Premium Members Peter Hoare Posted March 3, 2008 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Hi I have one of my first steadicam jobs next week (experience only, no cash involved) and Russel McElhatton has kindly agreed to lend me his old follow focus unit, only problem is I cant work out a way to power the receiver... My steadicam sled has a 2 pin Lemo connector on it, but I use this to power my video transmitter. The receiver has a male Lemo connector which would plug into the sled with no problems, but the transmitter is plugged in there so I will need some kind of splitter... Is there a pre-made splitter for this kind of connector? Alternatively if someone could tell me the name of the plug (someone mentioned Lemo 2B?) I could buy the connectors and make my own splitter up... Any help would be great. Thanks, Pete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Charles Papert Posted March 3, 2008 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Peter: Congrats on being able to pull focus remotely! Depending on whether you intend to keep your Flyer for a while or move on to another rig, you might want to think about building a junction box that fits under the camera stage with breakouts. Certainly you can build a splitter cable for the follow focus, but then what if you need to add an onboard light (Litepanel etc) at some point, or an LCD for lightweight prompter, etc. The docking ring under the stage could easily have a machined box fitted around it and you can Lemo-ize it at both ends to your heart's content. Another possibility if you didn't want to go sexy would be a P-tap breakout box that you simply velcro under the stage, then a series of adaptor cables (P-tap to female 2-pin lemo etc). Just food for thought. Let us know how the shoot went! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members chris fawcett Posted March 3, 2008 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Another possibility if you didn't want to go sexy would be a P-tap breakout box that you simply velcro under the stage, then a series of adaptor cables (P-tap to female 2-pin lemo etc). Whereas a slut like me would run a cable from the sled battery-mount D-Tap, outside the post, to the front of the stage. Call me cheap, I might like it. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Charles Papert Posted March 3, 2008 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Chris, maybe I'll have to write a paper for YOU on the "proper posture of your sled"...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members chris fawcett Posted March 3, 2008 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Chris, maybe I'll have to write a paper for YOU on the "proper posture of your sled"...! I'd read it to her at night... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members JimBartell Posted March 3, 2008 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 If Russ sent you one of his BarTech units, try this first: Plug the BarTech into the sled and then plug you video transmitter into the power plug on the opposite end of the BFD receiver. The power connectors are wired in parallel so whichever one is used for the input the other can be used for an output. But MAKE SURE YOU TEST THIS WITH THE VIDEO TRANSMITTER ON BEFORE YOU TRY IT ON THE SET! Sometime RF leaks back into the power cable from the video transmitter and can block the signal at the receiver. FYI, this is exactly how you power two BFD's from one power output. And the connector on a BarTech is a Lemo, size 0 type B two pin.. Jim "my input on your output" Bartell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Robert Starling SOC Posted March 3, 2008 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 The power connectors are wired in parallel so whichever one is used for the input the other can be used for an output.Jim "my input on your output" Bartell Nice information to know Jim; it makes perfect sense but I've never thought about powering other devices from it. With that in mind, I'll be calling in a few days to have you make a special "BFD to Saeco Automatic Espresso Maker" adapter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Peter Hoare Posted March 3, 2008 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Hi Jim, Its a nice 20 year old 3ch focus system. The receiver has a Dsub input and Russ has included a 4 pin XLR cable, so I have now ordered some XLR connectors from RS and I will knock myself a power splitter tomorrow and will do it this way. I would love to own a bartech one day, so at least i will know how to power it when it first arrives :-D Thanks for the input, Pete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Thompson Posted March 4, 2008 Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 Peter, I believe you may be searching for Lemo part # FTG.0B.302.PLFG Ramon Engle found and ordered one of these for me when i needed a way to power a video transmitter and BFD. It is a molded jack. That has (1)male 2 pin on one side and (2) female 2 pin on the other side. Page 29 shows a picture: http://www.lemo.com/pdfs/catalog/ROW/UK_En...e_multipole.pdf Hope this helps, Brandon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Peter Hoare Posted March 4, 2008 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 Hi, I have knocked up this cable out of 4pin XLR connectors. Unfortunately the production are no longer paying for the remote follow focus so not only will the shots be out of focus, I will have this cable hanging about too. Humph, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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