Modding the Kodak Reels 8mm Film Digitizer (Firmware Hack)

[fishgee]

No problem omega . I'm grateful for any help.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. I renamed the file, but your firmware doesn't work with this Kodak either.

Since firmware changes aren't helping your button issue, it might be time to power down the unit, get out a screwdriver and open it up. But only if you feel comfortable doing that, of course. There's a chance that you have a poor connection involving the cable(s) that connect the button assembly to the processor board. I know it's not the first thing you'd check, but it would easily explain why the buttons aren't working. Small chance, but worth investigating if only to rule it out.

 

[Grandson]

Since firmware changes aren't helping your button issue, it might be time to power down the unit, get out a screwdriver and open it up. But only if you feel comfortable doing that, of course. There's a chance that you have a poor connection involving the cable(s) that connect the button assembly to the processor board. I know it's not the first thing you'd check, but it would easily explain why the buttons aren't working. Small chance, but worth investigating if only to rule it out.

Thanks for your reply fishgee.
The Kodak worked before the firmware hack. The scan quality was poor, but the buttons worked. So I don't think this step is necessary.

 

[0dan0]

Hi,
I also have a device from EU. Try using firmware from #511
It works for me.

Is this labelled as RODREELSEU? As yours seems to be type C and @Grandson seems to be type B. Kodak has made a complete mess.

I don't think DUMPCODE.BIN and UITRON.BIN can be renamed to FWDV280.BIN. I don't know the full procedure to convert this files. Anyone remember?

 

[omega]

I did it and used it. And I have it on my device until now.
Although I really appreciate your work, I stayed with this firmware. It gives me the best results with my device.
I've tried all the firmwares out there and I always come back to this one.

 

[0dan0]

As there are others who have updated RODREELSEU models, this is starting to seem like a warranty return issue.

 

[Luluberlu]

Dear all,

I am new in this forum and find it out by chances thanks to the kodak reel firmare.
First of all, I would like to thanks Mac84 0dan0 and the following community for their amazing work !
I can tell you that there will be joyfull tears when my mother will see the movies at Xmas

Second trying to help my european fellow, I purchase mine yesterday / my model is obviously RODREELSEU, SN C1725148BK00924 and the firmware C 7.1.1 is working like a charm. There are chances that button problem is hardware.

On my side due to film quality, i will have to adjust color (super blue films ) in post prod, the the capture bitrate and color adjust are allowing me to have the best possible source.

I just have a question about the firmware. my apologizes if it is a stupid question, but I could not figure it out my self.
In the zip FWDV280-TypeC-V7.1.1-0dan0 theire are 2 files, the .Bin and the .Rbn Shall I did put the 2 of them, but despite size what is the difference between those 2 files?

Thanks a lot and regards from France!

 

[Mikm]

@Grandson, 0dan0, I also have a unit labelled as RODREELSEU, 10 months old.
With Mac84 'serial number index' I matched the firmware to type B.
Firmware from Mac84 and 0dan0's till version 7.1.1 works without issues.
It's really great to see quality improvement with the updated firmware.
Thanks for that Mac84 and 0dan0!
Mikm

 

[omega]

Is this labelled as RODREELSEU? As yours seems to be type C and @Grandson seems to be type B. Kodak has made a complete mess.

I don't think DUMPCODE.BIN and UITRON.BIN can be renamed to FWDV280.BIN. I don't know the full procedure to convert this files. Anyone remember?

I forgot to write the label, it is RODREELSEU.

 

[0dan0]

Dear all,

I am new in this forum and find it out by chances thanks to the kodak reel firmare.
First of all, I would like to thanks Mac84 0dan0 and the following community for their amazing work !
I can tell you that there will be joyfull tears when my mother will see the movies at Xmas

Second trying to help my european fellow, I purchase mine yesterday / my model is obviously RODREELSEU, SN C1725148BK00924 and the firmware C 7.1.1 is working like a charm. There are chances that button problem is hardware.

On my side due to film quality, i will have to adjust color (super blue films ) in post prod, the the capture bitrate and color adjust are allowing me to have the best possible source.

I just have a question about the firmware. my apologizes if it is a stupid question, but I could not figure it out my self.
In the zip FWDV280-TypeC-V7.1.1-0dan0 theire are 2 files, the .Bin and the .Rbn Shall I did put the 2 of them, but despite size what is the difference between those 2 files?

Thanks a lot and regards from France!

The .rbn file is the uncompressed version of the .bin. My hope is one day someone else will also learn how to hack the firmware, and it is easier to start with the larger file.

 

[Federico]

Hi @0dan0 , do you mind to share the iris STL file?
I've tried to search for it but could not find any, by searching online:

Thank you! F.

 

[MHreels]

First, I want to thank Mac84 and 0dan0 for their great work for making the Kodak reels a better device.

I am also a new member in this forum but informed myself during the last 2 months until I finally decided 2 weeks ago to buy Kodak reels on Amazon (was shipped from UK).

My Kodak Reels is Model No.: RODREELSEU Ser No: C1725148BK005** (** stand for the last two digits)

I flashed OdanO's Type C 7.1.1 version today again with a 16GB SD card (instead a 32GB I used earlier), and this time it works all fine with my model.

Thanks for your work.

 

[Luluberlu]

The .rbn file is the uncompressed version of the .bin. My hope is one day someone else will also learn how to hack the firmware, and it is easier to start with the larger file.

Thanks for the explanation. Not sure to have the competence to do it, but for sake of curiosity, I will have a look

Thanks again !

 

[Erwin]

Another new member found this forum. Hello all! I bought the Kodak Reels this week, an EU model. After scanning my first reel I was very disappointed about the resolution and compression artifacts and a washed out exposure. Also to discover the fps was fixed to 20 - why???? Tried post production tools to fix the scans but I have boxes with reels, like 100 hours of super-8, a family archive from my dad, my uncle and my father-in-law which I want to scan. So I wanted to send the thing back.

Then I was happy to find this thread with the excellent work of Mac84, 0dan0 and others. I read through the history like a novel, page after page, a discovery trip to unravel the secrets of the Reels hardware and firmware. As I like to tinker myself a bit with stuff and software, its a great read.

My serial number was not recognized by the online tool, so I flashed type C, 7.1.1. That booted. Great additions there, great to have all the new options, increased resolution, data rate, fixed gain and white balance. I got some really nice results, with sharpness set to -1.0 to -2.0. Post processed in Davinci Resolve (stabilizer!!) it could not get better. With 7.1.1. the player on the Reels doesnt work and crashes the device but i dont care. The machine also crashes when the motor is stopped automatically but I dont care - the file is saved.

But..

About every other clip, or every other 15m reel, the sync is totally off. So the image is distorted on the bottom, or even completely out of sync where pictures are taken randomly, like 1/3 or 1/2 of a frame, during the whole 15m reel. Then the second time it could work okay, but just now I had a 15m reel where even the 3rd scan didnt work. So that was an hour of scanning 15m without results. It seems the camera takes the picture while the film is not stationary. I have read a number of posts above where this was addressed, I understand the sync has a 100ms jitter, but hardly ever you see it in the scanned pictures. But for me .. its very bad and not doable to scan my archive like this. Looking at the hardware, there should be ample time to take the picture. It moves every 500ms, then is stationary like 200-300ms of that interval.

So the question is what is happening here. Could it be software - the functions added (like histogram and exposure control, the high bitrate) stress the CPU too much such that it misses the timing sensor signal? Should I go back to an earlier firmware to test? Or is my hardware different or even broken. I can still send it back next week for free.

When I just got the machine, I did scan a few reels with the original firmware and did not notice any sync problems back then. I really dont want to go back to earlier firmware for scanning my archive as I love the 0dan0 mods ... Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[0dan0]

Histogram and extra progressing doesn't start until the third or fourth frame (by design). As if there is jitter, it is there at the first frame. So it is not processing load. I used not even have the histogram running in preview, jitter could happen then also. Nothing appears to impact the jitter. It was there before there was a histogram, or exposure controls. It could be just running the higher resolution is burdening this old hardware. I don't think is can be bitrate, as the compression couldn't impact the first few frames.

Please keep theories coming, as I'm hoping there is something else to try.

 

[0dan0]

Hi @0dan0 , do you mind to share the iris STL file?
I've tried to search for it but could not find any, by searching online:

View attachment 24987

Thank you! F.

I will find these when I'm back at my workstation later today.

 

[0dan0]

Hi @0dan0 , do you mind to share the iris STL file?
I've tried to search for it but could not find any, by searching online:

View attachment 24987

Thank you! F.

Here is the STL for all five. I'm using the second smallest, as I think the two largest are effectively wide open. I printed with TPU, as might be too tight for a non-flexible filament.

 

[Erwin]

Please keep theories coming, as I'm hoping there is something else to try.

Okay, seems not an easy one to solve. Observing the transport of the film, at the exit the film is pulled over three static capstans (the white line). The mechanism pushes one frame forward, tension is released and then this slack "travels" to the third capstan, the reel rotates and pulls, yanking one frame, pulling the film taut again against the capstans. It looks like an impulse force that travels backwards that could disturb the positioning of the film. So, just to try something different I routed the film along the first 2 capstans, skipping the last one, and then my troublesome reel scanned okay. Not saying that it actually is the cause as its so random but I will keep scanning without using the last capstan for now. Changing the friction (as you did) could also make a difference.

I do have a suggestion for improvement of the software. Would it be possible to replace the histogram with actual frames that are send to the encoder? Like a picture in picture? Or if there is room, keep the histogram and add a lower resolution picture to the right bottom of the preview? I guess by now you have an idea where the frames are stored in memory.

Reasoning is, if scans go bad, maybe at the start, maybe at a bad seam, you could see it and restart the scan from that point. If I stop the scan and it shows all was good - next scan could go bad again, I regret to have stopped..

Thinking along further, I am not sure how much CPU time is left but as you can now add C code, we could come up with an image processing algorithm that could detect warping of the image, or mis-positioning or jittter of just the punch holes in the encoded frame perhaps?

 

[0dan0]

It is along these ideas I have been thinking of an out-of-sync detector. The current issue preventing both of these ideas, I don't know which frame is encoded. The camera in Reels runs at 25 fps, all 25 frames are exposed, and processed through the histogram (although I'm processing the preview buffer, the data sent to the LCD.) Think about the inherent design flaw, 25fps isn't divisible by two, so at best it is capture with a frame offset cadence of 13, 12, 13, 12... Somewhere I expect there is a motor trigger timer, and a related frame grab timer, I have looked but very hard to find. I want to change the timing, say 4%, so the cadence is 13,13,13... for 1.92fps. Or better have the sensor run at 24fps.

 

[0dan0]

Here is v7.2, a month more of tinkering. This add more debugging, Qp level (show the current encoding quality) and a live frame counter (mainly showing the 25 fps update rate.) When running the English language mode, "Tint" has been replaced with "Saturation".

Hacks relates to jitter, even less is running at encoder start.

 

[Erwin]

Aww thats a pity - you cant find the actual frame nor frame number that is encoded. I would guess that the frames are all dumped into one fixed buffer continuously and send to preview, then the sensor triggers and a frame is encoded, perhaps after a fixed additional delay. Easy said but to find this in obfuscated code without documentation nor online debugger, thats sounds difficult to me. Hope you will manage to get there eventually. If someone can its you!

Will test the 7.2 later this week (back to work). Thanks again!