✨ MagicPilot LIVE: Wireless (or Wired) Monitor & Bluetooth Remote for Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras

🎬 A Blackmagic camera touchscreen monitor and remote that puts settings hidden in the camera's menus on the main screen, one tap away. The whole thing for only $80 wired or $120 wireless.

🌐 Website: kenfilms.github.io/MagicPilot_Live

PRO view over the camera's live HDMI picture, drawn by the firmware's own UI code.

MagicPilot LIVE turns an M5Stack Tab5 into a monitor and touch remote for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K: the camera's live HDMI picture, with the camera's settings laid over it. Tap a setting to change it over Bluetooth LE, using the Blackmagic Camera Control protocol of MagicPilot_Remote.

Everything on the main screen. Many settings that the BMPCC6K keeps in its menus are right on MagicPilot LIVE's main screen, one tap away: codec and quality, the slate, clean feed, zebra, focus assist, false colour and guides. Camera presets and the NEAR → FAR focus slider aren't on the camera at all. You change them while you watch the picture, instead of digging through menus.

No phone, no Wi-Fi, no Blackmagic Camera app.

The wireless configuration: the hardware on the Tab5, labelled.

At a glance

	Feature	What it does
📺	Live picture	The camera's HDMI output, full screen in landscape, 30 fps, or a remote-only mode without it.
📊	Camera status	FPS, shutter, iris, timecode, ISO, white balance, tint, LUT, recording and card slots, like on the camera.
💾	Camera presets	12 named presets, as in MagicPilot_Remote, kept on the Tab5.
🎬	Slate	The camera's slate: scene, take, shot type, project, lens data.
🎯	Focus	Focus slider and one-shot autofocus.
🎥	Record	Start and stop recording.
⚙️	Record settings	Codec, resolution, dynamic range, frame rates, sharpening.
📐	Display tools	Frame guides, grid, safe area, brightness.
🔗	Pairing	Asks for the camera's PIN once, then reconnects automatically.

LITE view while recording, the presets page, and the quick slate.

Hardware

• M5Stack Tab5 (ESP32-P4). Tested: board version 3, ESP32-C6 with its factory firmware.
• HDMI to USB capture adapter (UVC, MJPEG, e.g. MS2109 or MS2130 sticks) in the Tab5's USB-A port, on an HDMI cable from the camera, or through a wireless HDMI transmitter and receiver. Optional: with Settings → REMOTE → Live view → Off (remote only) the Tab5 is a Bluetooth remote without it and leaves the USB-A port unpowered.
• Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K with Bluetooth on. The Tab5 switches the camera's status text off on HDMI; if it still shows, switch the HDMI overlays off on the camera (Monitor → HDMI).

Cost (without the camera and without the M5 Tab battery): about $80 wired (Tab5, capture adapter and HDMI cable), or about $120 wireless (with an HDMI transmitter and receiver).

Camera compatibility

The live picture works with any camera that has an HDMI output. Camera control uses the Blackmagic Camera Control Bluetooth protocol that Blackmagic's Bluetooth cameras share, but only the BMPCC6K is tested.

Camera	Status	Notes
Pocket Cinema Camera 6K (BMPCC6K)	🟢 Tested
Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 / 6K Pro	🟡 Not tested	Same sensor and modes as the 6K: very likely to work as is
Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (BMPCC4K)	🟡 Not tested	Status and controls should work; the format menu lists the 6K's modes
Other Blackmagic cameras with Bluetooth	🟡 Not tested	Basic control should work; resolutions, frame-rate limits and media slots need adapting

Specific to the BMPCC6K: the resolutions and frame-rate limits (UI_RESOLUTIONS in main/ui_draw.c), the CFast, SD and USB-C drive slots, and the settings it refuses over Bluetooth: switching between BRAW and ProRes, ProRes resolutions, Film dynamic range and the LUT. It also doesn't send card names, capacity, audio levels, custom white balance, zebra, focus assist, false colour or playback, so the Tab5 can't show them. Reports from other cameras are welcome.

Build and flash

PlatformIO (pioarduino platform):

pio run -t upload --upload-port /dev/cu.usbmodemXXXX
pio device monitor

or ESP-IDF ≥ 5.5.3:

idf.py set-target esp32p4
idf.py build flash monitor

If PlatformIO reports "Python's lzma module is unavailable", run brew install xz. sdkconfig.m5stack-tab5 is generated from sdkconfig.defaults: delete it after changing the defaults.

Using the remote

Pairing. The Tab5 looks for the camera at power-on and whenever the link drops. The first time, it asks for the 6-digit PIN from the BMPCC6K Setup Menu, page 6.

Views

The VIEW button switches between LITE and PRO (advanced). With live view off, or without the capture adapter, the Tab5 is a Bluetooth remote with bigger controls. With HDMI input, the CLEAN FEED … FALSE COLOR buttons act on the camera's HDMI output, so they change the video on the Tab5; without it, they change the view on the camera's own LCD.

The screens are the firmware's own drawing code, rendered with tools/preview over an example picture.

Screen

Area	Shows	Tap
Frame icon	LUT below it while the camera's display LUT is on	Display tools
FPS, SHUTTER, IRIS, ISO, WB, TINT	The camera's values (48/24: off-speed sensor/project rate)	Panel
Timecode	Timecode (TC) or clip counter, red while recording	Timecode ↔ clip
Bluetooth symbol	Blue while connected	Menu, REMOTE tab
CAM badge	Camera power: AC or battery voltage	AC ↔ voltage
M5 Tab badge	USB-C on outside power, otherwise the Tab5's battery	Percentage ↔ voltage
Settings icon		Menu, RECORD tab
Button row (PRO)	CLEAN FEED, ZEBRA, F.-ASSIST, GUIDE, GRID, SAFE AREA, FALSE COLOR, outlined in yellow when on	Switches them on the camera (HDMI, or the LCD without live view). Clean feed greys out the others. No LUT button: the LUT can't be switched over Bluetooth
VIEW button	LITE on green, PRO on violet	Switches the view
Slate	The camera's slate as a clapperboard	Tap: scene, take, INT/EXT, DAY/NIGHT; hold: every field
Film icon	Codec and quality, resolution, dynamic range (FILM/VIDEO while the display LUT is on)	Menu, RECORD tab
PRESET button	Preset Menu, or the loaded preset's name	Presets
Record button	Red ring while recording	Start / stop
Card slots	CFast, SD and SSD (the USB-C drive) with the recording time left, or No Card / No Drive
▶	Play clip	The camera's clips
FOCUS, AF	Focus slider from NEAR to FAR, autofocus	Focus

Presets

The presets page holds 12 presets, each with a name, ISO, shutter, frame rates (with off-speed), white balance and tint, iris, codec and quality, and resolution. A preset from the other codec (BRAW or ProRes), or a ProRes resolution, says so, as the camera only changes those on its own menu.

SAVE TO SD writes them to MPLIVE/PRESETS.TXT on a FAT32 microSD card, as readable JSON. Cards above 32 GB come as exFAT and need formatting as FAT32 first.

Focus and zoom

The focus slider starts at 50 % on every connection, as the camera doesn't report the lens position; moving it moves the lens by the same amount. AF runs the camera's one-shot autofocus.

Spread two fingers on the picture to zoom in 2x on that spot; drag to move, pinch or tap the yellow 2x badge to zoom out.

Display tools

Frame guides (2.40:1 … 1:1, mask opacity), grid (thirds, centre cross or both) and safe area (5–100 %) are the camera's own, in its HDMI picture. Backlight brightness is the Tab5's own. The camera draws grid and safe area only where they are switched on in its monitor menu, which Bluetooth can't reach: switch Grid and Safe Area on for HDMI on the camera once.

Configuration

pio run -t menuconfig / idf.py menuconfig → MagicPilot LIVE

Option	Default	Meaning
Preferred capture width/height/fps	1280x720 @ 30	Requested from the adapter (60 fps lowers lag)
Scaling mode	Fill	Fill covers the screen, Fit letterboxes
Landscape orientation	90°	270° if the picture is upside down
Turn touch input by 180 degrees	off	If taps land on the opposite side
Swap red/blue of MJPEG	off	If colours look wrong
Grid line width / Display backlight	2 px / 100 %
Performance → Frame pacing	Auto	Even frame cadence
Performance → Render in bands through internal SRAM	on	~2x faster render

Picture, frame rate and lag

• The adapter's best MJPEG format is used, preferably 1280x720 (1:1 on the screen), up to 1920x1080. Hot-plug works; without a picture the camera UI shows on black.
• Measured at 1280x720 @ 30: 30.0 fps shown, no frames dropped; decode ~16 ms, render ~26–29 ms.
• Most of the lag is the capture adapter (cheap ones buffer 1–3 frames). Capturing at 60 fps lowers it even though about 30 fps are shown.

How it works

HDMI ─► capture adapter ─► USB ─► JPEG decoder ─► GDMA bands → SRAM ─► camera UI ─► PPA rotate ─► display
BMPCC6K ◄─ Bluetooth LE ─► ESP32-C6 (controller) ◄─ SDIO, ESP-Hosted ─► ESP32-P4 (Bluedroid host)

• Bluetooth. The ESP32-P4 has no radio: the Tab5's ESP32-C6 runs the controller over SDIO with espressif/esp_hosted 2.12.13, on its factory firmware. Writes go through a queue that keeps the newest value of a dragged slider.
• Picture. The PPA reads PSRAM slowly, so the GDMA copies 32-row bands into internal SRAM, both cores composite the camera UI into each band, and the PPA rotates it onto the portrait panel.
• Camera UI. ui_draw.c draws into a 1280x720 canvas and overlay.c run-length encodes the changed rows, so compositing costs ~2–3 ms per frame.
• Vendored: components/usb_host_uvc (2.6.0, fixed for MacroSilicon adapters) and components/m5stack_tab5_noglib (BSP 1.3.2 with a 60 Hz panel refresh).

Development

Path	Content
main/main.c	Capture, decode, band renderer, pacing
main/cam_ble.c	Bluetooth link, pairing, write queue
main/cam.c, cam_fmt.c	Camera state, packets, commands, value formatting
main/ui.c, ui_draw.c	Touch and actions; layout, drawing and hit testing
main/overlay.c, gfx.c, fonts.c	Canvas and compositing, drawing primitives, fonts
main/tab5_bat.c	Tab5 battery (INA226)
tools/preview/	Desktop preview: render.py <image> <out_dir> writes PNGs of every screen
tools/check/	check.py compares every preview screen, every touch area and every Bluetooth packet with tools/check/ref (--update accepts the changes)

Fonts: Open Sans (SIL Open Font License 1.1), converted by tools/gen_fonts.py.

Disclaimer

⚠️ Use at your own risk. MagicPilot LIVE is provided "as is" without warranty. The developer is not responsible or liable for damage, malfunction, loss of footage, data loss, or any other loss or damage to cameras, lenses, recording media, accessories, equipment, or property resulting from the use of this software or firmware. Always verify settings, compatibility, and operation before using it with valuable or professional equipment.

MagicPilot LIVE is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd. Blackmagic Design, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, BMPCC, and related names and trademarks are the property of Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd.