mounting wireless receiver on a SC Flyer
 

How and where would you mount a wireless receiver on a Flyer? For now, I'll only have one battery attached to the Flyer.

What camera are you using? How much does it weigh? - And what reciver & how much does it weight? Also, do you have any cable length limitations or special power requirements for the reciver?

- Mikko

Mikko,

It's an XL-H1 and a Lectrosonics 401 receiver. No special power or cable requirements that I know of. Battery operated receiver, and a 3 ft XLR will probably cover any placement on the stabilizer.

Camera weights a little over 9 pounds with a Firestore FS-C attached, and receiver weighs about 13 oz with batteries.

Thanks.

Just Velcro it to the camera. Having cables run outside the post makes things akward, but in some cases it can't be avoided if you truly need the extra weight capacity. But, for a rig like yours, you're not going to need to mount them on the bottom of the rig, because you've got plenty of weight capacity left. Be careful about long XLRs though - bundle them and gaffers tape them to the side of the camera if needed to keep them from flopping around, or just buy shorter XLRs for Steadicam use.

Tom has a great point - tape EVERYTHING down that has a possibility of flying around or coming into contact with your body. Standard XLRS seem pretty flexible, but when they're hanging off the rig, should one brush you, it'll bust your shot. This goes for anything attached to any part of the sled. Try and make it as self-contained as possible with wires and attachments, even tiny wireless mic antennae. At first you may not feel them come into contact with your shoulder, etc... but when you try to kiss off a move, all of a sudden the rig is behaving strangely. (Not that it's ever happened to me...)

If I mounted the receiver on the sled, I was thinking of wrapping the XLR around the post, in a spiral, and taping it down every 6 inches or so.

That would not be advisable. You're going to get into the way of the gimbal there. Remember that the gimbal is what's providing the magical isolation, the last thing you'd want is a big bulky cord rubbing up against it as you try to switch or pan. The proper cable stringing is to gaffers tape it to the front of the topstage, and then pull it reasonably taught (because any movement will upset the delicate balance), and then gaffers tape it to the top of the monitor, then run it behind the monitor and down to wherever you're holding the receiver.

Tom pretty much covered the best way to do it.

As you add accessories at the camera, you might want to look at investing in a 2nd battery down below .. not only does it give you more counter-weight and balancing options, but it also gives you a backup if (when) your first battery runs down on a shoot.

- Mikko