200MS hangs in 50mp MS mode intermittently

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jimgolden

Hi folks - I'm having an extremely frustrating situation with my 200MS. I am tethered to a late2013 iMac thru a TB adapter, 10.9.5, hassle FW800 cables. The camera operates flawlessly in single shot mode. Flip to 50MS and it will usually be ok for a while, then Phocus 2.9.2 starts hanging after the 2nd pass (its always the 2nd pass in the readout in upper left of phocus). I usually trash prefs and reset phocus, reboot machine, then pull everything off the cam body and put it back together. Sometimes, it'll be flawless the rest of the day. sometimes it will hang on first MS attempt after the reboot. sometimes on the 3rd attempt after reboot. Totally annoying!

combine that with the fact that my camera is generally about 12ft. in the air on a Foba, its a real shit show.

Ive talked to my IT guy, Hassie, my rep, everyone is stumped blaming it on either the camera, the computer, the SSD, the cable. I've tried everything short of another machine. Ive rebuilt the current machine from the ground up from a software perspective as well.

Next steps: try a FW repeater? try my old Mac pro tower (this is quite the hassle, plus its older than the iMac at this point), but a trashcan mac pro?

Any help appreciated...

I really don't think its the camera, I think its the computer/software/cable/interface zone.

NickT

I would lean towards the cable...

Can you replicate the issue with the shortest possible cable?
Nick-T typing at you from Flexframe's secret location under a Volcano

Alex

Hi Jim,

The model 200 you are using; is it an H4 or H5?
What was it like running on the versions 2.8.4?
For the H4vers a 5 metre cable is the max they can run on with before requiring a more robust power source, whether that be supplied inline or injected (12v >1700Mah). Do you have another computer to compare the setup on?

Alex

jimgolden

Hi guys

Happens with 3 different cables, so I don't think that's it. 2 of the Hassie branded cables, and a long one I have that works fine in single mode from unibrain.

Running pho us 2.9.2, never ran it on anything else. I can try 2.8.4 tho, I have all the old installers

H4D-200MS

I hAve other hardware around, namely Mac Pro tower, but my Digi-cart isn't setup to hold it, so I've been loathe to set it up. Plus it's circa 2011, but does run is 10.9.5, healthy ram, Etc. video card is bare minimum for phocus, but I don't think that is an issue here.

Alex

Hi Jim,

From my experience I found the H4200MS to be slightly less picky than the H5 version with fw800 connection issues when tethered for MS captures.
Your tower should have no probs running it as I've had no problems running mine both on MS and 6 shot on a 2011 base spec i5 Mac Mini (aprart from the images taking ages to preview because of the onboard graphics card - but that's to be expected).
Check at the end of your next session whether the camera's battery has been used at all - if it has then you'll know that the computer's not supplying enough power to the camera (tethered to a desktop, it should run all day and remain at 100%), which could be a pointer to where the issue is (requiring enough power to remain connected). I haven't had to use thunderbolt yet so am not sure if different versions aired in the amount of power they supplied. I'm just at the basic testing stage with 2.9 and 3 now and 2.8.4 is the most solid for my everyday use on jobs ATMO.

jimgolden

Hi Alex - normally battery goes down about 25-30% from full in a day -but always thru the thunderbolt adapter. I sometimes use it thru thunderbolt port on a belkin hub and go directly into the FW800 port on the powered belkin hub.

I'll drag the other hardware out once shoots ease up a bit.

JG

Alex

Hi Jim,

Was having a look at the Belkin thunderbolt connector - although I couldn't see the specs I'd imagine that it'd be supplying power through the FW800 port - the Sonnet one (also a very good brand) looked like it'd be up to the job as well.
I read recently elsewhere on this forum that others (think it was Chris Graham) were having an issue with MS cameras and an iMac's bus power supply.

Alex

jimgolden

Hi Alex! - Actually, been running the FW directly into the Belkin all day, swapped out cords. rock solid no issues! WOO HOO. Needless to say that other cord is getting tossed.

JG

Alex


jimgolden

OK :-[ spoke too soon. Had 1 crash today, hung on the second pass of 4. A new dedicated powered FW800 hub showed up, Nitro AV 7 port powered hub, rebooted with that, crashed first MS attempted, then was fine the rest of the day (3hrs.)

I dunno what to think. Possibly that first crash related to battery, cam said it was 75%, computer showed 0% battery sign. weird. then we swapped batteries AND hub (should've done just battery but had to get up again) and it was fine.

Any thoughts?

Alex

Hi Jim,

Not sure exactly - as the issue is linked with power I would before the next session; check what the power output is from the fw800 port on the hub (or at least what the ac adapter is drawing to power the hub); it should be supplying 1800Mah or more, make sure you are using a fully charged handgrip battery.

When the camera has its next fit, break the few connection at the computer, then at the hub, then unplug the grip, quit Phocus. Restart then quit Phocus again. Plug in battery and after mirror down and the camera's given its happy beep, restart it. Then plug in the hub to the computer, camera's FW to the hub and then restart Phocus: by this manner you often clear all the open arguments that the FireWire protocol is querying between the program and the camera. The Camera can get mixed up whose responsibility it is to power the back when running tethered (normally I find that the back is being powered by the computer and the camera by the grip): if one is being lazy one should see the digital back turn on when the computer connected FireWire is plugged in and often the LCD screen of the camera is still blank and the power button hit before the lens etc clicks into action.

I must say that is my experience running FireWire through a laptop via a powered expressadaptor and I haven't experienced the going though a thunderbolt adaptor. I'm guessing that the internal design of the iMac is essentially a laptop logic board setup stuck to the back of a big monitor.

Keep going - you'll find a solution.

Alex


Jonno101

I shall follow this post with interest.
Recently a new owner of H4D200MS. My old MacbookPro died (2011 Model with TB & FW800) but It worked fine shooting MS. Now in the market for new MBP (sadly as would love to not give apple anymore $$). So plodded along to local Apple Store to test camera on latest 13" MBP (need 13" as want cheap & portable solution).
Hooked up and shot single fine, but in MS mode hung up after 2nd capture of 4? I Tested new phocus 3.whatever and older 2.9.2 same situation.
So my query is mainly should I not go for 13" if TB hasnt got enough umphh? Maybe 15" is better for MS?? Need to test on 15" i Suppose.
Any multishooters who have no problems on a newer MBP? cheers jon

Hassilistic


NickT

You can't shoot MS untethered so... I'm guessing a powered FW hub might help?
Nick-T typing at you from Flexframe's secret location under a Volcano

Hassilistic

And that's why I love coming here, you learn so much so fast.
Thanks Nick