M10, power and video distro

Some new cables made for Epic rig. Actually not just Epic but can be used for any camera, but at the moment I'm customizing cable lengths etc primarily for Epic as our Carbon Dragon should be in this week and this combo will be about as good as it gets.

Ive done enough of these hobby connectors now to be finally getting good at it (I think anyway). The first few JST's were a mess but I've about figured the issues and now able to use a heavier gage wire (18) so a monitor or wireless system doesn't stress the wire capacity. If you get the "pre-wired" JST's that you can find on the internet with a 8" flying lead.... it looks like it would save a step, but they often come with 20 or 22 gage wire which is lite if your running a few items off it. The XT-60's are awesome connectors, cheap, easy, very small, lite.... win-win.

 

Gorka, Good to see you here, and steadicam operators using this new technology.

The monitor depends on needs. In my quest to get everything I can off the Movi rig has led me towards the Small HD 5.6" at the moment because it has a wider range of power-in voltage. I can run it off my main power lead coming off the Anton Bauer in the hip-pack. Id like to use the TV Logic also but its power capacity is 6-12v, so I'll need to drop voltage via an adapter to make that work but I'll have that made soon to have this option available. I'm in the rental business (Dc-camera) so Its about creating as many options as I can imagine clients needing.

 

New wire harness made to delivery all power needs to the rig including movi batt, and video off board to x-miter and it works well. Needs a bit of cable managing as it comes off the rig and snakes around to the waist belt, but I'm pleased with how much easier the rig is to operate when all that weight is taken off (in a heavier mode). A lighter 5d rig without lots of AKS is another story. The motivation was when heavy camera and multi aks are needed everything becomes a mess, and a heavy mess at that.

When I get a AB battery + movi battery + the video transmitter into the hip-pack, life is easier in almost every way except the need to manage the cable which I'm happy to do by comparison. The rig has some more cables to be wrangled up around the top bar, but down where it counts along the frame and camera platform is much cleaner and easier to manage in general... less cable hell, and the batteries are off board for everything. The hip pack can be a mess as in the picture, no tieing everything down, and no having to take camera out of balance to change a battery like 5d or Red using internal batteries under the bottom.

Next, same idea.... one AB battery for everything but movi, but mount the AB brick up on the top bar and more custom cables to fit the lengths involved as per. Some clients will prefer the weight to the "off board" cable and have it all self contained, but still have the advantage of one battery to change for all the Aks plus camera. Were getting there!

 

a few more pics of what this looks like up top, if your interested.

 

Gorka, Thanks for the rg179 tip I've ordered the bits.

I had the boys at Vark Audio make a custom audio break away cable and have sort of figured it into the next bundled harness re-make once the thinner 179 cable arrives. Time code is the last part of the puzzle and Bruce at Vark warned against trying to bundle TC into the harness for cross talk issues. Anybody know much about that?

Fresh pics with new audio break away. Almost done!

 

yes exactly. I used 18 gage from Anton bauer up to the rig, then with some of the split-offs for Aks I used 20 gage. Its a bit heavier then possibly could get away with but I wanted to over-size the power ability.