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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

BeSteady FOUR Thread

So I turned on the unit to get a battery reading as instructed by ACR and the gimbal turned into a mixer spinning around super fast then I got an "Encoder Error". At least the batteries show a full charge. But yeah, not feeling too confident right now. My rig is too top heavy to balance so I'll have to strip it down (that sucks). More testing after work today. First impressions, it visually looks good. That's about it so far. Shitty charger, no cables to power the RED, no plate to hold the large batteries, the carriage mount where the camera attaches was designed horribly (for light setups it might be okay), and not designed to handle my basic configuration so I'll have to get vertical extensions.. . I'm about 30% happy.

EDIT: But, they're fast on the email replies so big props for that! They've got some stuff for me to try when I get home so happiness now 55%.
 
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Ryan Sauve said:
So I turned on the unit to get a battery reading as instructed by ACR and the gimbal turned into a mixer spinning around super fast then I got an "Encoder Error". At least the batteries show a full charge. But yeah, not feeling too confident right now. My rig is too top heavy to balance so I'll have to strip it down (that sucks). More testing after work today. First impressions, it visually looks good. That's about it so far. Shitty charger, no cables to power the RED, no page to hold the large batteries, the carriage mount where the camera attaches was designed horribly (for light setups it might be okay), and not designed to handle my basic configuration so I'll have to get vertical extensions.. . I'm about 30% happy.
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Ryan Sauve said:
EDIT: But, they're fast on the email replies so big props for that! They've got some stuff for me to try when I get home so happiness now 55%.
Click to expand...

Sounds a bit like me when I got my V1 - as I was very wary of all the process, I skipped balancing and just turned it on... it all went a bit crazy... so I didn't do that again :)

On the tray lemo (to power an Epic), I think that cable is coming soon. You should have had a lemo to large battery included (large battery to mainbody/power-in lemo)? My old V1 came with a different power setup.

Regarding setup, as I mentioned in a previous post, I went to a lighter/smaller camera (a GH1 with a PL lens on it) and practiced balancing/achieving the correct CoG etc on that... it took a while, but I got there in the end. It's very delicate (like a Steadicam) so small adjustments matter. I really think it'd be good to do this first with another camera... establish it works, get used to the functionality and modes etc... then extrapolate upwards.
 
Ryan Sauve said:
Thanks for the feedback Andy, I'll fire it up with the old t2i tonight and see how it goes.
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I'll keep fingers (and toes!) crossed!

Probably check back a little later too ;)
 
3 under 3 makes it so hard to fit this testing into my schedule. I've filmed the unboxing though. So as inglorious as that is, I can probably put that up here over the next few days.
 
Jonathan, This is just not the time for this. We all have seen the craziness revolving around this group buy. Most of us - I think just want a working gimbal that we can exploit and at least break even on. For those who want a refund, I'm sure you will get it at some point. These guys are way too proud to to walk away; they could have disappeared two years ago. They are still here and still very active and for all the fuck -up It is my opinion they mean well and are going to try as hard as they can to make amends.

Just my thoughts.

Johnathan Walk said:
To all interested in buying with BeSteady/ACR:

I wanted to share my buying experience with BeSteady, which isn't not a good story. This should serve as caution when thinking about purchasing from this company.

About two years ago I placed my deposit for a BeSteady rig on a REDUSER group buy and then finally canceled my order after a year and a half of waiting. Constantly the company said it would refund my money and then finally the company out right stopped responding to my emails asking for updates on the situation. Piotr was my point of contact, and as you can see he is responsive on REDUSER forums but not to any of my buyer inquiries.

BeSteady is currently not refunding my $5000+ deposit back in either other products or providing me a payment schedule to refund my money. As I am sure many of you are small business owners, you can all understand how hard it is to lose $5000+.

If you are currently in this situation, I am taking legal action against BeSteady, so please PM me if you'd like to hear what steps I am taking against BeSteady, and see if you'd also like to be included on my case. Didn't want to have to do this but I also don't want anyone else in the REDUSER community to be affected by an unethical company like this. The REDUSER forums have always been a positive experience to me, barring this one terrible situation with BeSteady.
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Ryan Sauve said:
3 under 3 makes it so hard to fit this testing into my schedule. I've filmed the unboxing though. So as inglorious as that is, I can probably put that up here over the next few days.
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Ryan, "3 under 3"? wow man I call that brave. You are one busy dude. I can't imagine when and where you fit sleep in that situation, just the same congrats to you and yours.
 
Ryan Sauve said:
3 under 3 makes it so hard to fit this testing into my schedule. I've filmed the unboxing though. So as inglorious as that is, I can probably put that up here over the next few days.
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I would like to see it. Glad you have a v2-unit and can share some experiences, good or bad. All welcome.

And about taking the thing to court... I agree, it's the worst timing for this. Taking it into court right now when ACR begins shipping our units and getting more and more back on track is a bad move. It would hurt not only ACR but also anyone in this group-buy.

I totally understand the motivation. I currently tend more and more to ask for a refund (or sell my mine boxed), because the projects for which i had originally planned the unit aren't on my radar anymore. Things changed...
 
Im hoping that its just a matter of Ryan finding time to sit down and not be disturbed and have a full couple hours with the Beast and being able to communicate with ACR to get some answers. I really can't believe they sent a unit that is not going to work after all they have been through...
 
Yeah, so I got close but not really. I offloaded accessories from my RED to make the balance work on all 3 axes. I was getting some massive vibration on startup with what seemed to be the tilt axis so I went in and increased the strength. Things mellowed down a bit after I increased the strength on all axes. I then did an autotune (using the new autotune file they provided) and it set the tilt strength to 100%, and the Roll and Pan strengths to 90%. I'm still getting some weird buzzing and micro vibrations. I tried the follow mode (tilt/pan) and when I pan, the unit makes a high pitched buzzing noise like it ain't happy. Happiness went up to 80% before going down to 40%. The unit doesn't seem to be doing any panning during autotune. I guess now we contact ACR...

My update for the day. Not particularly stoked so far. But like Russ said above, maybe it's a matter of getting on the horn with these guys and figuring out. I just figured since they spent so much time QCing the shit of these, you think they would of at least gotten things going with a RED a little smoother. Fuck it, it's a beer night.
 
Hello Guys,

thank you for appreciation of our commitment. Like Ryan said, we are doing all we can to close that group buy and make everyone happy at the end.

I would like to ask you again to read manual and see tutorial movies - there are a lot of information that can be helpful there. Our support is on stand by to react and help you in any way possible. There are some advanced users - like Michael Kromschroeder or Alexander Jentz - and I believe they can provide invaluable assistance to all you guys as they have a lot of experience on that field. And you can always arrange Skype call to our support and we will be glad to help you.

Please remember that it is most difficult to begin, but when you will grasp the basics it will be easy to go further. I remember first contact with Alexander Ryden - he wasn't been able to tune his unit properly at first but after few weeks he was making such shoots:
https://vimeo.com/115179023
Yes, those were done on The Plus - our smaller unit - but I was speaking about general rule. So please don't give up at the start :)

Best
Peter
 
Piotr Chmielewski said:
Hello Guys,

thank you for appreciation of our commitment. Like Ryan said, we are doing all we can to close that group buy and make everyone happy at the end.

I would like to ask you again to read manual and see tutorial movies - there are a lot of information that can be helpful there. Our support is on stand by to react and help you in any way possible. There are some advanced users - like Michael Kromschroeder or Alexander Jentz - and I believe they can provide invaluable assistance to all you guys as they have a lot of experience on that field. And you can always arrange Skype call to our support and we will be glad to help you.

Please remember that it is most difficult to begin, but when you will grasp the basics it will be easy to go further. I remember first contact with Alexander Ryden - he wasn't been able to tune his unit properly at first but after few weeks he was making such shoots:
https://vimeo.com/115179023
Yes, those were done on The Plus - our smaller unit - but I was speaking about general rule. So please don't give up at the start :)

Best
Peter
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Piotr,
i do really hope Ryan sort it out and it's only a matter of tuning the PIDs. are we still on track for every gimbal shipped before the end of the year?
 
Hey guys, I've been filming in Guatemala these last weeks, so I've been out of the loop for a bit. However, before I left I got a tracking number, and today it's on a truck awaiting delivery.

Did you guys have to pay for duties and taxes? It says so in the UPS website.

Also, anyone have a link to the updated manual?
 
Marcos Montenegro said:
Hey guys, I've been filming in Guatemala these last weeks, so I've been out of the loop for a bit. However, before I left I got a tracking number, and today it's on a truck awaiting delivery.

Did you guys have to pay for duties and taxes? It says so in the UPS website.

Also, anyone have a link to the updated manual?
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Marcos,
Everyone must pay duties taxes and fees. The taxes you pay are to your local government, duties are based on the treaty agreed on by both the Polish and your local governing body and the fees are for local admin charges. For instance, still photo gear coming to Canada from most of the world is duty free here but I still pay taxes based on the value of the equipment. A ACR gimbal coming from Poland is going to cost me $800.00 CAD based on where I live while someone in Alberta might only pay about $350.00. Same country different regions. I know its fucked, but hey I can write that off against my income.

I hope that helps a little.
 
Just an update: Seems to be getting better. I set the strengths to 60% as suggested and my pan axis buzzing is gone! Still have some small vibrations in follow mode but we're getting close.

One odd thing is that I can't remove the Lock an Load. I removed the camera, pulled that black lever thing and tried to turn but it won't budge. It's really stuck in there! That being said, if this is my only issue, I'll be quite happy.

Once I get this working, I'll make a small video of the steps I took to get it working as I'm sure it'll help other people when they first get their units.
 
R. Gonzales said:
A ACR gimbal coming from Poland is going to cost me $800.00 CAD based on where I live while someone in Alberta might only pay about $350.00.
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I'm from Alberta and paid about $310. It was mostly GST with a small fee ($10). $800, ouch! Move to Alberta, we'll party!
 
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