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Done a few mods to my DIY Time Code Slate


martyg

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It looks very solid and very well crafted.

A suggestion-

Mike Denecke was not the first to make a time code slate; that honor goes to Ivan Kruglak of Coherent Communications. But his device, the TC-400A, was large and heavy and camera assistants resisted using it.

From his experience as a production mixer on many commercials, Mike understood how camera assistants used slates on the set. He often observed them holding the slate in one outstretched hand to mark the scene. So, when he set about designing a slate of his own, he took pains to incorporate an undercut to the sticks so that camera assistants could hold and operate the electronic version just as they had the traditional slates.

I recognize that yours is still a prototype and you may intend to incorporate a ledge or ridge for one-handed operation in the production example. Just wanted to remind you that it's an important feature.

David

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Did you make your own TC gen (inside) too?

phil p

Yep, the jam mode is just a 24 hour clock clocked at timecode bit rate, based on my simple TC gen, the rotary switch just sets the internal very accurate clock to the suitable time in microseconds, say 250uSeconds for 25fps and how many frames in a second for the roll over, I just don't bother to output TC, it's in the software, two or 3 lines of code, but not used. So it would be possible to generate TC. The TC read and Jam code are so similar it wasn't too difficult

It looks very solid and very well crafted.

ow camera assistants used slates on the set. He often observed them holding the slate in one outstretched hand to mark the scene. So, when he set about designing a slate of his own, he took pains to incorporate an undercut to the sticks so that camera assistants could hold and operate the electronic version just as they had the traditional slates.

David

Indeed, I spent a few hours, just playing with the clap assembly, truly uncomfortable. I'll mill up some bits of plastic, in the shape of my palm, and put some grooves for better grip etc. It also weighs a ton, I only had 3mm aluminium sheet that was of machinable quality.

I just placed the connectors and switches anywhere, just to see how they looked, the ergonomics will come next.

I'm trying to get the toggle switches countersunk ala Nagra, but I can't persuade my CNC mill to do curved shapes in the Z plane (yet)

Martin

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  • 3 weeks later...

but how heavy is this thing? If it's all metal, my fear is that it's gonna weigh a ton. If this slate is smaller than the TS-C, that would be a heckuva achievement.

It weighs at least ton and a half, I only had 3mm sheet aluminium to work with, nothing thinner. It was really something feel and play with, see if the things fitted etc.

I'm just waiting for a couple of quotes from some sheet metal workers to fabricate it properly, and much much lighter

I like the switches on the side,

I'm not too happy with them, they will break off when it drops, I found a guy with a lathe down the road, so NagraIV(?) style sunk switches maybe

The size is 160mm wide, 120mm deep, less clapper, the LED's are about 15mm high

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