Repair and fix a 1st model Wolverine Film2Digital MovieMaker 8mm digitizer
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
- There are at least 3 versions of the Wolverine movie scanner: version 1 (720p) had the problematic belt drive that I continue to report on - version 2 is the 720p model & has a gear drive. And there's #3 the Pro version (1080p) - I seem to recall that may have been version 1.5 style: a 720p unit made between the belt drive model and the current gear drive unit.
The Wolverine Film2Digital MovieMaker 8mm Film To Video Digitizer produces great images - when it works - but the first model has a poorly-designed belt-drive system and gives off sticky goop that can cause the belt to stick to the pulley. In this video I show how I cleaned mine after it stopped working - but even after a cleaning the drive still binds up and you cannot trust that it will work right. One personed posted a long web page - all text - about these machines and he mentioned me indirectly: "I dont agree with that youtubers (ME) conclusion of a defect. The grease was put there for a reason- it is no defect."
How come it sticks to the pulley? It may have been put there for "a reason" but it clearly can cause serious problems.
Wolverine now markets two improved 8mm film to video convertors. The $299.99 unit is similar to the one I have but it has a gear-drive system:
Wolverine 8mm and Super 8 - $299.99
Fully Automated Digitizer to Convert Old 8mm and Super 8 Movie Reels Into Digital Videos Support up to 5" reels and 720P
The pro model can handle larger reels and produces 1080P video:
MovieMaker-PRO - $399.99
Fully Automated Digitizer to Convert Old 8mm and Super 8 Movie Reels Into Digital Videos Support up to 9" reels and 1080P 
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I just bought one recently - branded as 'Winait' rather than 'Wolverine', but otherwise identical. It started making noises from the take-up after only a few rolls of film. So I just let the film drop into a clean box on the floor. So the take-up motor only gets used for the very low-duty job of rewinding film onto the spool. I'm sure that by doing this, the wear on the system will be much less, and there is little to no tension on the intermittent claw mechanism. My late model machine, BTW has a separate dc motor for the take-up, and also has a fan inside.
Hi Bob
I found that the friction clutch that is driven by that belt gets very stiff, to the point where the takeup spool is trying to pull the film through the gate. This causes the grinding noise and film skipping, as the little finger which drives the film through loses its position relative to the film. Short term fix for me was to not use the takeup spool.
As far as the black goop on the belt goes, i suspect the rubber itself is decomposing, very much like binocular eyepiece rubber etc.
Good honest review👍
Thanks for this review. Thanks for the head up. I am shopping for one of these and this is a huge red flag. Thank you!
Trusty Bob, Thank you for your video. I have the same model. I have been digitizing my and my parent's old movies. 2 in particular had that loud machine-gun like sound. Especially an old black and white that had been viewed many times. I used an old cotton t-shirt and a 96 cent for 4 oz jar of Kodak movie film cleaner I had had for decades. I put it through twice and did not have a single incidence of those pile driving sounds. You might try that. What I would like is an upgrade on the firmware if possible. My machine is 3 years old and doesn't appear to have frame repositioning or sharpening. (I can do the latter with Vegas Pro) Have a great new year.
Interesting. I bought the 1080p model a couple months ago and have digitized over 70 3" reels of Super 8 film so far with great results and so the product is working without any mechanical problems other than the clicking sound changing pitch now and then, so I give it a break from time to time fearing that it might getting hot.
I'm working on a Pro version for a friend. It has the machine gun noise at times. I believe the problem is with gear assembly. The shaft for the smaller gear which drives the feed arm is NOT in any type of bearing and sits in a hole in the mounting plate that has way too much play and causing the skipping. I'm trying to find some type of sleeve to put in there, but no luck finding one so far. May be something for others to look at if you're having this issue.
Maybe there is a belt with a fiber coating that will fit. I had a Eumig super-8 projector in the 70's that melted several rubber components in short order.
You are correct. I have had jams or breaks in the splicing tape that are no problem.
It is when the film was cut to a width just a hint wider than 8.0 mm that it jams. I think the companies slicing techniques are out of calibration just a hint!!!! Usually the film will start out ok then a few feet into the 50 foot reel it jams.....too wide!!! This means that the other half of the 50 foot reel is a hint too narrow....that doesn’t cause any problems with the digitizing. Sooooo 25 feet of the 50 foot reel are no problem....but around 25 feet of the 50 foot reel ARE a problem!!!!
Hello....how do you deal with 8mm film that is just a little too wide and gets jammed in the digitizing area? 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I've only had it jam at splices which I could repair, but I can't imagine what would work for your situation.
Great video, i just bought one and notice the film wheel wont roll or rolls real slow when the film flap is closed, but once i open the flap the whell moves again and the film advances but too fast, is there something i doing wrong?
The weak point of these systems is the takeup reel: the drive belts can slip and even - at times - get stuck, either of which messes up the takeup function. There is a camera that shoots every frame as a still image (which is whi the Wolverine produces nice videos - when it works right). Closing that flap keeps the film properly aligned and locks it onto a drive gear that meshes with the sprocket holes on the film and feeds the film one frame at a time. When you open the flap the film no longer is locked on the drive gear and there is reduced drag on the film path so that the takeup wheel can spin faster. So that flap has to be closed for it to work. But again, if it's closed and still doesn't work the problem most likely is the drive for the takeup reel. This is what Wolverine has produced at least 3 types of take up drives, starting with a belt. Now there can be times when the film itself could be the problem: old film can shrink so that the sprocket holes are a little too small, but that's rare in my experience digitizing dozens and dozens of films on these machines.
@@BobHudsonVideo I am having the exact same issue...is there anything I can do to make the machine work? I just bought it 2nd hand from someone on eBay and I can't get it to work properly.
@@vickiejenkins4188 I have yet to find a fix that stays fixed: my first generation Wolverine is now in a box on the shelf and bought a Pro Model (off ebay) that so far has worked as it should. There's a reason that until the Wolverine came out you had to spend perhaps $3,000 or more to get a frame-by-frame movie to digital converter: the camera and software of the Wolverine work fine for most home conversions, but to keep the price down they made less-than-robust hardware.
I figured out what made mine work...I could have sworn I had Super 8 film but I switched the film type switch over to 8mm film and that did the trick for me. I looked online for 2 hours and tried 3 or 4 different filmstrips but that ended up being all it was!
@@vickiejenkins4188 So happy for you!
Hi Bob,
I wonder if you can help me. I have this model and am getting the following error as soon as i press the start to scan button. "please connect the power supply"
The power supply is worrking fine though as the LCD is lit and all other functions are available.
Thank-you
Steve
I talked about this in one of my videos but I honestly do not recall if there was a remedy for that.
my wolverine says reboot and won't let me insert the sd card. I have unplugged and still want let me put the sd card in
So then none of the Pro models use a belt drive? I found a Pro model where the reel doesn't spin. I was thinking it was a belt issue but if it doesn't have a belt it's gotta be something else.
I found some notes sent to me by Wolverine a couple years ago: they said then the Pro model has a drive belt and a separate motor for just the drive (instead of sharing the main stepper motor as was previously the case) Here's what they told me:
"Sept. 2017 we introduced the MovieMaker...This machine has a main motor and a new take-up heavy duty motor (all metal). This new motor also fits into the standard MovieMaker that was produced in March 2017."
So yes the Pro has a belt and a 3nd motor.
The stepper motor can get really hot, and would melt the belt
Can you just let the film roll out on the floor and skip the take-up reel? I have the same problem and I can hear the gears making that sound. I probably have the old model non-Pro belt drive.
It is a very untidy pile on the floor and it's easy to damage the film while trying to rewind it.
Hi, thanks for this video. I bought a device which appears to be a Wolverine clone distributed in Europe (can't find the Wolverine here), sold from digitnow.us but also on Amazon; I bought it as new, but I have exactly the SECOND issue you show in the video: the machine makes those noises, but mostly can continue the conversion even though of course the converted video will have many glitches. Some times it cannot go on at all and it stops with an error message. I will have to return it...
I had the exact same problem with my Wolvarine MovieMaker-PRO 1080 machine ($399.99) that I just got from Amazon. After using it for a while, the drive started knocking, sounding just like in your video, and then the prong that moves the film through the scanner stopped completely and I heard a grinding sound. After letting it rest for an hour it would work again but only for a few minutes then it would knock and then stop completely again. I returned it for a full refund. But I don't think the belt was the problem since you had the same problem right after you cleaned it off. It sounds like your gears are worn out. Or maybe the sticking belt wore out the gears. FYI - Never use alcohol on rubber, because it melts it further and then dries it out. Just use a dry cotton cloth like an old T-shirt. I think maybe the problem is with the stepper prong mechanism. I've also seen other videos that found out it's the motor that is the problem and wears out after a while. One person had the motor replaced and then after about scanning 5000 ft of film the motor wore out again with the same knocking problem.
on their website it says to fold a piece of paper and close the door on it, it says the reason is old film is different widths, the prong is not catching to advance the film, first of all I got this to use on this type of film, old film so I shouldn't have to stick a piece of paper in it for it to work, right?
@@amytrunnell-morris9648 The prong still had plenty of height to catch the film hole, so I don't think that was the problem. As I watch the prong while it was malfunctioning, it would not move forward all the way. Anyway, I returned it a long time ago, and decided not to purchase a new one. If they could fix that one problem they would have a great machine.
the film is too wide has more than 8 mm you should enlarge the groove with a file (Wolverine film 2 Digital MovieMaker,how to fix to match the cine film )
during transfer the words PLEASE RECHECK FILMS PLACE no information in manual have e mailed wolverine several times with no responce HELP
I had heard that you can not access the individual images it takes, only the compiled movie. Is this true?
That's my understanding even though it is shot one frame at a time, the same as timelapse movie. But, time lapse cameras sometimes save each fram.
some make mistakes and stick 8 mm film with * super