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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Birger - EF232LensLibrary19x

E

Erik Widding

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www.birger.com
PLEASE USE THIS THREAD TO DISCUSS COMPATIBILITY ISSUES, LENS BEHAVIORS, AND ANY BUGS.

EF232LensLibrary19x is a must have upgrade for your lens mount, regardless of whether it is a new or old mount. This will fix all of the issues with the 85mm lenses (1.8 tripping camera power, 1.2 manual focus), and it does not break any of the other lenses. Some of the other 19_ releases took a couple of steps backwards...


UPGRADING
********
You will need to download the PC (beta) or MAC applications to upgrade the software, or use a terminal emulation program, and follow the instructions in the user manual (command sequence for upgrade is EX, SN, XM, BL).

Connect to the mount using a standard SPP profile over BlueTooth. The operating system will then present the lens mount as a standard COM port, which our PC or MAC applications, or any terminal emulation program,, i.e. HyperTerminal, can connect to. The lens mount will report over the airwaves as "BIRGER 01234" where 01234 is the serial number for the mount originally attached to that camera adapter, and "01234" is the passcode for the BlueTooth connection.


BUTTONS
*******
There are three buttons {top, middle, bottom} and two button press durations {short, long}.

Top-Long: Move iris to wide open, initialize iris
Top-Short: Move iris incremental 1/4 stop open
Bottom-Short: Move iris incremental 1/4 stop closed
Bottom-Long: Move iris closed

Middle-Long: Do a complete focus calibration (5 to 11 seconds)
Middle-Short: Do a quick focus calibration* (1 to 2 seconds typical)

Top+Bottom: Initialize Iris
Top+Middle: toggle lens manual focus ring on/off (i.e. 85mm/1.2)
Bottom+Middle: "servo-safe-mode", eventually I will explain...​

When a lens is first attached, a top-long and a middle-long button press are needed to get the calibrations to happen on both focus and iris.

*Quick focus calibration simply finds the stops on the lens, and returns to the current knob position. This allows for eliminating any drift that might occur over time with less than fantastic lenses. L-series (red stripe) don't ever seem to drift, and most gold-stripe lenses don't seem to drift either. But some of the sigmas and tokinas still do, and we are going to be working on that shortly.


DOWNLOADS
*********
The manual:
http://www.birger.com/pdf/ef232_user_manual.pdf

The latest released library:
http://www.birger.com/drivers/EF232LensLibrary19x.bei

The PC application:
http://www.birger.com/drivers/BEI_Device_Interface_1.0_Win_XP,Vista,2000.zip

The MAC application
http://www.birger.com/drivers/BEI_Device_Interface_Mac_OS_X_1.0.0.dmg.zip
 
Upgrade worked perfectly thanks! Haven't had a chance to try it yet with its new functionality but I'm sure someone else will shortly.

Cheers,

Paul
 
Lauri Kettunen said:
Made tests with various Canon L-series lenses and teleconverters. Some observations:

i) Canon EF 400m 1:2.8 L II Ultrasonic does not function at all. Can't initialize the lens or focus it nor does it send any lens data to the camera. Has anybody tried the big teles, such as EF 500mm, 600mm or 800mm 1:4.0 L II Ultrasonic so far? I wonder whether this is a power or software issue.

ii) Canon 1.4x and 2.0x extenders work out just fine. At the first glance the image quality with say the EF 70-200mm f2.8 L Ultrasonic lens seems to be just fine. A minor issue is that the zoom length does not come through to the LCD when using the extenders.
Click to expand...

Is this with 19x? If so, post here.
 
ok...what are you taking about

ok...what are you taking about

My pc finds the birger mount. But not in the software. It searces on port 3. But my pc in says port 25...What to do?

Cheers

Bo


birgerEngineer said:
PLEASE USE THIS THREAD TO DISCUSS COMPATIBILITY ISSUES, LENS BEHAVIORS, AND ANY BUGS.

EF232LensLibrary19x is a must have upgrade for your lens mount, regardless of whether it is a new or old mount. This will fix all of the issues with the 85mm lenses (1.8 tripping camera power, 1.2 manual focus), and it does not break any of the other lenses. Some of the other 19_ releases took a couple of steps backwards...


UPGRADING
********
You will need to download the PC (beta) or MAC applications to upgrade the software, or use a terminal emulation program, and follow the instructions in the user manual (command sequence for upgrade is EX, SN, XM, BL).

Connect to the mount using a standard SPP profile over BlueTooth. The operating system will then present the lens mount as a standard COM port, which our PC or MAC applications, or any terminal emulation program,, i.e. HyperTerminal, can connect to. The lens mount will report over the airwaves as "BIRGER 01234" where 01234 is the serial number for the mount originally attached to that camera adapter, and "01234" is the passcode for the BlueTooth connection.


BUTTONS
*******
There are three buttons {top, middle, bottom} and two button press durations {short, long}.

Top-Long: Move iris to wide open, initialize iris
Top-Short: Move iris incremental 1/4 stop open
Bottom-Short: Move iris incremental 1/4 stop closed
Bottom-Long: Move iris closed

Middle-Long: Do a complete focus calibration (5 to 11 seconds)
Middle-Short: Do a quick focus calibration* (1 to 2 seconds typical)

Top+Bottom: Initialize Iris
Top+Middle: toggle lens manual focus ring on/off (i.e. 85mm/1.2)
Bottom+Middle: "servo-safe-mode", eventually I will explain...​

When a lens is first attached, a top-long and a middle-long button press are needed to get the calibrations to happen on both focus and iris.

*Quick focus calibration simply finds the stops on the lens, and returns to the current knob position. This allows for eliminating any drift that might occur over time with less than fantastic lenses. L-series (red stripe) don't ever seem to drift, and most gold-stripe lenses don't seem to drift either. But some of the sigmas and tokinas still do, and we are going to be working on that shortly.


DOWNLOADS
*********
The manual:
http://www.birger.com/pdf/ef232_user_manual.pdf

The latest released library:
http://www.birger.com/drivers/EF232LensLibrary19x.bei

The PC application:
http://www.birger.com/drivers/BEI_Device_Interface_1.0_Win_XP,Vista,2000.zip

The MAC application
http://www.birger.com/drivers/BEI_Device_Interface_Mac_OS_X_1.0.0.dmg.zip
Click to expand...
 
underwaterdop said:
My pc finds the birger mount. But not in the software. It searces on port 3. But my pc in says port 25...What to do?
Click to expand...

Call it from the command line (assuming it was installed in the default location):

"C:\Program Files\Birger Engineering\BEI Device Interface\BEI Device Interface.exe" -p25 -b115200

-p port number
-b baud rate
 
If you want to know how well a lens is going to work with the Impero for focusing, the mac and pc applications are a really good litmus test. Impero uses the same focus commands that the mac/pc apps do.

If anybody is having any issues with a particular lens, please post that here. Sigmas and Tokinas have a tendency to drift. We will be working on that shortly.
 
85mm f/1.2 Manual Focus

85mm f/1.2 Manual Focus

With 19x, all you have to do is switch the AF/MF switch to MF, and the manual focus ring on the lens will come alive... I just tested this, thanks to Billy at filmstarrentals... for loaning me the lens, and about eight others for the week.
 
Need lens in Boston for testing

Need lens in Boston for testing

I need one or more of the following lenses for testing on Saturday afternoon:

EF 400mm f/2.8L II USM
EF 500mm f/4.0L IS USM
EF 600mm f/4.0L IS USM

If anybody is able to drop one off in Boston, any time between now and and saturday afternoon, and pick it up any time after Monday morning, please PM or email me.

Ken and I are doing the final testing for the next release. I have all of the lenses that I have been told had any issues with recent software releases, except these three.
 
Build 19 info.

i/Data on the LCD show the Focal Length of the Zoom properly. My primes lenses currently just show the word "prime" when attached. Aperture shows up on the display for all lenses. Focus distance seems to be waiting for the follow focus to show up to work correctly (just guessing).

Currently the software appears to properly control via bluetooth:
Tokina 11-16mm
Canon EF-S 17-55mm
Canon 24mm 1.4 MK I
Canon 35mm 1.4
Canon 85mm 1.8

The software does not control the Sigma 50mm 1.4 The PC software actually froze with that lens attached. I'll send it to you when it works for my schedule. That lens's aperture can be controlled properly via the hardware mount, but it appears the follow focus will not work with it.

That's all the lens I've tried. Optically I'm personally happy with every lens. I'm pretty blown away by how good the 17-55mm is along with the fact that it holds focus. It does breath a bit, but it's not bad. The mechanics of the zoom are nowhere near a PL zoom, but a steady hand or a zoom motor will get you a smooth zoom.
 
Using the 16-35 2.8L II...

Everything seems to work great with the software controlling the focus and iris functions. However, I'm not getting any lens data on the screen of either the RED lcd or the EVF.
The mount is obviously not talking to the camera and I don't see how it would with the iCable tucked nicely away not connected to anything. How can the mount talk to the camera? Did I miss where this is supposed to connect somewhere?
I have obviously missed something along the way here. Please shed some light on this for me.

Also the collimate button in the software is grayed out? Any ideas there?


Thanks,

Greg





Greg
 
I was looking for this info about 2 hours ago... found a post from Jay (I think) that says you need the i-pin upgrade for it to show... otherwise you just get the info for lens, aperture and focus via the bluetooth and GUI interface.

Chris
 
Thanks. But I think the i-pin upgrade took place when the cameras were sent in for the audio board upgrade?
If so I have it. And something still needs to connect to something.

g.
 
Gregory Leno said:
The mount is obviously not talking to the camera and I don't see how it would with the iCable tucked nicely away not connected to anything. How can the mount talk to the camera? Did I miss where this is supposed to connect somewhere?
I have obviously missed something along the way here. Please shed some light on this for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is a bit of a secret handshake at the moment. I would say either wait for Jay's video which should hit today, or call Erik and see if you can pry it out of him.

The official word is "i-what?" but I think, a little bird told me, that it actually hooks into the mount in a special way at the bottom of the columation plate but be careful that the wire isn't pinched and the wire colors follow the etchings. Really talk to someone who can lead you through it and hopefully Jay's next video will show it.

That's the scoop... But you didn't hear it from me...
 
Thanks Thom,

Yeah, I actually figured it out after I posted. Not the easiest thing I've ever done. And it definitely does increase the probability of the cable being pinched. So everyone be careful.
It was made easier by unscrewing the collimation ring completely.

I'm kind of afraid to turn the thing on now. What is the worst case scenario if the cable is hooked up backwards? ... It isn't, but just wondering what would happen.



Thom Steinhoff said:
Yeah, it is a bit of a secret handshake at the moment. I would say either wait for Jay's video which should hit today, or call Erik and see if you can pry it out of him.

The official word is "i-what?" but I think, a little bird told me, that it actually hooks into the mount in a special way at the bottom of the columation plate but be careful that the wire isn't pinched and the wire colors follow the etchings. Really talk to someone who can lead you through it and hopefully Jay's next video will show it.

That's the scoop... But you didn't hear it from me...
Click to expand...
 
I want an unambiguous all clear from RED that the i-cable use for Birger mount has no warranty issues before I connect it up - but if we've been certified as qualified to self install Birger without pinching the i-cable, I see no practical reason why we can't also safely attach a keyed plug to a keyed socket with clear cable colours labelled on the PCB.

The only issue is that RED (and I) will probably want to be sure the electrical connection can't possibly affect the RED S4/i circuits adversely.
 
ericyoung said:
I want an unambiguous all clear from RED that the i-cable use for Birger mount has no warranty issues before I connect it up - but if we've been certified as qualified to self install Birger without pinching the i-cable, I see no practical reason why we can't also safely attach a keyed plug to a keyed socket with clear cable colours labelled on the PCB.

The only issue is that RED (and I) will probably want to be sure the electrical connection can't possibly affect the RED S4/i circuits adversely.
Click to expand...

Ha, ha, ha... You're like the hero in the action film asking "Are you sure it's the blue wire?"

"Yes, it's the blue wire!"... :head_explode:
 
Ok... mount is on and working. Well sort of. Footage readout does not change. Before you do a full lens check (middle button) it reads 980' all the time. After D=35' all the time. On a mac book pro with the latest OS and updates, blue tooth on the mac will see the mount but not connect with it. Neither with the Birger software. And the "01234" keycode for the mount's bluetooth is not accepted. So, things are not going very well right now.

Anyone got a step by step setup for the mac side of things? I don't what to list the other issues I have with the mount and lenses until I have the latest rev. of software in the mount.
TIA
bob
 
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