Firestore FS100 - Deconstructed (Err, well, I took it apart)...

Luis - that sounds great (and no, I"m not talking to myself)
Keep us updated.
I just ordered a FWS-01 from you last week - and I'll definitely keep an eye on anything else you have going on.

I wouldn't mind seeing a mod which would allow me to run the FS100 off the camera batteries, by the way. Just a thought.

:thumbsup:
 
Thanks Thoff. I was thinking "FS-Forever" of FSF for short, but in order to keep cost down, it will probably look more like a "Frankenstore" hahahahah

Caffesse. You should receive the FS-01 this week. Sorry for the delay. Fourth of July + filming + GirlFriend's B-day = busy Luis S. (and poor Luis S. also)
As for the batteries, its a little difficult for me to put something together to change the voltage from 7.5v to 15v. I would have to put 2 HVX batteries together or something to make it work.
What I will provide is a way to mount the FS-100 to rails, combined with the Tekkeon MP3400 battery. That thing will drive the FS-100 for 6-7hrs on one charge.
I'll have pictures as soon as the prototypes get delivered to me. :)
 
siniarch said:
What I will provide is a way to mount the FS-100 to rails, combined with the Tekkeon MP3400 battery. That thing will drive the FS-100 for 6-7hrs on one charge.
I'll have pictures as soon as the prototypes get delivered to me. :)
Click to expand...

Any estimated date of release for this product?
 
I've been bugging the mnf. and they are finally getting me the quotes tomorrow. (which were due last week)
If you are in need of something right away, I can order 2 prototypes, but the price might be a little steeper. Otherwise 2 weeks for 1st prototype order to make sure I can work out the bugs, and 2 weeks thereafter to get the first batch.
 
wow, that is quick
I was thinking you were going to say "late winter/early spring"

I'll wait until you work out the bugs. Can't wait to see what it looks like though.
 
ok ProjX,

I wasn't sure if you were interested on the mount for the FS-100 and the Tekkeon Battery to the rails, or if you were interested in the FS-100 and the ability to swap hard drives.

I'm working on both, and have just place the order for the units. Nothing to do for the moment, but wait. Here are pictures of the rough prototype of the
FS-Forever.

Right now I'm using rubber bands to hold it together. This is not the final product. There will be a belt doing that, and some Velcro to keep it from sliding as well as creating an air space between the hard drive and the Fs-100.

I will have people send me their units and I will retrofit them to be able to swap their hard drives. the initial price will include a case for the existing hard drive. I'm shooting at an introductory price of $250 to be able to do this.

Then I will sell additional hard drives for about $50 extra what you would pay for the same hard drive at your local electronics store.

Someone suggested using an enclosure that takes in Hard drives like a floppy drive. I've considered this, and providing a whole new enclosure for the FS-100, but this would require much more engineering, and prototyping, and I'm afraid the price would quickly climb above $600 not to mention adding a substantial amount of weight and size to the unit. (of course, if the demand is there, I can make it happen. I just think that most people doing this are on the same boat as me. counting pennies)

So let me know what you think.
 

Attachments

  • FS-Forever-Prototype001.jpg
    FS-Forever-Prototype001.jpg
    72.7 KB · Views: 0
  • FS-Forever-Prototype002.jpg
    FS-Forever-Prototype002.jpg
    75.1 KB · Views: 0
  • FS-Forever-Prototype005.jpg
    FS-Forever-Prototype005.jpg
    58.8 KB · Views: 0
  • FS-Forever-Prototype006.jpg
    FS-Forever-Prototype006.jpg
    58.3 KB · Views: 0
siniarch said:
Someone suggested using an enclosure that takes in Hard drives like a floppy drive. I've considered this, and providing a whole new enclosure for the FS-100, but this would require much more engineering, and prototyping, and I'm afraid the price would quickly climb above $600 not to mention adding a substantial amount of weight and size to the unit. (of course, if the demand is there, I can make it happen. I just think that most people doing this are on the same boat as me. counting pennies)

So let me know what you think.
Click to expand...

I think if you provide a whole new enclosure that protects everything, the FS, The Tekkeon and the swappable hard drives that could mount under a rails system, you would have a winner. Who wouldn't buy one of those? Goodbye Cineporter, Hello FS-Forever.

I'm wondering if it would be as simple as adding a few more thin layers to something like Bebob's Box FS design where it has a lockable drawer system.

be-box-fs-04-large.jpg
 
well, that Bebob Box is not bad but promo price is $385 list is $425. (just for a box)

In comparison, I'm taking the FS-100, opening it up and upgrading it so you can change hard drives. all for around $250.

I am coming up with ways to attach all this to a rail system that will hopefully come under $150. And I will keep you informed on that as soon as I get some prototypes in.

If people want a whole enclosure to replace the FS-100 enclosure and have a drawer for removable hard drives, they will have to pay over $600. And, I'm sure I can make it happen, but I would have to have at least 20-30 people willing to put a deposit down on a unit to help me with development costs.
So if you guys are out there, speak now. :)

Also, one of the things I don't like about the bebob box is that you slide the FS-100 in and you cannot see if its operating properly. I've been using mine, and going back and forth between VCR mode and Record Mode sometimes messes up the setup. So I always double check that when I press record, it RECORDS. Sometimes I have to re-start the drive, or the camera.

One of the things I like is that you can mount it under your camera and don't have to deal with the FS-100 hanging of your belt or something.

But with a rail system attached to the camera, and a 35mm adapter attached to it, and this thing underneath, the height of the setup goes up dramatically which I also don't like.

Everything has its pros and cons.
 
I think this is great that you are working on this!! Thanks for your efforts.

With the hard drive on the outside like that, how is hard drive noise? It seems that some type of enclosure would serve a dual purpose by keeping noise down as well.
 
I'm going to run some test once I have everything, but I believe most of the noise from the FireStore comes from the fan.

Now that I have re-located the hard drive, I think the fan will not need to power up as much. I'm not sure if the FireStore is set up to work as some motherboards. they have a heat sensor and when it gets to a certain temperature, the fan kicks in. if this is the case, then I'm sure it won't be going off much. otherwise I'll have to see how hot it gets inside and maybe even unplug the fan. Which would also save on power. :)

Also note, that I am not making any modifications, and/or markings on the FireStore, so you could always put it back to its original state.
 
siniarch said:
Also note, that I am not making any modifications, and/or markings on the FireStore, so you could always put it back to its original state.
Click to expand...

So... if I am understanding you here, and you aren't actually modifying the Firestore physically... would you be taking advantage of the feature existing in the Firestore drive that allows you to chain additional Firestores together? In this case creating your own version of an add-on drive linked by the firewire connector? If so, that would be waayy cool!
 
I don't think that's what he is doing, it would require a second FS-100 or another deivice / program that can handle the DVCPro50/DVCProHD data stream.

I believe what he is doing is relocating the hard drive and making it easy to swap them. If the FS-100 supports larger hard drives than what they ship with, that would be a bonus.
 
THoff hit it on the nail. The idea is that you can swap the internal hard drive.

So let say you are going to record an event at 1080 and it was longer than 111min, instead of having to dump the footage and have a 20-30min downtime and have to bring your laptop with you, you can just be down for 1min and swap the drive indefinitely. Now you can film a 10hr event with no problem.

Your only problem at this point is the battery. That is why I like the Tekkeon MP3400. it powers the FS-100 for about 5-6hrs. So with two of those batteries, a 10 hr day is no sweat.

I know most people don't record as much, but if for instance you were to do a shoot and for some reason, you eat up all your drive, but you didn't bring your laptop to dump footage, what do you do? do you call it a day? or do you just swap out the Hard Drive and keep going. I think for the price point I'm working with, it makes perfect sense.

Also, you don't need a dedicated guy to dump footage any more. Just that will save you some money.
 
Just a thought Luis,

Would it make it cheaper and easier to simply make an addon to the Box FS and incorporate it into your design for the FSF? So people would need to have an FS-100 and a Box FS to send to you. Or would this make it more complicated and expensive?
 
This would probably be more expensive, and then it would also limit my customer base to people who can afford the Box FS and my product.
 
Have you experimented with different sized drives? A Seagate 750GB or even the new Hitachi 1TB would be soo cool I can't even begin to describe what possibilities that would begin to open up...
 
Those are not laptop drives. The highest capacity currently available in a laptop drive is 250GB. Desktop drives use different data and power connectors, generate too much noise and heat, and consume far too much power.
 
Take_1, the problem with the drives you are talking about is that:
First, they use a different connector on them. The drive on the FS-100 is a laptop drive. And a ATA 44pin connector. The drives you are talking about use either a 40 pin ATA or a SATA connector. So they are not compatible.

Second, I believe the drives that you are looking at will also drain more power than the ones designed for laptops. which would drain the battery much quicker. So why have all this storage, if you can't power it.

What I am going to test, is using a 160gb drive. which means 60% more storage than before. I believe there are 250gb drives, but they are SATA, not ATA. and Currently, I haven't found an SATA to 44pin ATA adapter.
 
Rg. the tekkeon battery:

I emailed Focus Enh. and asked about power range for the FS100.

I received an answer: 12-15V

Anton Bauer / IDX professional Batteries easily exceed 15V (14.4 V nominal, ~ 17.5V max) , so I dont dare to hook up a FS100 to such a battery without taking additional care.

You mention the tekkeon battery - I understood that it delivers more than 15V as well - so powering the FS100 with more than 15V = NO PROBLEMS?

Thanks!!

ULI
 
Uli,

The beauty of the Tekkeon is that you can change the voltage it outputs. (its also dangerous if you are not paying attention because you can fry your components. But I trust that most people are professional and can double check that everything is ok)

The tekkeon MP3400 can do from 5volts to 19volts.

So you can power your camera with it if you run out of those batteries, or your laptop if that is running low on power and need to do a file dump to it to clear your fs-100, or you can power your Camera mounted LCD.

With that versatility, why not buy 2 or 3 of them and you are covered for many situations. (I think you can even power your cell phone, or ipod)

I personally bought 2 of them, and I might even buy 1 more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top