kmc_utils -- utilities for interfacing a Kodak Motion Corder Analyzer(KMC) fast digital camera

Copyright (C) 1998 Daniel M. Mueth

Last updated: Fri Aug 23, 1999

Overview

This is version 0.3.2 of kmc_utils. This package consists of several utilities for use of Kodak Motion Corder Analyzers (KMC's) (both color and monochrome) under Linux. The KMC's have a SCSI-2 interface for transfering images and a serial interface for remote control of the KMC.
The eventual goal of kmc_utils will be to have both command line and GUI(Perl/GTK, Gnome-aware) interfaces for both SCSI and serial communcations with KMC's.

kmc_utils is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

kmc_utils is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the file LICENSE for more details.

Availability

kmc_utils has a web page at http://rainbow.uchicago.edu/~muet/linux/kmc/kmc_utils.html
This is also where the latest release of kmc_utils can be found.

Notes About this Release

This software is still under development. The programs kmc_read and kmc_control should be usable. Any other utilities may not be at all usable.

Before You Begin

kmc_read, the program used to read frames from Kodak Motion Corder Analyzers,
require generic SCSI support. Your kernel should be compiled with support for your particular SCSI driver as well as generic SCSI support. If you are using `make config', this is done as follows:

• SCSI support

• SCSI support? (CONFIG_SCSI) [n] y

• SCSI support type (disk, tape, CDrom)

• ... Scsi generic support (CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SG) [n] y

• SCSI low-level drivers

• kmc_read and kmc_view use the generic SCSI support in the kernel. Thus, the kernel version may effect these applications. For recent kernels ( >1.3.98 ), one should not encounter any problems.

Installation

Typical users should:

1. (If you have a recent KMC, you may need to uncomment the line EXTRA=-DREVERSED_RECORD_RATES=1 line in the Makefile.)
2. make
3. make install
4. You may need to use chmod to give rw permission for /dev/sg? to non-root users. eg: chmod go+rw /dev/sga
5. If you have a recent Gtk+, you may do: make kmc_play

Notes about Time Lapse Triggering and Random Triggering

A KMC can be set to RANDOM mode and remotely triggered with an external TTL signal or a software trigger using the serial connection. The program kmc_control has options allowing one to send a software trigger every T milliseconds for N times. It should be noted that the KMC's cannot be reliably triggered within an interval less than 100ms. It should also be noted that to transfer images from a KMC to a PC which were acquired in RANDOM mode, the entire memory must be filled with frames. For this reason, kmc_control will grab extra frames at the end of a Time Lapse Triggering run until the memory is full and the KMC returns to LIVE mode.

Note about Record Rates

Older KMC BIOS's had a bug which reversed the 30fps and 125fps values. If you have an older BIOS, you will need to uncomment the appropriate line in the Makefile.

Note about transfering images from a KMC

A KMC must be in "Live" mode to properly transfer images on the SCSI bus. Transfers done in "Playback" mode tend to be unreliable.

Note about adding and removing devices "on-the-fly".

Under some circumstances, it may be convenient to add or remove a KMC from a SCSI chain without rebooting(ie. if you have to "share" your KMC). If a KMC was added to the SCSI chain after the machine was booted, it can be added using:

echo "scsi add-single-device 0 0 5 0" > /proc/scsi/scsi

(where 0 0 5 0 should be replaced with the HOST ID, CHANEL, SCSI ID, LUN).

To see which devices are identified (and their HOST ID, CHANEL, SCSI ID, LUN):

cat /proc/scsi/scsi

Devices can be removed similarly to how they were added: echo "scsi remove-single-device 0 0 5 0" > /proc/scsi/scsi

For more information, see the SCSI-Programming-HOWTO.

WARNING: This should not be done on a scsi chain with a filesystem which is being accessed.

Warning/Disclaimer

Bad SCSI programming could hang the SCSI bus, which would be particularly bad if you have SCSI hard drives mounted on the same SCSI bus as the KMC.
These utilities are provided with no explicit or implicit warranties. Use at your own risk.

-- Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any problems or questions about kmc_utils. I would also be interested to know how well this software works for different configurations and what types of applications people are using it for.

Daniel M. Mueth [email protected] James Franck Institute University of Chicago