Follow Focus Motor Slipping

[Tom S]

M-One, Heden M26, and Tilta Nucleus M motors all slip. I always have to press the motor against the gears when calibrating. Does anyone have a good solution besides cranking really hard on the rod clamp, gaff tape on the rod, or a pongo cable to the opposite rod?

 

[Michael Tiemann]

M-One, Heden M26, and Tilta Nucleus M motors all slip. I always have to press the motor against the gears when calibrating. Does anyone have a good solution besides cranking really hard on the rod clamp, gaff tape on the rod, or a pongo cable to the opposite rod?

Make sure the rod itself is not slipping. That solved my problem.

 

[Bastian Meier]

what lens are you using it on, and how stiff is the focus of the lens?

with the lock mount of Reds EF or PL mount, and well tightened rods (like Michael said) I didn'T have a problem yet.

 

[Cameron Currier]

Positioning is key, as well. This article has some good points: https://thefocuswheel.wordpress.com/2017/06/30/2-motor-position/

 

[Tom S]

This is probably my issue. I found this answer on the Steadicam Forum. I use an Angenieux Zoom and Schneider Xenon primes with a PL mount and carbon fiber rods.

Often a quick and 'non-messy' fix is to just add a 15mm bridge.

What happens is that the motor torque slightly bends the rod - aka pushes it away from your lens.
Then your motor gear comes off and slips.

The longer the rod and the 'bendier' the material (aluminum and carbon fiber are worse culprits than steel)
the worse it gets.

What the 15mm bridge does is tie your motor 'host' rod to another rod. Aka it cannot bend away that easily anymore.

This usually fixes the problem for me.

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Positioning is key, as well. This article has some good points: https://thefocuswheel.wordpress.com/2017/06/30/2-motor-position/

Thanks for this informative link!

 

[Cameron Currier]

This is probably my issue. I found this answer on the Steadicam Forum. I use an Angenieux Zoom and Schneider Xenon primes with a PL mount and carbon fiber rods.

I've just recently started moving away from carbon fiber rods, altogether. The bright tangerine drumstix are where it's at now.

Adding a bridge is also a great solution and one I often overlook. Especially with longer lenses like your Angenieux, should help quite a bit.