Yesterday, we shot a music video with the MoVI M10. We had a Red Epic with a Side Handle, Leica R lens, Bar Tech motor balanced on the M10. We were doing a shot where the MoVI operator was walking backwards with talent walking at him. During the middle of the shot, the M10 went totally limp. The MoVI M10 was in Majestic Mode with the remote control off, so there was no chance the switch from "majestic" to "remote" was flipped. We reset the power button on the M10 and it fixed the problem for a little bit but it went limp again. Does anyone here know what would cause this? We were using a FreeFly LiPo battery and it was at around 15.1 volts when it was acting up. This is concerning because production decided to stop using the MoVI and go with a SteadyCam!
I have noticed that if the motors receive enough countermovement they will stop, like if you bumped them. Though this has always happened when power was at 2 or 1 LEDs on the battery indicator. I know you noted that it had a healthy amount of power going at the time, but did you bump it during the take?
Kurt how many lights were on on the controller? 15.1 volts with no load is starting to get down to a low battery level when under a load. Example, I try to land my CS8 when I get a warning at 14.6volts while flying. Unplug and typical static voltage is about 15.1v.
Thanks Brett and Gary! Gary, by "lights were on the controller", do you mean lights on the the back of the M10? If so, there was 2 out of 3 lights on the first time it suddenly went limp. To save time, I switched to a 3S (3 cell) battery because I had it on me and the other battery was still charging. This battery was fully charged but only has a max of 12.6 volts. Im guessing when we changed one of the Red Volts or lenses, the strain we put on the. MoVI M10, in conjunction with the power not being closer to 16 volts caused the M10 to go limp mid shot. I think the solution is to turn the M10 off for camera changes. One more thing, the M10 was in Majestic Mode doing a high angle shot where it was tilted down 45 degrees or more. The pan motor gave out and the camera swung around 180 degrees. The 4 cell FreeFly battery was fully charged when this happened. We may have done a lens change so I'm thinking it goes back to what Brett was saying about applying too much force to the M10. Thanks again for your help! -Kurt
Kurt a 3S battery won't supply enough power. And a good chance that Brett is correct. Even with a lens change the balance should be checked.
Kurt, I've run into similar issues with similar builds simply due to low power. It does take a decent toll on the M10 to keep a fully loded Epic flying smooth, and as the battery dwindles to the lower depths of the 2nd LED, you'll easily run into Narco (my term for it just falling asleep. CAN WE MAKE THAT A GLOSSARY TERM FOR MoVI???). As part of my OPERATING TECHNIQUES, any time a change to the camera is required (battery, lens, filter, etc) I will dock it, shut down, adjust, rebalance, and reboot. I'm sure like all of you, I've whittled this down to more that reasonable rapidity and don't fret "lost time" from making the change. The reason being is I feel anytime there is a big influence on the gimbal while it is on, it must first fight it, and then relearn it, and then when released, relearn again. I try to give it less to fret about in the case of how to compensate.
Hey - I am on a big commercial shoot where the Movi rigged with Epic and all the normal surrounds has been under heavy rain for the shoot - we bagged everything and covered it well but when taking off the covers there were a few drops around the main electronics on the back. The unit has gone through a couple of different stages, firstly it would power up then after 5 seconds or so it would start to twitch and then all three lights would start flashing. Now when powering on it twitches, the tilt starts to slowly tilt down in a jumping manner then the three lights start flashing and the middle one goes out with the two outside ones continuing to flash. I have checked over the whole rig three times to make sure all cables are securely plugged in etc with no difference, re starting, re setting etc etc. Could this be something to do with water damage possibly? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Think I'm done for the day - the call for a steady cam as replacement has come in as we are the only ones in New Zealand with a Movi up and running so far Dan
Dan, Even though I answered you from the other thread you posted in, if you continue to have issues please file a ticket and contact me via our support system @ support@freeflysystems.com. Thanks, Chris