Food Living Outside Play Technology Workshop

Cinema Slate
by SpaceShipOne on May 26, 2013

Table of Contents

Cinema Slate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Cinema Slate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2: Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 3: Code: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 4: Real Time Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 5: LED control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 6: Building the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 7: Tweaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 8: Building the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 9: Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 10: Front panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Step 11: Final Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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Intro: Cinema Slate
I have always been very much interested in the behind-the-scenes aspect of film-making; all the gear that goes into a single shoot. As a college student I even had the
opportunity to show movies on 35mm film. As a result of all this I wanted to make something that looked like it belonged on a movie set.

One of the most recognizable tools using in film making is the clapperboard, or "film slate" as it is sometimes known. This tool has been around since the beginning of
movie-making and is used to synchronize the sound and image during a shoot. Modern slates have a digital display in addition to the scene, take, etc. which is use to
display the timecode. My idea was to make a slate that would replace the timecode with the current time of day. I also wanted it to look as realistic as possible and
incorporate as many features of an actual film slate as possible.

Step 1: Research
I started by looking around for existing film slates that are used for the intended purpose. Denecke, Inc. makes a large range of timecode equipment for the movie
industry and I decided to base my design around the TS-3, which is their full featured time slate.

Image Notes
1. The Denecke TS-3 (Wikipedia)

Step 2: Electronics
After studying images and videos of the TS-3 in use I determined that the display consisted of 8 seven segment LED displays. 2 digits each are used for the hours,
minutes and seconds. If you look at videos of the slate in use, you will notice that the last 2 digits are not for the 1/100th of a second, but for the frame number. I opted to
use those last two digits for 1/30th of a second (30 frames per second) but I can always go back and change that in the code to 1/100ths or whatever I want to split the
seconds into.

To run the display I decided to use an Arduino. I am fairly familiar with them and it seemed like a simple solution. I started with my Duemilanove for prototyping and then
migrated to a Atmega328 which was mounted onto the circuit board.

Here is a list of the components I used.

Atmega 328p
16MHz crystal+ 22pf load capacitors
MAX7219
(8) seven segment LED display
DS3234 Real Time Clock
100 nanofarad capacitors
10 microfarad capacitors
A1126 Hall effect sensor

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Breadboard/perfboard
Wire (I used wire wrapping wire because of its small diameter)
USB to FTDI (for programming the arduino, not necessary if you are using a different microcontroller)
Lithium battery (2000 mAh 3.7v from Sparkfun)
PowerCell (to charge the battery and supply 5v to the rest of the electronics, also Sparkfun)

Step 3: Code: 1
This is probably the most difficult part of this entire project (for me anyway). All of my previous Arduino sketches have been fairly simple, non time critical programs. With
a clock timing is everything. It was imperative that the code run as smoothly and quickly as possible. Any delay in the process could potentially throw the entire clock off.

One of my friends recommended using an interrupt sequence to control the timing. This way I could ensure that at every 1/30 of a second the interrupt would fire and add
1 to the smallest time interval, in this case the 1/30s of a second. The interrupt would also prevent the timing from being thrown off. To accomplish this is used the Timer1
on the Arduino and configured it as a Compare Match timer. Basically, the timer counts during every clock cycle of the micro-controller, and once it reaches a predefined
number, it triggers the Interrupt Service Routine, or ISR. Explaining how this works is beyond the scope of this instructable, but there is a considerable amount of
information on the web as well as numerous instructables that explain this concept very thoroughly.

I have attached the most recent code. I used some of the code for the display from Blair Thompson at www.justblair.co.uk

File Downloads

Clock4.ino (7 KB)
[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'Clock4.ino']
Step 4: Real Time Clock
While the arduino is fairly consistent in its clock cycles, it relies on a crystal to generate the clock signal (in my case 16 MHz). These crystals are accurate but are prone
to speeding up or slowing down depending on the temperature. I could spend a considerable sum on a very accurate, temperature compensated crystal (TCXO), or get
something that would keep time for me, which I could check against the arduino time and use as a reference. I chose the D3234 from Sparkfun. This 20 dollar chip
contains its own TCXO and is accurate to within 2ppm. It has a battery backup so if the clock loses power, it won't forget what time it is. It also stores the date which could
come in handy later.

In later pictures you will see that I switched to right angle headers for the RTC. This was to make the overall design thinner.

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 Image Notes
1. Sparkfun has most of the electronics I used, and they are a great resource.

Step 5: LED control

The LED displays require a lot of IO lines, far more than an Atmega328 can handle. Instead of using shift registers to handle all the additional IOs, I used the Maxim
MAX7129. This chip can handle up to 8 digits and takes care of all the multiplexing. It also only needs one resistor to set the currents for the LED segments and
communicates over an SPI-like protocol, which is explained in the datasheet. It also takes a lot of the processing load off of the Atmega, allowing the arduino to focus on
keeping time.

Be sure to consult the datasheet of the LED displays before buying them if you plan to use this chip. The 7219 is designed to run common cathode displays. If you are
using common anode displays it can still work (I think) but it requires some rewiring.

Image Notes
1. This is a basic schematic of how the MAX7219 controls the LEDs

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Step 6: Building the Display
I assembled a rudimentary code and began building the display. The entire circuit was built on a perf board I obtained from Radio Shack. I didn't take very many pictures
during this part of the build but you can see the finished product below. There is a lot of wiring that needs to be done. Each LED display needs to be hooked up to the
ABCEDFG lines on the MAX7219 and each segment needs to be wired to the 12345678 lines. I also hooked up the Atmega and the pins for the RTC. My advice is do
each component separately because it is easy to confuse which wires are going where.

Be sure to follow the guidelines in the datasheet for the 7219 chip as it is important that the pins of the led display get hooked up to the correct pins on the controller.
Otherwise, when the controller prints a "3" it might light up the wrong segments.

The majority of the components are soldered to the back of the board for easy access in a kind of "pseudo-surface mount" method. The rest of the thru hole components
(crystal, caps) were soldered from the front.

One VERY important note is the decoupling capacitors. These are placed on the RTC and the led driver to prevent noise in the power lines from interfering with other
components. Before I installed these, the RTC would gain time at an astonishing rate, around 2 minutes per day, well outside of the 2ppm spec. I never really figured out
why this happened, but surmise it could have been a result of voltage spikes on the ground lines.

In the last picture you can see the change I made to the final circuit. All that really changed was the position of the RTC and the addition of the PowerCell

Image Notes Image Notes

1. Atmega 328 1. A LOT of daisy chain wiring
2. MAX7219
3. RTC header

Image Notes Image Notes

1. This was only used for testing, and was replaced with the PowerCell 1. USB to FTDI

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Step 7: Tweaking
Once I had this thing assembled (which involved some considerable troubleshooting culminating in a incorrectly wired reset pin), I loaded the code and let it run for
several hours. The Arduino was able to keep accurate time over the course of a day. The clock has been running for at least a month and is still within 1 second of the
atomic clock I set it to. The clock function can also be skewed by inconsistencies in the crystal, so play around with the CTC number until the time is more or less
constant. Remember the RTC is going to be resetting the clock every night, so don't worry too much about getting it exact.

Step 8: Building the Case

Now comes the easy, if somewhat more time consuming part, building the case. Since I was trying to make this look as accurate as possible I tried to copy the case
design as well. I picked up some aluminum sheet for the frame and some hardwood for the sticks. You want to use hardwood so it makes a nice loud "clack" when you
close the sticks.

The aluminum sheet is .090" and is used to give some structural stability to the slate. In retrospect this is overkill, as it took considerable effort to bend the top into the 90
degree angle (I did not have a break). .050 or less would probably have sufficed. The hole was cut out of the middle for the display.

Building the stick took a little more creative effort. Selecting the wood is vital to the sound the sticks make when they close. You want a distinctive "clap", not "click" or
"clock, thud, thonk" etc. Hardwoods are ideal for this purpose. The TS-3 uses Walnut so I went to a hardwood specialty store. The best way to select a wood is to get two
pieces of the same wood and bring their edges together like a slate, listening to the sound. I went with Canary wood, which produced a good sound and was relatively
inexpensive ($6 for a 8x16 plank)

The acrylic was purchased online. I needed a white background and a translucent red window. Cutting the acrylic was somewhat difficult but I had good results using an
oscillating tool, which produced straighter and cleaner edges than a saw. If you have a laser cutter that is definitely the best and most accurate method.

The window cut out of the white acrylic is larger than the hole for in the aluminum so that the red window cover could sit on top of the lip of the aluminum sheet.

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 Image Notes
1. aluminum support plate

Image Notes Image Notes

1. dents and nicks from hammering this angle 1. White frame

Image Notes
1. Window fit check

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 Image Notes
1. canary wood

Step 9: Assembly
To secure the display I drilled 4 holes in the aluminum and tapped them for 6/32 machine bolts. The bolts were trimmed to sit flush with the surface of the aluminum when
fully seated. If you are using thinner metal you may need to use standoffs or some other means of attaching the display as the metal will have too few threads to hold.
Standoffs placed between the back of the sheet and the display ensure that the surface of the display was flush with the surface of the aluminum

On top of the aluminum I glued a reflective sheet to make the white acrylic appear brighter and to hide the screw holes and imperfections in the metal. This is because I
was going to include a EL backlight behind the acrylic, similar to what the TS-3 uses. The acrylic was therefore somewhat translucent to let the light through. I decided not
to incorporate an EL panel since it didn't seem all that useful and would have added unnecessary weight. The inverter also ran of of 12v which is higher than the rest of
the circuit. I may pursue it in another build. Opaque acrylic would be better if you are not using an EL backlight.

The acrylic is then attached to the reflective sheet using epoxy.

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 Image Notes
1. epoxy is sort of visible, needed more opaque white

Step 10: Front panel

The lines are painted on using a flat black enamel spray paint. I masked the front with tape and applied several coats.

For the sticks on top I decided to copy the multicolored version of the TS-3. On the actual time slate they are calibrated colors, similar to what a photographer would use
so he can do color correction later. Rather than spend money on an actual color calibration chart (and they aren't cheap) I went to the Home Deport paint section and
picked up a bunch of those colored paper things they have for you to look at when you buy paint. The advantage is there is usually a very wide selection between
different manufacturers so you can mix and match until you are satisfied. I glued them to a piece of cardstock with rubber cement and glued that to the wood. Since this is
a wall clock I wont be handling it very much so the paper should last a while.

The sticks are held together using pieces of aluminum I cut out and filed into shape. They were also painted with the flat enamel. the top assembly is then screwed to the
board

Two magnets, one in the moving stick and one in the stationary stick, ensure that they close with a clean "clap" and also prevents them from swinging around while not
being used. A second magnet on the upper arm activates the date when the clapper closes.

I built a small box out of leftover acrylic to hide and protect the electronics. It also has a hole for the brightness adjustment and a toggle switch to turn it on and off. A DC
barrel jack is used for power/ charging.

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 Image Notes Image Notes
1. Lines to be painted 1. ta-da!

Image Notes Image Notes

1. clear stickers printed using a label printer for all the titles 1. stick sub assembly

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 Image Notes Image Notes
1. aluminum support bracket 1. pivot pieces

Step 11: Final Comments

The slate works very well and keeps accurate time. The battery lasts about 18 hours but that depends on how bright your display is. If you turn the display off (after
midnight when no one is looking at it for example) it will last much longer. A bigger battery will also increase the run time. I simply leave it plugged into the power.

Image Notes
1. All done! Just needs the film info

Image Notes
1. These magnets keep the back plate on

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 Image Notes Image Notes
1. Date is displayed when the sticks are closed 1. Hall effect switch
2. Small rare earth magnet

Image Notes
1. Weaker magnet to trigger the hall effect sensor
2. Magnet to close the sticks

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