Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012 - General Chat

SticK

779

Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« on: 30 / December / 2012, 11:25:17 »

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Canon Hacker of the Year Award

I speak from my 4+ decades experience in the high-technology industry for the many talented folks in this forum who have contributed in different and often exciting and even entertaining ways to the success of the CHDKPTP and CHDK for Primary Focal Plane (PFP) operation of the S90 camera. Without their support PFP would not have been possible, and it would not have been possible to bring out the true power of the leading-edge optoelectronics and space-grade CCD signal processing this camera has.

http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=8613.msg90111#msg90111

CHDK means Canon Hack Development Kit. It could not be a more fitting description for this project that I began on the forum in early Fall 2012. It came through with flying colors.

MY NOMINEES for 2012

reyalp for his pivotal contributions in enlightening my understanding of CHDK, his primary role as the developer of CHDKPTP along with the conception of specializations specific to this project, and his diligent efforts to streamline the performance of CHDK for the S90 with numerous improvements. Thank you, reyalp.

srsa_4c is a man of little words and lots of action. He never lets anything go by without trying intensely. Many engineers like myself can be given a specification from the outset and develop a solution from the ground-up fairly easily. In contrast, when one is given an unknown technological haystack like 8 MB of convoluted multitasking Canon ARM machine code and asked to find the needle, especially when the needle is the same color as the hay, the proverbial ET in a mountain of stuffies, that requires extreme talent that is very rare on Planet Earth. For Canon, one can count on srsa_4c. I nominate srsa_4c for his efforts and successes to circumvent lens errors and camera shutdown. But most notably I elevate his nomination for his powerful solution that suppresses barrel correction in live view and image files. His successes, together with my hardware solution, catapult the S90 PFP solution into the state-of-the-art research-grade realm. Thank you, srsa_4c.

For my scientific application, this PFP solution opens doors to very exciting times ahead. For amateur astronomers, astrophotography will never be the same. This was a team effort at its finest. Congratulations and Happy New Year to everyone.

~SticK~

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Microfunguy

4037

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #1 on: 30 / December / 2012, 16:05:27 »

I would not disagree but philmoz and waterwingz have both contributed a tremendous amount of time and knowledge.

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SticK

779

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #2 on: 30 / December / 2012, 16:43:50 »

@Microfunguy
In that respect yes, I would add that you have contributed on par, and perhaps even more than philmoz or Waterwingz, in some respects. One could add msl and others to the many I would welcome in the first paragraph too ... the list goes on. But for those who have had the biggest influence on making this all possible, these are the two nominees I have put forth for the title. When the project is all done and the instrumentation is functional in a few months, I will enumerate the major contributions of everyone involved. Stay tuned.

« Last Edit: 30 / December / 2012, 17:02:31 by SticK »

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Microfunguy

4037

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #3 on: 30 / December / 2012, 17:39:08 »

Quote from: SticK on 30 / December / 2012, 16:43:50

I would add that you have contributed on par, and perhaps even more than philmoz or Waterwingz, in some respects.

I really do not think so.
Let me be clear, I do this 'stuff' to learn a little bit about 'C' programming.
I got bored with the usual tutorials that kept on mentioning "hello world", 'foo bar', etc.
Studying CHDK in a programmers playground is an ideal way to learn, I started with zero knowledge and have not finished yet.
Really, I just want to take photos.
I will spend far more time in 2013 doing just that.

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waterwingz

12138

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #4 on: 30 / December / 2012, 17:44:27 »

With all due respect for reyalp's core role in keeping CHDK together and patiently answering a ton of your questions, I think even he would agree that without srsa_4c taking the time to hack the details necessary and making custom builds for you that you would have been stuck.

Just my 2 cents worth .. I may come back and ask for change.

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Microfunguy

4037

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #5 on: 30 / December / 2012, 17:57:08 »

I am just thinking aloud, not expecting revelations, but I wonder how many contributors do 'C' programming or developing embedded systems professionally ?

« Last Edit: 30 / December / 2012, 19:30:49 by Microfunguy »

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waterwingz

12138

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #6 on: 30 / December / 2012, 18:06:08 »

Quote from: Microfunguy on 30 / December / 2012, 17:57:08

I am just thinking aloud, not expecting revelations, but I wonder how many contributors do 'C' programming or developing embeded systems professionally ?

15 years prior to getting paid a lot more to work in management ... which makes me a member of the "dark side" ...

« Last Edit: 30 / December / 2012, 18:29:20 by waterwingz »

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SticK

779

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #7 on: 30 / December / 2012, 21:13:22 »

Quote from: Microfunguy on 30 / December / 2012, 17:39:08

Quote from: SticK on 30 / December / 2012, 16:43:50
I would add that you have contributed on par, and perhaps even more than philmoz or Waterwingz, in some respects.
I really do not think so.

You have been the constant and faithful supporter of this endeavor right from the beginning, and that, counts for a lot more than you might believe.

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I am just thinking aloud, not expecting revelations, but I wonder how many contributors do 'C' programming or developing embedded systems professionally ?

I began in the late 70's with K&R C on DEC VAXes and by the mid-80's was flagged down by then MetaWare Inc of Santa Cruz to be their premier beta site because of the enormous complexity of my software. In fact they wanted to hire me then but I turned down the offer because I was not interested in compilers (I'm still not!). I was working on radio system and terrestrial wave propagation tools at the time, cell tower antenna modeling and the like, which I found challenging and rewarding, as art and science, and income. By the mid-90s I got bored too, moved to public safety systems architectural design (first 911 system in Europe - Spain - to use GPS for EMS dispatch). I think by that time I had written 1/2 million lines of code, most of it C and C++. I turned to embedded systems in 00s, I think it was 2003 or so, with the first Rabbit microcontroller (Z80 instruction set) for POS terminals // boring // I lasted only a year. I no longer program as you might know, but I do bank on some left-over stored knowledge to help develop instrumentation that looks for ancient terrestrial and extraterrestrial life. I feel it has become a noble cause for me to pursue at this time.

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Studying CHDK in a programmers playground is an ideal way to learn, I started with zero knowledge and have not finished yet.

By the way, I managed to stuff the SticK Shutter Controller into the MECHA simulator MCU

. It just needs two extra 8-SOICs and everything fits snugly into the S90 battery compartment

// will show later. So now the MCU is not just for unstow/stow lens simulation, but is a full participant in the photography. Everything is working on the bench. Once all's done and integrated, I will give you thorough explanation of the code.

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Really, I just want to take photos.

So do I. This has been very long and tedious, but for me, it's another good two months before I can take my first shot.

« Last Edit: 30 / December / 2012, 21:32:08 by SticK »

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waterwingz

12138

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #8 on: 30 / December / 2012, 21:26:05 »

Quote from: SticK on 30 / December / 2012, 21:13:22

So do I. This has been very long and tedious, but for me, it's another good two months before I can take my first shot.

I'm thinking its at best a 50:50 shot that anything gets published. Based not on your "best intentions" but the history of "best intentions" here on the CHDK fourm. Time will tell.

« Last Edit: 30 / December / 2012, 21:28:45 by waterwingz »

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SticK

779

Re: Nominees for the Canon Hacker of the Year Award - 2012

« Reply #9 on: 30 / December / 2012, 21:43:42 »

Quote from: waterwingz on 30 / December / 2012, 21:26:05

I'm thinking its at best a 50:50 shot that anything gets published. Based not on your "best intentions" but the history of "best intentions" here on the CHDK fourm. Time will tell.

Intentions are the driving force, but certainly the reality much lower than 50:50, much lower, so don't hold your breath.

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I think even he would agree that without srsa_4c taking the time to hack the details necessary and making custom builds for you that you would have been stuck.

Perhaps you know reyalp so well you can advocate for him but I can safely say that without CHDKPTP *and* without srsa's contributions, there would be no solution. Custom builds for me only? Have a look here: http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=9067.msg94154#msg94154. Ten downloads is not many yet, but who knows, there may be users already.

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