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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 :)

Letus Gimbal

Need help with my newly received Helix here!

I just received my Helix today and I spent a whole evening trying to figure it out. I watched the video tutorials on the basics and how to balance properly. I tried my blackmagic cinema camera and I was able to center the roll axis at optical center. I believe I balanced the roll, pitch, and yaw properly and carefully.

But as soon as I power up the Helix, it would start vibrating erratically. I tried resetting the Helix and made sure I was in Profile 1, as suggested by the FAQ. I also tried the auto motor configuration and auto PID tuning, but none of these helps.

Then I tried it with a Panasonic GH4, same result.

Does anyone knows why my Helix behaves so strangely? Did you go through the same problem when you first receive he Helix?

I am working on a commercial shoot this week, and the director saw my newly received Helix. He wants to use it for a few shots and it is now up to me to get my Helix up and running ASAP.

Any idea / shared experience will be much appreciated.

Thanks

Jack
 
I know that you have probably done these things, but let's start with some basics...

Were you sure to balance in all dimensions? After setting optical center, you need to make sure it is balanced around the point, as well; i.e. when rotating it to any point and letting go, it stays there. Now, balance fore/aft; this is very sensitive, as a mm each way is significant. And, the one people often forget, make sure the handles are set at the correct height to make sure the unit is neither top nor bottom heavy. Again, when you use your thumb to maneuver the tilt of the unit, it should neither fall back to upright (bottom heavy) nor topple over (top heavy).

As for auto-tune - the word is that this feature is not very mature, and therefore doesn't work that well on Helix. You are probably better off reloading your original profiles.

When all this is done, you shouldn't get the high frequency oscillations. However, I have experienced this and sometimes, when you pick the well-balanced unit up, the vibration settles down and disappears.



And, a couple other simple but important details that I missed early on...

- the single push of the button that engages the motors is a toggle; a single push goes back and forth between the motors being engaged and disengaged.
- IMPORTANT - that engaged/disengaged state is with whatever profile you have set. So, I suggest to disengaged motors, push twice to bring up your simple follow mode profile (#1), and then tap once again to re-engage the motors. You should hear beeps after each set of taps. May sound basic, but I missed the whole toggle on/off vs. profile setting difference when I first started with Helix.

If you are still having issues - or don't have access to the original profiles to reload them, I'd get ahold of Ken at Letus and he can help!

Like I said, basic stuff you may have already covered but... maybe not. :smiley:
 
Jack Lam said:
Need help with my newly received Helix here!

I just received my Helix today and I spent a whole evening trying to figure it out. I watched the video tutorials on the basics and how to balance properly. I tried my blackmagic cinema camera and I was able to center the roll axis at optical center. I believe I balanced the roll, pitch, and yaw properly and carefully.

But as soon as I power up the Helix, it would start vibrating erratically. I tried resetting the Helix and made sure I was in Profile 1, as suggested by the FAQ. I also tried the auto motor configuration and auto PID tuning, but none of these helps.

Then I tried it with a Panasonic GH4, same result.

Does anyone knows why my Helix behaves so strangely? Did you go through the same problem when you first receive he Helix?

I am working on a commercial shoot this week, and the director saw my newly received Helix. He wants to use it for a few shots and it is now up to me to get my Helix up and running ASAP.

Any idea / shared experience will be much appreciated.

Thanks

Jack
Click to expand...
Profile 1 did not work with me at all with the bmcc and sigma lens.
 
Note Suwanchote said:
Technically I've never used profile 1. The profile 1 had was modified in the beginning. I loaded the default one to see if it would work but it did not (pre b7)
Click to expand...

I guess what I was asking is whether you used a profile set up as "soft follow" as the normal Profile #1 is?
 
You guys know much about the accessories that are available for the Helix?

Can the JuiceBox Power the Red Epic/Scarlet?
  • they have a Red Power Cable, described as 2-pin to 6-pin lemo
  • ...and the have a 2nd power box, with female 2-pin lemo connectors
Do we need both of these + the JuiceBox + JuiceBox Accessories?


What's the LCD Touch cable for? Are people attaching the Monitor on the Helix, instead of the camera?


Nato-Rail? is the for Red's Sliding Top Handle or Wooden Camera's Nato Handle
 
Jeffery Anderson said:
You guys know much about the accessories that are available for the Helix?

Can the JuiceBox Power the Red Epic/Scarlet?
  • they have a Red Power Cable, described as 2-pin to 6-pin lemo
  • ...and the have a 2nd power box, with female 2-pin lemo connectors
Do we need both of these + the JuiceBox + JuiceBox Accessories?


What's the LCD Touch cable for? Are people attaching the Monitor on the Helix, instead of the camera?


Nato-Rail? is the for Red's Sliding Top Handle or x's Nato Handle
Click to expand...
Yes, you can power the Red from the Juice Box using the 2-pin to 6-pin lemo. You don't HAVE to have the 2nd power box, but it does give you 2 extra lemo outputs for such things as wireless focus system and wireless video transmitter. Highly recommended.

LCD Touch cable is for if you mount the LCD somewhere on the gimbal other than directly on the camera. Mounting directly on the camera is the best way to go. It is a bit of a tricky juggling act as far as balance and having clearance for a 360 roll, but worth the time to work it out.

The Nato-Rail is for mounting any Nato accessory you want. It is different from other Nato rails in that it has a curved bottom surface for mounting in place of the standard cold shoe mount that comes with the Helix.
 
Paul Kalbach said:
Yes, you can power the Red from the Juice Box using the 2-pin to 6-pin lemo. You don't HAVE to have the 2nd power box, but it does give you 2 extra lemo outputs for such things as wireless focus system and wireless video transmitter. Highly recommended.
Click to expand...

do myou know how long it last on a 5200mAh, that about half a Red Brick?


Paul Kalbach said:
The Nato-Rail is for mounting any Nato accessory you want. It is different from other Nato rails in that it has a curved bottom surface for mounting in place of the standard cold shoe mount that comes with the Helix.
Click to expand...

what have you seen mounted to the Nato Rail on a Helix? or do you have an ideas for yours?
 
Thank you Terry for taking the time to help me out.
I finally resolved the problem today after playing with it some more. As soon as I realized that I needed to hit the WRITE button each time when I want to load a profile, I was able to reload all the default profiles from Letus's website into the Helix via Bluetooth. Instantly my Helix is brought to life. The default profile #1 seems to work perfectly with my GH4. My first test shot already looks very promising. The shot is smooth and stable, while being very responsive to my pan and tilt at the same time.

In retrospect, I guess either I have messed up the default profiles when I was playing with the GUI, or the Helix wasn't loaded with the proper profile at the beginning. I messed it up more by playing with the auto tuning function. But with the default profile reloaded everything works like a charm now (I haven't tested it with my Blackmagic yet).

One thing I must highlight is, I am super impressed by the customer service by Letus. I see everyone here seems to have good thing to say about their service. Now I get to experience it first hand. As soon as GT saw my post here on Reduser, he knew I needed urgent help for a shoot, and he PM'd me to offer a troubleshooting session on Skype with his colleague Ken immediately. Although at the end I was able to figure out the problem on my own before we had the Skype chat, Ken did take the time on a Saturday evening to walk me through the Helix and answer all my questions with great patience. Such level of individualized and responsive service from a gear manufacturer is definitely a new experience for me.

I will report when I further test it with my BMCC. But for now I am totally happy.
 
Jeffery Anderson said:
do myou know how long it last on a 5200mAh, that about half a Red Brick?

what have you seen mounted to the Nato Rail on a Helix? or do you have an ideas for yours?
Click to expand...


I can get about a half hour out of my JuiceBox when powering my Scarlet.

NATO rail is a nice option but I really haven't had a reason to use it as yet. So far, all my balancing approaches have had me putting accessories directly on the camera with the intent of using all the weight to assist in the balancing rather than being "dead weight" on the frame. The default is a cold shoe but I prefer having the NATO rail.
 
I also have the NATO rail option on my Helix. I am thinking about mounting my 5" Touch on that with the long Slackline cable instead of on the camera. Although it is possible to balance the camera with monitor on top, it can limit your rotation freedom. Also, I find that people still want to grab the monitor and reposition it for playback, requiring frequent mini-readjustment. I've been using a NATO rail on the top front edge of the camera with an empty rail mount adapter (nothing attached to it) as a small slide-able balance weight. I find that's a quick way to make micro-adjustments. I may add another one running fore and aft, to get another axis of "fine-tuning".
 
Terry VerHaar said:
I can get about a half hour out of my JuiceBox when powering my Scarlet.
Click to expand...

Letus is only selling two-packs of the batteries, but I'm guessing you can power everything and keep the gimbal light. I imagine you have a secondary that you use on the gimbal?
 
My friend is letting me use his free Jag35 wireless follow focus (2011 edition). It's not much but it should work. Once our Helix gets back I'll post up some test footage.
 
Is there no way to use the Helix with a vmount battery on the back of the epic? I just don't see the space for it. I'd rather avoid buying the additional juiceboxes etc., even if it means a heavier initial setup.
 
Nikhil Kamkolkar said:
Is there no way to use the Helix with a vmount battery on the back of the epic? I just don't see the space for it. I'd rather avoid buying the additional juiceboxes etc., even if it means a heavier initial setup.
Click to expand...
You probably can, but the rig balances much more easily when the camera is moved as far back as possible. The extra depth that the battery plate and battery add to the camera body moves the CG pretty far forward. If you don't want to use juice boxes, then maybe a long power cable to a battery belt clip is a better solution.
 
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