Premium Members Lewis Farley Posted September 27, 2019 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 Hey all, Recently purchased my first steadicam, a Zephyr. Today I started setting it up and managed to get it some-what balanced and so on, the only problem I've run into so far is that I'm not able to get signal on my monitor. I'm pretty certain all wires are ojay and plugged into the correct parts as I managed to get a 85% signal for about 2 seconds, it then cut out and gave me another 2 seconds of signal and then cut out again. This happened 3 times. I'm shooting with a Sony fs5 and the SDI output is selected on the camera, SDI cables are new. I've attached a couple of photos of my inputs and outputs, hopefully someone has experienced thos before! Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Haris Pallas Posted September 27, 2019 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 Hi Lewis, I have the same monitor on my main sled for some years now and I never had a problem with it. The Sony Fs5 is very tricky with the SDI output. If you manage to send picture to the viewfinder of the camera and your sled monitor at the same time, when you push record on the camera you will loose the image on your monitor. There is a way to have image on your monitor while recording at the same time but you will not have image on the camera's viewfinder. Search the camera's menu for the right combination. - Haris - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lewis Farley Posted September 27, 2019 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 8 minutes ago, Haris Pallas said: Hi Lewis, I have the same monitor on my main sled for some years now and I never had a problem with it. The Sony Fs5 is very tricky with the SDI output. If you manage to send picture to the viewfinder of the camera and your sled monitor at the same time, when you push record on the camera you will loose the image on your monitor. There is a way to have image on your monitor while recording at the same time but you will not have image on the camera's viewfinder. Search the camera's menu for the right combination. - Haris - Hey Haris, So this is what happens when I turn on both the fs5 and monitor I'm not actually pressing record or doing anything with the camera. After a while it'll just stay blue and I won't even get the flicking between working and no signal anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Corey Hess Posted September 27, 2019 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 Looks like a bad SDI port or BNC to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lewis Farley Posted September 27, 2019 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 And just to clarify, the cable in using from my fs5 into the 'video port on top of the sled is this https://www.wexphotovideo.com/dsc-hd-sdi-uhd-bnc-to-bnc-0-5m-cable-1645980/ (assuming this is okay) For the monitor and bottom of the sled I'm using the 3 way cable that came with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Corey Hess Posted September 27, 2019 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 The way you touched the cable and the signal started going in and out makes me think the SDI is bad. Can you try it with a different SDI to the monitor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lewis Farley Posted September 27, 2019 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 2 minutes ago, Corey Hess said: The way you touched the cable and the signal started going in and out makes me think the SDI is bad. Can you try it with a different SDI to the monitor? It actually doesn't change or lose signal when I move the cable, it was just coincidence as I've tried it about 10 times previous. Just ordered a new SDI that's long enough to go from camera to monitor and will test that. I've used a separate SDI already with no luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Haris Pallas Posted September 27, 2019 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 1 hour ago, Lewis Farley said: And just to clarify, the cable in using from my fs5 into the 'video port on top of the sled is this https://www.wexphotovideo.com/dsc-hd-sdi-uhd-bnc-to-bnc-0-5m-cable-1645980/ (assuming this is okay) For the monitor and bottom of the sled I'm using the 3 way cable that came with. Hey Lewis, Which 3-way cable? The 8pin Lemo --> XLR + BNC ? The 8pin Lemo port on the bottom of your sled (I think) outputs SD signal, not HD. Can you check that out just to be sure? - Haris - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Haris Pallas Posted September 27, 2019 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 27, 2019 Lewis, I just checked out the Zephyr's manual. Do you connect the camera's SDI output to the HD SDI input on the front of the topstage or the standard def BNC input on the rear? - Haris - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lewis Farley Posted September 28, 2019 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 8 hours ago, Haris Pallas said: Hey Lewis, Which 3-way cable? The 8pin Lemo --> XLR + BNC ? The 8pin Lemo port on the bottom of your sled (I think) outputs SD signal, not HD. Can you check that out just to be sure? - Haris - Yep that's the cable I'm using, I've tried the cable that is just the xlr and lemo used with my own bnc but I get no signal at all 8 hours ago, Haris Pallas said: Lewis, I just checked out the Zephyr's manual. Do you connect the camera's SDI output to the HD SDI input on the front of the topstage or the standard def BNC input on the rear? - Haris - I'm connecting to the rear of the top of the sled (video) it's labelled, not the HD SDI output. The HD SDI gives me not signal either. I'm assuming I might have a combination of things wrong here but I'll keep testing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lewis Farley Posted September 28, 2019 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 I've now tried: Camera SDI to stage front HD SDI + monitor HD SDI in to Sled HD Vid SDI. No signal still, starting to worry the wiring could be bust inside the sled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lewis Farley Posted September 28, 2019 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 Update: Okay so now I've actually got all the correct inputs and outputs I managed to get signal for 5 secs, the signal eventually goes off and only comes back if I turn the monitor off/on again. I don't even have to move the BNC or steadicam for it to lose signal. It could be a bad cable at this point which is annoying as I bought 2 brand new ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Haris Pallas Posted September 28, 2019 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 Hi Lewis, If you feed the HD-SDI input on your top stage (front one) you must use the separate BNC output on the bottom of your sled for picture and the 3pin lemo for power - 2 different cables to your monitor, 1x 3pin lemo --> XLR for power & 1x BNC --> BNC for picture (at the SDI IN of your monitor with the SDI button selected of course). That is the way to go. If this doesn't work check your cables or anything else. - Haris - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lewis Farley Posted September 28, 2019 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 3 minutes ago, Haris Pallas said: Hi Lewis, If you feed the HD-SDI input on your top stage (front one) you must use the separate BNC output on the bottom of your sled for picture and the 3pin lemo for power - 2 different cables to your monitor, 1x 3pin lemo --> XLR for power & 1x BNC --> BNC for picture (at the SDI IN of your monitor with the SDI button selected of course). That is the way to go. If this doesn't work check your cables or anything else. - Haris - Thanks mate, I think I've nailed all of the correct in and out now, I'm thinking it's probably a bad SDI. Appreciate all the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Haris Pallas Posted September 28, 2019 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 28, 2019 A bad cable is always the first suspect. Any time man! - Haris - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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