nanoFlash Details

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

Mike,

For some reason, the 2 Hirose connectors are marked 4W max on the Coco-ex...

Hi Piotr-
Let me send an e-mail to Bebob directly. The Hirose connector is rated at 2A per contact, so this is certainly not a limitation. They may want to limit the overall power draw on the battery by limiting each power jack.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Hi Piotr-
We are still trying to find a reasonable D-Tap solution. However, we do have a 4-pin Hirose connector on the nanoFlash, which should mate quite easily with the Coco (which also has a 4-pin Hirose connector).

Also wanted to mention that we are taking all reasonable steps to reduce the power consumption on the nanoFlash and to simplify the operation. So, when you turn off the EX1, the nanoFlash will automatically go into low-power standby mode (we're shooting for <0.5W). When you powerup the EX1, we detect the incoming HD-SDI stream and will boot-up in about 3 seconds. Then when you press record we detect the incrementing time-code and start recording also.

So, nanoFlash should work with very little user intervention. We'll also have a standby time-out, so if you leave the camera off for a programmable time, nanoFlash will go from standby to complete power-down.

We don't know the active power consumption yet. It will certainly be under 10W, we'll do our best to drive it to the minimum.

Mike,

Basing on my experience with the Bebob's Coco-ex adapter in conjunction with a 20W PAG M light, in order to avoid the BP-U60 internal protection cutting off power, it's necessary that any equipment powered from the battery in addition to the camera itself had a "soft-start" characteristics; please take this into consideration with nanoFlash!

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Piotr,

Thank you for the very valuable information.

The Flash XDR (as opposed to the nanoFlash) has numerous power supplies. The extra power supplies are to support the external audio circuits. These could be powered on in sequence to ensure that the startup power draw is held to a minimum.

In fact, the circuitry is in place, in the Flash XDR, to only turn on the audio power supplies when they are actually needed.

At this time I do not know how many power supplies are in the nanoFlash.

I am certain that we will do everything we can to minimize the startup currents.

Mike Schell just completed the design of the nanoFlash so that the standby power draw is less than 0.5 watt. This is a wonderful accomplishment and is much harder than it appears on the surface.

The nanoFlash will go into, and come out of, standby mode automatically depending on whether an HD-SDI signal is present or not.

It also performs a full power down, under certain conditions, after a period of time, if a certain menu option is selected.

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

Mike,

Basing on my experience with the Bebob's Coco-ex adapter in conjunction with a 20W PAG M light, in order to avoid the BP-U60 internal protection cutting off power, it's necessary that any equipment powered from the battery in addition to the camera itself had a "soft-start" characteristics; please take this into consideration with nanoFlash!

Hi Piotr-
Good suggestion! Soft start is a already a part of all our designs, but we need to get a Coco in house just to test and verify there is no problem.

BTW, how is your overall experience with the Coco? Would you recommend it for use with the nanoFlash? Any problems with the Coco becoming disconnected from the camera? It seems like a cool idea and very clever design.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Hi Piotr-
Good suggestion! Soft start is a already a part of all our designs, but we need to get a Coco in house just to test and verify there is no problem.

BTW, how is your overall experience with the Coco? Would you recommend it for use with the nanoFlash? Any problems with the Coco becoming disconnected from the camera? It seems like a cool idea and very clever design.

Hi Mike,

What do you mean by "Any problems with the Coco becoming disconnected from the camera?"

My overall experience is very good, and any limitations in the adapter's use come from the battery spec. In another thread it was pointed out that drawing too much current from the U60 battery may seriously shorten its life; Bebob recognizes it and recently have limited the Coco-ex's specs to 10 W max on its outputs.

But other than that, having a single battery to power both the camera and nanoFlash would be cool, especially for hand-held shooting! With tripod, there should be the option of mounting another battery (like the BP-U30, which most of us EX1 users have as a spare one) straight on the nanoFlash.

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

Hi Mike,

What do you mean by "Any problems with the Coco becoming disconnected from the camera?"

My overall experience is very good, and any limitations in the adapter's use come from the battery spec. In another thread it was pointed out that drawing too much current from the U60 battery may seriously shorten its life; Bebob recognizes it and recently have limited the Coco-ex's specs to 10 W max on its outputs.

But other than that, having a single battery to power both the camera and nanoFlash would be cool, especially for hand-held shooting! With tripod, there should be the option of mounting another battery (like the BP-U30, which most of us EX1 users have as a spare one) straight on the nanoFlash.

Hi Piotr-
I was just wondering if the Coco has a secure mechanical connection. It sounds like there is no problems.

We are trying to bring the nanoFlash operating power down to 7W and the standby to under 0.5W. I think these figures are achievable with a little more work. This would make the single battery setup a viable solution. We are also designing an separate adapter plate for the nanoFlash to accept EX1 batteries, so it can be operated apart from the camera.

[Mike Schell]

Here's the updated nanoFlash Brochure with the additions for Quicktime and SD-SDI support plus revised power projections.

[Ray Bell]

Mike, you had indicated that you have been using the HV20 for testing...

could you post some HV20 footage to show how this works with HDMI cameras too?

thanks

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Ray Bell

Mike, you had indicated that you have been using the HV20 for testing...

could you post some HV20 footage to show how this works with HDMI cameras too?

thanks

Hi Ray-
I am planning to purchase a Canon Vixia HF100 (now around $630) to do some of these tests. The HF100 has a new 3.3 MPixel Sensor with full 1920x1080 resolution, I am sure the images will look spectacular.

Our engineers use the Canon HV20 connected to our nanoConnect as the video source for product development. The video looks great on our HD-SDI monitor, but I am sure the HF100 will be a step up with it's full-raster sensor.

Next week I am trying to do more tests with the Sony EX1, time permitting. But these little HDMI cameras are certainly on our list for more tests.

Look for more video posts shortly.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Hi Piotr-
I was just wondering if the Coco has a secure mechanical connection. It sounds like there is no problems.

Exactly Mike. To remove the adapter from the camera, you must simultaneously press the battery release button AND move the internal knob to the right; with battery in you don't even have access to this knob, so it's a totally secure connection.

On another note, I've been thinking about the record/standby procedure with the EX1; since it's incrementing time code which starts the NanoFlash (or Flash XDR), will it be possible to record without SxS cards? Or will one have to use the Flash own controls...

[Ian G. Thompson]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Hi Ray-

Our engineers use the Canon HV20 connected to our nanoConnect as the video source for product development. The video looks great on our HD-SDI monitor, but I am sure the HF100 will be a step up with it's full-raster sensor.

.

Mike, the HV20, just like the HF10, delivers a full 1920x1080 over it's HDMI out. It's sensor is also 1920x1080.

[Ray Bell]

Originally Posted by Ian G. Thompson

Mike, the HV20, just like the HF10, delivers a full 1920x1080 over it's HDMI out. It's sensor is also 1920x1080.

Ian is correct.... the only time you get 1440 from the HDMI port on the HV20 is when you use that port for off load of the tape...

turn the HV20 on to record and just pull the 1990 from the HDMI without going to tape...

just make sure you have the correct lighting or you will see noise from the gain...

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Ian G. Thompson

Mike, the HV20, just like the HF10, delivers a full 1920x1080 over it's HDMI out. It's sensor is also 1920x1080.

Hi Ian-
OK, we'll do some tests tomorrow with both the Canon HV20 and the Sony EX1. Should be an interesting comparison.

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

On another note, I've been thinking about the record/standby procedure with the EX1; since it's incrementing time code which starts the NanoFlash (or Flash XDR), will it be possible to record without SxS cards? Or will one have to use the Flash own controls...

Hi Piotr-
I just checked and you cannot engage the record function without an SxS card present. But you could record in the lower quality setting (on the EX1) to give you a longer time. Alternatively, we could rig a simple start button (with integrated tally light) to trigger nanoFlash to record. nanoFlash can be set to automatically generate the time-code.

Redundant recording to the SxS and the CF cards is, of course, always a possibility.

[E.J. Sadler]

I would absolutely have a start/stop to ensure compatibility with all cameras. For HPX500/3000 we plan to run a small P2 card in loop record mode to be able to use camera start/stop. But I'm not sure if varicam or F900 will work without tape. There's a lot of varicam owners and rental houses who would love to keep their Varicams going, and the XDR is a significantly better solution than a P2 mobile.