BreakOut Box Prototype

[Jay A. Kelley]

I don't have the time for a perfect Render right now, but this pic should give you an idea of something I am designing.

I am already speaking with people on getting it built (If anyone on this board can do it, let me know!), and if anyone is interested in having one, they should let me know.

Bascially it's a cable pre-measured with right angle high-quality plugs for each connection on the dumb side of the camera (Minus the ports for lenses, EVF and LCD). The various cables then come together in a snake (About 3ft long), which goes to a multi plug on the back of this box. As you can see the box contains the same plugs, but all full size. What's missing are the clamps which will allow you to mount the box on either the support rods, or the tripod.

I'm not sure if the cable going to the box will be hard wired, or a breakaway. The breakaway would be a lot better, but it would cost more.

The cable could be various lenghts, but USB cables have a limit as to how long they can go, so they cannot be that long. I would imagine the longest run we can do would be around 10 ft to be safe. For not I do not expect any cable longer than 4ft at the most.

Other ideas are to put a plate OVER the plug side once this is attached. Thereby offering full protection of that side of the camera. (There would be a cutout to allow access to the lens, EVF and LCD ports)

I also sometimes work left handed, the plate will allow me to use the camera both ways.

This concept is still in development and we won't be able to really run with this until end of November (When we get the camera in our hands) then we can really tie it up.

I love RED, but I don't like these connectors. So I am creating something that will allow me to plug high quality cables into it, just once, and then I will be done with it. Also if I toast my breakout box it will be a hell of a lot cheaper than breaking a connector on the camera itself.

I should point out that RED's design makes stuff like this easy to do. I love it!


Why do this:
No specialized cables and/or adaptors to keep track of
Faster to unplug cables from camera for moving (Safer too) assuming we use a break-away
Better compatibility with other equipment and personal
Finally: I love pimping out my RED

There needs to be enough play in the cable that the camer can be turned 180 degrees with the cable mounted on the tripod without kinking up. At least that's the plan

Let me know your thoughts!

 

[Justin Anderson]

I like it. I think if you made it, it should conform to RED's rig design so you could attach it to the red frame.

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

I think that's a fine idea.

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

FYI - Offhollywood has been consulting and providing our cameras to a company that is, in fact, building a break-out box specifically designed for the RED - and we'll have pics in the very near future.

 

[I Bloom]

FYI - Offhollywood has been consulting and providing our cameras to a company that is, in fact, building a break-out box specifically designed for the RED - and we'll have pics in the very near future.

My only hope for both of these breakout boxes is that they can make the camera feel good against my face when I'm hand holding on my left shoulder (I'm a lefty and left eyed so I've been looking forward to operating this way on RED.)

I would love it if they made a box thay fit right onto the side of the camera as one unit or at least covered the side.

My suspicion is the first thing to break on a Red will be one of the ports on the side. If we can protect these from the getgo than its going to be good for the camera, good for on set workflow... And good for my face!

Ian

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

FYI - Offhollywood has been consulting and providing our cameras to a company that is, in fact, building a break-out box specifically designed for the RED - and we'll have pics in the very near future.

Well Mark,

It would be pretty stupid for both of us to construct the same thing. How many similarities does your design share with my concept (I assume this is not top secret stuff)?

Will the cable plug into the breakout box allowing for a quick disconnect, or is it hard wired? Does the breakout box have clamps so you can attach it to things? Are you planning to build a cover plate over that side of the camera once the cables are in place?

You get where I am going here. I don't want to continue this unless

A: You are doing this for your own company and do not wish to share
B: You plan to make this a premium accessory that is so expensive a bottle of "wet" comes with every order.

Seriously I would love to know more about your thoughts on this project, if you want to speak about it privately that's ok. If you do not want to speak about it at all, then I will move forward on this end.

Thanks
Jay

 

[jaadgy akanni]

Well Mark,

It would be pretty stupid for both of us to construct the same thing. How many similarities does your design share with my concept (I assume this is not top secret stuff)?

Will the cable plug into the breakout box allowing for a quick disconnect, or is it hard wired? Does the breakout box have clamps so you can attach it to things? Are you planning to build a cover plate over that side of the camera once the cables are in place?

You get where I am going here. I don't want to continue this unless

A: You are doing this for your own company and do not wish to share
B: You plan to make this a premium accessory that is so expensive a bottle of "wet" comes with every order.

Seriously I would love to know more about your thoughts on this project, if you want to speak about it privately that's ok. If you do not want to speak about it at all, then I will move forward on this end.

Thanks
Jay

...also, will it follow RED's example and be sensibly priced(relative to the REd One's price point) ?
Jay, go ahead and build yours if you plan to make it more affordable than the one anyone else could build. Thank you.

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

Well Mark,

It would be pretty stupid for both of us to construct the same thing. How many similarities does your design share with my concept (I assume this is not top secret stuff)?

Will the cable plug into the breakout box allowing for a quick disconnect, or is it hard wired? Does the breakout box have clamps so you can attach it to things? Are you planning to build a cover plate over that side of the camera once the cables are in place?

You get where I am going here. I don't want to continue this unless

A: You are doing this for your own company and do not wish to share
B: You plan to make this a premium accessory that is so expensive a bottle of "wet" comes with every order.

Seriously I would love to know more about your thoughts on this project, if you want to speak about it privately that's ok. If you do not want to speak about it at all, then I will move forward on this end.

Thanks
Jay

Jay -

It's actually not our design.

We are just consulting and providing access to the cameras for testing.

Its a company that brought their engineers to our place to take measurements of the camera and discuss the design of another product -

out of that initial meeting - we schemed a pretty elaborate breakout box -

The man behind the product (and a few other Red related products) is out of the country for another week - but I sent him the link to this thread - I do not want to "talk outta school" - but I will make him aware of your interest -

Cheers -

 

[Steve Sherrick]

However it gets done, this sounds like a nice accessory to have available. I'm glad to see there is already a lot of activity on the 3rd party front. We should have some really cool products to choose from over the next few months.

Steve

 

[filip kovcin]

I don't have the time for a perfect Render right now, but this pic should give you an idea of something I am designing...

...Let me know your thoughts!

hello there,
on your rendered image i noticed that timecode connector is XLR type. usually on cameras TC connector is BNC type - (this is useful i.e. when syncing two cameras, and usually they have same bnc connector). sound guys may convert TC signal to theirs XLR connectors on their side, so i beleive that there is no need to use such a big space consumer for TC XLR connector. i think the unit will be smaller if that one is BNC type. and of course two (input and output) TC connectors BNC type are needed.

just a thought
filip

 

[John V]

I need to ask this. Have you checked out how much connectors are going for? Lemo connectors are not cheap. Just wondering the costs involved with this.

 

[Greg Voevodsky]

Awesome, I kind of wish red would have listened to us and built this into the camera, either larger- underneath or in the back... glad to see the work arounds... maybe the box can mount on the side or underneath the camera!

 

[Rocco Schult]

Hi Jay,

whatever happens to Marks Box and when, your proto-render is a very good start.
I'd say flatter and cable breakthrough not at the back but the side.

Possibility 2 could be a design in format of a V-lock male-female inbetween with connectors at either side. The connection cable would be a short one in this case.
There is lots of stuff made as inbetween modules, like wireless audio, converters and such. The box would be out of the way pretty easy and if wanted shift the outputs where they should be, at the back.
The V-lock would surely make the box more expensive where not needed, but at least it could have that format and who wants to have it at that position (at the very back or maybe top) can mount V-lock adapters at his own dispense.

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

As for the connectors being incorrect: Yes I am aware of it, like I said, I was short on time right now. Most of them are for position only.

As for the V-Mount.. I agree, but one of the features that's important to me is the ability to get the cables OFF the camera when on Tripod. Another factor is that people like me will be switching out the V-mount with AB mounts so we do not lose our investment in batteries.

Nevertheless it's clear something like this is in demand. That's very cool, and I love the suggestions so far. I am going to look into a different render here soon, another idea.

Until then, more suggestions please!



Jay

 

[Jason Wingrove]

the red definately needs something like this. The connector system at present is not on set friendly but hey this is the fantastic nature of the RED is that it will evolve with the users and wont be a closed Arri /panavision style arrangement, and it will be the reds triumph! one trip or pull of a cable on those mini bnc's and either the body or the cable is back to the shop. if your on a shoot (with clients or producers) and the video out cable goes out, if they cant see anything.. your shoot will grind to a halt.

good on you guys for running with the ball for things like this. it will be a great mini industry for someone to crank out items like this ...

Now who wants to start making a nice eyepiece leveling system
jas

 

[Paul Hazlett]

I know this is minor and probably already thought of, but snake design that wraps all
cables at once so its fast on and off.

 

[Paul Hazlett]

nice!!,

What would be great is if this box would do some conversions to formats that were lost on the camera.

FWIW, I Don't see a real need to protect the ports on of the camera with anything. I have been shooting for 20 years with all manner
of beast and if its built right dirt and what not are not a problem.

 

[Matt Uhry]

I'm personally looking for a product that replaces the dumb side if the camera with a new part that has industry standard connectors. It would be a permanent replacement of the dumb side of the camera, not a box, not a slide on thing. It could have a stepped pattern that routes the cables rearwards or forwards as appropriate. Consolidate sound into a 5pin in and a 5pin out with 1 full sized audio XLR with a manual input pot in the unlikely the event of a on board mic.

The mixer will send me what I need on one cable - I'm not going to try mixing 4 channel of sound on the camera...

Using a break out box is an intermediate step that seems to give me twice as many connectors, and twice as many places to have a potential problem.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Joel Kaye]

Nevertheless it's clear something like this is in demand. That's very cool, and I love the suggestions so far. I am going to look into a different render here soon, another idea.

Until then, more suggestions please!

I'm not sure how you're connecting to the camera, but we are supposed to have full control remotely at some point via a connector (usb?). That being the case, I'd add 4 pots to control audio gain for each channel. Might as well add a few more assignable pots. I think the RED handgrip will be all assignable.... so whatever the protocol is for that would be the way to go.

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

I'm not sure how you're connecting to the camera, but we are supposed to have full control remotely at some point via a connector (usb?). That being the case, I'd add 4 pots to control audio gain for each channel. Might as well add a few more assignable pots. I think the RED handgrip will be all assignable.... so whatever the protocol is for that would be the way to go.

I hear ya, but all I am doing at this point is to remake the Panel but with Normal Size connectors. I need to walk before I run
Jay