The Upgrades
over 9 years ago – Tue, May 26, 2015 at 08:42:01 AM

I’ve had many questions about the upgrades that have been mentioned during the progress of this project. All will now be revealed.

Firstly, as I stated when I first mentioned the 4K upgrade, I did not really want to start thinking about next generations of the fps1000 until the current models were in the hands of backers. I had envisioned that the next version would be the subject of a future kickstarter campaign (and still do). However, I realised that many backers would be upset by the announcement of new versions soon after they had received their camera. So I feel it's only fair to offer these upgrades to existing backers.

Although the new camera design can easily take faster and higher resolution sensors by changing the sensor board, it is not an upgrade that I would be happy for users to do after initial shipment - there would be warranty issues etc. So the upgrade would have to be done before shipping.

Before discussing the upgrades there are two important points that I must make first:

1) The information presented here is to the best of my knowledge currently and is subject to change.

2) You do not need to upgrade. You can opt for delivery of your original order at no extra cost.

So here are the options. They are all designed and the sensors identified and are just subject to testing and delivery of the sensors, most of which are new. All options are achieved with just a change in sensor board - the main board, LCD display, case and software features are otherwise identical.

The 4K upgrade

This is the one that has been most talked about. The most popular 4K high frame rate sensor that is used in many currently available cameras is the CMOSIS CMV12000. This does indeed have very impressive frame rates but suffers from 2 drawbacks: sensitivity is quite poor and frame rate does not scale as horizontal resolution is reduced, but only scales with a reduction in Y resolution. This is a real shame as a lot of that bandwidth is lost when using lower resolutions. But there is a new kid on the block - a 4K sensor with double the sensitivity and scaling in horizontal and vertical resolutions. The maximum frame rate at 4K is slightly lower (about 240 fps vs the 300fps of the CMOSIS chip) but at all other resolutions it is faster - see the table below for details. I’d rather not offer 2 different 4K versions so would prefer to just use the newer sensor. If you don’t agree with this choice then please let me know. The delivery date for this option is largely governed by the availability of the new sensor. The cost of this upgrade is also a special price to existing backers - expect the retail price of the 4K to be higher. The upgrade price just covers the cost of the sensor and increased memory.

The Double Platinum Upgrade 

Why double? Everything is doubled: Memory bandwidth, memory size and frame rate. This means 1280 x 720 HD @ 1,200 fps and 64 GBytes of memory. At 640 x 480 the frame rate is 3,500 fps. The only reduced spec is the resolution which is limited to 1280 x 1024. If you need 1080 FHD then stay with the standard Platinum, but if your main interest is in HD then this is an amazing performance for very little upgrade cost. The special low upgrade price for current backers basically covers the cost of the extra memory. Why am I offering this at such a low price? Because I’m always watching the ultimate end user price - and my goal here is to offer 1,000+ fps at HD resolution at £1,500 retail. This is groundbreaking price/performance. The sensor board has been developed and is very similar to the current Platinum board so delivery time for this option is very soon after the Platinum. Refer to the table below for full details on performance, price and delivery.

The Hex Platinum Upgrade

This option is limited to 1280 x 860 but the performance is over 6x the standard Platinum. Yes, 6x. That’s 1280 x 720 HD @4,000fps. At 640 x 480 this goes up to 6,500 fps. To achieve this incredible bandwidth of over 40 GBits/sec the memory size doubles again to 128 GBytes. The sensor used is super-sensitive as you would expect at these extreme frame rates with a massive 13.7 micron pixel size (the pixel size in a typical phone camera by comparison is around 1 micron). This is the top performance board if you want HD at maximum frame rate.

Performance Summary Table

How the Upgrade Process Works

So now is the time to make this difficult choice. If you’re happy with the standard Platinum then you’re all set. Tell me to go ahead with production and there is nothing more to do. If you want one of the upgrades then you can opt to wait. There is nothing to pay now, but the upgrade price will be due about 8 weeks before shipment date to secure the sensors - all other components will have been bought and the main board assembled. For the Double, the wait is relatively short and the upgrade price will be collected soon.

Even if you have stated that you do not want to upgrade you are still eligible to upgrade.

To tell me your upgrade choice please message me privately through kickstarter or email me at [email protected]. Your message can be a simple one word choice: Double / Hex / 4K / None. I will respond individually to confirm your choice. If you have any comments or questions then please also message me. I will respond as quickly as I can. Details about how to pay will be provided soon.

My goal is to make the fps1000 the most powerful, low cost high speed camera available. Thank you all for your patience and support.

Upgrades - Last Call
over 9 years ago – Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 11:40:37 AM

Thanks to everyone who has sent me their upgrade choice. This is the last call for responses. 

if you haven't done so yet, let me know your upgrade choice by emailing me at [email protected] or messaging me with your choice: none / double / hex / 4K.

For those that haven't responded by the end of this weekend, I will assume you are happy to keep with the standard Platinum.

Don't worry about me not receiving your choice - I will contact you individually to confirm.

Reminder about Platinum Upgrade Choices
over 9 years ago – Fri, Apr 10, 2015 at 03:52:03 PM

I am keen to get all of your responses for the upgrades / no upgrades as soon as possible. About a third of you have responded so far for which I thank you. The sooner I can get all responses, the sooner I can place firm orders for sensors.

So please, if you haven't done so yet, let me know your upgrade choice as soon as possible by emailing me at [email protected] or messaging me with your choice: none / double / hex / 4K.

Even if you don't want to upgrade then please let me know by sending me a 'none' message so I know that you have voted positively. Any non responses will be counted as none votes but I'd rather be sure.

Note this applies to Platinum orders only. You don't need to respond if you have ordered a Silver or Gold. However, if you want to upgrade from a Silver or Gold to a Platinum upgrade then please contact me.

Thank you.

Upgrades and Pre-Orders
over 9 years ago – Tue, Apr 07, 2015 at 03:51:00 PM

I just want to clarify the fact that all pre-order customers are also eligible for the upgrades at the same incremental costs as original kickstarter backers.

Thanks to those of you who have already replied with your upgrade choices. If you haven't done so yet please let me know your upgrade choice as soon as possible by emailing me at [email protected] or messaging me with your choice: none / double / hex / 4K.

I will email you back confirming your choice after I have received all replies so don't worry if you don't get an immediate reply - I won't forget anyone.

New Motherboards / Sensor board update
over 9 years ago – Sat, Apr 04, 2015 at 02:03:55 PM

The new motherboard has arrived! As I explained in my last post the camera is now split into two boards. The motherboard is the same for all fps1000 models, it's just the sensor board with memory that is different for each. The motherboard houses the batteries, the connectors, the LCD controller and the new DSP processor. The sensor board plugs neatly onto the motherboard providing a low profile board combination. Here are a few photos:

The new DSP is mounted underneath the motherboard. I'm afraid I'm keeping this under wraps for a little longer to keep the competition at bay! It's going to make a big difference to the performance and available functions of the new camera.

As development progresses I am having to make minor changes to the design to make sure that it gets into production as soon as possible but without compromising the fundamental design goals. As a result of this there are two changes to the feature set of the camera. Firstly, I have decided to drop the HDMI output. This was not part of the original stretch goals but was added into the new design as a nice to have. Although it does not involve too much extra hardware it would mean a considerable delay in delivering the finished camera because of the extra software and testing. I want to keep things as simple as possible and it is not of fundamental importance to most users so I'm afraid it had to go.

Secondly I have had a long think about the hardware architecture from a processing point of view. When I made the design modifications I wanted to add some serious processing muscle to allow me to add lots of nice features to make the camera more usable. This includes features such as focus assist and fast image compression. There are lots of other ideas that I plan with regular software updates. This is the reason I have included a DSP processor. I spent a lot of time selecting a processor. It had to satisfy a number of important requirements:

• It had to be low power in line with these rest of the design and to conserve the batteries
• It has to have on-chip image processing hardware assist with an instruction set that could effectively utilise it
• It had to be supported with software development tools with good support both from the chip vendor and third parties
• It had to be possible to feed data through the processor very quickly - there's no point having a fast processor if you can't get data into and out of the processor

I'm very happy with the choice I've made - more details will be revealed in a future update.

At this point I was left with a fast DSP processor that had access to all of the on-board hardware in a streamlined architecture plus the ARM cpu that was largely redundant. The only sensible thing to do from a design perspective was to drop the ARM processor. It really is no longer needed. I know this will disappoint some of you that plan to write software for the board. However, you will still be able to develop software for the DSP processor. I still aim to make the architecture open for user-programmability. The development software and languages available for the DSP processor are similar to those available for ARM processors. And you will have much more powerful hardware under your control.

If the change in processor strategy does affect you and you want to discuss this further then please message me and I can discuss it with you.

Initial Testing

Although I received the boards only yesterday I've already done some basic testing. Firstly they passed the smoke test (literally, the first test of new hardware is to switch it on and see if any components go up in smoke!). All the power supplies are basically working and I was able to plug a sensor board on top (thankfully the connectors lined up!) and power it for the first time from its own battery. I also plugged in the LCD display which powered up fine. Encouragaing first steps.

Sensor Board Update

The Sensor board has been on the test bench for just over a week and it is gradually coming to life. So far no problems have been found and the board is producing some nice images. There is a lot more to test so fingers crossed. Well over 50% of the board has been exercised so far.

One pleasant surprise I had as the board sprang into life was how much more sensitive it seemed to be to low level lighting conditions. This prompted me to check the new data sheet and sure enough the new sensors are almost twice as sensitive to light as the older range across the board!

Exciting times. I'll keep you posted on progress.

Sincerest thanks again to all of you for your kind messages and continued support. Together we are making history.