Patent on Stack Focus Rail System

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Post by mawyatt »

We only had one in our lab, it was from hp and had 2 cal modules. One was at NBS while the other was in use, then swapped. I recall when the international volt standard changed from the Weston Chemical cell to the Josephson Junction, then we had to send both cal modules back.

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8668
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Post by ChrisR »

Certainly neat, but have you spent the rest of your career looking for an application for it? :D
Chris R

Jan Steinman
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:06 pm
Location: Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada
Contact:

Post by Jan Steinman »

ChrisR wrote:… have you spent the rest of your career looking for an application for it?
Application, application?

C'mon; it's COOL!
:::: Jan Steinman ::::

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Post by mawyatt »

ChrisR wrote:Certainly neat, but have you spent the rest of your career looking for an application for it? :D
Analog and Digital converters which both utilize voltage references ratioed in precise powers of 2!

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8668
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Post by ChrisR »

Analog and Digital converters which both utilize voltage references ratioed in precise powers of 2!
Fair enough, 1% resistors in a chain wouldn't really cut it for yer 32bit ADC. :smt112
Chris R

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Re: RRS

Post by RobertOToole »

Jan Steinman wrote:
rayB wrote:I have read that RRS too have recently resorted to such tactics as outlined in your 3rd paragraph.
Unless you're referring to something esoteric, the basic parameters of RRS plates are public domain.

Upon hearing this some months ago, I wrote them a polite email, asking for the specifications. It took RRS about a week, but then I got full engineering drawings in the email!

So it would be interesting to know exactly what it was that RRS was picking patent fights over.
Image
Hi Jan,

AFAIK they own some patents in regards to QR heads and clamps not the Arca-Swiss QR system itself. I am told they have the patent on a round QR clamp mounted on a pano base. If you make one, they will send you a letter I am told.

BTW the drawing they sent you are the worst type of plate made, suitable for one use, and one use only, tossing it in the garbage can. With no top dovetail that kind of plate is worse than useless!

Robert

ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8668
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Post by ChrisR »

BTW the drawing they sent you are the worst type of plate made, suitable for one use, and one use only, tossing it in the garbage can. With no top dovetail that kind of plate is worse than useless!
I don't follow?? :?
Chris R

Chris S.
Site Admin
Posts: 4042
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Chris S. »

I don't follow either.

While I value double dovetail plates above single dovetail plates for many uses, isn't the construction of the former obvious from the specs of the latter?

Cheers,

--Chris S.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3413
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Chris S. wrote:I don't follow either.

While I value double dovetail plates above single dovetail plates for many uses, isn't the construction of the former obvious from the specs of the latter?

Cheers,

--Chris S.
One of the arcane concepts of patents is that something can be obvious and still be novel.

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by RobertOToole »

ChrisR wrote:
BTW the drawing they sent you are the worst type of plate made, suitable for one use, and one use only, tossing it in the garbage can. With no top dovetail that kind of plate is worse than useless!
I don't follow?? :?
That is the oldest type of Arca-swiss style plate with a single dovetail ridge.

Almost all plates made today use a top and bottom dovetail. This top ridge makes a great place to clamp a flash arm or something like my thorlabs clamps etc.

The top ridge makes the plate much more useful for photography. When I come across an old-style single dovetail plate, I toss it in the bin so I don't get these mixed up with the useful plates.

:D

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23561
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

Maybe it's just me, but this discussion seems to have suddenly gotten oddly confused.

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/patents contains a list of their patents.

At the top of the page appears a diagram of the dovetail, apparently identical to what is shown above in Jan Steinman's post, along with these words:
RRS Dovetail Standard
All dovetails found on Really Right Stuff products hold to the RRS Dovetail Standard. For designers that wish to develop products compatible with RRS products, critical dimensions for the RRS Dovetail Standard are published below.
Below that diagram is a list of patent numbers held by RRS. There are 35 of them, more or less.

The lowest number is 6,773,172, dated Aug 20, 2003, for a quick release spring-loaded lever action clamp.

The group labeled "Panoramic Camera Mount (Panning Clamp)" contains 8 patents. I have only glanced at the first of those, enough to see that it describes an integrated device that includes the pivot, a rotatary lock, and clamp(s) for eventually holding a camera and lens, all described in typical patent language so complicated that much study would be required to tell exactly what it is that they're claiming.

But in any case, I see no evidence that they're claiming specs on the dovetail, or anything to do with simple plates.

--Rik

Jan Steinman
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:06 pm
Location: Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada
Contact:

Post by Jan Steinman »

RobertOToole wrote:Almost all plates made today use a top and bottom dovetail. This top ridge makes a great place to clamp a flash arm or something like my thorlabs clamps etc. :D
I can put a top dovetail on with my table saw in about ten seconds… :D
:::: Jan Steinman ::::

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by RobertOToole »

Jan Steinman wrote:
RobertOToole wrote:Almost all plates made today use a top and bottom dovetail. This top ridge makes a great place to clamp a flash arm or something like my thorlabs clamps etc. :D
I can put a top dovetail on with my table saw in about ten seconds… :D
Here in LA it's sometimes easier to order a new one on Amazon and have it hours / next day that doing mods yourself. :D

Jan Steinman
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:06 pm
Location: Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada
Contact:

Post by Jan Steinman »

RobertOToole wrote:Here in LA it's sometimes easier to order a new one on Amazon and have it hours
Cool! I've heard they actually did stuff like that!

Here on a small Canadian Island, it's often faster and cheaper to make it yourself.

I recall ordering a small part from the US. I think it was about $20. Seller insisted on shipping UPS. Like a dummy, I agreed. They charged me $18 for one-day shipping, without consulting me.

Two weeks later, I got a card on my door. UPS wanted me to take a five-and-a-half-hour round-trip ferry ride (which costs about $120) to pick it up at their depot. Oh, and there was a total of $29 worth of GST and "brokerage charges" I'd have to pay. I told them to return it, and reversed the credit-card charge.

I will never spend another dime on UPS.

That's the cost of fresh air, low crime, and fresh goat milk every day, I guess.

But I don't even use the Arca-Swiss system. I have everything on Manfrotto 410 plates that I reverse-engineered and cut out of aluminum bar stock on the table saw.
Image
:::: Jan Steinman ::::

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by RobertOToole »

Jan Steinman wrote:......
Here on a small Canadian Island, it's often faster and cheaper to make it yourself......I will never spend another dime on UPS.
The level of UPS and Fedex service is similar to the smaller towns in Alaska. The 1-800-number and website says overnight is available but the real story is that they get it up there when they can get to it. No promises.

Googled your home, very nice, very much reminds me of Alaska. Knew a guy that lived in Tofino. Need to make it up there one of these days for sure.

Talk later, I am off to Japan tomorrow so I need to finish packing.

Robert

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic