[Solved] Slider control in Video application gets stuck  

Hello,

I'm experiencing this issue with my Pine controller and app: when in Video mode and setting up start and end keyframes the Slide control gets "stuck", meaning that the carriage keeps moving in the selected direction even though I remove my finger from the slider control and it returns to the central position. In order to stop the motor I have to move the control to the opposite direction. It is also somewhat less responsive to the touch action.

I moved from iPhone 5S to XS, iOS 13.3.1.

It was OK on the previous phone.

App version is 3.0.4, firmware version is 1.7

Does this happen all the time? Or just sometimes?
There should really be no difference between the slide controls between the various modes (e.g. timelapse vs. video).

We will try to reproduce this.

Hello,

it basically does this all of the time, and the same thing happens with the Timelapse mode slider.

The Free run mode one is OK, either with the buttons or sliders.

Here's a video that shows the behavior.

Pine App Slider Behavior

Let me know of any other info you may need.

L.

Hi Lorenzo,

Thanks for the video.

I just tried with firmware V1.7 and could find the same thing on an iPhone 6.

With Firmware V3.0, I could not see this issue.

Do you have the chance to update to V3.0?
Make sure the updater program (on windows or mac) install properly on your machine before resetting the controller to get into update mode.

All the best,
Patrick

You could also try if changing the global setting for "Slide Bar-Response" will result in any change.
This setting is under "Motor Settings" -> "Global".

All the best,
Patrick

Tried to change that settings in the menu, didn't work.

I'll try to update the firmware and let you know.

L.

Hi, updated firmware to 3.0, all is good now.

Thanx

L.

Hi Patrick,

adding another detail to the issue I described above. Looks like something strange is happening again even after I updated the firmware to 3.0.

I'm now running the Pine app on an iPhone XS on iOS 13.4.1.

Some controls behave in a strange way. As an example, in Video or Live mode, when I move a slider control to set the position of one of the axis and I need to get back in the opposite direction by a little to nail the exact position, the slider seems unresponsive. It moves graphically, but looks like it doesn't transmit any command to the Pine controller. The fix I have found is to touch another part of the screen on the iPhone and then get back to move that same control which now works. So it seems something with the touch functionality.

Hope I described the issue clearly, I'll try to upload a short movie of it.

L.

@lore88824 I wonder if you could try the same with an ANDROID to see if the issue happens there?  My current thought is that ios doesn't like the app as much as android.

@chrisstratton Unfortunately I don't have any Android devices to try that out, but I can confirm from yesterday's shoot that the issue is still present and it really is annoying on location with actors. 

I also noticed another rather strange issue: after I set Start and End keyframes in a video shoot with a 3 axis movement, the carriage takes an insane amount of time to get to the start position once I hit the "Play" arrow, while I get the "Moving to start position" message on the app. Plus, the three axes move sequentially to get in place instead of all together...I tried to power down the Pine and restart the app but that behaviour kept happening...

Ideas?

When using motors with high gear ratio, it will be normal that they will move very slowly. You can set the global motor speed to 100% in the motor settings section if not already done so. What motor are you using for the slider and what was the total distance from first to last keyframe? For long distances it would make sense that it takes a bit of time.

When pressing the green PLAY button, all motors will start to move the the starting keyframe at the SAME time. As some motors have to move a shorter distance than other motors, some will reach a stop earlier than other. I assume this was what you experienced and this is the normal behavior. It has been like that since the beginning and is not an issue.

Regarding the slide bar controls, there have been no changes in the firmware (both PINE firmware and apps) for a long time. So it doesn't quite make sense to me that you are experiencing these issues after updating to V3.0. Please note that the slide bars may not work for these very tiny small touch movements. The bars need at least a little movement to actually register a change. 

I will try to reproduce the slide bar situation and see if I can improve it.

All the best,
Patrick 

The situation with the slide bar controls is the following:

The lower the global speed setting (in motor settings), the less responsive (meaning more slide bar displacement is needed) the controls get.

Here is the technical explanation if you are interested:

The app sends a speed percentage to the PINE. This speed percentage is between 0 and +-global_max_speed (where global_max_speed is the percentage set in the motor settings section).

Example:
If the global max speed is set to 20%, this 20% is distributed linearly along the entire slide bar movement (from center to start/end). The app will start sending out meaningful commands to PINE once the value reaches 1%. For the first initial location of the knob near the center location, the percentage will be 0 and no motor movement will happen. So there is a threshold the slide bar needs to reach until it reaches at least 1%.

If the global max speed is set to 100%, the slide bar will reach the 1% threshold much earlier and the motor will start moving earlier as well. 

You can set the global max speed all the way to 100%. In this case, the motor will move earlier with a very small movement of the slide control. On the other hand, if you set a lower global speed, the motor will start moving at a larger slide bar displacement. In both cases the initial speeds will be roughly the same. Setting a lower global speed might give you a better fine-control of the motors as you can make larger slide bar displacements without having the motor start very fast resulting in overshooting a desired keyframe location.

I hope this was helpful.

Hi Patrick,

I get it. Indeed, the speed of pan and tilt motors was extremely low compared to the slide one. I set them all to 100% and all looks fine now, the three axis move together when moving into position.

The explanation for the slide bars makes sense. I'll try different settings for that too and let you know.

Thanx so far