The discussion forum isn’t the Kinograph project, the Kinograph project is a singular project but this forum has always welcomed contributions from DIYers and hosts many different projects from other people like yourself.
What speeds does your all-format scanner achieve?
The Kinograph is an open-source project rather than a DIY project. Matthew’s design criteria is really the MVP approach so far as I can tell. You create your minimum design first and get it working reliably, and then when you “add functionality” it goes through the same process. It’s a slower more methodical process, but ensures you don’t leave behind usability or reliability at the expense of chasing functionality in the here and now. That’s different to a traditional DIY approach, but there are significant similarities too. Every DIY project does most things in “a singular way”. For example, a DIY build will have one backlight module. The DIY designer may make changes to it over time, but they don’t spend their time making 2 or 3 different modules that they can change at will.
The Kinograph designs will be open-source, so once the Kinograph’s light module v 1.0 exists as a designed defined module then anyone can build it themselves from scratch, or they can purchase it pre-built from someone who will build it for them. It won’t need to be used in a Kinograph either, you could could take that one component and use it in any DIY scanner that you can fit it in, or re-engineer it to make it smaller to fit it in a tighter space etc. So that’s where the Kinorgraph project would be potentially helping the DIY projects.
But there’s no reason that it should stop there of course, the other raw parts once open-sourced and reproducible can also then be supplied as alternatives to the commercial products. One thing that has been talked before are PTRs. At the moment for PTRs you have to buy them from Kodak (or the scanner manufacturers). Matthew has talked about an alternative way of using low-cost sleeves instead (these “traction roller sleeves” have effectively the same material as PTRs), or manufacturing PTRs as a drop-in replacement for Kodak’s. Once you have the open-source alternative they’re no longer in the hands of the commercial companies making them, and you can potentially bring the cost down for both Kinograph users and DIYers who want them. Same thing with rollers. You can buy professional 35/16mm rollers retail, but they are expensive and you can’t buy them as 35/16/8 nor as 16/8 nor as machined polished chrome, etc.
Either way I hope you’ll stick around with your project, the more unique ideas there are the better for problem-solving and giving people new ideas with their own projects.