Custom viewfinder options (was: Need pinouts of FU-1000)

[Charles Papert]

I'll throw this out here once again, to see if the introduction of the XL2 has possibly opened up any inroads into this issue:

I need the pin-outs (wiring diagram) of the squarish connector for the FU-1000 B&W viewfinder, preferably from the panel jack side. Now that this has integrated into the XL2 body itself (as opposed to just appearing in the battery adaptor module for the XL1), here's hoping that someone can get their hands on the service manual that might list this. All I need is the power (9 volt DC) pins, and the video signal/ground pins. Anyone...?!

[Jonathon Wilson]

Not sure if it will help --

The FU-1000 is a Canon-branded Ikegami 1.5" viewfinder. I just went through the pains of finding the pinout for an _OLD_ Ike VF15-16 that I bought (for $9!) recently. Mine is DSub 9 connector (like RS232) so this won't help, but I'll be happy to provide what I have (it's at home, I'm at work).

Also... I got my pinout by contacting Ikegami directly through their website... he faxed the pinout directly to me. You might try this approach.

(PS - I've enjoyed your posts here, Charles -- nice to have someone with your experience maintaining such a helpful attitude. It doesn't go unnoticed)

[Jonathon Wilson]

My connector is like this:

...........
|1 2 3 4 5|
\ 6 7 8 9 /
 \-------/

where

1: +12V IN
2: GND
3: VIDEO
4: +12UR
5: GAIN
6: R.TALLY
7: ZEBRA
8: G.TALLY
9: STBY/E

For my purposes, I just needed the first three pins to take power and video signal in. I made myself a little cable which I can plug into my battery and a video composite. Works great.

This isn't the same connector as the FU-1000 (square) but the FU-1000 is an Ikegami VF, and there may be a convention with pins 1,2 & 3. Try at your own risk :)

[Charles Papert]

Thanks for posting that info, Jonathan. I think I will contact Ikegami. Alwayas meant to on this issue, but never did it. Canon was extremely tight-lipped--said the connector was "proprietary".

Good for you on getting such a great deal on that viewfinder. Very smart. It's not like B&W CRT technology has increased that radically in the past ten or fifteen years, right?

[Jonathon Wilson]

Right :)

I love my CRT viewfinder, despite its age. I definitely prefer it to the various little LCDs available to me. Now that it has its own composite video and power, I can use it for all kinds of neat things... Good luck at Ikegami... For what its worth, the very helpful guy who worked with me was Larry Cuccio. I posted an email through their website on the weekend and heard back from him by 9am Monday morning.

[John Sandel]

Charles, what are you up to? I'm looking at remapping the pinouts to invert/reverse the FU-1000's image.

[Charles Papert]

John, I've long planned to use it on my Mini35 with non-Canon cameras such as the DVX100a, or Sonys, since the rear and side mounted viewfinders on those cameras make handholding very awkward (you can't put the whole thing on your shoulder as you can with the XL1/2, due to the forward mount available for the FU1000 on the Mini35). I've got an engineer making a breakout box that will deliver the power and video, and even the viewfinder jack (from the XL1 viewfinder adaptor assembly), but we can't trace the power and video pins off the board.

[John Sandel]

Hmmmm. You're further along than I am. Please post here when you know more.

[Jonathon Wilson]

John, you're not going to have much luck flipping the viewfinder image by just fiddling with the pins. There's only two that count: video and ground. In order to flip the image, you'll need something external -- but it might be able to be done electronically (I haven't looked... worth investigating)

However -- the whole viewfinder can be flipped 180 if you're using a homebuilt adapter. I do this with mine and it works great. You have to build a mounting mechanism that holds it in the proper place, and the other problem is visibility... the inverted viewfinder is in front of your head, so its difficult to see out of your left eye unless you tip it out of the way... still -- for me it seems like a good solution to inverted image problems with homemade adapters.

(This is probably no longer appropriate for the Canon forum if it diverts into a general discussion of viewfinders... might be worth a new thread somewhere else)

[Charles Papert]

Another thing I've been wondering about is a mod that allows the viewfinder to squeeze a 16:9 image to the proper aspect ratio. I had a switch put in my broadcast monitor that does this, no reason it can't be done with the viewfinder, I think. It has something to do with adjusting the voltage of the video image--exclusive to CRT's, wouldn't be applicable to LCD.

[Greg Boston]

Charles, John, Jonathon,

CRT tubes use one of two deflection methods. Regular TV sets use electromagnetic deflection coils. Oscilloscopes and certain other applications use electrostatic scanning plates but both achieve the same objective. If you shut off the scanning voltage applied, you'll get a stationary beam dot in the center of the CRT.

If the Ike/Canon VF uses coils, then flipping and inverting the image is a piece of cake. All you do is reverse the connections to the deflection yoke coils. If you use that method, it wouild be a good idea to wire a couple switches on the outside of the VF so that you could flip/invert at will, unless you want to dedicate one VF to the mini 35 rig.

Back in the day, the only way to adjust for image tilt on a CRT was to loosen the yoke and rotate it. Of course, we sometimes rotated it 180 degrees just for the fun of watching a backwards, upside down image. Don't worry, the CRT doesn't know up, down, left, or right. It only reacts to the polarity of the applied scan voltages.

Now for the disclaimer:

WARNING: There are high voltages present inside! Do not poke around in there if you don't know what to stay away from. Get a competent technician to mod it for you.

regards,

-gb-

[Jonathon Wilson]

That's some good information, Greg! I'll have to look into this. It would be very handy to be able to flip a switch on my VF and have it rotate 180. I don't use the Tally switch on my VF anyway -- maybe some rewiring!

16:9 would be handy too... it does seem like it should be a fairly easy modification, Charles.

I hear you on the voltage... I used to work at a computer repair place, and whenver one of the techs was going anywhere near fixing the innards of a monitor, they used this special discharge stick to get rid of any stored charge. I saw one pop once... BLAM! Definitely something to be careful of...

[Charles Papert]

<<<-- Originally posted by Jonathon Wilson :(This is probably no longer appropriate for the Canon forum if it diverts into a general discussion of viewfinders... might be worth a new thread somewhere else) -->>>

Well, I've only been a moderator for like two years, and you think I would have gotten around to doing this sort of thing before, but I haven't...so this is my very first rename/moved thread! Taa-daaa!

[Chris Hurd]

He did it! Hooray! You win a cookie, Charles.

[Charles Papert]

I have cookies disabled, Chris.

(groan)