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UltiBox Complete Hardware Failure — All Ports Unresponsive

ALL RIGS

Summary

When three different focus motors and multiple cable swaps all show the same fault, the UltiBox board itself has failed — not the motor or cable. Diagnostic: try the motor on a different port (e.g. zoom port). If no port on the UltiBox responds, swap the entire UltiBox. Keep a confirmed-working spare UltiBox accessible on any shoot with critical focus work.

Symptoms

  • Focus motor does not respond; position numbers move in Flair but motor gear stays still
  • Swapping to multiple different motors does not fix the issue
  • Swapping cables does not fix the issue
  • Motor works normally in Focus Independent mode but not in FFO or FFT
  • D/A Overflow error on focus axis
  • Trying the motor on a different UltiBox port (e.g. zoom port) also fails

Diagnostic

  1. Try the focus motor on Port 6 (Zoom port) — change the Focus axis assignment in Setups → Axis Setup to Node 1 Port 6
  2. If the motor works on Port 6, the original focus port (Port 5) has failed — UltiBox needs MRMC service but is still usable on remaining ports
  3. If no port on the UltiBox responds to any motor, the UltiBox board has completely failed — replace the unit

Timothy Heys Cerchio (MRMC): "It was a hardware issue! No response from any of the ports on the main UltiBox."

Field Fix

Swap to a known-good spare UltiBox. Configure the spare with the same axis assignment in Flair (Setups → Axis Setup — check node and port numbers remain the same, or update them if the spare is on a different IP/node).

Send the failed unit to MRMC for repair.

WhatsApp Excerpts

[23/1/2022, 7:58:44 pm] Timothy Heys Cerchio: It was a hardware issue! No response from any of the ports on the main UltiBox. D/A Overflow generally means that there is no consistency between motor signal and encoder feedback.

[23/1/2022, 7:20:00 pm] ~ joel.spezeski: One of the things, if you have not already, you might try connecting an ethernet cable directly to the box rather than through the robot arm just in case that cable may have a problem.

[23/1/2022, 7:24:13 pm] Timothy Heys Cerchio: Have you tried reassigning the port in Axis Setup to Port 6 and connecting the Focus cable to the Zoom output?