Portable 2.5 Self powered Sata HD

erdiaz said:
I made by myself the aluminium housings, from scratch; the aluminium stands and the electrical connections; I bought the bulbs, they come with the ballast in their base (brand: UNOMAT from japan, 6000 k°, 120 V, 45 or 48 w) abot US$ 10.00 in my country (Colombia).
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Can you explain a bit more on how you made the aluminium housings?

I recently bought a small aluminium fixture box in Buenos Aires, that holds two 26w fluos. The ballast was magnetic and only 220v. But I will replace it with an electronic one, that can be switched for 110v or 220v, as we have both in Brazil.

But I think the box can be improved or build a new one from scratch, using extrusion material. They use it for window making here, so I may even ask a shop to design something following my instructions.

A hard part to design are the barndoors.

The tripods you made are quite ingenious. I am not sure if I will find those clamps you used though.

What lamp types are those shown from the back on your photo?

The only thing I will not find much use for me are the longer type fluos, as I do not work in studio and they probably belong more there than on location.
 
Originally Posted by erdiaz
I made by myself the aluminium housings, from scratch; the aluminium stands and the electrical connections; I bought the bulbs, they come with the ballast in their base (brand: UNOMAT from japan, 6000 k°, 120 V, 45 or 48 w) abot US$ 10.00 in my country (Colombia).
Click to expand...

Can you explain a bit more on how you made the aluminium housings?

I recently bought a small aluminium fixture box in Buenos Aires, that holds two 26w fluos. The ballast was magnetic and only 220v. But I will replace it with an electronic one, that can be switched for 110v or 220v, as we have both in Brazil.

But I think the box can be improved or build a new one from scratch, using extrusion material. They use extrusion for window framing here, so I may even ask a shop to design something following my instructions.

A hard part to design are the barndoors.

The tripods you made are quite ingenious. I am not sure if I will find those clamps you used though.

What lamp types are those shown from the back on your photo?

The only thing I will not find much use for me are the longer type fluos, as I do not work in studio and they probably belong more there than on location.
 
Carlos_E._Martinez said:
Well, now that the gate is open, let's go.

One thing I found interesting in Ernesto's fixtures is that the lamps are vertically installed, instead of horizontally. As I already have a large fixture where the 42W fluo lamp is horizontal, I don't feel too safe as the lamp, being quite large and heavy, moves up and down when you move it. I wonder if that wouldn't shorten its life span.
Click to expand...

It helps to use bulb clips if you mount them horizontally for greater support but you're right. I used the clips on my 55w fixtures but never acquired any for the 42w fixtures. Clips for those units aren't as common but I'm sure they exist somewhere though.
 
Carlos_E._Martinez said:
Well, it seems we are hi-jacking Ernesto's thread on a portable SATA HD.

Perhaps if he is willing to talk about those lighting units of his (and yours too, Richard, of course), I would very much enjoy that.

But there's something which is related to the use of external HDDs which I think we should discuss here: the interconnects.

It seems as if nobody is paying attention to SATA interconnects and to 1394 interconnects. The latter are being used, if I am not wrong, to link cameras to Firestore-type HDDs or to laptops.

I think that is a very fragile non-locking interconnect that shouldn't be used for such an important application.

SATA interconnects are even worst I think. Even in my stationary PC I have had problems when I accidentally moved that red flat cable when arranging something else. That never happened to the old multi-pin cable used on IDE/PATA interconnects.

Does anyone know if some sort of interconnect is being used or researched for SATA or 1394 in portable on-the-move situations?

From my side, I will not try any external HDD application on my camera until that issue is safely solved.


Carlos
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There is eSata connectors but even that doesn't really have a lock on it so it's easy to come loose. I don't understand why firewire, usb and Sata suffer from this problem so much. Why did they specify these flimsy cables for the standards?
 
Cool Lights said:
There is eSata connectors but even that doesn't really have a lock on it so it's easy to come loose. I don't understand why firewire, usb and Sata suffer from this problem so much. Why did they specify these flimsy cables for the standards?
Click to expand...

Well, I'm glad someone agrees with me on what I think is a very unregarded and so important area.

The cables are flimsy probably because they were designed for stationary situations, and now they are being used in portables. This what I in a way criticize: that new norms should be created for such situations.

In my camera, for instance, a Sony Z1, I intend to add two adapters for the A/V connector and for the headphone connector. Then I will have to plu/unplug less from the camera and (hopefully) extend the life of those connectors, which would be expensive and hard to replace.

For firewire connector I would like to plug some dummy connector in to preserve it from oxidation. Any ideas on what to use?
 
Carlos_E._Martinez said:
1.- Can you explain a bit more on how you made the aluminium housings?

2.- A hard part to design are the barndoors.

3.- The tripods you made are quite ingenious. I am not sure if I will find those clamps you used though.

4.- What lamp types are those shown from the back on your photo?

5.- The only thing I will not find much use for me are the longer type fluos, as I do not work in studio and they probably belong more there than on location.
Click to expand...

1. I'll post plans soon

2.- Yes this is the most difficult part but, I already solve this, I'll let you see.

3.- you'll find the clamps in a bicycle store, like I did (US$ 1.50)

4.- The black ones? oh! those ar a cup of old Smith Victor 300 W lamps.

5.- The longer type fluos are for imitate a window's light (you locate it out side of a window) in a situation where the day ends (night) or turns dark, and you have to keep filming in the same location (continuity). That's what I have used it for.
 
Carlos_E._Martinez said:
Well, now that the gate is open, let's go.

One thing I found interesting in Ernesto's fixtures is that the lamps are vertically installed, instead of horizontally. As I already have a large fixture where the 42W fluo lamp is horizontal, I don't feel too safe as the lamp, being quite large and heavy, moves up and down when you move it. I wonder if that wouldn't shorten its life span.
Click to expand...

I did installed them vertically because in other orientation they tend to loose and damage the socket, and fall down when you move the lamp.
 
Cool Lights said:
Wow, that looks great.
1.- Looks like you found an aluminum pipe extrusion perhaps and some other kind of "end cap" for the back. Where did you find that?

2.- What is the wattage and is the ballast electronic or magnetic?

3.- Not to be critical or anything but I want to offer some constructive ideas. This is an open face light so just be careful with UV output. Even if the bulb is shielded you shouldn't depend upon that. Also, as I said in my article these bulbs have been known to explode so a glass protection lens on the front of it is a really great idea.

4.- In addition, the zip cord on the back between the light and the ballast is probably not rated for the voltage going through there so you might want to replace that with some higher voltage rating wire.

Looks like a real pro job though.
Click to expand...

1.- Yes I found a kind of extrusion pipe wich they use to make ventilation duct, and "end caps" used to protec fans in a ventilation system, the inside reflective cup is a bowl wich I found in the home section of a supermarket.

2.- 120V, 150 W, electronic ballast.

3.- Yes I realize that and the barms door system comes with an UV protective (or a fresneell) glass.

4.- the cable is duplex No. 12, (centelca) wich rates for 220V, 600 W 10 Amp. enough to my lamp (120V, 150W, 4 amp), the switch is a Leviton Heavy duty 10 amp.
 
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