vinsteadi Posted February 10, 2004 Report Share Posted February 10, 2004 Hey guys, The IC of my master series film steadicam 14.4-volt battery has conked off. I need to replace it. Can I have the details from where do I buy it? The IC no is benchmark bq 2010. Till then take care and fly safe. Cheers, Vinny, Bombay, India. (Master series film steadicam owner / Op.) www.vinsteadi.biz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members JimBartell Posted February 10, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 10, 2004 Hi Vinny, The company that made this IC, Benchmarq, was bought by Unitrode, which was in turn bought by Texas Instruments. It is still made and they are for sale at Digi-Key (www.digikey.com) or Newark (www.newark.com) or wherever you buy your Texas Instrument IC's. Having said that, simply replacing the chip won't fix the problem. Once the chip is installed it has to be programmed with the specific properties of the battery it is attached to (Capacity, type, sense resistor value,etc.). Until this is done it will not work. Programming the battery requires a special interface board and a special computer program to speak to the battery IC. The only people I know with this capability are Tiffen/Steadicam. Sorry! Jim "gloom and doom" Bartell :huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinsteadi Posted February 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2004 Hii Jim, Thanks for your reply.Jim do you know anyone from tiffen whom i can contact through the e-mail. Frank Rush - STEADICAM frush@tiffen.com steadicam@tiffen.com jrtechsupport@tiffen.com Office = +1.205.980.8629 Cell 24/7 +1.205.229.5572 Kyle Young 1.310.645.4568 Ext.17 kyoung@tiffen.com jim should i contact frank or kyle for the installation of the chip and the necessary procedures?are they the right persons to contact?do the tiffen company also install the chip or should i provide them one? Thanks once again jim for your reply.waiting for your reply again!!! till then take care and fly safe. Cheers, Vinny. Bombay, India. (Master series film steadicam owner / Op.) www.vinsteadi.biz th Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Brad Grimmett Posted February 11, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 11, 2004 Vinny, You should probably call Kyle Young. He's in the office and will be able to answer your questions or put you in touch with someone who can very quickly. I'm sure Frank Rush could help you too, but his help may just be to have you call Kyle or someone else at the L.A. office. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members JimBartell Posted February 11, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 11, 2004 Vinny, Brad is exactly right, contact Kyle. Also, don't worry about supplying the chip, I'm sure they have them in stock. Jim "ray of sunshine" Bartell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikael Kern Posted February 26, 2004 Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 This little thing has come loose (I crashed) and I don´t know how it goes back. It has 7 + 2 pins in 2 rows and the receiving part has 7 + 7 holes. So it can fit in 2 ways - you can turn it 180 - but only one is right. My sled is a Master Elite. The electronics are marked 250-0084 on the circuit board, the component is named Omron G5Y, 12 VDC, 0635D0 Anyone has a manual or drawing of the electronics? Mikael Kern Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members JimBartell Posted February 27, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 The end of the relay (the loose part) that has the small white stripe (located under the G of the G5Y part number in the photo) should be at the same end of the socket as the notch in the end of the socket (closest to the big black D15S1212 DC-DC converter). Jim "knows which end is up.....occasionally" Bartell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikael Kern Posted February 27, 2004 Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 Jim "knows which end is up.....occasionally" Bartell OK - I trust you on that. But how do you know? ;) :unsure: Mikael Kern Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Erwin Landau Posted February 27, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 He used to work for that company... And he used to build that stuff... That's how. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikael Kern Posted February 27, 2004 Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 Thanks Jim, now I have power. But the video doesn´t come out. I put it in at top of sled but somewhere it gets stuck or lost..... B) Where should I look for trouble? Anyone with a drawing of the electronics? Mikael Kern Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members JimBartell Posted February 27, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 He used to work for that company... And he used to build that stuff... That's how. That's true, but this board was actually designed by Mike Ulrich, now happily designing guitar amplifiers at Fender. As to how I know, I looked up the data sheet for the relay from Omron and found that the white stripe is used to indicate which end of the relay was the end where pin 1 was located. The socket has a notch at one end for exactly the same reason. All IC's have some indicator (notch, dot, dimple, stripe, etc) to indicate the pin 1 end of the chip, as do all sockets. Jim "Radio Shack refugee" Bartell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikael Kern Posted February 27, 2004 Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 Yes, you´re right, Jim. I got the same answer from Tiffen in 15 hours 40 min. Thats nice, I have always got the best help and service from Tiffen. But it took you only 6h 7min.!!! :) Mikael Kern Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Peter Abraham Posted February 29, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 You are lucky. You own a Master Series Steadicam, instead of some other brand of camera stabilizer. Why? Because your Power distribution AND your Video D/A's are chipsets that are easily swapped in the field. Ask Tiffen to send you a new Video D/A Chip Array. You can replace it in less than 60 seconds, using a wrist grounding strap and your fingers. In the field. Good luck, if you have no video down the centerpost it's likely you either have a failed ChipSet, or you have seriously ungrounded video connector. Check your BNC's inside your top stage, to make sure they are tight, with no broken off wires. Best, Peter "Believes In Field Repairs, although Bartell Has Saved His Ass A Dozen Times By Phone" Abraham, E.M.T. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarloTomic Posted April 19, 2004 Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 Hey folks, I've been the proud owner of a Master Series Film rig for just over 8 months now and right off the top I have to say that she's quite the beaut and a pleasure to fly. But a few months into my purchase (bought used) I noticed that sometimes my stage controls would get a mind of their own and just start turning! It wouldn't be more than a quarter or half turn but sometimes (at its worst) it would happen in rapid succession on both fore/aft and side/side, sometimes making a full rotation. The worst times for me have been when I'm on set and in the middle of that shot, I hear that faint burp, so before my F$@*G head explodes I ever so gently grip a bit tighter and muscle my way through the shot (luckily for me thats only happened a few times and hasn't stopped me from getting the shot). Now, this has happened regardless of the cameras I've had on there, from BetaSP to the CineAlta to the 435 535 BL4 and you get the idea, and since I've sank a considerable sum into buying the rig I really want to hold off on getting a huge repair bill for something that, although maddening, has been mercifully intermittent. I just wanted to know if anyone else has come across this and wants to comiserate or comment. Thanks Karlo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members WillArnot Posted April 19, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 I'm sure there are many out there who could reply in greater detail. This was a somewhat common tick in the first generation of Masters. Short of having all the guts of the wireless stage electronics replaced with the new solid state ones like in the Ultra, there are a couple of options. A simple tune up can help. Certainly making sure the battery in the transmitter is fresh. More likely the receiver in the stage is receiving RF from other devices such as focus or video transmission. I believe this is correctable with a 're-tuning' of the pots in the nose of the stage. I don't know if this is field serviceable or if someone @ Tiffen can talk you through it. Then there is also the option of externalising the receiver antena. They started to do this by extending the antenna (usually a thin sheathed black wire) back under the stage from the nose, and sending it around the bottom perimeter of the stage, held in place by the dust cover. Some even just pulled it out from the dust cover so it dangled right over the gimbal v. close to the transmitter, thus insuring more reliable communication between the two. Yes they also drilled a tiny hole in the transmitter, so the transmitter was given a 2" antenna 'tail'. This setup almost being a hard wire of the two units w/ one draping down from the stage and a little tail going up to meet it, but with a convenient air gap so no actual physical interference. This I believe was a reliable solution. Sold my Master a year ago after 8 yrs. Had the same issues as you. Got so fed up dealing w/ CP, & I never had $ then, I never got the pleasure of trimming on the fly. Only got the silly thing fixed when I went to sell it to try and get a little $ for it. It CAN work! Good luck, Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.