Hello Group-

I cooked up a few gizmos for my new Nano yesterday. First is a simple LED tally that plugs into the 10 pin jack... no wires, but the LED is built into the rubber strain relief of the Hirose plug (at a 90 degree angle) and the end sealed with a clean dab of glue gun goodness. Small and Handy.

Second, a remote on 18" cord for a few different uses. Has green LED to show when the Nano is powered up. Large white push button is for start/stop and a red LED for tally. Also BNC spigot for external TC input on right side of box. If I need a longer run I will make an extension cable.

Dear George,

Nice Work!

Both items look very nice.

i would love to buy 2 of these from you. any interest in building and selling these?

Hey George:

I know how I would use it, but just curious as to your plans for using the external TC input you installed on the Nano.

Thanks,

Dusty

Tally light is a nice piece of work George. Really useful if you have your nanoFlash mounted with the display pointing away from the operator.

Hey George—

Nice work! Lookout, here come the orders...

Question: I have the Tally/TC cable from Convergent. After using it a few times, I'm not liking the blinking tally light. At times, when I glance over at it (I mount it just above the magnifying/peaking buttons on my Canon XLH1) I catch it when it is off. I wish it would just stay on. How does yours work; blink, or solid 'on?'

Jeff

I agree that the blinking light can throw you off... it would be better as a solid on. Maybe an offering to the firmware Gods could resolve this?

Thank you for all the complimentary emails-- I like building things that are helpful and efficient. That is why I put the TC tap on the side of the box-- jam sync and then you don't have a pigtail floating around (scratching something). The push button is large enough to see and in the next model I will find a button with a LED built into it... help you find it in the dark and smaller box maybe.

As far as building these for people I would be game, but let's watch the Saints win the Superbowl first. I had shoots booked all week and now I have a 101 fever and am scrambling to get the shoots staffed. If you are interested, the question is at what price? Let me know by email to george--at--videonow--dot--info I don't want to break forum rules but this seems reasonable.

Thanks,
George

Dear Jeff,

We are changing the Tally light.

(It currently blinks for a reason: to provide positive proof that the unit is actually recording.)

(Technically, it is possible to set a light on, then a computer could hang up, leaving the light on. Thus we wanted to prove that we were actually recording by blinking the light.)

We came up with (I think), 1 second on, 1 second off.

We are now experimenting with this. We may go to 95% on, 5% off, or 99% on, 1% off.

Our goal is to make it appear to be on, almost all of the time, but still see a very slight blink to provide proof that it is actually recording.

...As far as building these for people I would be game, but let's watch the Saints win the Superbowl first...

I am very interested in the nanoFlash and any accessories available. Very cool build, George! And I agree... first, let the Saints win on Sunday!! Feel better!

We are now experimenting with this. We may go to 95% on, 5% off, or 99% on, 1% off.

Our goal is to make it appear to be on, almost all of the time, but still see a very slight blink to provide proof that it is actually recording.

Thanks, Dan, I would very much appreciate this change. It's amazing how long that 1 second 'off' can be when you're in the middle of an important interview!

I wish I could be of help in designing the ratio of on to off time, but that seems outside the realm of my understanding. The 95/5 sounds good, though.

Thanks!

Jeff