Saturday, May 23, 2015

Motors on Boys Day

Camera-less rig -- motorized dolly and motorized pan and tilt head. Tony Travostino in the background.
My buddy Brian Dalthorp of PopStudios lent me his Revolve slider system (vastly more advanced than mine). The advanced e'en more portion is a used Bescor 101 remote pan/tilt head. Also, we can use a nice Manfrotto fluid head instead. Sometimes you want a motorized dolly and a manual head. Sometimes a motorized head and a motorized dolly, sometimes a motorized head and a manual dolly.
Could not get the slider system to work at all, we just got slipping on some of the gears, so we went back to skateboard wheels on a flat board.
Libby ran this system mostly. On a couple shots it took two operators. Man I wish we had like Bluetooth focus pulling as an option.
What else, what else? So many things. I write these blog posts as I'm practically passed out from a day of shooting so I have no idea what I'm saying 'till I read them (and don't edit them) in the morning.
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14 comments:

  1. Kangas5/26/2015 04:09:00 AM

    That's funny, I have two of those exact remote pan heads...They're pretty decent, though I wish you could get it to ease to a stop on the pan/tilt rather than just the abrupt stop.

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  2. Andrew Bellware5/26/2015 10:25:00 AM

    I know, right? How do we get it to do that?

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  3. Kangas5/27/2015 02:30:00 AM

    I think the only way to do it is to take the remote, clamp it to your workstation, get out the wire cutters and the strippers, then go rent a VariZoom VZ-MC100 pan head.

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  4. Andrew Bellware5/27/2015 09:29:00 AM

    Waaah. That's not what I wanted to hear!

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  5. Aric Blue5/27/2015 06:45:00 PM

    I'm wondering if you can't smooth out the jolting stop by adding a slight digital pan with the pan that doesn't stop when the mechanical pan does, and then ease that pan to a stop. Only other way I can think is to actually pan a little manually WHILE you're panning with the head, then when it stops you ease your pan to a stop. But that sorta defeats the purpose of even using the remote pan, doesn't it?

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  6. Andrew Bellware5/28/2015 01:30:00 PM

    I feel there's gotta be a way to ramp the voltage up and down rather than just on and off. Gotta be...

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  7. Unknown5/28/2015 02:40:00 PM

    Plug it into a variac. That way, you'll have more control than even the Gods dare dream of. No consultation fee necessary.

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  8. Andrew Bellware5/28/2015 02:53:00 PM

    Will a variac work with DC?

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  9. Unknown5/28/2015 03:01:00 PM

    Yep, you just have to buy one that outputs DC. I think I have one. I definitely have an AC one that I use to regulate my hot wire cutter temp.

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  10. Unknown5/28/2015 03:02:00 PM

    And blowing up stuff.

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  11. Unknown5/28/2015 03:03:00 PM

    And probably torture.

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  12. Andrew Bellware5/28/2015 03:41:00 PM

    I think the "ac" in "Variac" is for... er... AC.
    That said, for such a low-voltage DC application a simple potentiometer is all that's needed, no? If we learn the pin-out on the head, we could wire two pots or, uh, yeah. Two pots and two switches. Like DPDT or... wait maybe it should be triple-throw so that the center position is "off". That's probably the best way. So two DPTT switches and two potentiometers and... How am I suddenly the electrics guy?
    Can we just get the hazer fixed?

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  13. Unknown5/28/2015 05:34:00 PM

    http://www.gordosales.com/store/pc/AC-to-DC-c42.htm

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  14. Andrew Bellware5/28/2015 05:40:00 PM

    Yeah but... the motor we're working with (and its power supply) are DC already. I think just regular old variable resistors are all that's needed.

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My lawyer says we have to protect ourselves: note that we're constantly developing screenplays, we probably have a screenplay like what you suggest in development. Furthermore, if you suggest an idea for a screenplay you're giving us that idea.