to reflash the firmware of an ESP WiFi chip which isn’t totally straightforward. Also, I wouldn’t be printing the enclosure, since it’s a 20h print in total and I just can’t guarantee the quality on my little home printer and sanding PLA is not the healthiest thing to do for the lungs 😬 I can give you the STLs though! Keep in mind that you might also need a 3D printer if your Vivitar head doesn’t take opal bulbs with standard bulb fittings. You can use high power LEDs and code your own WiFi interface on an ESP WiFi chip, but I still haven’t figured out the right driver for powering them and had no space to cool them adequately in my original head. That’s why I 3D printed a new head in the end. Also, the LIFX bulbs have a CRI of 92 so are not totally perfect for RA4 printing either, but I have seen people print colour with them and they had decent results. You probably see now why it’s not really viable as a product or why I’m hesitant to even offer a kit. I used to work in IT support and there are so many fault points in this assembly scenario, it’s probably not worth it for anyone involved. That said, if this hasn’t put you off, send me a PM on FB. I can definitely send you a board and parts list. The code isn’t quite finished, because I need to do some additional testing and fix a few things, but I think by the end of the winter it should be fairly stable.
Very impressive build. It's definitely crossed my mind to try building my own f-stop timer for the darkroom, but between wet plate photography, salt printing and diy synth building I think I'd struggle to find the time! Seeing your impressive implementation is inspiring and at the same time daunting - I can see just how much work you've put into it. Well done. Great video describing the journey too, thanks!
Thanks James, I’m glad you enjoyed the video and the build! It took me about a year to build it on and off, so a lot of work went in to it! Well worth it though, it’s such a nice tool to have! Salt printing is on my list too, but my setup is so makeshift at the moment I don’t really use it that much. I might be getting a dedicated darkroom though, so it might be in my future too! So you build synths as well? I started building Eurorack stuff last year! So much fun!
@@LillySchwartz I built a dedicated darkroom in the corner of my garage - it doesn't get as much use as it deserves, but I know it's there waiting for me when the inspiration hits. I hope you manage to get yourself a dedicated darkroom, it does make such a difference to have somewhere that's ready to go. Building synths - yes, that was an unexpected hobby I stumbled into. I'm building them mostly from basic components and ICs and trying to learn and understand how the electronics work. It's really rewarding, especially when it all comes together and makes a nice sound! I actually spotted you commenting on a live stream... I recognised your name from Twitter/Instagram and the photography world in general and that's when I discovered your TH-cam channel :)
We’ve been trying to move for a while and the house we’re trying to buy has a laundry room that is just perfect for a darkroom. Only thing it needs is the light sealing and there is already a long metal counter that’s going to be good for the wet part. Right now I always have to get folding tables out and pour out the chemicals after each use, it makes printing bigger projects quite the hassle. We’ll see whether it all works out, it would be nice to have a dedicated darkroom! Funny that you recognised my name on some Livestream comment. Molten Modular perhaps? I’m usually building kits at the moment, but I’m starting to do some more basic things too, trying to understand how the circuits work! Eventually I’ll be making videos about that stuff too, still preparing it all because it’s a bit of a switcheroo for me!
@@LillySchwartz That sounds great, I hope the purchase works out and you get your darkroom! Molten Modular - yes, that was the one :) He was building Moritz Klein's VCO. I would definitely recommend Moritz's videos if you haven't watched them already; that's where I learned most of what I know about DIY synth! th-cam.com/users/MoritzKlein0
Oh wow, I’m almost a little surprised that link went through, the YT comments filter is relentless on links normally! I actually watched most of his videos! Just haven’t built any of them yet! The new Erica Synths versions of his stuff seem nice, but I can’t help feeling that the modules themselves are a little big for my rack. They have all the components spaced out for soldering beginners. I might try to make my own versions with stacked boards and tighter spacing. It’s probably good practice! Currently I’m working on a +/- 5V CV limiter module design that has me feeling like I need to bend time and space to make it fit 4HP 😂 it’s fun!!
Great quality from that PCB printing manufacturer. I’m ok with strip board for silly little projects, but this project took me so long to make, I wanted it to last!
Yay, the man himself makes an appearance! Thank you! Your code had me feeling very inadequate despite my Robotics degree *lol*. I'm not even half as good at coding C++. Also thank you for sharing your project, my timer was definitely heavily inspired by yours. 😀
I do, but I need to revisit this once I got my new darkroom set up. There were a few changes I wanted to make to the code, because I don't think this is quite ready to be made public. Still a tad glitchy in places. I'll probably get stuck into it within the next half a year when I'll have a dedicated darkroom space. It will definitely show up in my videos then.
Thank you Ricardo! I‘m glad that you liked the project! About the music: Great that you’re interested in the track, that‘s really cool! It will be available soon. Need to talk to some friends about how they do the whole distribution thing these days. Last time I made music was well before Spotify and co, no idea how it works nowadays, especially if I don‘t want to get copyright flags for using my own music in my videos 😂 YT and music copyright is such a mess! I will announce it on the channel when I have that sorted!
Thank you Ruslan! And thank you for spotting the missing component, I added it now. It was a LifX smart bulb since this one is fairly well documented and you can control it via sending hex over the network. There are also python libraries for it, but they needed too much memory for the wifi chip. You'd potentially be able to use those in a smart phone app though.
I don’t think you can get low enough wavelength with a bulb like this - you need around 420nm for pure blue light to get high contrast grades. Higher than this and you will be hitting the low grade emulsion. Did you find this is a problem in practice?
It definitely isn’t the “ideal” bulb on paper, but in practice it really isn’t noticeable! Printing with this light source just feels like printing with a regular bulb. I think it’s rather common to overthink all this and worry too much about wavelengths or CRI and get lost in data sheets. I definitely had no problem getting good contrast in any of my prints and there was a good range there to dial things in. I even found a forum post where someone used this bulb for colour printing and it worked just fine for them!
The algorithm itself isn’t the issue, it’s the space and memory constraints of the Arduino. Memory stuff is notoriously annoying in C, so it’s a real headache to code it in a way that fits within the Arduino constraints. It’s not quite that bad on a Mega, but there was still a lot of swearing and “Why am I doing this to myself” involved. Basically it’s not a beginner project and even I was at times struggling with it although I have a Robotics degree. It just needs very arcane skills because computers are so powerful these days and nobody teaches how to code memory efficiently anymore! This would have been a piece of cake on a regular computer with standard libraries, but on an embedded device there is no space for libraries so it’s like coding with both your hands tied behind your back. Sp, if the thought of tight memory handling in C doesn’t make you groan, then go for it 😅 If on the other hand you‘ve never used pointers before, then this will be a nightmare, because Arduinos don’t have segmentation fault warnings and you won’t know at all whether you’re doing it wrong. Everything can look like it’s working fine, but 5 minutes later it might start overwriting your screen with random stuff because a pointer is pointing at the slightly wrong place. To call it “infuriating” would be an understatement 😅
@@LillySchwartz I never used Arduinos but I have some experience with 8051 type processors, which are even more limited I suppose so I understand the troubles of working at the limit of the chip's capabilities. When things became too critical I would switch to assembly which is an even deeper rabbit hole..
Oh, if you’re used to memory constraints then you might have fun with it actually. Some of my friends do sizecoding for old computers for fun, demos and stuff like that. They enjoy the challenge! I’ve never used Assembly myself, but I can imagine that it’s more fun than dealing with pointers gone wrong 😂
Husband: “Don’t scare your viewers with your music!”
Me: *picks weirdest track* 😂🤦♀️
So, were you scared?
I'm digging the music.
Yay, I’m glad you like it! Need to record it properly, I only used the basic loops for the video 😀
Fantastic project. This should be a Kickstarter project! Thanks for bringing the video to us.
Thank you Alasdair! There have been other kickstarters for timers already and there are viable and very good commercial solutions out there already! I don’t think demand is high enough to support another one. And the light source is so specific to the enlarger that it becomes way too expensive to produce, which explains why cold light sources and such things are so expensive now. I just wanted to show people that this conversion can be done for less with a bit of ingenuity! Saved myself a good chunk of money by building this stuff myself! If you want a timer like this, check out the open source version linked in the description. Not a difficult build, you just need to find the exact parts!
Lilly Schwartz Well, maybe not a kickstarter, but a mini campaign to sell the circuit boards and parts. I would be happy to pay a premium to get the right parts and video instructions to put the board together. Then I could look at how I would convert my old Vivitar enlarger to have RGB LED light source after the colour head got damaged beyond use, band use it with the timer.
+Alasdair Dougall Do you have any experience with soldering through-hole components? Any Arduino / coding in C experience? If yes, I still have a few boards and can walk you through the assembly process. It’s not super easy to assemble, quite fiddly in fact, which is how I killed my first screen. You also need to reflash the firmware of an ESP WiFi chip which isn’t totally straightforward. Also, I wouldn’t be printing the enclosure, since it’s a 20h print in total and I just can’t guarantee the quality on my little home printer and sanding PLA is not the healthiest thing to do for the lungs 😬 I can give you the STLs though! Keep in mind that you might also need a 3D printer if your Vivitar head doesn’t take opal bulbs with standard bulb fittings. You can use high power LEDs and code your own WiFi interface on an ESP WiFi chip, but I still haven’t figured out the right driver for powering them and had no space to cool them adequately in my original head. That’s why I 3D printed a new head in the end. Also, the LIFX bulbs have a CRI of 92 so are not totally perfect for RA4 printing either, but I have seen people print colour with them and they had decent results. You probably see now why it’s not really viable as a product or why I’m hesitant to even offer a kit. I used to work in IT support and there are so many fault points in this assembly scenario, it’s probably not worth it for anyone involved. That said, if this hasn’t put you off, send me a PM on FB. I can definitely send you a board and parts list. The code isn’t quite finished, because I need to do some additional testing and fix a few things, but I think by the end of the winter it should be fairly stable.
Great to see new creative solutions !
Thank you 😀 I’m glad you enjoyed it!!
THIS IS GENIUS!!!
Aww, thank you Sean! It was a fun project! 😀
Found this through the Negative Positives Film Photo Podcast Facebook group (shared by Bill Smith) - Very cool!
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it! And I must check out the group too! I had no idea it even existed!
Very impressive build. It's definitely crossed my mind to try building my own f-stop timer for the darkroom, but between wet plate photography, salt printing and diy synth building I think I'd struggle to find the time! Seeing your impressive implementation is inspiring and at the same time daunting - I can see just how much work you've put into it. Well done. Great video describing the journey too, thanks!
Thanks James, I’m glad you enjoyed the video and the build! It took me about a year to build it on and off, so a lot of work went in to it! Well worth it though, it’s such a nice tool to have! Salt printing is on my list too, but my setup is so makeshift at the moment I don’t really use it that much. I might be getting a dedicated darkroom though, so it might be in my future too! So you build synths as well? I started building Eurorack stuff last year! So much fun!
@@LillySchwartz I built a dedicated darkroom in the corner of my garage - it doesn't get as much use as it deserves, but I know it's there waiting for me when the inspiration hits. I hope you manage to get yourself a dedicated darkroom, it does make such a difference to have somewhere that's ready to go.
Building synths - yes, that was an unexpected hobby I stumbled into. I'm building them mostly from basic components and ICs and trying to learn and understand how the electronics work. It's really rewarding, especially when it all comes together and makes a nice sound! I actually spotted you commenting on a live stream... I recognised your name from Twitter/Instagram and the photography world in general and that's when I discovered your TH-cam channel :)
We’ve been trying to move for a while and the house we’re trying to buy has a laundry room that is just perfect for a darkroom. Only thing it needs is the light sealing and there is already a long metal counter that’s going to be good for the wet part. Right now I always have to get folding tables out and pour out the chemicals after each use, it makes printing bigger projects quite the hassle. We’ll see whether it all works out, it would be nice to have a dedicated darkroom!
Funny that you recognised my name on some Livestream comment. Molten Modular perhaps? I’m usually building kits at the moment, but I’m starting to do some more basic things too, trying to understand how the circuits work! Eventually I’ll be making videos about that stuff too, still preparing it all because it’s a bit of a switcheroo for me!
@@LillySchwartz That sounds great, I hope the purchase works out and you get your darkroom!
Molten Modular - yes, that was the one :) He was building Moritz Klein's VCO. I would definitely recommend Moritz's videos if you haven't watched them already; that's where I learned most of what I know about DIY synth!
th-cam.com/users/MoritzKlein0
Oh wow, I’m almost a little surprised that link went through, the YT comments filter is relentless on links normally! I actually watched most of his videos! Just haven’t built any of them yet! The new Erica Synths versions of his stuff seem nice, but I can’t help feeling that the modules themselves are a little big for my rack. They have all the components spaced out for soldering beginners. I might try to make my own versions with stacked boards and tighter spacing. It’s probably good practice! Currently I’m working on a +/- 5V CV limiter module design that has me feeling like I need to bend time and space to make it fit 4HP 😂 it’s fun!!
Hahaha love the outtakes, Lilly. Also enjoyed the build. You amaze me !!!
Aww, thank you Lisa! The outtakes are really fun to make. I usually just sit there laughing at myself while I’m editing 😂
@@LillySchwartz crackin' yourself up huh?!!
Oh it’s always weird to see the way you speak in such detail. I’m slowly getting used to my facial acrobatics though 😂😬
Very cool. Fun, inventive and practical :). Good stuff! Nice track too, again.
Yay, glad you liked it! I don’t make glitch stuff often, but I thought it was rather fitting for this geekery!
@@LillySchwartz Ah yeah, definitely fits :). Really interested in the PCB printing service. More inspiring ideas from ya.
Great quality from that PCB printing manufacturer. I’m ok with strip board for silly little projects, but this project took me so long to make, I wanted it to last!
/waves :)
congratulations on your timer!
Yay, the man himself makes an appearance! Thank you! Your code had me feeling very inadequate despite my Robotics degree *lol*. I'm not even half as good at coding C++. Also thank you for sharing your project, my timer was definitely heavily inspired by yours. 😀
very cool, want to do it-> reality check
Thanks 😎 Yeah, not exactly a low effort kind of a project 😂 worth it though!
Hello there, great video. Impressive. Do you happen to have any of those pcb boards left? Thanks!
I do, but I need to revisit this once I got my new darkroom set up. There were a few changes I wanted to make to the code, because I don't think this is quite ready to be made public. Still a tad glitchy in places. I'll probably get stuck into it within the next half a year when I'll have a dedicated darkroom space. It will definitely show up in my videos then.
Really cool project! Congrats! About the music.. is the track available somewhere?
Thank you Ricardo! I‘m glad that you liked the project! About the music: Great that you’re interested in the track, that‘s really cool! It will be available soon. Need to talk to some friends about how they do the whole distribution thing these days. Last time I made music was well before Spotify and co, no idea how it works nowadays, especially if I don‘t want to get copyright flags for using my own music in my videos 😂 YT and music copyright is such a mess! I will announce it on the channel when I have that sorted!
Great project!
What rgb led light used? I can't find it in components list.
Thanks.
Thank you Ruslan! And thank you for spotting the missing component, I added it now. It was a LifX smart bulb since this one is fairly well documented and you can control it via sending hex over the network. There are also python libraries for it, but they needed too much memory for the wifi chip. You'd potentially be able to use those in a smart phone app though.
I don’t think you can get low enough wavelength with a bulb like this - you need around 420nm for pure blue light to get high contrast grades. Higher than this and you will be hitting the low grade emulsion. Did you find this is a problem in practice?
It definitely isn’t the “ideal” bulb on paper, but in practice it really isn’t noticeable! Printing with this light source just feels like printing with a regular bulb. I think it’s rather common to overthink all this and worry too much about wavelengths or CRI and get lost in data sheets. I definitely had no problem getting good contrast in any of my prints and there was a good range there to dial things in. I even found a forum post where someone used this bulb for colour printing and it worked just fine for them!
What especially makes the timer hard to program? Is the algorithm complex or is it hard to get the timings precise? Or something else?
The algorithm itself isn’t the issue, it’s the space and memory constraints of the Arduino. Memory stuff is notoriously annoying in C, so it’s a real headache to code it in a way that fits within the Arduino constraints. It’s not quite that bad on a Mega, but there was still a lot of swearing and “Why am I doing this to myself” involved. Basically it’s not a beginner project and even I was at times struggling with it although I have a Robotics degree. It just needs very arcane skills because computers are so powerful these days and nobody teaches how to code memory efficiently anymore! This would have been a piece of cake on a regular computer with standard libraries, but on an embedded device there is no space for libraries so it’s like coding with both your hands tied behind your back.
Sp, if the thought of tight memory handling in C doesn’t make you groan, then go for it 😅 If on the other hand you‘ve never used pointers before, then this will be a nightmare, because Arduinos don’t have segmentation fault warnings and you won’t know at all whether you’re doing it wrong. Everything can look like it’s working fine, but 5 minutes later it might start overwriting your screen with random stuff because a pointer is pointing at the slightly wrong place. To call it “infuriating” would be an understatement 😅
@@LillySchwartz I never used Arduinos but I have some experience with 8051 type processors, which are even more limited I suppose so I understand the troubles of working at the limit of the chip's capabilities. When things became too critical I would switch to assembly which is an even deeper rabbit hole..
Oh, if you’re used to memory constraints then you might have fun with it actually. Some of my friends do sizecoding for old computers for fun, demos and stuff like that. They enjoy the challenge! I’ve never used Assembly myself, but I can imagine that it’s more fun than dealing with pointers gone wrong 😂