Modified Rigs - Let's see them

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

Hi Charles King

Here is a rig owned by Andy Shuttleworth 2008 not unlike the action cam .He is using the old 3a batt to power LW ?

Louis Puli

 

 

That looks like Ted Chruchill's lightweight backup rig he built back in 1982

[RonBaldwin]

So Andy hung up the 3A? Maybe even he lost track of Steve Byro? Or Steve stole his sled too?

 

I remember Bruce Greene and...uh...damn old age, name escapes me (he developed/built a fast moving remote controlled robot/remote head) both had rigs with that same idea -- a center post with batt/monitor/aks clamped anywhere you want them. I think they were using some NASA clamps designed by aliens. Must be some kind of converter in the electronics box under the monitor? Looks cool.

 

rb

[Jess Haas SOC]

My rig is an older actioncam rig. I think it is the first model they made. When I got it the greenscreen was toast so I made the monitor arm and mounted the LCD that is in the picture. On the monitor arm I mounted a video distribution amplifier, a 5v voltage regulator to power my archos and a plate to mount the archos. In addition to the two battery mounts in the picture I made up another plate with two that mounts on the same rods in front of the post. This way I can run anywhere from 1 to 4 batteries. The ones in front attach to the ones in back using P-tap connectors. In 12v mode I can do either separate aux and camera power or put them in parallel. For 24v two batteries are put in series and one of them is also tapped for 12v. If running 3 batteries the third is paralleled with the one tapped for 12v and for 4 the other is paralleled with the other battery. I plan on adding diodes shortly so that I can mix chemistries as well as hot swap batteries with the red.

 

Tomorrow I will be adding an HD-SDI line up the post and setting up power so that I can mount my decimator downconverter on the monitor arm. The current video line will be used to send an output from the video distribution amplifier to the top stage for my modulus. I also have two voltage displays that should be coming in the mail any day now which I am going to add I think on the top of the battery mounting plate.

 

 

That is the arm hanging from the gimbal. I spent a good number of days hardmounted on an ATV driving around a rock quarry and on dirt roads at high speed with explosions going off on either side of me in Iowa and didn't have any problems so I guess it works well in extreme conditions. There is one major design defect in the pin that attaches the arm to the vest that I hope to fix in the near future by machining a replacement part for it.

 

The arm is a totally different design than the traditional steadicam parallelogram approach but actually works rather well. It can easily adjust from almost zero weight to its maximum capacity (origionalyl 70 pounds, now I think more like 65). It isn't as isoelestatic and doesn't have as much boom range as a g series arm or a pro arm but it does work remarkably well all considering. It also weighs almost nothing. As far as I know they don't make an arm like it anymore and instead have moved to the more familiar parallelogram design. Its gimbal and vest attachment are non standard but are very functional.

 

~Jess

[Charles King]

Hi Charles King

Here is a rig owned by Andy Shuttleworth 2008 not unlike the action cam .He is using the old 3a batt to power LW ?

Louis Puli

 

 

Hi Puli. Here is a pic that Bruce Alan Green's custom built rig that he posted on the HBS forum. The rig you posted reminds me of his. There was a mentioned about his rig in one of the post above. Just thought of it. See pic below:

 

[Fabian Pempelfort]

Hello everyone,

 

since this is my first post I want to say hi and thanks upfront for all the great advises I have found in this forum so far.

 

In addition to Jess' post I'd like to add that I recently had the opportunity to fly the actioncam in it's very first design appraoch.

The little greenscreen wasn't working for me either. I googled it and the original model is for backview purposes for trucks...

I could have bought one on ebay for around 20 dollars...

 

But I rather attached a TV logic LCD in a fancy 'the-more-tape-the-better' way... anyways, it worked at last.

 

I think the major design flaws of the actioncam is the arm attachment to the gimbal, which you have to screw. That always left me in an uncomfortable position when "un-screwing"

while the sled is docked. The second would be the arm itself, although I have to agree that it flew nicely and the weight-range is superb. But if you're not carful the arm will snap

at the upper end of the booming range and you end up with the weight of the sled in your hands.... not the sled itself, though... ;)

 

For practicing purpose I taped a little panasonic camcorder to an Arri SR2 as seen below... I call it... well, the "Pan-arri"...

 

Fabian

 

 

[Jess Haas SOC]

I think the major design flaws of the actioncam is the arm attachment to the gimbal, which you have to screw. That always left me in an uncomfortable position when "un-screwing"

while the sled is docked.

Ive never had a problem with this since the arm easily detaches from the vest you simply leave the arm with the sled when you dock. I actually find it kind of nice because you can dock for a moment and not have to worry about the arm still being attached to your vest.

 

The second would be the arm itself, although I have to agree that it flew nicely and the weight-range is superb. But if you're not carful the arm will snap

at the upper end of the booming range and you end up with the weight of the sled in your hands.... not the sled itself, though... ;)

You do have to be careful about hitting the top of the boom range because it is very noticeable but I am not quite sure what you mean about the weight then being in your hands. By raising the socket block when necessary I find it is actually rather simple to keep the arm from topping out. I also find that with a little practice you start to feel when it gets close to the top end and it really becomes a non issue. Because of the design on the low end it never hits a stop in the same way it just takes increasingly more force to push down once you get to a certain point.

 

~Jess

[Michael Tsimperopoulos SOC]

He is using the old 3a batt to power LW ?

Hi Luis,

 

The box that we see under the LCD monitor was designed by Greg Bubb (XCS) at Andy's request. I wouldn't be surprised if Andy is capable of running an Arri 435ES at 150fps with that 12V 3A battery...

 

Another photo...

[RonBaldwin]

The box that we see under the LCD monitor was designed by Greg Bubb (XCS) at Andy's request. I wouldn't be surprised if Andy is capable of running an Arri 435ES at 150fps with that 12V 3A battery...

 

Greg's electronics are awesome. Never seen Andy without the beard!

[Michael Tsimperopoulos SOC]

Never seen Andy without the beard!

Another one...

 

[RonBaldwin]

ah...I didn't notice the old school docking under the gimbal technique (another way to keep the rig short -- not so easy with today's fancy built-in gimbal handles). 3A top stage as well.

[Charles Papert]

3A top stage--that might explain a few things.

[Fabian Pempelfort]

Hey Jess,

 

I feel kind of stupid now that I haven't thought about the option to detach the rig on the vest... oh boy! ;)

Thanks for the hint!

 

About the arm: maybe it's not that serious as it sounded in my post. I think I just wasn't expexting this to happen when I've flown it.

Overall I found the actioncam very usefull and in the end the shots looked pretty good. And it was quite good to balance, for me as a beginner!

 

Regards,

Fabian

[Nicholas Davidoff]

Andy has a very interesting rig. I've heard lots of stories about his equipment. Can anybody explain the functionality behind this design?

[Charles King]

I had been putting together a rig for a long time now and since not having the big funds to purchase a full fledge G70 rig or a Pro, I went the jig-saw method. Here is what I came up with; in detail. Now, with all the work I put into it I might just sell it, because strong winds are blowing me into another direction in life, as new job oppotunities give way. Anyway that's a whole other topic. Here is the sled and what it includes:

 

 

* 1.5" outter Carbon Fiber post

 

* Aluminum inner post

 

* Steadicam Archer I top stage with a modified 3-pol 24v contact addition ( bought from Steadicam operator Rick Lewis. Rick had the 24v installed)

 

* Lower junction box contacts have:

 

1. 2 Hirose 'video out'

 

2. 2 BNC 'video out'

 

3. 2 (2-pol) LEMO 12v 'power out'

 

4. 12/24v (3-pol) LEMO 'power out'

 

5. HD-SDI contact (not wired internally)

 

6. 1 12v 'power in' (MK-V wired)

 

7. 1 12/24v 'power in' (MK-V wired)

 

8. ON/OFF switch for entire system

 

9. 12 to 24v switch

 

 

* 1 12/24v dual AB Battery Mount (from MK-v)

 

* 1 AB GOLD battery mount

 

* Steadicam EFP Gimbal ( bought from Steadicam Steve Fracol. It was serviced before I bought it)

 

* MK-v EFP replacement gnurled gimbal grip

 

* A 4-point VD (video distributor). So all video outputs on the bottom connectors are wired. There is one contact left over for another.

 

* The lower lower battery mount can be adjusted for fore & Aft, by loosning the Manfrotto 357 slider. I had another slider which made it easier for micro adjustment but it did not deem too be very solid. So I exchanged it for the 357, which is more solid. The battery Module can be removed. Any nr of batteries can be used. 1-3. I installed a skottkey diode within each battery mount for extra safty. This prevents power from flowing backinto itelf. There are two Automatic 5A fuses installed. (you can replace these 5A with 10A instead. My Tech guy felt the 10A wasn't needed at the time, since I was not flying anything that power consuming. I had planned on changing it but never got around to doing it) . The fuses are marked with the nr.7 & 8. When this trips all you have to do is push the button to reset the system. The internal wiring of the system, which is pretty much the same as the standard systems available today.