Alexa SXT + WCU-4 issues with LDA 
 alexa arri 
 By Wojtek Szumski 

 on 5/13/19, 11:28 AM • 748 views
Having an intermittent issue with the SXT sending LDA info to my hand unit. It worked for a few days, but now the focus scale doesn’t show up on the right side on my WCU, premarked rings don’t line up, but i see the correct distance number in the middle of the display and on the camera. I borrowed A cam’s WCU and it works fine, scale shows up and premarked works, but mine doesn’t.
We’ve been tentatively battling this for a few days. Any suggestions?


EDIT: the „working” WCU is version 03.00.07, and the one that does not work is 03.02.11.


EDIT2: We are using Cooke S4i and Angenieux 28-340, LDS mount is permanently off, as it seems to make the WCU’s epileptic.
 
Yeah, slider has it but my knob and stick menus look exactly like in the manual, ie. no blank screen.
 Convert as an answer Wojtek Szumski 

 on 5/13/19, 5:04 PM


 E. Roni Beraha 

 On 5/13/19, 3:13 PM
Well, WCU4 are like flowers. You have to treat them gently. :))
So hard reset or factory reset is the latest solution.

First of all which lens are you using? If it is Cookes, we may have to take that in consideration.

turn off the lds off. Clear all the files. Then turn it back on, try the file again.

In WCU4, you can go to motors in the 10.2 Control setup select each one and in the menu, it says show black screen. If you select no, the black screen should disappear. 

If none of these works, factory reset. Most of the time, it is in 5 minutes that it should get back to normal but when you are working 5 minutes is very very long.
 https://www.arri.com/resource/blob/42880/6193aefe25dc3062fd61221c5c0faf35/wcu-4-manual-data.pdf 


 blank screen off-on. There has to be one for the knob too 


Keep us posted.
Regards,
Roni Beraha




Hey Roni, Thanks for the good advice! Good to have you on the forum! 
 Convert as an answer Clemens Hönig 

 on 5/13/19, 3:19 PM
Hey, thanks for the answer. We are using Cooke S4i and Angenieux 28-340, LDS mount is permanently off, as it seems to make the WCU’s epileptic. I can’t find the „show black screen” anywhere.
 Convert as an answer Wojtek Szumski 

 on 5/13/19, 4:41 PM

 

 Aidan Gray 

 On 5/13/19, 5:01 PM
Hey there! So, there's a really small chance that what happened is the knob calibration somehow got disrupted - you can reset this, but you NEED to have the pre-marked calibration ring (K2.0000848). If you enter the "Service" mode without it and hit K-LIN under Knob calibration, you basically break the knob of the handset until the rental house can throw the calibration ring on there... You can find ARRI's process for resetting the rotary encoder in the knob on pg. 94 of this manual . The only chance this is really the case is if the unit was dropped relatively hard, or I suppose a firmware glitch but likely the first one. 


Basically, you boot the WCU into "Service" mode by holding both upper and lower center soft buttons when booting the unit up - continue to hold them until "SERVICE MODE" pops up on the screen in big red letters. Remember that anything you touch in this setting will affect the factory calibration for all the encoders, so don't poke around... The rest of the info is in the manual :) Again, once you hit any button in service mode, you need to know how to calibrate the system otherwise you have a useless piece of metal. 


EDIT: Also I just wanted to really reply to the question and ask if the lens you're using LDA files you've created or if you're just using the lens data coming out of the mount on the lens? I've had a lot of issues using the lens data from the lenses without creating my own files, and when I've discussed this with ARRI in the past, their recommendation has literally been to cover the PL-mount contacts with tape and create my own files (this was with Cooke lenses on a Mini about a year ago)... In my experience, even disabling the PL mount doesn't always stop whatever interference they cause with each other. 

 
As commented above, We are using Cooke S4i and Angenieux 28-340, LDS mount is permanently off, as it seems to make the WCU’s literally epileptic. It’s pretty funny to watch.
 Convert as an answer Wojtek Szumski 

 on 5/13/19, 5:22 PM



 Wojtek Szumski 

 On 5/13/19, 5:45 PM
UPDATE: Fixed! I don’t know for how long, but it works now. What seemed to do the trick was:
Connect my (B) hand unit to A cam, connect A hand unit to B cam. Then reverse, B hu to B cam and it works miraculously. Interestingly enough, i tried that a few days ago and it did not help. I was fumbling around with your suggestions, seems like one of them in combination with switching the cameras unhung the WCU. Thank you all!
EDIT: This morning same problem, same fix. Who knows what’s going on....

 

 Clemens Hönig 

 On 5/13/19, 1:36 PM
I guess you have tried with a factory reset? Have you changed anything in the set-up, compared to when it changed? Do the two hand units (yours and the Acam`s) have the same software running on it?
BTW: I like your Instagram feed, your photos from Mumbai with the compact ONE are legendary. Good to have you on the forum!
 
Thanks a lot! I have tried factory reset, but i did not check WCU’s software. It stopped working on the day when we were switching focus pullers (with our WCU’s) between the two cameras. Thing is, we don’t really get much downtime to properly reset and redo everything, so i’m trying to fix it in between setups.
PS: it’s sooo nice to have a forum dedicated to our craft. Mumbai was quite legendary in itself.
 Convert as an answer Wojtek Szumski 

 on 5/13/19, 1:46 PM
