Absolute zero apS C830 User Manual

1

Absolute Zero ApS

www.absolutezerovr.com

User Manual

C830 Version

2

!

LIST OF CONTENT

1. COMMAND LIST ................................................................................................................................. 3

2. THE CAMERA ...................................................................................................................................... 4

3. GETTING STARTED............................................................................................................................... 5

4. RECORDING VIDEO ........................................................................................................................... 7

5. PICTURE MODE / TIME LAPSE ............................................................................................................ 8

6. RECORDING SOUND .......................................................................................................................... 9

7. COMMANDS IN DETAIL ................................................................................................................... 10

8. DATA TRANSFER ............................................................................................................................... 12

8.1 Video file extraction for iOS .......................................................................................................... 13

8.2 Video file extraction for Windows OS ......................................................................................... 14

9. POST PROCESSING .......................................................................................................................... 15

10. BATTERY CHARGING ..................................................................................................................... 16

11. DOs AND DON’Ts OF C830 ........................................................................................................... 17

RELATED LINKS

1. Adafruit Bluefruit LE Remote Control App: iOS / Android

2. Extraction Script for iOS

3. Extraction Script for Windows (AUG 17’)

4. Absolute Zero Stitching Template for AutoPano

In need of technical support, please contact:

Bartosz Domagalski, CTO

[e-mail]

3

1. COMMAND LIST (used in the Bluefruit LE app)

a: adjust settings
c: check settings
d: video high dynamic range
1: off
2: on
3: enhanced brightness
e: color effect
0: standard
1: mono
2: sepia
3: cool
4: cooler
5: warm
6: warmer
7: vivid
f: video format
1: MOV
2: AVI
3: MP4
4: WAV (sound only)
m: manual AE/AWB lock
0: off
1: AE and AWB
2: Auto Exposure only
3: Auto White Balance only
t: time lapse
0: off (picture mode)
1: 0.5s
2: 1s
3: 2s
4: 5s
5: 10s
6: 30s
7: 60s
8: 2min
9: 5min
w: white balance
1: auto
2: sunny (5000-6500K)
3: cloudy (9000-10000K)
4: tungsten (2500-3500K)
5: fluorescent (4000-5000K)
q: quit
b: beep
c: check settings
d: data transfer start
i: info
m: manual AE/AWB lock
p: take picture/start time lapse
r: start recording
s: stop current action
q: quiet mode

l: list available commands (in any given state)

4

2. THE CAMERA

Absolute Zero’s C380 is the latest 360-degree solution for professional video shooting. The
system is built on 12-lenses and 12-microphones. Technical specifications are as follows:

Resolution Video

7680 x 3840 (28 MP)

Resolution Photo

10782 x 5391(58 MP)

Frame Rate

30 FPS

Battery Life

150 minutes

Bit Rate

18.000kbps

Diameter

20cm

File Format

MP4, MOV, AVI, WAV, JPEG

Weight

1.5 kg

Field of View

360° x 180°

Connectivity

iOS / Android

The latest information can always be found in the on-line datasheet.

5

!

!

3. GETTING STARTED

The camera’s top is marked by the Absolute Zero logos. The tripod mounts can be found on
both top and bottom. The lenses are positioned (tilted) to optimize filming in the assumed
position. That means the results will equally good, if you film with the camera upside-down.

Make sure the camera is always protected against dust and rain.

To turn the camera ON/OFF use the only button, found beneath lens nr. 6:

1. Quick push turns the power ON. It takes about 60 seconds for the camera to initialise.

2. Long 3 second push of the button turns the power OFF. It is recommended to always
send ‘s’ or ‘stop’, before turning the power off. This stops any ongoing process and ensures
the lens modules have been properly shutdown.

Picture 2: Push-button location

The Bluetooth status is displayed with the blue LED located on the push-button. The LED has
three programmed states:

1. Initialisation - LED is ON, when camera is first turned on (60 seconds).

2. Ready to connect - LED is blinking, when waiting for user to connect.

3. Connected - LED is ON, when Bluetooth connection is enabled.

The blue LED can be disabled while in quiet mode.

6

In order to use the camera, you must first download and install the Adafruit Bluefruit LE app.
See page 2 for the download links.

a) Enable Bluetooth on your smart-phone.

b) Open Bluefruit app.

c) Locate device called ‘360@AZ_’.

d) Press ‘Connect’ next to it.

e) Press ‘Uart’ button located on the

bottom of the device screen.

f) You can now send and receive text via

command line like interface.

7

!

!

4. RECORDING VIDEO

The camera works best while being stationary during recordings. This means, that it is a good
idea to place it on a solid tripod. The best results are achieved with minimum distance of one
meter to any moving objects.

To avoid parallax errors, focus the individual lenses on to the most important
objects you want to record.

You are now ready to shoot. Type ‘rec’ or simply ‘r’ in the command line. You will see
confirmation on the screen, when the camera starts to record and you will hear 1s long beep
at the 5s mark. The latter is used to synchronize individual videos, during the stitching process.

To finish recording, type ‘stop’ or just ‘s’. The camera will confirm, that the recording has been
concluded and give an indication of the length of the video with 1s accuracy.

The camera’s battery runtime lasts for about 150 minutes of video recording. Note that the
hardware has a safety limit, meaning the recording will restart every 30 minutes. The
recording can also stop due to lack of storage space, so keep in mind to clear out the data,
when shooting longer videos.

During recording:

If you send ‘rec’ or ‘r’ during recording, the current recording will stop and another recording
will commence. You may use all of the available commands during the recording, such as:

‘info’ or ‘i’ to display of the elapsed time, ‘check’ or ‘c’ to check the current settings, and
‘manual’ or ‘m’ to manually lock the exposure and/or white balance, depending on what

the current setting is.

8

!

!

5. PICTURE MODE / TIME LAPSE

To enter PICTURE MODE and take a picture, simply pres ‘pic’ or ‘p’. Repeat that, for every
picture you need to take until you want to exit PICTURE MODE. That is done by pressing ‘stop’
or ‘s’.

When taking pictures; be mindful that it takes about 15 seconds to enter PICTURE MODE and
take the first picture. After the first picture, all the consecutive pictures are taken
immediately, until PICTURE MODE is turned off.

To record in time lapse, it has to first be enabled in the settings. The default setting is PICTURE
MODE. After selecting the desired interval between pictures, exit the setting menu and press
‘pic’ or ‘p’ again to start the time lapse recording. To check the number of pictures taken
during the recording, press ‘info’ or ‘i’. The time lapse is stopped by pressing ‘stop’ or ‘s’.

Although not necessary, it is recommended to always stop the current action
before starting a new one (by sending ‘stop’ or ‘s’). The same is advised,
before shutting down the camera with the physical button.

9

6. RECORDING SOUND

If audio is needed, use the recording of cameras 0 and 1 to extract the sound. The
microphones are positioned on the bottom as shown below.

Picture 6: Microphone 0 and 1 location on the bottom of the camera.

It is recommended to use an external microphone, when sound recording is required, as the
internal microphones only provide mono feed with limited quality. There is an option
available for the camera to only record sound and write it in .WAV format. This setting can be
found ‘video format’ submenu.

10

!

!

7. COMMANDS IN DETAIL

You may find all the commands listed on page 2. Here is a brief commentary explaining
them.

The user interface has several menus. When the camera is turned on, you are in CAPTURE
MENU. From this menu you can capture video, pictures, transfer data and perform other
most common actions.

The available commands in the CAPTURE MENU are:

 a: Adjust Settings – enters the SETTINGS MENU;
 b: Beep – produces a 1s beep, if not in “quiet mode”;
 c: Check Settings – displays the current state of all the settings;
 d: Data Transfer Start – initiates data transfer, if USB cable is detected;
 i: Info – displays current status of the camera (lens power consumption, elapsed time,

battery status, “quiet mode” status);

 m: Manual AE/AWB Lock – lock automatic white balance and/or automatic

exposure. This setting can only be used during video recording, with the white

balance set to AUTO. To lock only exposure or only white balance, the appropriate

value must be chosen in the settings menu under “Manual AE/AWB lock”;

 p: Take Picture / Start Time Lapse – enters PICTURE MODE and takes a picture or starts

a time-lapse recording, depending on the setting;

 r: Start Recording – starts recording video. If recording in progress a new recording is

started.

 s: Stop – Stop the current action. If no action is in progress, this function has no effect.
 q: Quiet mode – Toggle quiet mode on/off. Quiet mode disables the buzzer and blue

LED located in the push-button.

If lost at any time, pressing ‘list’ or ‘l’ displays the available commands.

11

!

From CAPTURE MENU you can enter SETTINGS MENU, by pressing ‘adjust’ or ‘a’. The available
commands are listed each time you enter the SETTINGS MENU. Each setting has its own
submenu, with that setting parameters as the only possible commands. You must first quit the
SETTINGS MENU by pressing ‘quit’ or ‘q’, before being able to capture content again.

The available commands in the SETTINGS MENU are:

 c: Check Settings – displays the current state of all the settings;
 d: Video High Dynamic Range – enters a submenu, with ON, OFF and LOW-LIGHT as

available options;

 e: Color Effect – enters a submenu, with seven different color effect options;
 f: Video Format – enters a submenu, where four different file formats can be chosen,

the setting applies to video only;

 m: Manual AE/AWB lock – enters a submenu, where effect of the manual lock can be

set, the options are OFF, auto exposure lock, auto white balance lock or both;

 t: Time Lapse – enters a submenu, where nine different time lapse intervals can be

selected or time lapse can be turned off, for taking individual pictures;

 w: White Balance – enters a submenu, with 5 different white balance settings

available;

 q: Quit – enters CAPTURE MODE;

When in the individual setting menu, the user must first select an option and only then the

SETTINGS MENU can be quitted.

12

!

!

8. DATA TRANSFER

To start the data transfer, simply send ‘data’ or ‘d’. Note that the transfer will not begin, until
the USB cable is detected. It is not recommended to unplug the USB cable, until the transfer
is complete and the transmission is manually stopped by the sending the command ‘stop’ or
‘s’.

Picture 3: USB plug location, this type of socket is called ‘type A’.

The 12 SD cards of 32 GB on-board amount to 384 GB of internal data storage. This means
that you are able to store about 4.5 hours of footage as the data takes up about 1.4 GB for
every minute of video recording. You will be able to extract the files through a USB
connection on to your PC.

USB cable does not supply power to the camera in any way. Make sure you
have enough battery left or wall adapter plugged in, to avoid data loss.

Extraction Script for iOS

Extraction Script for Windows OS (AUG 17’)

The Extraction Scripts are only intended to boost the workflow. On-board SD cards can also
be accessed manually, as is normal with USB flash drives. The data can then be copied,
edited and deleted as usual.

13

a. Video file extraction for iOS

a) Wait for all the SD drives to mount on your
computer. You should see the 12 devices
mounted, named CAM0, CAM1, ... , CAM11.

b) Open the Absolute Zero Data Extractor.

c) Set the file location with “Choose destination
folder” button.

d) Press “Go!” and wait for the confirmation

dialog.

e) The files are now being copied. It takes some

time – about 1 hour for a 30 minute video
recording.

f) The data is put in a folder with date and

time as the name. The individual recordings are
grouped in separate sub-folders.

g) When the transfer is complete, “Delete”

button may be used to erase data from all of
the SD cards on the camera.

14

b. Video file extraction for Windows OS

The script is currently in development, expected release before the end of August 2017.

15

!

!

9. POST PROCESSING

Post-processing is a vital part of 360° video creation. It normally consists of:

 synchronisation,
 stitching,
 horizon levelling
 and color correction.

When recording with C830, this process is done using third-party software.

One particular software package that has given good results with C830 is AutoPano Video.
This software can stitch most recordings automatically, using the “mixed-lenses” option. In
case of having problems with the stitching process, a template for AutoPano Video is
provided, to be used with the “template panorama” option.

C830 Stitching Template for AutoPano Video

Although we provide a stitching template for certain third party software,
many 360° video stitching software can be used and give equally good results
i.e. VideoStitch, AutoPano, PTGui, CARA VR.

16

!

!

10. BATTERY CHARGING

To charge the on-board battery, one must simply plug the enclosed wall adapter into the
socket shown in the pictures below. The battery is charging as long as the red LED is on.
When charging is complete, the LED turns off or it blinks. A full charge takes about 8 hours.

You can check the battery capacity with the command ‘info’ or ‘i’. The capacity is displayed
with 20% increments. When charging, the percentage will show slightly higher and under
heavy use (recording, data transfer) slightly lower than in reality. To get accurate reading of
the actual capacity; unplug the charger and stop any ongoing processes with ‘stop’ or ‘s’
before checking.

Pictures 4 & 5: Battery charging port and feedback before and during charging.

You may charge the camera during data transfer or recording, but be aware of the
excessive heat. The camera produces most heat when simultaneously charging and
recording, so recording for longer periods of time, while charging an empty battery is not
recommended.

When storing the camera for longer periods of time, the Li-ion battery is best
preserved, if charged to medium capacity – about 60%.

17

11. DOs AND DON’Ts OF C830

Please be aware that the camera you are using is a unique, hand-assembled unit. Moreover
it is a prototype, so some uncertainties apply.

DO...

- Always keep the lens caps on, when not recording.

- Clean the lenses every time, before starting to record.

- Make sure that the camera and tripod are stable and wind cannot shake them.

- Make sure to backup all your data before erasing the footage from the internal

storage.

- Pay attention to the temperature of the case. If it gets too hot, you might want to

consider shutting it down for a while. This will increase the camera life-span.

DON’T...

- Forget that the camera might be in quiet mode and is actually still running even

though the blue LED is off!

- Forget to wipe the memory cards clean before starting a new project.

- Place the camera too close to any object.

- Forget to remove all of the lens caps, before starting to record.

- Record moving objects located close to the camera and on the stitch line.

Picture 6: Indication of the stitching lines and “safe zones”, where the object of interest should be.

18

Absolute Zero ApS

www.absolutezerovr.com
[e-mail]