FINALLY - VIDEO of the traveling crane rig

R

Ron

Location
Chattanooga
I really didn't want to start another thread about this but I could no longer edit the title to show the video has finally been added. Well two so far. Here's what the delay was all about.

My camcorder stopped connecting to my computer. I bought another and it had a .MOV format and my Quicktime wouldn't play it correctly, much less edit it. So, I downloaded the latest version (dial-up) and it wouldn't play it correctly.

Then I realized the problem was my computer - it was too slow, didn't have enough memory, and didn't have enough memory on the display card. I called my buddy; took him my computer one Saturday morning and got it back the next afternoon complete with 3.2 MHz, 1 Gig of RAM, and 256M bytes on the display board. So now I can play the vids but I can't edit the .MOV format, nor reliably convert it to a different format, sooo, I buy QuickTime Pro ($30) and wait 5 days for it to arrive in the mail, finally to realize the 'pro' part was in what I had already downloaded and all I had to do was activate it with the registration number. I could have done that five days ago.

Got the videos edited and tried to upload to YouTube; it was going to take an hour and 45 minutes, oh well, that's ok. But after five attempts and being cut off each time, I decided it was time to leave Juno and go with the local phone company. So I set up dial-up with them, and start another download. It was gonna take 2 hours and 15 min, failed for "unknown causes" in about an hour or so.

Then my wife put an ad in the classifieds and I couldn't keep the phone tied up with long uploads - not that I could upload on dialup anyway. So finally, I bit the bullet and upgraded to DSL; it took ten and a half minutes to upload the video and it worked the first time.

Anyway, enough whinning and venting here's one of two videos:

This one is just a speedline drop - bear in mind that not only is it operating through four pulleys, I'm also feeding rope through a 3WP and it's still moves right on down the line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP0IVZXr0uY


In this one, I move the log down the speedline a short distance and then let it straight down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkGilW0IBzw

Normally, I'd be doing the control, etc. in the tree, but I had to operate the camcorders and the log, so I just extended everything down to the ground, but I would have used the same setup in the tree.

Ahh what the heck - one more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEoUCBI4X8A
 
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great vid but you sir have way to much time on your hands. What do you do for a regular job?!?!?

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LOL!!! Guilty as charged
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I teach engineering technology at a community college and I'm out for the summer.

Actually, what I'm calling a traveling crane rig, is a variation of a long standing rigging called an English Reeve. The difference is, mine is on a sloped line, is not for life support/rescue, and can be operated by one person either in the tree or on the ground.

It may be surprising how little additional time it takes to add the vertical part to a speedline. I set just about everything up from the ground. One end is readily attached to the ground level anchor and I climb the tree and pull up the 'high' side and secure it with a single W3P2 webbing anchor. One more W3P2 is required for the line control prusiks.
 
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Nice quality video. What camera are you using?

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I found a AipTek model HD-DV 1080P for $179 at WalMart. That's more than I wanted to pay, but the camera has a nice remote control, 3X optical zoom, and high resolution, up to 1440 x 1080 @ 30 frames per second (fps). The YouTube video was recorded at 1280 x 720 @ 30 fps. At that resolution and with a 2 Gig SD memory card, it will record about an hour of HD video.

Two gig is a good match with the battery which provides about 70 minutes of record time. The battery is rechargable and will charge on every USB connector cable/charger I've tried it with. I use my cell phone charger because it's convenient.

It has a regular, and HD TV output and some models allow you to actually record TV programs; I don't know if my A/V jack is bidirectional or not. The owner's manual says 'some models have the "A/V in" feature.

I haven't done this, but it will record at 60 fps and the manual says it's good for fast moving sporting events.

The only problem I've seen is that at the highest resolution, it requires quite a robust computer system, i.e. 3.2GHz core 2 dual or above, 1 GB of RAM (2 GB recommended), display card with 256MB of RAM. I have recorded at the highest resolution - it looks great on HDTV but a little jumpy/choppy on my computer, but not bad.
 
Thanks guys!!! It's certainly not a setup for everyday tree work but it was 'educational' and fun for me to say the least.

BTW, a buddy had an earilier version of the same camcorder and dropped it from about 80 feet from the tree we were climbing (rec climbing). When we got down, he picked up the pieces, mainly the battery pack, put it back together and the thing worked fine!!! That pretty much sold me on the camera. OTOH, my earlier model simply just quit connecting to my computer - and I tried a lot of things to get it going again.

Still, I can shoot video with the older camera, transfer the memory card to my new camera and download the pics that way.
 
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Good stuff Ron,,
Can you post a close-up pics of your set up ? Thanks

Later in SO CAL

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I can; I'll try to do that this afternoon - I think I've got some pretty good pics, but I haven't uploaded them from the camera to my computer and hence to flickr yet.

And, right now, I'm going out to the back yard to set up a sloped traverse tree entry with rope recovery from the tree and with the ability to re-install the traverse for the return down trip.
 
Here’s some pics.

This is the lower end rigging; really quite straightforward. There are two biners in series to get the small rigging plate oriented vertically:
3752579878_3270a9a4fa.jpg


In tree rigging – this is all done on the ground. The W3P2 is installed in the tree and the rigging is pulled up and clipped into the W3P2. Again, two biners are used in series to orient the rigging plate.

3752586934_6e0f30cf88.jpg


Normally, this rigging would be just below the pulley rigging on a separate W3P2. But since I have to run the line and camera(s) – a one-man show I guess, I have this located at ground level. This is a pic of the Z-rig used to tension the ‘carrier’ line (speedline).

3751787069_03d9d9d0de.jpg


And here’s all the control rigging along with the tensioning Z-rig. It looks complicated but all it is, is the Z rig for tensioning already shown in the above pic. And all that’s added is a prusik for the control line and a second prusik for the ‘crane’ line. Done!

Oops - I just realized I left out this pic:
3751787917_5e520a2f15.jpg


Ahhh, well all but the crane lift rig itself; it looks like this – it’s rigged on the ground before it’s pulled into the tree. For some reason my ground pic didn’t take. This one is with the whole thing installed and tensioned:

3752635184_c046994b88.jpg
 
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Nice Ron.....You are going to love "life on a Line".

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I'm already loving it!!! I got it about a week ago I think it was. I ordered it right after you recommended it! Many thanks! And, wow, talk about eye opening.

He has some interesting things to say about knots, gear, and methods and has made me realize things I didn't even know I needed to realize.
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Interestingly, I did catch an error in one of his pulley efficiency calculations, p. 146. He lists a formula that states:

W = T1 + T2

and although the T's are not labeled in the diagram, T1 is the 94 kgf and T2 is the 103kgf. When you add the two as indicated by the formula above, you get W = 197kg, instead of the 200kg indicated in the diagram. It's a small error - can't figure out how he come up with the numbers. I did the calculations my way using the same pulley efficiencies (actually the inverse of his pulley efficiencies) and got slightly different values and with them, the formula yields 200kg as it should.

Great stuff! In fact it is in LOAL that I discovered what I was calling a traveling crane was actually a variation of the English Reeve!

Thanks again for recommending the book!

Ron
 
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