Hacking the Kodak Reels 8mm Film Digitizer (New Thread)

[thilosde]

Hello!
I'm here in Germany in Berlin, and for a long time I've wanted to digitize my Super-8 films, which I shot in the 70s with my Bauer Royal 8E makro. Recently, I came across the "Kodak Reels" online and managed to win one in an auction on eBay. The original invoice is dated September 7, 2026 (it is still under warranty), so it is relatively new.
My first attempt with a small reel disappointed me, and in the end I came across the video of Mac84 and this page.
After spending hours in front of my PC, I find myself even more confused.
Which version can I install on my device?
And if it fails, is there a way back?
The serial number is A3026148BK01199.
I would be very grateful for any help.

 

[JohnCT]

New here so excuse me if my post is different for other versions (I have an A version per 0Dan0's list).

Popped the back off and removed the motor assy.
Removed the snap ring and the second large gear.
Removed the 4 screws and black retaining cap (I guess you could call it ) and the 3 washers (2 spring washers and a flat sandwiched between them).
Four tiny screws remove the metal plate and the whole take up reel arm comes out.

The 3 washers mentioned above have nothing to do with acting like a clutch or slippage mechanism !
With the arm completely removed, I still have the same amount of force required to make this slip.
I took apart the take up reel arm and inside there are 2 notched gears off the 2 shafts that are connected by a notched drive belt.
If you apply enough force the belt will slip and jump over a notch or two.
This is the ONLY slip mechanism in the entire take up reel arm/motor assy.

Also, the motor itself is very stiff and does not move.
After seeing this I would not recommend anyone manually move the take up reel as this will eventually damage the drive belt !

Other units may vary, but from pictures I have seen I don't think so ?

My fist scan had lots of frame jumping similar to the above video but since most my reels are 400 feet, there is no way I'm using the "let it collect in a bin" method.

Next I'll try removing the left spring from the hold down door.
I wish I had measured the voltage to the take up reel motor during a scan before putting the back cover back on.
Perhaps I can lower the voltage to the motor a bit and slow down the take up reel ?

Have not put in any modified firmware yet...

I removed one of the two washers the heavy wound coil spring pushes against inside the hub (there is one on top of the coil spring and one below). Since the spring doesn't rotate on the washer, there's no issue with the spring sitting on the plastic as the washer isn't a slip bearing. The wavy/bent washer spring won't help with tension. I should have take some pics.

I will say that just once since I removed the washer the takeup reel stalled during a scan. A gentle push and it started again. That was the only time, and I would rather have a bit too weak than a bit too strong.

I modded many film projectors the same way when they used to snap film. It's a delicate balance between enough tension and too much tension.

John

 

[todd95008]

I removed one of the two washers the heavy wound coil spring pushes against inside the hub (there is one on top of the coil spring and one below).

There was no "coil spring" in my unit (where was this on yours) and the only slip mechanism is the drive belt sipping over the cogs on the 2 gears.

I have not had a chance to play with my unit again but I'm thinking my motor speed mod is the way to go.
This would be putting the correct size resistor in series with the motor.
Maybe slow it down 2-3% under no tension and when it tries to pull under more tension, the motor will slow even more with the increased current demand.

 

[JohnCT]

There was no "coil spring" in my unit (where was this on yours) and the only slip mechanism is the drive belt sipping over the cogs on the 2 gears.

I have not had a chance to play with my unit again but I'm thinking my motor speed mod is the way to go.
This would be putting the correct size resistor in series with the motor.
Maybe slow it down 2-3% under no tension and when it tries to pull under more tension, the motor will slow even more with the increased current demand.

It was in the takeup hub. Mine is a late 2025 build - maybe they changed them.

If the motor is just a DC motor, adding a resistor will indeed drop the speed and the torque. Alternatively, you can always build an adjustable current supply that will allow normal speed but reduced torque.

John

 

[melw]

I've completed both mods—Deano's lens mod and melw 's FW—on my Type D unit. I'm so grateful to melw for the Type-D FW work, and to 0dan0, Deano, and everyone who's contributed.

I have a couple of issues, and report.

#1. The farthest zoom-out settings give colored bars. (I'm calling the furthest-out setting Zoom 1.) Attached are the three furthest-out zoom settings for FW p695 and FW 272 (with film loaded). The next setting (Zoom 4) is normal, for both FW.

#2. I tried flashing 0dan0's D-Type stock FW to see if this still happened, but it wouldn't flash. It powered on with whatever custom FW I had last flashed.

I want to achieve full zoom-out if possible, because there are images between the sprocket holes I want to capture, and the 12mm lens is excluding some of it already.

Thanks for the detailed report and the screenshots, they made this easy to track down!

I could reproduce it on my unit, and it also happens on the stock Kodak firmware, so it's a bug in Kodak's own firmware, not in the custom builds. It happens when the frame position has been moved towards an edge and you then zoom out to the widest settings: the capture area grows past the edge of the sensor, and the part outside it shows as coloured noise. The firmware doesn't pull the frame position back in when you zoom out. Zooming out alone, with the frame centred, works fine.

Workaround:

• Move the frame position back towards the centre first, then zoom out.
• You can probably find a combination of position and zoom just before the noise starts that still gets most of the picture between the sprocket holes.

 

[ArgieBargie]

This sounds like the auto-exposure feature on the Reels. The custom firmware turns this off, yes.

IMO this is the number 1 best reason to get rid of the awful stock firmware.
I'm stuck with stock firmware after I botched the attempt at attaching the leads for a firmware rip of my weirdo xx26 model, and I haven't tried D firmware in case there's a possibility that someone else has success with ripping the xx26.

In fact, if anyone has the expertise to rip the firmware from my board without the benefit of those test points (OR can tell me where a secondary point that I could attach the TX lead to), then I'd be all ears. In fact, I could post my board to someone who could competently rip it.

 

[paulkem]

This sounds like the auto-exposure feature on the Reels. The custom firmware turns this off, yes.

Ok, that is good to know. I guess I need to dig into this thread and figure out what my options are for the M2025 model.

The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off that this device has such a major flaw. I really don't see Kodak doing anything about it.

 

[JohnCT]

Ok, that is good to know. I guess I need to dig into this thread and figure out what my options are for the M2025 model.

The option to turn off the auto exposure is great, but it also means you might have to baby sit the digitizing. I ran a small reel my dad shot in the early 60s, and I needed to readjust for every segment - some were perfectly bright, others were too dark and would have benefited from the auto exposure feature.

The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off that this device has such a major flaw. I really don't see Kodak doing anything about it.

Someone opined that Kodak wouldn't be well served if this machine was too good as it would cut into their mail-in digitizing services. I don't know how much money they make on that service and I don't know how many more of these Reels they would sell if they were optimized.

What I would love to see is a comparison between some sample scans with a professional mail-in scanned video and one from a hacked/optimized Kodak Reels.

John

 

[todd95008]

I have not had a chance to play with my unit again but I'm thinking my motor speed mod is the way to go.
This would be putting the correct size resistor in series with the motor.
Maybe slow it down 2-3% under no tension and when it tries to pull under more tension, the motor will slow even more with the increased current demand.

I removed 2 springs from the 2 film hold down clamps.
The outer left spring and the outer right spring leaving the 2 inner springs.
This still will put pressure to hold the film down closest to the scan area.
As such there was far less tension on the film and it moved much easier !

Ran the same reel thru with no jumping this time

Wonder how this thing is going to handle spices though ??
The one I scanned was the only single 50' reel I had and the others were spliced together on 400' reels 50 years ago.
Need to dig up the old editor I used back in 1976 and see how band those spices are 50 years later.

 

[celery_man]

Hello all, wanted to report successful scanning with Type D Firmware (FWDV280.BIN) on a unit with "M2025148BKXXXXX" serial. I will try to upload a sample comparison soon. I've seen examples on YouTube comparing output from a stock firmware unit to that from a hacked AND lens modded unit, and it was hard to tell how much improvement came from the lens and how much was due to the firmware.

A wiki would be absolutely clutch for organizing a multi-stream project like this.

*rant*
The output is significantly better after the hack. I seriously hope the original gimped output quality is due to some big brain Ivy league MBA move to up-sell people to professional scanning services. I hope it's that, and not some mix of uncaring laziness and a genuinely shallow view of the people who buy their film. Kodak's film division has been the only branch of the company that has never generated a loss (or so I've read) and it's sick how much the corporate dweebs neglect it. It's been 26 years since the new millennium came around, and it turns out we're not all wearing shiny bodysuits in a Windows XP frutiger aero abstract paradise of floating blobby chrome and tropical fish. The kind of digital future Kodak feared and tried so hard to pivot toward came and WENT. And these old out-of-touch skinbags at Kodak are still waffling on their corporate blogs about multi-function office printers or whatever.