Origo - Lemo Warning

[Jarred Land]

This is a hard post to make.. because we love what Curt is doing over at Viewfactor so much. Unfortunately I gotta put up a yellow flag on the Origio for our customers.

Since the Origo has been shipping, we have received on average 2 cameras a week come back with Blown out camera ports that the Origo connect to. This seems to be a connected to a cable/connector problem, and last we heard Curt is talking to Lemo about the issue, but since the failure rate is so high, and the damage done is not free to repair ( the repairs average between $300-$800 ) I just need to raise my hand.

As you can imagine, some customers are not too happy when they get the bill. This damage is not covered under your RED ONE camera warranty.

I fully expect Curt to find a resolve for this ASAP... we have been talking to him about it for a couple months now. Im sure Curt will post some preventative measures ( make sure the barrels of the cables that shipped with Origo have the correct orientation ) etc.

Thanks all.

[RivaiC]

Jarred, maybe you mean Origo instead of Origio ?

I remembered Curt said that the output voltage from RED Camera is not stable, while it works on some camera and while others dont work.

So is this RED or VF problem ?

Rivai

[J. Eric Camp]

Now thats no good.

[Stuart English]

We have identified external 4 pin cables that can invert the power / ground and GPIO signal / tally pin mapping to the Aux 12 V port.

Apparently there is a mode that LEMO 0B 4-pin connectors can be placed into where the barrel can be rotated 180 degrees and then latch again. This can happen if the latch pins are damaged, or too much pressure has been applied during cable construction.

Either way the effect is to map the 12V battery output to the 3.3V GPO tally pin, and that creates a risk of damage to the camera. On a correctly cabled camera, the 12V Aux power output is protected against a dead short and the GPI/O pins are protected against short term higher than normal voltages and currents, such as created by ESD and EOS events. However this type of external cabling fault can cause GPIO circuit damage, and any necessary repairs that result from this are not covered by warranty.

If you are using an external 4-pin cable to trigger or to draw power via the Aux 12V port, you should verify that the barrel of the connector is not able to rotate 180 degrees. If it is capable of this fault, it will only take modest pressure to induce the rotation. Just slide the barrel back from the "latched" position and then gently try and rotate it. If it does rotate, and then clicks back into lock again, its a faulty cable.

This fault condition is specific to 0B shell size LEMOS, however the 0B 5-pin timecode cable is not a concern.

If you have a cable with this fault, do not use it. Contact your supplier and ask for a replacement

[Brigham Edgar]

Thanks Jarred,

This is extremely important information and i am very surprised Curt has not even mentioned this to customers. I will be checking mine out immediately.

[Rick Darge]

Holy crap! Mine has worked flawless but now I am tempted at holding off until we hear from VF about this

[jbeale]

Reminds me of the compact consumer 4-pin firewire connector... It is keyed, but experience has shown it is possible to force it in upside-down, and that has reportedly killed the firewire I/O on some camcorders.

[Dylan Macleod, CSC]

Me too. Mine has worked fine. Does this mean it should continue to do so? Or should I hold off of using it?

[Mike McEntire]

Jarred mine has been working great as well for start, stop, and ramps. Do you recommend not using it at this point. Please advise because I have a lot of shoots coming up next week.
Thanks,

[Stuart English]

If it has been working fine, you could mark the barrel and base of the LEMO with paint so that you have a visible indication if the barrel has rotated 180 degrees.

And (once the paint is dry) try the rotation test that I described above. If it does rotate get a replacement cable...