Arri 16S Torque Motor

[Gino Terribilini]

Got a bit of a problem here... my 16S' torque motor died. Well, not totally, but its just as useless. The torque motor had worked fine with the 400' spools for about 600', then got jammed, then 150' later, it jammed again, then 1/2 that much, it jammed again. So I opened it all up and the take-up side is not working. I tried changing the motor and torque motor to reverse and that side wouldn't work. I set it back to forward, and turned it on, then spun the take-up side and it started working. But after about 75', it stopped again and when I went to spin it up, it still wouldn't work.

 

When I try to spin the take-up spool manually wile the camera is not off, it kind of jerks forward while i'm spinning it like its making a connection, then losing it, then making it, then losing it, etc. Have any of you heard of this? Do any of you have a 12v torque motor you would be willing to sell or (and I know i'm going out on a limb here) let me borrow? I have a shoot this weekend and i'm cameraless... any thoughts?

 

Note: I had just had my camera checked out and they said it was fine. The torque motor and camera had recently been converted to 12v.

[Tim Carroll]

I had just had my camera checked out and they said it was fine. The torque motor and camera had recently been converted to 12v.

 

By whom? Who converted the torque motor and who told you it checked out fine?

 

-Tim

[Gino Terribilini]

By whom? Who converted the torque motor and who told you it checked out fine?

 

I bought the torque motor separately from the camera. There is a sticker label on the torque motor that says, "VISUAL PURSUIT, 12 VOLT" on it.

I take my camera to Alan Gordon (a film equipment rental/ store/ service place next to Paramount studios) to get serviced and everything. Following the conversion, they said everything was in order and the camera worked fine. I asked them to varify that the motor had indeed been converted to 12v and they said it had.

Edited April 24, 2006 by Gino Terribilini

[Clive Tobin]

Got a bit of a problem here... my 16S' torque motor died. ...

 

Is the ground wire connected? To prevent just this sort of problem, the later torque motors have a little jack on them, to use for connecting a ground wire to either the camera body, or to a little socket on the negative side of the back of the power plug.

 

Without it, the motor can run intermittently if there is not a clean unpainted un-dirty un-oily power return path from the torque motor to power minus.

[Gino Terribilini]

Is the ground wire connected? To prevent just this sort of problem, the later torque motors have a little jack on them, to use for connecting a ground wire to either the camera body, or to a little socket on the negative side of the back of the power plug.

 

Without it, the motor can run intermittently if there is not a clean unpainted un-dirty un-oily power return path from the torque motor to power minus.

 

Is this the jack you are talking about? The s/n is 7843.

 

Edited April 26, 2006 by Gino Terribilini

[Gino Terribilini]

If so, could I connect a wire from that jack to the negative terminal of the old battery plug on the camera (the 2-pin plug) and establish a successful connection?

[Clive Tobin]

If so, could I connect a wire from that jack to the negative terminal of the old battery plug on the camera (the 2-pin plug) and establish a successful connection?

 

This is it.

 

The official Arri S power cords have a jack on the back that this jack can connect to. Some aftermarket ones lack this. Make sure you connect to the negative side if rigging up something else.

 

You could also have an intermittent connection inside the motor.