Peter Hoare

Is Tiffen night the usual first day of the show? Monday 16 April? Thanks.

Peter, glad to here your product is moving along, I remember the first time you hit NAB with the Hocus Focus. About the manual calibration, once you set your stops, will the unit zip the motors back to center? Reason being, most of those lenses are servo based and will "slip" if the focus knob is turned too fast, thus your calibration will then be off. I found this to be frustrating for the focus puller on long and fast racks also... nothing you can do about that other than tell the adults "You can't have that rack because someone went cheap ass on the package!" It would be great if you implemented a DSLR Lens mode that would not do so, currently ALL motor drivers on the market zip to center after calibrating... kinda of like showing off how fast I can moooooove baby!!! Just a thought -Alfeo Hi Alfeo, We did find this the other day whilst testing the DSLR mode, and anyone that has seen our system first hand will tell you how fast it is. We are thinking at the moment about how we are going to run the sequence, the process you mentioned in your DM is a good idea, turn the lens to one end, engage the motor, then move away and set one limit at the other end. Our sliding mount means that if the teeth dont line up, you can slide it up or down until they mesh. I have had a similar discussion with Geoff the electronics engineer about how this mode is going to work, and its likely we will add a large amount of damping and reduce the speed the motor runs in whilst its in DSLR mode. On another note, here is a quick dirty phone video of the unit on a Cooke S5i, showing mark repetition, and our very fast auto cal routine. Pete.

Hi Adam, The unit has two stops on the transmitter that are set by moving the knob to the position, and pressing the button. It then takes this position and makes it the end stop on the lens, so you get the full range of the knob for only a little bit of movement on the lens. There is also a manual calibration mode for infinite rotation lenses, or if you want to use our system on something other than a lens (model mover, or slider or whatever). To do this, you press a button on the receiver unit, which disables the auto cal and it sets the range of the motor to a set number of turns. You can then go up to your stops on the lens and set the limits using the limit buttons on the transmitter unit. Hope this helps, Pete.

The connector that comes out of the red is a 00 4pin lemo, even smaller than 0b. It carries timecode info and the GPIO which is what you use for runstop. You have to pull the GPIO pin up to 3v3 and hold it there for the camera to record, its a very awkward system. I have built a few run cables for our HFP system, very fiddly to solder.

With our digital controller, it can turn our test rig (same size and stiffness as an ultraprime) a complete rotation in 0.85 seconds, so its pretty fast too. Pete.

Hi Everyone, Been a while, so thought an update was due. Ed Moore has been testing the system on his latest job for the last 7 weeks, heres a video of his thoughts. He has been using a prototype that we have been updating and changing as he has been using it to solve any bugs or issues they found. Video We are getting close to finally finishing now, very happy with the new smaller motor design, and everything has proven reliable. A few more things left to do, working on speeding up the motor on big lenses like this, and a few of the smaller features need finishing off. We will be showing the system at BVE in London in a few weeks, then NAB in Las Vegas in April, and Cinegear in June. We hope to be taking orders by NAB and shipping not long after. Also with feedback from Ed, we have changed the battery in the TX from a 9v to a Sony M series battery, like the Preston. We are working on reading the batteries InfoLithium chip to give the user an accurate time remaining figure on the LED screen on the top of the unit. The battery slides in through the bottom of the unit and clicks into place, and is released with a small slide lever. We have not tested yet, but expect to get around 15 hours + of use out of one 1500mah battery. We have also built epic run/stop into the unit so no extra batteries or electronics will be needed, as there are in the above video. Afton Grant also came to visit me at Ed's set so maybe he can give you some more thoughts. Thanks, let me know if you would like to know any more. Pete. PS - The name is changing. Not sure what to yet, but HoFoPro has got to go. (gotta stop with the unintentional rhyming)

Rush, have you thought about how your going to focus the camera? DSLR with big sensor, most of the frame is going to be out of focus. By the time you add the expense and weight of remote focus, you may even max out that balabnzvz thing.

You got to be kidding me oO Here's his comment.... Maybe full sail needs to know what sort of student they have Well thats just uncalled for.

I wonder if it really is missing a processor. Seems laptops these days are all made on one giant circuit board with the processor built as part of the board, I doubt it would get far out of the pick n place machine with no processor in it :S. Maybe the battery is flat and hes forgotten to charge it.

He would be doing a lot better if the vest was on properly, the arm is leaning all over the place.

To be fair, at least this guy knows its shit. Im sure many Flycam owners wobble about like that believing its a fantastic piece of equipment.

Might be able to organise something in the evening of the day you come to visit me... Il ask around...

Hi Everyone, We have now updated the firmware, which has improved the autocal routine quite a bit. The motor measures the torque the lens requires, so it can touch the end stop very gently, and very fast. Its also handy for slightly flexible rods or cameras, wont bend or distort too much. I took this video today, sorry about the chattering in the background. Password is hofopro. This is the complete autocalibrate routine, followed by some normal movement on the control knob. It took 4.5 seconds from starting the calibrate routine, until the system was ready to use. Im pretty proud of the speed it calibrates. Thanks, Pete.

Hi Louis, The HFP has 12 channels, and as long as there was no strong interference, I see no reason why you couldn't operate 12 units side by side. The RX units feature a nice sliding dovetail groove design down both sides of the enclosure. These allow for various mounting accessories which we are making, one of which will be a little clamp to hold two units back to back. Powering two RX units with a Y split cable is no issue, when the motor is moving, it typically draws about 300ma. The RX unit is 63.5 x 30mm, and 80mm long. Its a bit bigger than that once you add the antenna and the connectors etc, but its pretty small, and very light. My demo unit has gone with Ed Moore today to start a long TV shoot, so he will report back once he has used it a bit. We have just finished another firmware revision, and our automatic torque system is now in place. The autocalibrate sequence takes about three seconds on a large, stiff lens, so its pretty fast. It also has the intelligence to realise if you start the auto cal with the lens right up against a stop, which confuses other systems, so no need to make sure the lens is roughly in the middle of its range. Thanks, Pete.

Hi Everyone, I have done a video in response to Jerry's questions, Video Thanks, Pete.

Hi Thomas, The price is £3500 GBP. This includes the Transmitter, receiver and motor, along with the cables, marking rings, gears etc and a Pelican Storm flight case. Im currently taking orders for the first batch, and im hoping to ship February or soon after. Currently working on a few pre production final prototypes, which we will send round for testing and evaluation if anyone is interested. Thanks a lot, Pete.

Hmm, thats interesting. Well we will do our best to give it the best range we can, but unfortunately 2.4ghz is not something we can change... It may be that your Preston was sitting right on top of another signal, and moving it a few channels to find some empty space would have helped it. As I say, we have had the HoFopro in some very busy RF environments and not had an issue. Pete.

Oh 80M, thats fine, we get that range now before our improvements, I thought you were going to ask for 300M or something. Despite the 2.4ghz being a common frequency, it does seem pretty robust. It worked fine at IBC, with loads of dirt in the air, and our tests have shown that the HoFoPro can sit right on top of a strong wifi signal with no problems. I was also wary of the interference problems since the beginning, but having done various tests with spectrum analysers etc, this does not seem to be the case, its pretty good. Don't forget many dependable bits of equipment in this industry use 2.4ghz too, Cmotion and Preston focus systems both included. Pete.

Due to FCC, CE and all sorts of other certifications, 2.4 is one of the only frequencies that can be used world wide. Our old system was 10mw 433mhz and that went for bloody miles but its not approvable by the FCC for sale or use in the US, which obviously severely limits our market. Its possible to put on a longer antenna or possibly a screw on dipole, which would give you more range. The 2.4ghz is going to stay, we cant really change it now, and using anything else causes a bit of a nightmare for FCC certification, but so far the range has looked pretty good. What sort of typical range would you expect and we will see if it can manage it... Pete.

Hi Job, We are using 2.4ghz, not sure on the final output power yet, it will be between 20 and 60mw, we need to find a good balance of range and battery life along with a few other things. This is a single channel system, we will be working on a full fiz system after the single channel is done. Thanks, Pete.

Hi Jerry, Will shoot one for you as soon as my test rig is home... Thanks, Pete.

Hi Jerry, Ok, as soon as I have my lens test rig back I will shoot you a video. It performs very well on all of these, I think you will be impressed. The motor, I am particularly proud of. It has only two moving parts, which is why its so quiet. Its very simple inside, which should (although obviously this is not proved out properly yet) prove very reliable. Auto calibrate is similar to other systems, first it moves to one end, senses the lens stop, then moves to the other. Once it has felt both end stops, it zips back to the knob position. Unlike other systems, the HoFoPro will not have problems if you start the autocal routine if its against an end stop already, so no need to put the lens to the middle of the range before calibrating. It can tell that the lens is against a stop and it can work around it. The autocal routine can be triggered with buttons on the TX and RX, and it also calibrates when you first power the unit up, and if you unplug and then plug the motor back in. No jittering or any movement when holding a mark, the movement is very very smooth. The knob has close to 250,000 steps of resolution per rotation! Motor backlash is very low, so returning to a mark from both directions is not a problem. Will shoot you a video to show you how it performs. Thanks a lot, Pete.

Hi Everyone, Just thought I would give a brief update on the HoFoPro for anyone that was not at IBC. We have completely redesigned the system since last year, and whilst this has taken much longer than we wanted, I do believe that it was worth the wait. The system we have now is performing very well, it is very fast and responsive, the motor is quiet and powerful, and the extra features we have added to the TX and RX far surpass the functionality we previously had, and the reciever unit, is small, about the size of a cigarette pack. I am just troubleshooting the last few hardware problems whilst my electronics partner finishes off the control software, and shortly we will be ready to take orders. The whole system is Preston compatible, so you can use Preston or digital Heden motors with our system, and you can use our motor with any of the other digital systems. We do plan to sell the motor separately, price to be announced. Here are some photos and a brief video from Erik Brul taken at IBC. Video RX connector pannel Slimmer TX Let me know if you have any questions, Pete.

A RED One 2k?! Some kind of RED / SI2k lovechild.

Eric, as Tomas has mentioned, he was the first person to pay up and order a HoFoPro, and I was merely adding another inscentive for him to come to the UK if he decides to take up Wills incredible offer. I realise that it might have seemed like a shameless advert, but it was not intended like this. Tomas and I are in daily contact, and I was just letting him know that he would be welcome to come and visit me and see the equipment he has ordered whilst in the UK dealing with MKv. In fact, by the time he visits, I may well have his unit ready to take away with him. Thanks, Pete.