The Perfectone Ciblo Motor
By all accounts, this is the original OEM electric drive motor for the Eclair NPR when it was released in 1963. Made for Eclair by the Perfectone company of Bienne, Switzerland it was a very basic, 12v. DC constant speed governor-controlled motor with an accuracy of .2%. The Ciblo was a 60hz. (for North American use) Pilotone cable sync motor. This meant it could generate a 60hz. sine wave sync signal and send it down a cable to a recorder like the Nagra III or IV that was in direct correlation to the running speed of the drive shaft. At 24fps the sine wave output was exactly 60hz. If the motor was to vary slightly in speed the Ciblo's frequency generator would be affected to the very same degree, thus, altering the 60hz. output by a similar amount. Cable sync was how the first "portable" double-system sync sound systems operated. You had to have a cable running between the cameraperson and the sound recordist at all times. The motor also had an automatic clapper system to fire the fogging lamp inside the NPR and, at the same time, send an 8v. DC voltage down the same cable to trigger the recorder's internal bloop oscillator. The motor required a specially made cradle to secure it to a tripod. Several companies would later offer after-market crystal sync conversions for the Ciblo (see below). Perfectone also made a non-sync, variable speed motor for the NPR that ran from 4-48fps.

The Eclair AC Sync Motor
Also released as an original OEM motor option was the Eclair AC sync motor. Available in line voltages of 110v. AC and 220v. AC, these were known as synchronous motors and were mainly designed for in-studio use, since they had to be plugged into and electrical outlet. Their rotational speed was directly tied to the frequency of the electrical line current they were connected to. A synchronous motor running on a 110v AC, 60hz line current would drive the NPR at exactly 24fps. Any number of NPR's using synchronous motors would all be running at exactly the same speed and, therefore, they would all be in sync with each other. In fact, this was the very technique used by Michael Wadleigh when he shot Woodstock '69. At any one time there were as many as 5 cameras all running off the electrical mains. Even after 3 days of filming, they claim they never lost one frame of sync! Eclair supposably also released a battery operated, crystal controlled power-pack for portable operation. This would have been the forerunner to the self-contained Beala crystal sync motor.

The Eclair Beala Motor
Released in 1967, the Beala motor is named after its inventor, Jean-Pierre Beauviala, later of Aaton fame. Jean-Pierre worked as a consultant to Eclair before starting Aaton and is credited with developing the first portable crystal sync sound recording system using the Eclair NPR. With the introduction of crystal sync, the cameraperson was now completely free of the cable linking the camera to the sound recorder. The speed of the NPR was precisely regulated by an electronic circuit that constantly compared the motor's speed to that of a quartz crystal oscillator. The accuracy of the motor was now increased to +-10PPM. The sound recorder, originally the Nagra III, was also fitted with a crystal oscillator to enable it to record a precise 60hz. sync signal on the tape along with the audio track. The features included: 24/25fps selectable crystal speed; 50, 60 or 100hz. pilotone output; both manual and automatic clapper; stops with the mirror shutter open in the viewfinder position; out-of-sync warning light; 6-40fps non-sync or wild speed adjustment with tachometer. The unit pictured is the Beala III sitting in the outboard tripod cradle.

The Perfectone Compact Universal Motor
Offered as an alternative to the Beala, the Compact Universal made by Perfectone of Switzerland, had almost identical features and specifications and it was similarly priced when sold as a package with the NPR. What made this motor a bit more appealing was the drastic reduction in weight due to its fiberglass housing and that it did not need the outboard tripod cradle. With its integral flat bottom base, you could simply set NPR down and walk away. The features included: 24/25fps selectable crystal speed; 50, 60 or 100hz. pilotone output; both manual and automatic clapper; internal and external sync reference, stops with the mirror shutter open in the viewfinder position; out-of-sync warning light; 8-40fps non-sync or wild speed adjustment with tachometer.

The Jensen 508 Ciblo Conversion
Offered by the Georg Jensen company of Denmark, this was a rather unique crystal sync conversion to the Ciblo constant speed motor in that it provided a digital readout of the actual unning speed. The controls included a pot to vary the running speed and a switch to select between variable, crystal and external sync input.

The Aaton Alcan 54 Motor
Taking a rather radical approach to the physical design, Aaton/Beauviala released their Alcan 54 motor for the NPR in 1974. By reducing the size of the motor itself and through the use of miniaturized electronic components, Aaton was able to lower the NPR's overall profile by some 2.5 inches. The Alcan 54 offered 24 & 25fps crystal speeds and variable speed from 8 to 40fps. It was designed to stop with the mirror shutter open in the viewfinder position and would indicate a loss of crytal sync by producing a pronounced flickering in the viewfinder. A sliding shoulder pad allowed the operator to adjust the distance between the users eye and the viewfinder. The unit was equipped to trigger the NPR's fogging lamp and supply a bloop voltage to a suitably equipped sync recorder via cable or wireless remote. The motor would sit flat on its base and was tapped for tripod threads so it did not require a cradle.

The Hafflexx Motor
Appearing sometime around 1975, the Hafflexx offered five crystal speeds of  8, 16, 24, 25 and 32fps. Taking their cue from the Perfectone Conpact Universal, Haflexx fashioned their housing to sit flat with no tripod cradle required. The motor did not offer any slating functions nor did it provide for cable sync operation. Later versions of this motor also offered the 29.97fps speed and there was an external device called Crysdial that used the Arri standard for multi-speed camera control. The operator could select any crystal speed in .001 increments.

TheTCS TXM-14 Motor
Tobin Cinema Systems, of Washington State produced what was probably the most modern, state of the art motor for the NPR, owing to its many unique features and high-tech manufacturing. The TXM-14 allows NPR owners to continue shooting with their Eclair and still match some of the the filming capabilities of today's cameras. The basic motor s equipped with 15 speeds, all crystal controlled. It included every 60 Hz HMI speed from 12 to 40 FPS and every 50 Hz HMI speed from 10 to 33-1/3 FPS. With the optional Milliframe Controller, the operator could select from 30,000 crystal speeds from 10 to 40 FPS. A less sophisticated Videoframe Controller offers just the two video related speeds or 23.970 and 23.976. The accuracy for any speed is ±3 ppm or .0003%. The unit is equipped with shutter-parking, the term used for stopping the mirror shutter open in the eyepiece position. Using the same approach as the Perfectone and Haflexx, the TXM-14 is also designed with a flat bottom base with built in tripod thread. TCS also offered a crystal sync conversion of the Ciblo constant speed motor.

The Alsa XL24 Motor
Cine Electronics, of San Francisco, began producing a motor design similar in appearance to the early Ciblo, but it was actually manufactured entirely in the United States. Their theory being the easy and continued supply of replacement parts throughout the life of the unit. The XL24 offered six crystal speeds: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 36fps. The motor had an Auto-Take feature that would fog six frames at the head and six frames at the tail of each take. Like the earlier crystal sync motors, the XL24 did not forget its roots and still provided a 60hz. pilotone output and bloop voltage for use with cable-sync recorders. The XL24 would also stop with the mirror shutter open in the eyepiece position.

The Cirpi Motor
Probably the last Beala-style motor made by Eclair for the NPR, this model appeared around 19XX. Magazine ads for that period claimed the motor was factory equipped for a time-code option. The cradle base, long an outboard accessory, was now an integral part of the motor and housed the additional connectors and electronics. The Cirpi still offered the same crystal sync speeds of 24 and 25fps and would run non-sync from 6 to 40fps.

The AZ-Spectrum Ciblo Conversion
The AZ Spectrum company in New York offers two models of their conversion to the Ciblo/Perfectone constant speed motor. The first provides a single crystal speed of 24 fps and the usual non-sync, wild speeds of 8-40 fps. The second adds a 2-position binary switch to allow the operator to select any crystal speed from 8-40fps in 1 fps increments. Both conversions include the capability to stop with the mirror shutter open in the eyepiece position. An option to either version is an industry-standard 11-pin Fischer connector to enable an Arri-compatible external controller to set the speed of the motor in increments as small as .001fps.