Viddovation
Veteran
Please note - I had a prior thread about LANC, but it's stated purpose was a bit different. Previously I was asking about other LANC solutions, and here I'm presenting research into how the camera remote works, and exploring making my own remote controller.
So, over the past few days I've been reverse engineering the FS7 remote port. The handgrip works great for some shoot styles, but for others it's not practical. I've now got a prototype microcontroller board that can successfully emulate the hand grip and whose commands are accepted by the camera.
Furthermore, I've been able to implement a number of commands not available on the handgrip, including:
Power Off (But not back on, sadly)
Auto Focus Toggle (Works despite physical switch on camera)
Push AF
Focus Far (Slow)
Focus Near (Slow)
Iris Close Tighter (Slow)
Iris Open Wider (Slow)
Iris Open Wider (Fast)
Shutter Menu (Toggle twice turns on Auto Shutter)
Auto White Balance
Auto Iris On/Off (Toggle)
And there may be more that I haven't found yet. Now, you may note the focus and iris controls, and point out that those can be assigned to the handgrip dial. Which is indeed absolutely true, but I list these above because they are accessible through independent commands, meaning a custom remote could offer focus, iris, and still have the assignable dial in reserve for something like ISO.
Also, a custom remote may be able to string together multiple commands to implement shutter speed steps.
You might also note that some of the above features like AWB can be assigned to one of the six assign buttons. But since they're available as independent commands, a custom remote could potentially offer the above features and reserve the three assigns for others.
A sad point: while the LANC protocol itself allows for the camera to communicate information back to the remote the current firmware on the camera does not appear to support this - that, or I haven't found the commands to unlock such behavior yet. For practical purposes, communication should currently be considered one direction - remote feeds instructions to camera.
And I've saved a doozy for last --- a custom remote should be able to turn the assignable dial on the handgrip into a "rocker" like the zoom. If you've felt like the assignable dial on the hand grip is incredibly slow... it is... because the engineers programmed the camera to receive 8 speeds each direction (similar to the implementation for zoom), but only programmed the handgrip dial to send the slowest speed each direction. Using the hand grip dial, jumping from 0db gain to 3db gain takes multiple turns - using a custom remote, just one command jumps from 0db to 3db.
I've got a coded prototype. I'm now looking into how to package it, and which commands to implement.
Does everyone love the handgrip, or would there be potential interest in something like this?
So, over the past few days I've been reverse engineering the FS7 remote port. The handgrip works great for some shoot styles, but for others it's not practical. I've now got a prototype microcontroller board that can successfully emulate the hand grip and whose commands are accepted by the camera.
Furthermore, I've been able to implement a number of commands not available on the handgrip, including:
Power Off (But not back on, sadly)
Auto Focus Toggle (Works despite physical switch on camera)
Push AF
Focus Far (Slow)
Focus Near (Slow)
Iris Close Tighter (Slow)
Iris Open Wider (Slow)
Iris Open Wider (Fast)
Shutter Menu (Toggle twice turns on Auto Shutter)
Auto White Balance
Auto Iris On/Off (Toggle)
And there may be more that I haven't found yet. Now, you may note the focus and iris controls, and point out that those can be assigned to the handgrip dial. Which is indeed absolutely true, but I list these above because they are accessible through independent commands, meaning a custom remote could offer focus, iris, and still have the assignable dial in reserve for something like ISO.
Also, a custom remote may be able to string together multiple commands to implement shutter speed steps.
You might also note that some of the above features like AWB can be assigned to one of the six assign buttons. But since they're available as independent commands, a custom remote could potentially offer the above features and reserve the three assigns for others.
A sad point: while the LANC protocol itself allows for the camera to communicate information back to the remote the current firmware on the camera does not appear to support this - that, or I haven't found the commands to unlock such behavior yet. For practical purposes, communication should currently be considered one direction - remote feeds instructions to camera.
And I've saved a doozy for last --- a custom remote should be able to turn the assignable dial on the handgrip into a "rocker" like the zoom. If you've felt like the assignable dial on the hand grip is incredibly slow... it is... because the engineers programmed the camera to receive 8 speeds each direction (similar to the implementation for zoom), but only programmed the handgrip dial to send the slowest speed each direction. Using the hand grip dial, jumping from 0db gain to 3db gain takes multiple turns - using a custom remote, just one command jumps from 0db to 3db.
I've got a coded prototype. I'm now looking into how to package it, and which commands to implement.
Does everyone love the handgrip, or would there be potential interest in something like this?
