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RED Dragon Timecode @23.98 Successful!


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Fury is happy to relate that he has successfully synched TC, from ERX TCD, ver 1.33 to RED Epic Dragon @ voltage output 2.0 or >, from ERX.  

 

Voltage output of 1.0 gives intermittent connection only and then only after first synching at 25 or> and stepping down.  Subsequent cold boots of either or both pieces gives no joy at that voltage.

 

All this after new Dragon Firmware 5.2.28 -  no previous version was successful  @ 23.98.

 

Fury can also relate that the 2.0 volt synch maintained for, at least,  several minutes, before the celebration began...

 

 

Thanks Howy and Glen, from Zaxcom and Mark, et al., from RED.  

 

There is now joy in Mudville and as they say...

 

"...Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright; The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout..." For finally the Code of Time has been found out.   Thank you very much   Fury

 

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Great. Well I'm in the middle of a production and they dont want to change the firmware of the camera, and tc has been our major drawback every day, even with multiple lockit boxes. Workin with this camera ain't no fun!

 

Hi Jon,

 

FWIW,

 

5.2.28 has been very stable, as regards TC.  Also, the in camera DC/RG4 is pleasing, for its designed target.  Nevertheless, always flip PVC's, when changing any firmware, mid stream...but that Tc is a thing of beauty, at 23.98,  as much as most inanimate objects can be.

 

Thank you very much

 

Fury

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ET: " Meter was set at Vdc "

Isn't TC an AC signal ?

personally, if I were to measure it, I'd use a scope.

(yes, I have a cute little very portable Velleman scope)

After speaking with Zaxcom tech support they confirmed that a scope is the proper way to measure the TC voltage and not a meter which will give the wrong reading. As an aside, switching the meter from Vdc to Vac did not change the reading significantly, meaning that a Vdc reading of 1.20Vdc became 1.17Vac.

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Would someone confirm something for me? When helping a friend with his ERX I measured the TC voltage output with a multimeter at the connected BNC and found that regardless of the voltage display in the ERX window the meter showed just about half of that voltage. Meter was set at Vdc.

 

Dear Hon. Senator Mike,

 

Fury can tell you that I had an oscilloscope on the ERX TCD and got somewhat over 1/2 of the dialed output.

 

Thank you very much

 

Fury

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Really? That's strange based on what Zaxcom tech support told me. Would you think that my meter reading is correct then?

 

 

Really!  YMMV, as this was and is even more, as Fury types, an "older and older" ERX 1 TCD..  Before anyone gets exercised, The output was over 2 volts, to be sure, and no joy for Tc on Dragon, until 5.2.28.  Didn't have another ERX to test at that time, however, but the scope measured the Locki box's output as it was nominally rated.

 

Thank you very much

 

Fury

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just had a failure on 23.98, with a new Dragon 5.2.28 and TCD ERX1 1.25.  Luckily Fury had saved 1.33. lHe loaded it onto the ERX and joy, with scratch audio to camera just fine, as was 23.98-12 hour day..  

 

Might keep 1.33 handy, in case.  Howy is aware and putting 1.33 back on Zaxcom's site.

 

Thank you very much

 

Fury

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  • 1 month later...

Can anyone comment on the latest with the Dragon and the ERX as far as what has been working? There seems to be new software for both the camera and also the ERX (1.35 beta). Anyone have experience with what's currently working best?

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I'm confused. Why would firmware on ERX, sending an audio signal to a camera, make any difference?

While it is an audio signal the signal needs to conform to a smpte standard for time code - the standard has a range. While all erx software versions sends tc that falls within the acceptable smpte tc range - not all versions of red software will recognize the full range. Zaxcom contacted red engineers and they were aware of the issue, and they were working on a fix on their end but they just weren't sure how long it would take to fix and they indicated that it could potentially take a while. So zaxcom wrote new software to attempt an quicker fix.

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  • 3 weeks later...

While it is an audio signal the signal needs to conform to a smpte standard for time code - the standard has a range. While all erx software versions sends tc that falls within the acceptable smpte tc range - not all versions of red software will recognize the full range. Zaxcom contacted red engineers and they were aware of the issue, and they were working on a fix on their end but they just weren't sure how long it would take to fix and they indicated that it could potentially take a while. So zaxcom wrote new software to attempt an quicker fix.

 

 

What was , in fact done and, AFAFK and has experienced, requires ERX 1.33 and RED Dragon current release or Beta, to get the most consistent results.  Fury can report that, as of this date, the above combination is required on two different Dragon cameras, to get 23.976 TC into Dragon, with 2.0 volt output set on the ERX.  N.B. the 1.33 was a clever piece of engineering, by Howie, et al. and, with RED's new firmware, gives joy.

 

Thank you very much

 

Fury

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You'd think after all this time that Red would buy an Ambient TC generator, a Denecke TC generator, a Sound Devices recorder, and a Zaxcom recorder, keep them on the shelf, and confirm that all four will still generator correct timecode to which the Red Epic Dragon Whatever can still jam. And they'd check this whenever they released new firmware and new software.

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