I need help about Thoma TR-61 Remote System

Gabriel Mihalciuc · November 16, 2019

Hello

I recently purchased Thoma TR-61 Remote head. It came without any cables or accessories. Does anyone know how I can connect it to a computer? Has any of you used this? What kind of cables do I need? I want to modify it, to use it with the Dragon Frame software. Do you know if I can adapt my motors for focus and zoom to this device? I have Arri CLM-2 and Heden M26P motors. The Thoma company was sold in 2014 to Pnanther. For this reason, I find no information about this motorized head. Any help is very important to me. Thank you

Edited November 16, 2019 by Gabriel Mihalciuc

Barnaby Coote · January 24, 2020

Looks like DC servos. You should be able to run it on dragonframe, if that's the case but you'll need to be prepared to solder some stuff together.

If you are in Europe you can try to find that connector on the RS website if they carry it https://www.rs-online.com/ (the RS422 and 24v DIN should be available for a few £). Buy the male plugs and solder them to lengths of 5-core or cat cable. Then put a whatever connector dragonframe needs (RJ45 i think) and a connection to a 24v DC power supply on the other ends.

If you can't find the connector then you will need to gut the system and replace them with something of a similar size.

The focus and zoom ports look like passthrough connections which would allow you to plug in extra motors in without having cables get in the way. You can use them but you will need to make cables, find the connectors and source some suitable motors for focus and zoom. I'd stick to getting the RS422 and 24v working for now.

The tricky bit will be finding what pin does what. Servos usually have power in/out and data and clock pins (that should correspond to what dragon frame outputs, unless there is an internal micro controller in the thoma separate from the servos), and there might be separate pins for reading positioning that you can run back to the system.

If you get power and data confused, you can damage things. But it seems this design splits power and data so that things are a bit safer if you make a mistake. You might need to open the device up to get a part no of what motor is in there find a data sheet for it online, which will in turn give you the color coding of the cables. Red and black will usually be 5v DC+ and ground. Same goes for the 24v connector if it has red and black wires behind it.