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-   -   FADU F-stop Enlarger Timer App for Android (http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=12132)

martinhupfer 28th April 2020 07:11 AM

Hi Bob, such a great development. I found the app, installed it and wow, what a awesome tool.
Asap I ordered some Sonoff mini, ups, I should have ordered the basic. damn.
Do you have some experience with the Sonoff mini?

Cheers, Martin

Bob 29th April 2020 04:12 PM

Hi Martin. I see you got it working with the Mini. Great stuff!

No, I don't have any experience with the Mini. Do let me know if you had to make any mods and I will add it to the manual.

Cheers, Bob.

martinhupfer 3rd May 2020 12:43 PM

Today I had some hours in the darkroom with the new timer set-up.
And it's great to work with it, starting with a test strip you can find out wich the best exposure time it would be.
So only two sheets of paper for a nearly fine art print.
Of course it's the way to "work sheets" wich are the base of the rest.
But I enjoyed it very much, and stepping up or down in the main menu makes it easy to fine tune the print in f-stop steps.
Fortunately I found an old Samsung S4mini which no one uses any more, but for the f-stop app it works fine.

Using the De-Vere enlarger with 24VAC bulbs would be tricky with test strips. An 0.8 sec step to the next exposure time, because he has a mechanical shutter between bulbs and light chamber.
I'll test it and come back with results.
Yet I used my Fujimoto MD 90 for 6x6 prints.

martinhupfer 4th May 2020 10:24 AM

1 Attachment(s)
here's an example

Bob 4th May 2020 06:56 PM

Good to hear it is working for you Martin. :cool:

Your test sheet clearly shows the advantage of using f-stop related test strips as it avoids large steps in exposure in some of the strips, each having a similar increase/decrease in exposure.

I'm not familiar with the De Vere shutter system, but I wonder if using the app's Lamp Adjust setting might help to compensate for any delays introduced by the shutter? Adding a number there will add (or subtract if you prefix it with -) that number of milliseconds from the count.

Have fun, Bob.

mesires 29th July 2020 09:42 AM

Hi guys, as my old simple analog darkroom timer malfuctioned I received a recommendation to check and test the FADU f-stop enlarger timer app with Sonoff Basic. I did and find it extremely useful and just perfect fit to my darkroom. I have 3 questions:
1) Did you consider to couple the app with some (bluetooth???) wireless switch to allow foot switch operation?
2) Did you consider to implement a complex development instructions (i.e. base time and several f-stop metered additional times for dodging and burning)?
3) Do you have any recommendations on the mobile phone screen type? I heard that the OLED screens may be substantially better then LCD / LED screens. I made a long safe test in my darkroom and have no problem with my cheap Honor 10 phone.

Thanks for any feedback.

Daniel

Britman 3rd August 2020 09:07 PM

I love this project, it's something I'm going to try. But could this be done with the Sonoff Basic R3 with it's DIY mode?

A little easier to do and doesn't require you to either solder or hold wires in place.

Bob 9th August 2020 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mesires (Post 134776)
Hi guys, as my old simple analog darkroom timer malfuctioned I received a recommendation to check and test the FADU f-stop enlarger timer app with Sonoff Basic. I did and find it extremely useful and just perfect fit to my darkroom. I have 3 questions:
1) Did you consider to couple the app with some (bluetooth???) wireless switch to allow foot switch operation?
2) Did you consider to implement a complex development instructions (i.e. base time and several f-stop metered additional times for dodging and burning)?
3) Do you have any recommendations on the mobile phone screen type? I heard that the OLED screens may be substantially better then LCD / LED screens. I made a long safe test in my darkroom and have no problem with my cheap Honor 10 phone.

Thanks for any feedback.

Daniel

Hi Daniel.

1) I considered it - also thought about using the web server contained in the re-flashed switch firmware for the same purpose but decided it was too much hassle for a small advantage. The start-delay with count-in ticks can help if you need time to get ready before it starts counting.

2) Sorry, too much hassle again. The blocks-style coding used by App Inventor makes even moderately complex programming logic very difficult. It's fine for simple stuff, but as soon as you need to add control logic beyond a few lines, it becomes unwieldy. If I ever get around to learning to code Android in native code then I will revisit it.

3) An OLED screen uses active LEDs in the display which physically light up whereas LCD displays use a backlight shining through coloured LCD pixels that are switched from opaque (almost no back-light gets through) to clear. The "almost" bit is why you can get fogging with an LCD screen as some green and blue light gets through an OFF pixel). This results in much purer colours in an OLED display, reducing the chances of fogging as the App only uses different intensities of red.

But, if your LCD phone is not causing issues then I would just stick with that - I don't have any OLED devices myself.

Bob 9th August 2020 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Britman (Post 134833)
I love this project, it's something I'm going to try. But could this be done with the Sonoff Basic R3 with it's DIY mode?

A little easier to do and doesn't require you to either solder or hold wires in place.

Yay! Thanks very much for that suggestion - I was not aware of the Sonoff Basic R3 and just spent a few minutes googling it - looks like it's been out for over a year now and I completely missed it...

That sounds like the almost perfect solution - as you say, you still need to program it, but no more faffing about with soldering irons and FTDI adaptors etc. I will get a couple and add the code to use the Sonoff Basic R3 to the app. Users will still have to wire it into their enlarger but if they can change a plug, they can manage that! Now if only sonoff would provide the same facility on the Sonoff S20 sockets we would be seriously laughing!

My only worry is that the DIY mode may be too slow in response time - but we shall see...

Cheers, Bob.

Britman 9th August 2020 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob (Post 134919)
Yay! Thanks very much for that suggestion - I was not aware of the Sonoff Basic R3 and just spent a few minutes googling it - looks like it's been out for over a year now and I completely missed it...



That sounds like the almost perfect solution - as you say, you still need to program it, but no more faffing about with soldering irons and FTDI adaptors etc. I will get a couple and add the code to use the Sonoff Basic R3 to the app. Users will still have to wire it into their enlarger but if they can change a plug, they can manage that! Now if only sonoff would provide the same facility on the Sonoff S20 sockets we would be seriously laughing!



My only worry is that the DIY mode may be too slow in response time - but we shall see...



Cheers, Bob.

Excellent, what would be an acceptable response time, are we looking at just a few milliseconds?

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