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Exceptionally widespread amongst focus pullers the world over, ARRI’s WCU-4 hand unit is on the coronary heart of one of the vital superior wi-fi observe focus techniques in the marketplace. Nonetheless, as any piece of apparatus, it’s not with out it’s quirks and hiccups, so let’s see what could go incorrect, and how one can repair it.
USER button not working
Some of the widespread points WCU-4 customers face is the intermittent or downright non-working crimson USER button situated on the highest fringe of the hand grip. A number of somewhat helpful capabilities could be assigned to this button, together with a couple of not accessible by way of every other method – digital focus marks (aka Knob Marker), focus monitoring and zoom zap. So, you possibly can see how irritating it may be when this button acts up.
The problem with the USER button is a mechanical one – the contacts inside the button itself are vulnerable to oxidation, and the method could be accelerated if the unit’s utilized in a moist or salty atmosphere. With the restricted entry to the button, there’s not a lot that you are able to do to treatment the state of affairs. What often helps, albeit briefly is a shot of contact cleaner on the base of the button, adopted by a little bit of a exercise – urgent the button quickly to work the cleaner in. Whereas it’s fairly protected, it’s a good suggestion to do that process with the unit off and and not using a battery, simply in case.
When you’ve given it a couple of dozen clicks, dry it up with some canned air and boot up the hand unit. If the button nonetheless doesn’t work, or works intermittently, you possibly can repeat the process.
Sign points
A quite common grievance that plagues your complete ARRI lens management system is the unreliable wi-fi efficiency of sure items in sure conditions. It may be a really robust concern to resolve, because the causes for poor RF efficiency could be very vast ranging – {hardware} defects, interference, improper configuration or any mixture thereof. Nonetheless, listed below are a few the extra incessantly encountered points with which you can begin your troubleshooting course of:
Connector issues
There’s a well-known concern with the LCS antenna connector on early (2017 or earlier) Alexa Mini our bodies. The connector would put on to the purpose of not offering enough connection between the digicam’s radio module and the antenna, leading to a severely restricted radio vary. ARRI is conscious of this concern, and a lot of the problematic our bodies have already been fastened, however there’s all the time an opportunity of you bumping into one out within the wild. In the event you expertise constant connectivity points, seek the advice of the proprietor of the digicam whether or not the connector has ever been serviced.
Fixing this requires opening the digicam physique and changing the antenna connector and the cable to the inner radio module. Sadly, this isn’t a repair that will sometimes be finished within the subject, however needs to be properly inside a rental home’s capabilities. In the event you encounter such a problem on set, and you’ve got a motor controller (AMC-1 or a UMC-4) or an cforce RF motor accessible, strive them as an alternative of the built-in radio. If the problem is resolved, you realize the issue is with the digicam physique.
Interference
Barring a {hardware} defect, by far the commonest reason for wi-fi troubles is obvious and easy interference. Nonetheless, most of the time, discovering and fixing RF interference is way from plain and easy. These days, just about every bit of substances on a movie set makes use of some type of wi-fi connection. From the sound division mics and monitoring headsets, by way of lighting’s DMX dimmers and WIFI LED fixtures all the way in which to particular results’ pyro controllers and grip’s headsets. All of this, on high of the common RF background of no matter location you find yourself in, could make for a really crowded airspace.
In the event you suspect RF interference, the primary place you can begin your troubleshooting it’s your personal division. Take a look at Peter Marsden‘s wonderful wi-fi lens management map to see how the totally different lens management techniques channels are positioned inside the 2.4Ghz spectrum. You may start by ensuring the totally different units you’ve received management over use non-overlapping channels. Moreover, in case you are in a studio with a number of productions on, it pays to verify what channels your soundstage neighbours may be utilizing.
Drifting zoom rocker
A comparatively much less widespread concern, the built-in zoom rocker of the WCU-4 does generally get out of alignment. Along with zoom management, the rocker is used to navigate by way of menus and in lens mapping, so a misbehaving one can rapidly stretch your nerves. Fortunately, there’s a fast and simple calibration process you possibly can observe:
CAUTION: Be very cautious with the SERVICE MODE, messing with it may possibly render your hand unit inoperable. Steer clear of the KNOB calibration web page, except you may have the particular ARRI calibration ring available.
- Navigate to the RADIO menu, and utilizing the highest center mushy button change the WCU-4 inner radio transmitter OFF. Additionally, unplug any cables plugged into the LCS port of the hand unit. That is finished to keep away from interference through the calibration process, and to forestall any linked motors from doing undesirable changes.
- Make sure that the battery within the hand unit has ample cost.
- Swap off the hand unit.
- Activate the unit in service mode by concurrently urgent and holding each higher and decrease middle mushy buttons and the facility button till the SERVICE MODE principal display seems.
- Press the higher left mushy button marked ZOOM, which ought to take you to the STICK SETUP web page.
- With out touching the zoom rocker, press the underside middle mushy button labeled ADJ-0.
- Press the highest proper mushy button labeled BACK to exit STICK SETUP.
- Flip the hand unit off, then boot it usually. The drift needs to be gone.
This process is described within the WCU-4 Person Guide. If after following it you continue to expertise zoom rocker drift, the unit most certainly must go to an ARRI service centre.
Management conflicts
When utilizing multiple controller in a wi-fi lens management setup, there’s all the time a risk of management battle. This occurs when multiple machine tries to manage a specific lens motor. For instance, the main focus puller is controlling the main focus motor with the WCU-4, however the DIT needs management over iris with an SXU-1. Naturally, you set each the WCU-4 and the SXU-1 to the identical radio channel to match the digicam or UMC, however you possibly can’t get it to work.
First, change off management of the zoom axis from the WCU-4 hand unit:
- From the principle menu of the WCU-4, navigate to CONTROL SETUP and choose it.
- On the management setup web page, you possibly can see which interface is mapped to which of the lens axises – sometimes knob to focus, slider to iris and persist with zoom.
- In our instance, we wish to give management over the iris axis to the wi-fi SXU-1, so we navigate to the SLIDER SETUP web page by urgent the underside left mushy button labeled SLIDER.
- As soon as within the SLIDER SETUP menu, choose CONTROL and press the underside proper mushy button labeled CHANGE till you set CONTROL to OFF.
- Exit the menu utilizing the highest proper mushy button labeled BACK
Second, get into the SXU-1 menu and ensure it’s set to manage the IRIS axis.
Lastly, change off each the WCU-4 and the SXU-1. Then, flip solely the SXU-1 on, await it to hook up with the digicam or UMC, and confirm you may have management over the iris motor. Upon getting finished this, activate the WCU-4 and verify if you happen to nonetheless have management over focus and/or zoom by way of it.
You may observe the identical process handy over management over the zoom axis (to a ZMU-3 with a WZE-3 attachment, for instance), you simply want to show off CONTROL within the STICK SETUP menu.
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