Sound devices t788 and dragon timecode issues

[Matthew J]

Is anyone else having issues with the T788/744 and dragon doing timecode jamming? I have had no luck in getting either mixer to jam with the Dragon right now and I know there have been issues with other mixers and devices. Do they just not work right now? I know my cable is good as I tested for continuity.

Matthew

 

[Christopher Mills]

Some Dragons will not accept an incomming jam at 23.98 fps.
Your cable and TC clock work fine.
*some* Dragon users have reported success at setting a 29.97 fps rate on the clock and the camera.

 

[Matthew J]

I tried 29.97 but no joy. Do I need to send it into red?

 

[Kevin Marshall]

Haven't done a 788 directly, but just spent two weeks going 788->Denecke TS-C->Dragon at 23.98 with no issues.

 

[Paul J Steinberg]

Same here. I haven't locked the camera directly but I own a couple Ambient 204's and Tiny Lockits. I use the 204's on the cameras and the TinyLockit's as an external source for the 744's/664's and the slate, all using the ACN wireless to sync together. Works perfectly.

 

[Dane Henry]

For what it's worth,

I was on a gig last week and jammed Dragon from a 788.

I had heard about all the issues and was a bit nervous but ended up being no issue getting the 23.98 external TC

-dane

 

[Matthew J]

For what it's worth,

I was on a gig last week and jammed Dragon from a 788.

I had heard about all the issues and was a bit nervous but ended up being no issue getting the 23.98 external TC

Ok, that's good to know. I will contact RED then since there seems to be an issue with mine.

 

[Nick Fury]

Ok, that's good to know. I will contact RED then since there seems to be an issue with mine.

Hi Matthew, certainly worth contacting RED, but yours is not the first 788 that has n=been reported to have difficulty at 23.98, with Dragon. Let us know what turns up. I am headed to RED Irvine, tomorrow, with still another workaround attempt, for 23.98 synch, albeit, with a different source. Alopogize for off topic-will leave it now, with fingers crossed.

Thank you very much

Fury

 

[Matthew J]

Hi Matthew, certainly worth contacting RED, but yours is not the first 788 that has n=been reported to have difficulty at 23.98, with Dragon. Let us know what turns up. I am headed to RED Irvine, tomorrow, with still another workaround attempt, for 23.98 synch, albeit, with a different source. Alopogize for off topic-will leave it now, with fingers crossed.

Any luck Nick?

Also, I felt like someone at some point said they had no problem jamming via the Pro I/O module. Any info on that? I have a shoot this week that I need to jam on, so I need a working solution and all I've gotten from RED this week was, "our engineers are looking at your log file."

 

[Nick Fury]

Hi Matthew

i have heArd Tge same as of last week and that tgey are close to a fix, having identified the problem

I wod suggest getting an Ambient lockit box. I know it's $500 but it has had success with the last several builds of Dragon at 23.98.

ThNk you very much

Fury

 

[Mike P.]

FYI, unless Dragon is different, I was under the impression that you couldn't jam the 788t/744t *from* the brain. Only the other way around (the camera can be jammed from the recorder).

 

[Matthew J]

FYI, unless Dragon is different, I was under the impression that you couldn't jam the 788t/744t *from* the brain. Only the other way around (the camera can be jammed from the recorder).

Sorry, I can see where you are confused by what I wrote. I did mean jamming the Dragon to those mixers. The Epic can only receive timecode, it cannot generate.

 

[Matthew J]

I just got back from trying to jam through my Pro I/O module from different Sound Devices mixers and I can report that I had success! I never was able to get the brain to jam through the sync cable, but once I put on the Pro I/O and ran timecode into that, my dragon jammed just fine.

I also got an email from RED support yesterday saying that their engineers are aware of the issue are "working on having this issue resolved as soon as possible for a future build." So hopefully, it will be a firmware fix instead of a hardware fix.

 

[Matthew J]

So I finally tried jamming with build 5.2.28 (and .29 for that matter) and a SoundDevices 744t and had no luck. Tried both 23.98 and 29.97, but nothing. Has the last two builds fixed this for anyone?

 

[Mike Paul]

If you're jamming from a Sound Devices recorder directly to the Dragon brain, then you either have:

1) A 5-Pin Lemo (788/744) to a 4-Pin Lemo (EPIC) cable
or
2) A 5-Pin Lemo to BNC cable (to connect to the Red 3 BNC Sync/TC cable)

If you have the Lemo/Lemo cable, and it is wired correctly, then it should work
If you have the Lemo-BNC cable, then be advised that those cables are wired for timecode to travel in one direction only; either FROM the Lemo to the BNC, or the other way around.

A quick test on which one you have would be to plug the Lemo into the 788, and touch the tip of your headphone connector to the center pin of the BNC. If timecode is flowing in that direction, you should hear it in your headphones.

If you hear code, and the camera still won't jam to it, then it is either the 3-BNC cable, or the camera that is the likely suspect

 

[Matthew J]

If you're jamming from a Sound Devices recorder directly to the Dragon brain, then you either have:

1) A 5-Pin Lemo (788/744) to a 4-Pin Lemo (EPIC) cable
or
2) A 5-Pin Lemo to BNC cable (to connect to the Red 3 BNC Sync/TC cable)

If you have the Lemo/Lemo cable, and it is wired correctly, then it should work
If you have the Lemo-BNC cable, then be advised that those cables are wired for timecode to travel in one direction only; either FROM the Lemo to the BNC, or the other way around.

A quick test on which one you have would be to plug the Lemo into the 788, and touch the tip of your headphone connector to the center pin of the BNC. If timecode is flowing in that direction, you should hear it in your headphones.

If you hear code, and the camera still won't jam to it, then it is either the 3-BNC cable, or the camera that is the likely suspect

I am using the Lemo-BNC cable that I've jammed the Epic with for two year trouble free, so I know it's not the cable. Plus, my cable is wired for both directions depending on which BNC connector you use and I have jammed it both ways so I know this is accurate.