Saturday, July 17, 2010

KFLOP + BFG SOFTWARE


A new toy arrived this week. It's a modified KFLOP motion control board. Gerald Thompson is a Motion Control Operator who has set out to create his own software for the board with all of the features (and more!) he has come to expect over the years from using industry tools such as Kuper and the like.

I am very interested in his ventures. Coming from the post production side of the film industry, I have always been interested in repeatable motion control photography for use in visual effects. For the last couple of years I have been tinkering with the Arduino as an introduction to electronics and it has taught me a lot. But I have decided that a full featured dedicated motion control board is the way to go (for me) if I am ever going to make some images before I grow tired of the pursuit.

Gerald has shown me a relatively affordable way to do this. I am hoping to be able to consolidate some of the ideas previously mentioned on this blog for use with the KFLOP.

8 comments:

Matthias said...

Hi Dan,

I just ordered the board from Gerald, can't wait to get it...
great to see somebody else use it too...

Best,

Matthias

Anonymous said...

I am interested in the KFLOP as well. I emailed Gerald and he gave the brief lowdown. What are your opinions after receiving yours. Experiences.

Thanks
RC Fisher

Dan Thompson said...

Hey Guys,

I haven't had that much time to test it out yet. I am still building a opto board for triggering my camera and a protoboard with two easydrivers attatched so I can put it through it's paces with two motors. Initial thoughts the are good. Software only works on 32-bit currently, but it seems to be well thought out in terms of it's feature set. I will post more findings as I go.

Anonymous said...

What is the size of the KFLOP board. I really want a moco system smaller and a bit less expensive than Kuper. My current kuper is large and tough to use in the middle of nowhere with a small crew. As soon as I have a bit of extra funds I will buy one of these.

Cheers
RC Fisher

Unknown said...

Really cool blog!
Thanks for a lot of such interesting information!

Jim L said...

Hi Dan,
I too am interested in this solution. I've emailed Gerald Thompson, but haven't received a response. Do you know roughly what the cost of the board and software is? It looks like it will pretty much do exactly what I need.

Dan Thompson said...

Hi Jim,

He is usually fairly prompt to respond. Since there is no official pricing listed I am reluctant to give out actual figures. But if you get a costing on the board from the kmotion website and then add some labor costs for wiring and software tweaking and your will be in the ball park.

Cheers.

Jim L said...

Hi Dan,
Gerald replied with a very gracious amount of information. He is working on some improvements at this time and the pricing will be favorable. I wouldn't have expected an exact quote from the blog anyway. I was thinking along the lines of how many zeros.

I noticed that you were looking for more info on the ServoCity pan/tilt head. I haven't purchased one yet, but I'm considering it for use with Gerald's stuff, although he expressed some reservation about the use of belt drives.

I'll likely test with a single axes setup of my own making to determine whether to go with the ServoCity solution. They ended their introductory price so now it is $1500. I didn't think they would really do that. Maybe they will sell it to me for less if I don't need their motors or controller. Anyway...More to follow as things "move along"...
Jim L