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Hocus Focus Professional update.


Peter Hoare

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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.

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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.

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1322272540[/url]' post='70930']

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.

 

Sounds great Peter.I would love to be on the "tester-list"

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Hi Peter

Like many op's I to have been watching your progress with interest.

Q .How many channels has your system got and how many units can you use on the same set with out interference ?.

Q.If I am running 2 units How are we going to mount them together on a camera/steadicam?

Q.If I am running 2 units Can you use a Y cable to power both receivers from any camera ?

Q What is the size of the receiver ?

Thanks

Louis

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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.

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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.

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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)

 

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Saw this yesterday and had a play, nice bit of kit, feels in a different league compared to the original HoFo and certainly has some great functionality that you would expect to pay a lot more for.

 

Would definitely take a look at it if I was in the market, for the price it's great.

 

Also apparently there is a F.I.Z. system in the works in the near future.

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I'm sorry, and this may be a trivial question, but does this version also support setting Manual hard stops on infinite rotation SLR lenses?

 

I just don't remember reading about it or hearing you mention it in the video and wanted clarification.

 

Thanks very much!

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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.

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