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Volt issues yet anyone??


Patrick Berg-Pedersen

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Hi everyone,

Been trying to find some info on Volt issues/problems, but couldn’t find anyone.. Either this is my lack of good search engine abilities showing (...;-)) or there’s just not much on the topic yet. -Because I doubt that operators haven’t had their issues with the Volt yet. 

I’m a Volt owner myself but as I’ve only had it for about a couple of months, I haven’t ran into any big issues with it yet. It “stalled” a couple of times when I was practicing, but I just turned it off and restarted it. But that can possibly be because of an unaligned gimbal handle to back of camera/top-stage at the 3 sec start up. 

I love Steadicam because the whole idea of it is mechanical, when we add electronics, no matter how expensive, no matter how new/old, which shape/brand(s), it is never about if it will break but when it will break/stop working/having issues/etc!...And if one doesn’t have a quite decent insight/knowledge about electronics, one are totally “lost” (at least if one relies too much on the given device) ! 

So, any which Volt issues/problems have you had until now?? Did it take time to solve etc? 

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I haven't had any real issues with mine yet. At least nothing that has taken it out of action. 

The roll pulley has had the side pop off of two of them now. The dolly grip or assistant docking wrong and it pops super easy. If the belt is aligned properly there really isn't a need for it anyway. 

 

The other slightly annoying thing that happened was an assistant was putting away the rig and the gimbal was pushed way up the post. The plastic of the volt ended up rubbing on the knurled knob of the tilt stage and getting all scratched up. All cosmetic, but still a bummer.

 

Electronically and mechanically where it counts its been rock solid.  And I can't imagine operating without it now. Ive been able to nail shots I couldn't have even dreamed of before. 

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Sometimes I can't get the vault to be level no matter how many times I trim it. What seems to work is cycling the power a few times, but under a time crunch, it could be very annoying. I just switch it off and operate normally but it's an issue that I've seen multiple times and I don't know what causes it.

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19 hours ago, Kevin Jacobsen said:

Sometimes I can't get the vault to be level no matter how many times I trim it. What seems to work is cycling the power a few times, but under a time crunch, it could be very annoying. I just switch it off and operate normally but it's an issue that I've seen multiple times and I don't know what causes it.

Kevin, sounds weird! 

Are you aligning the gimbal handle to the back of your camera? 

So, you mean if you’re turning on/off your power/batteries it sometimes helps? 

When I’m low on power I notice it won’t run at all, only lights are showing, no motors turning. Then I have to switch batteries, which solves it.

 

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Actually, I second that. I did a shoot on the beach yesterday and noticed that the horizon was just slightly off. It is tough to trim it to be level when it's just ever so slightly off like that. The manual says to click the trim button once to lock in the new setting, but I've found (maybe imagined) that it only works if you hold it down for a second. Still tricky to make very fine trim adjustments. I would love to have something like the motorized stage, where you could remotely dial in the trim. Or even just another dial on the control box that would let you adjust it manually.

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I've had an intermittent issue where it wants to pull my pan to the right, but only when the rig becomes static.  I know it's not supposed to have any influence in the pan, but I seem to get it from time to time.  The issue didn't start happening until 4 months after purchasing it.  I've been in touch with Tiffen about it, and they've walked me through some tips and trouble shooting, but it still comes up.  I had it happen on a shoot the other week and failed to get a video showing what it does.  I later tried to recreate the situation at home and a rental house, but the issue didn't occur.  The tugging on the pan only happens when the Volt is engaged, so I know it's not a problem with the gimbal itself.  I should mention that my Volt is fitted to the Pro gimbal.

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Aaron -

With a sled neutrally balanced, the slightest imbalance will cause the sled to tilt or roll. If you are tilted up or down and the Volt is engaged, the Volt will try to level the rig, but it can only attempt to do so with motors not connected to the pan axis. The net result is that the sled pans. To more perfectly balance your sled, engage the Volt in regular mode, tilt to 30 degrees or more and set the trim to this angle. If the sled pans, tweak the side to side balance to stop the sled from panning.

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I have experienced an issue when I set a tilt angle and release my hold the frame dips ever so slightly. This is in "normal" mode. When in "sticky" mode the tilt remains exactly where it's set. I did a firmware update maybe 4 months ago that was supposed to fix this issue but it only fixed it in sticky mode. Perhaps there is a more recent update?

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9 hours ago, Lawrence Karman said:

I have experienced an issue when I set a tilt angle and release my hold the frame dips ever so slightly. This is in "normal" mode. When in "sticky" mode the tilt remains exactly where it's set. I did a firmware update maybe 4 months ago that was supposed to fix this issue but it only fixed it in sticky mode. Perhaps there is a more recent update?

Lawrence,

Yeah, that’s not unheard of. I’ve learned to compensate for that, so no major issue. But, if (perhaps just my mind) one click the button rapidly two times, I believe it’s not “dipping”.. But this I wonder if Jerry could explain a bit about.? Jerry?

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On 3/9/2020 at 5:40 PM, Jerry Holway said:

Aaron -

With a sled neutrally balanced, the slightest imbalance will cause the sled to tilt or roll. If you are tilted up or down and the Volt is engaged, the Volt will try to level the rig, but it can only attempt to do so with motors not connected to the pan axis. The net result is that the sled pans. To more perfectly balance your sled, engage the Volt in regular mode, tilt to 30 degrees or more and set the trim to this angle. If the sled pans, tweak the side to side balance to stop the sled from panning.

But to tell you all the truth.. 

I think you guys have really “done it” with the development of the Volt!! It’s such a new product and I think it’s off to a magnificent start! All products have “start issues”, minor and major issues, but I still haven’t found any major issues, not yet at least. And Jerry, you guys have really really done it again!! Congratulations so much to all of your great team members, which are all doing a terrific job!

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Instead I am having big problems with the Volt (Clipper324).

It began to make the defect progressively from mid-October, after about a year of use, during the making of a film.
When I turn on the volt the system starts to float (almost like when it is not well aligned).

Initially by turning the system off and on again it started up again well but then gradually started to do it more often until it became unusable.
I tried them all to no avail: changed the pan encoder sensor, changed the volt control box, powered directly by a battery etc.).
When the sled is aligned it remains stationary but if I start panning after about 60-70 ° it starts to float.

it seems that the problem occurs with the lowering of the temperature.

the gimbal is perfectly mechanically aligned by Tiffen UK.

I haven't solved the problem yet.

The second thing is the bounce on the tilt when setting a position with the gimbal button both in "normal mode" and in "friction mode", as Larry McConkey also described very well in the video he made a few days ago.

 

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On 4/2/2020 at 8:43 AM, Marco Dardari said:

The second thing is the bounce on the tilt when setting a position with the gimbal button both in "normal mode" and in "friction mode", as Larry McConkey also described very well in the video he made a few days ago.

 

Do you have a link to the video?

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