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Transvideo Rainbow HD7 SBL on Archer 1?


Chris McKissick

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Hey folks,

I'm thinking about upgrading to a Rainbow HD7 SBL on my Archer 1.

The wiring seems to be in place (7 pin lemo labeled "HD VID" on stage and 3 BNC connectors on bottom by the monitor with the middle one labeled "HD")

 

So it seems to be a question of mounting and power. As far as I can tell the Rainbow has 2 threaded mounting holes on either side, but unfortunately not at the CG.

Would the slide assembly be the solution to this?

http://www.transvideo.eu/store/Slide-Assembly

Ideally I would find the CG, and replace the standard SD monitor with the transvideo using the standard archer yoke. I would have to add some spacers I suppose since the rainbow isn't quite as wide as the stock.

 

Power wise, I would dissect the current SD / Video Lemo cable into 2 separate ones and attach an female xlr to the power wires.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

Chris

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I upgraded my Archer with a TVlogic SRM-074w about six months ago. I got the mounting hardware from tiffen, so they might have the correct parts for the transvideo as well.

 

As for the wiring, i replaced the 7 pin lemo and the 4 pin hirose with bnc connectors. These were connected to two of the three video lines from the 7 pin lemo.

post-14316-0-97414700-1463238473_thumb.jpg

 

On the bottom of the rig, I removed the bnc that was no longer connected to the top stage. In its place i put a 8 pin female lemo, instead of the 8 pin male lemo monitor cable. This part is a bit difficult. So if you dont have a lot of experience with soldering, you should maybe get someone to help you with this (like i did).

post-14316-0-20305900-1463238482_thumb.jpg

 

I ordered cables for both my TVlogic and the original monitor from Alan Rencher at Media Blackout.

 

Hope this helps.

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Hey Tore,

interesting.. since I'm not completely sold on the Transvideo yet, I had to go and compare the two.. ;) I hadn't looked at tvlogic yet.. 1500 nits seems crazy bright compared to the Rainbow's 900. Resolution-wise it's 1920x1080 vs 1024x600. Can one tell the difference in resolution I wonder? Hmm.

Another plus would be that the CG seems to be on the mounting holes, no?

 

Oh well.. back to your post. I don't understand a few things you stated..

 

1. I understand why you would swap out the 7 pin lemo since a BNC connector is much easier to work with but why chance the hirose? What do you use it for? I've never used mine before.

 

2. On the bottom, why did you replace the right bnc with the 8 pin? What exactly is connected to what here? I was under the impression that the middle bnc on the bottom was the HD line that goes to the HD Vid port on the top?

What exactly is connected to the right 8 pin female now and where does the cable that you plug in to that port go? How do you power your monitor?

Please elaborate.. ;)

Thanks sofar! I'll get in touch with Tiffen on the mounting issue. Thanks for the tip.

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The thing is that all 3 of the bncs on the bottom are connected to the 7 pin lemo on the top stage originally. All i did was use two of them to connect to bncs on the top stage. One mounted where the 7 pin lemo was before, and the other mounted where the 4 pin hirose was. This way i have 2 lines of hd-sdi through my sled.

 

The 8 pin lemo on the bottom is connected to the old monitor cable. The old cable would just work with monitors with 8 pin lemo in. With this mod i can connect a cable with 8 pin lemo on one end, and whatever is needed on the other end. For example my tvlogic cable is 8 pin lemo to 4 pin mini-xlr and bnc. And the cable to my old backup monitor is 8 pin lemo to 8 pin lemo. It makes it a bit more versatile.

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Resolution-wise it's 1920x1080 vs 1024x600.

 

I think the screen resolution is about the same on both of these models. Transvideo lists the pixels for both of their current Rainbow HD models as having a picture zone of 1024x576.

 

I have been very happy with my Transvideo RanbowSBL and yes the slide makes it easy to move the center of gravity over a stud style monitor mount. Their side brackets for use with the Transvideo yoke might make the monitor wide enough to fit your archer, they do stand out a bit from the sides.

 

Another option to consider is the new RainbowFHD that Transvideo announced a little while ago. That will be a 1920x1080 display, 1000 Nits, a Bonded Screen, and a built in recorder. I didn't see the built in virtual horizon on the list of features for this one though. Does anyone know if they dropped that feature from this model? That was one of the big selling points for me when buying the RainbowSBL.

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Yes I noticed that I got that (and even the brightness) mixed up... ;)

 

 

 

Their side brackets for use with the Transvideo yoke might make the monitor wide enough to fit your archer, they do stand out a bit from the sides.

That's a good idea.. I hadn't thought of that one yet. Hope they sell just the brackets without the yoke then...

 

Has anyone had any balancing issues with the lighter monitor? There's about a 400g difference in the original Archer Monitor and the Rainbow. Also, it seems that the CG isnt completely centered left/right but that's just a guess.

 

Tore, would you be so kind and post a pic of your monitor yoke and the "mounting hardware" that you got from Tiffen? Just to get an idea of what that looks like..

 

The new FHD looks very nice indeedl.. though I would suspect the price point to be quite a bit higher..? Any release date on that? I would suspect a price drop in the HD7 SBL then..

 

Thanks for the replies!

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Looking at their website it looks like they may have renamed the monitor to StargateFHD... that looks and has the specs of what was originally named the RainbowFHD anyway. It is available for pre-order, but you would have to contact them for price and ship date.

 

I know they sell a rosette adapter separately for the Rainbow HD to be able to add handles, but that looks a bit thinner than the yoke hardware. It would be worth checking with them even if it's not listed. A lot of their accessories can be purchased individually.

 

As for weight overall, I know it has been an issue on larger rigs when trying to balance multiple batteries. I ended up making a custom weight plate for myself and a few other ops, but I think it would be overkill on your sled. Here is the page to see what that is: http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?showtopic=21039&hl=%20transvideo%20%20rainbow

The weight is not exactly centered. I set my rainbow HD on a pivot and it looks like the CG is roughly centered on the front logo (I do have the slide assembly installed, so that will influence slightly). The logo is centered on the screen so it is about 4" from the side with the controls and 3.25" from the other side. (again just rough measurements off of my monitor).

The best way to add weight for the archer yoke may be to get the slide assembly and attach a small weight to the 1/4-20 threads. That way you could slide the weight left and right to center the center of gravity on your yoke.

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Yes I noticed that I got that (and even the brightness) mixed up... ;)

 

That's a good idea.. I hadn't thought of that one yet. Hope they sell just the brackets without the yoke then...

 

Has anyone had any balancing issues with the lighter monitor? There's about a 400g difference in the original Archer Monitor and the Rainbow. Also, it seems that the CG isnt completely centered left/right but that's just a guess.

 

Tore, would you be so kind and post a pic of your monitor yoke and the "mounting hardware" that you got from Tiffen? Just to get an idea of what that looks like..

 

The new FHD looks very nice indeedl.. though I would suspect the price point to be quite a bit higher..? Any release date on that? I would suspect a price drop in the HD7 SBL then..

 

Thanks for the replies!

 

 

 

The parts was just two small plastic spacers and some screws. I dont have any pictures that show the pieces. And i recently changed the bottom of the rig, so among other things i use a entirely different yoke now. I think i might have them somewhere. I´ll post some pictures of them if i find them.

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Thanks Thomas, very nice weight plate you made there!

I'm still not 100% sure where exactly the slide assembly goes. The bottom? Where would you add it to and attach the weight? Thanks for your patience ;)

It's not so much the side to side CG I'm worried about but the up / down / tilt (if you can call it that)

Up until now, I've been able to change the tilt angle of my monitor on the yoke however I wanted without it affecting the fore / aft balance of the sled. By getting the mounting parts from one of the yokes which use both mounting holes on the sides of the monitor, I would get one single mounting point on which the monitor can be freely rotated without it affecting balance, correct? That was my main concern.

 

Tore, thanks for the info. I thought it was more complicated than that. Good to know.. Don't bother with finding pics. Thanks!

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Yes, the slide assembly attaches to the bottom... so if you are mostly concerned with the vertical weight distribution, ignore my previous suggestion :)

 

I can pull my monitor out later and try to give you a rough idea of where the center of gravity is vertically... but as Transvideo offers a yoke mount for it, I suspect their rosettes are centered on the cg anyway.

 

I would check in with Transvideo directly, they may already have a solution for attaching to an archer. They have been very helpful and informative for me and quick to respond to questions.

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Hey guys,

so I ended up doing what Tore did and replaced both the HD Lemo and Hirose with BNCs and put the 7 pin Lemo from the stage on the bottom of the sled. 2 Cables, one for the old SD Monitor, one for the new HD7 plus quite a few curses whiles soldering and I completed the transformation successfully!

 

Just had a shoot on Tuesday and it worked flawlessly. Haven't gotten the proper mounts from Transvideo yet but I'm optimistic they will be able to help me with the CG issue.

 

Thanks again everybody for your input!

Much appreciated!

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