Preston Fi+Z/Kuper interface

"This is the best friggin' thing since sliced bread! Why the hell didn't I invent this bad boy years ago?!"

-- Me, on the set of Pacific Air

"Focus that doesn't suck!"

-- Paul Maples, motion control operator

A neat little gizmo for the live action environment, the Fi+Z/Kuper adaptor allows you to use the industry-standard Preston Fi+Z as your motion-control lens motor. Camera sssistants are happy because they don't have to use unfamiliar equipment, and operators are happy because they don't have to use follow focus rigs with finicky, tricky, anemic step motors.

The adapter box sits in the data stream, between the Preston handunit and the motors, treating the handunit as an encoder going into the Kuper, and the Preston motors as motion-control motors coming out. And it has full data bypass, so you can move control between yourself and the AC at the flick of a switch without having to re-zero.

And, as a bonus, the adapter box also provides opto-isolated breakout for the remaining encoder channels, along with large, dedicated, power supply to keep the heaviest encoder load happy.

Features:

• Provides support for either Fi+Z1 or Fi+Z2 serial modes with the flick of a switch.
• Displays the status of all data channels, in and out, in real time
• Provides "hold" circuitry that momentarily freezes the data flowing into the Kuper, allowing the operator to zero channels without the cooperation of the camera assistant.
• Provides a bypass mode, so the camera assistant can control the MDR directly when the Kuper is busy with file operations.
• Powers the Fi+Z handunit from its own internal power supply, not the transmitter battery, thus extending transmitter battery life
• Opto-isolates the Fi+Z hardware from the Kuper, for hardwired situations.
• Provides opto-isolated breakout for the remaining 12 channels of encoders, and powers them from an internal 3amp supply, not from the Kuper supply.
• Provides I/O connectors high on the unit, so they clear the lip of a Mag-Liner shelf.