Powering Two 12v From Flyer LE

[Alex Kolb]

Hi all,

 

I got a call earlier from a friend and op who's at a small station which plans on buying ATEM fiber conversion boxes from blackmagic to use with their new "studio cameras", which are actually prosumer sorts of things from my understanding.

 

He was interested to know if he could power both 12v devices (the camera and the ATEM) from the Flyer LE, and if so, how one should do that. I'm not familiar with the rig, so I'm deferring the question here.

 

Best

Alex

[Mike Germond SOC]

"Can you" and "should you" have been argued time and time again on here. The Flyer LE only has one power output and relatively small gauge wiring. Having said that, I've put a quad p-tap box on it and ran a RED Epic thru a Camwave, plus a Preston back when I owned that rig. It worked for a 2 day shoot, but long term it could burn up the wiring. I've pushed it on many more occasions as well, and I think I just got lucky.

 

The best solution would be to fly a battery on the camera, especially if its a light prosumer camera. But I don't know what camera you're talking about and what external power options it has.

 

So yes it's possible, probably not good long term.

[Mark Schlicher]

On the original Flyer, the second battery plate was a "dummy", not wired into the sled. Used for adding a second battery for extra weight only. I assume that the D-tap output was probably functional but I never had occasion to try it. I imagine that a 12V Flyer LE would have the same dummy plate. You could theoretically run a wire pair from the D-tap, forward to the monitor, and then up to the front of the camera stage, for a second source of 12V power up top. OF course, you'd need a heavy enough camera payload to make things work overall, but it is one way to do it.