Welcome back to the world of apertus°.
... Home of FOSS, open hardware, professional digital cinema and imaging tools.
If you're unfamiliar with the project then AXIOM Beta is the first cinema camera built around FOSS licenses. Other hardware devices such as AXIOM Remote and software like the RAW processing suite OpenCine are also being developed alongside. All software and hardware are made open source and open hardware.
Production
As you know, up to now, all AXIOM Beta Developer Kits have been hand-assembled. Where scaling-up production for the ABCP is
concerned this wouldn’t be practical. Across 2018 we’ve been evaluating options for a mass-production run of the
camera’s printed circuit boards. You’ll be pleased to know that, whilst things aren’t finalised at this stage,
we’ve refined the options to the most appropriate candidates. For those of you who’ve been waiting patiently, which
we’re very grateful for, be assured that negotiations are starting to look realistic and that there’s light at the
end of the tunnel. As usual we'll keep you informed of all developments.
AXIOM WebRemote
Thanks to BAndiT1983, excellent progress has been made on the camera’s internal control daemon - a central software
keystone that is meant to deal with any parameter change related to the image sensor or image sensor processing
pipeline - This is required for remote-controlling the camera. Initial development is now almost completed.
apertus° Labs: Task 939
AXIOM PhotonSDI Plugin Module V2 Bring-up
The second generation of the AXIOM PhotonSDI plugin module’s printed circuit boards have been received from OSHPark
and part-populated. This month the module’s developer, Felix Held, visited Vienna to work on its software. The
tests that were conducted on this, partially populated, prototype of the hardware showed that it’s functioning
correctly albeit with some minor issues that will be fixed in the next revision. On gateware: PhotonSDI code is
currently being developed in several building blocks that will be connected together and tested as a
whole eventually, and interfacing between the plugin module and the camera is work in progress.
Dark Box
In order to work on colour science and experimental RAW recording, members of the Magic Lantern team
require 24/7 access to an AXIOM Beta Developer Kit test camera. Recently a dark-box was built to
facilitate this and remaining tasks are mainly documentation/calibration related.
Remote access to the test camera is possible for anyone who’d like to work on the camera’s software and
access credentials will be granted on request.
AXIOM Remote
Concepts for the AXIOM Remote enclosure have been 3D printed. Refinements related to its attachment
mechanism (to the camera) are being made now (this is the first step towards ordering aluminium milled
parts). The concept GUI of the AXIOM Remote is also progressing with a general menu navigation
prototype fully working, plus a template camera parameter “page” being operational as well.
WebRemote Desktop
The AXIOM WebRemote is designed to be cross platform compatible and is served to any device connecting
to an AXIOM Beta over a network connection (wifi or wired). It will also be packaged as a desktop application (again
for any platform) as demonstrated by Francis Pimenta.
New Style Articles
We're transforming the website content to a new layout one page/article after the other so
expect to see content slowly improving.
Some popular highlights from the articles archive would be:
If you're looking for a task to get into AXIOM Beta development you might consider the following a good starting point (we're happy to support you on getting started and answer any questions - get in touch with us):
USB Module Gearwork
The AXIOM Beta will feature a USB 3.0 Plugin Module with a Lattice FPGA and FTDI FT600/FT601 to transfer raw video
data via USB. The hardware is complete and available to a handful of developers: Immediate goals are to implement
gearwork and communication interface, implement link training, and to simulate/test the interface and gearwork. HDL
and SERDES Know-how required.
To correspond, a PC-side receiver is reliant on the successful completion of this task.
apertus° Labs: Task 885
Further Links
Want to participate?
Want to provide feedback or suggest improvements? Want to try your own approach and need help?
Get in touch via IRC or email.
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