power your accessories accessories cables Power By Sebastian Kuusiholma on 6/1/20, 2:15 AM • 203 views Hi Sebastian here, hope you all are safe during these hard times. I wanted to start a new thread about what is your most preferred way of powering your accessories. I have been thinking to get rid of Power Tap (Dtap / Ptap) cables & splitters because they feel flimsy/bulky to me and replacing everything with 2 pin Lemo connectors and splitters seemed like a good option. What are your thoughts? What are your favorite / most reliable manufacturer? Let me know Aidan Gray On 6/2/20, 12:08 AM Like Chris said, I’m usually at the mercy of whatever the rental house sticks me with... After being fed up with that for enough years, I bought a ScatterBox2 by Carlos Acosta - it’s served me very well over the years and saved me from a lot of power issues and headaches. It’s gotten to a point now where most cameras have a nice power distro solution (my favourites being the Wooden Camera Venice system and the Bebob Alexa Mini RAB back) but I still pull it out all the time if the rental house hands me a terrible plate, or I’m stuck on a RED. Carlos is working on a Version 3 currently that I’m really excited for - I have no idea as to the features but I’m just hoping it’s a bit slimmer, with the potential for a 10-20wH battery backup.
Paul Schoen On 6/1/20, 4:06 PM Hey Sebastian, did the same thing a few months back. Built all different kinds of Lemo cables, Lemo - Hirose (Amira), some Lemo - RS, Lemo - Lemo, but also a Lemo - female DTap for emergency and I modified one DTap splitter with a Lemo socket. So now I can power the splitter via a Lemo - Lemo or a DTap - Lemo cable. Also because of the socket in the splitter, I can decide what cable length I need. Thing is, I soldered all the cables myself. If I had to buy all the cables I would have thought twice about it because of the high costs. Depending with what kind of cameras you‘re working frequently it’s still a good way to have the DTap cables in your bag. Cheers, Paul
Hugo Rouffiac On 6/9/20, 7:11 PM Hi Paul, Making my own cable is definitly my next move, i've look for lemo egg and connector on the lemo official store first, they were something like 20$ each (male and female), then i found that on aliexpress : Lemo Connector. They're less expensive but i don't know about quality. Could you share some links of what you bought ? The next big question I have is about what type of cable to use... I don't even know what to type on google for those ^^ For a Lemo 2 Power Splitter, i've start working on a fusion project for 3d printing, I'll share it when i'm shure it fit everything !! But My main question is about circuit's protection... I feel like the rencher industries's one is that expensive cause it's kind of protected against shorting, overload.... I don't know much about electrical and electronical process yet, so maybe i'll have to add some kind off protected pcb so i could solder everything on it. It would be such a shame to fry a Mini or any kind of accessories....
If i manage to build my own splitter box, i'll be glad to share with you some kind of buying list and of course the 3D printng files !! Cheers Chris Steel On 6/1/20, 4:35 PM I use lemo and fischer connectors where ever possible to avoid grounding issues (Link) Makes the builds tidier and less likely for an "air gap" as I've had too many dtaps fall out during hand held work. I mostly rely on whatever distro box I can get from the rental house. Usually the HawkWoods boxes here which are great. 2 Fischer 2 Lemo and 4 Dtaps. I have been looking at getting my own Vlock to Vlock break out box like the scatterbox or a HW sony venice hot swap plate (link) but those aren't cheap options. I get most of my cables from Production Wiring as they're local and have really nice quality cables. A Fischer break out box would also be great like the ones made by rencher industries (link)
Sebastian Kuusiholma On 6/5/20, 7:13 PM hi Guys, yeah I was recently looking into scatterbox 2 a while ago, I saw Core SWX does a similar distro box called EVO jetpack and it has a 29Wh battery backup which gives you few minutes to hot Swap the battery. I currently have the Arri bebob V-lock power adapter but it only has 2x 2pin lemo output but I'm planning to get the wooden camera D-Box or scatterbox. I'm currently looking at mainly cables and splitters that accomodate my power needs since most of the times my DP works on the Movi PRO / Ronin 2, I got myself a power distribution box from IgniteDigi for the movi so I can get more juice into camera and accessories. I've noticed that the standard built-in power distribution in the Movi PRO wasn't giving enough to power the Alexa Mini and Cpro, especially when I had stiff lenses and to do quick racks, it was powering off the camera and rebooting after few seconds. luckily I found about this on prep day. in terms of splitter I was looking into getting the Rencher industries mini splitter with 4x 2pin lemo so I can get different lengths and types of cables depending on the output of the battery adapters. (same one Chris was mentioning) As Chris pointed out, Dtap can be a hassle when you're hand held and there's always a chance of them popping out, plus lemo and Fischer definitely give a tidier look to the camera. yeah absolutely Paul, it's always a good idea keep some Dtap cables just in case. did you build you own splitters? Paul,