Topic: Tascam DR-70D 4-channel audio recorder (Part 6)

[F.O.Bean]

I'm sure no one cares at this point but I just recorded my first and last show with the DR-70D.

Facts:

- current firmware
- card from approved media list (erase formatted prior to the show...tested for roughly 16 consecutive hours with no issues prior to the show.)
- battery that others have used successfully (and had plenty of juice when the recorder decided to stop recording)
- 2 channel, 24/44.1 with phantom on channels 1 & 2

-> recording just stopped after about 45 minutes...recorder powered off by itself while the battery was perfectly fine (recorder powered right back on after I discovered that it had turned off)

Fuck it. I don't have the patience for this shit. Anyone with more patience than me wants this thing, send me an offer. I'll throw in the battery, battery cable, a card, and a hard case.

That's VERY troublesome to hear Especially after my good luck running new SD Cards/Batteries in front of my TV for MANY hours with both of my 70d's, though I haven't ran my newest 70d "live" yet

Bad USB cable?
I just had to replace one, due to very similar description.

Bad USB cable?
I just had to replace one, due to very similar description.

I've had one cable that wouldn't work also - seemed to work ok for data, but not power...

Another related gotcha is - some USB batteries want to be "on" when you turn on the DR-70D.

Otherwise the deck won't see the battery, and you won't get the "BUS POWER" message at startup - resulting in the deck being powered by internals...leading to shorter runtimes.

I'm guessing Maybe this happened? I HAVE to turn my USB Batteries ON before starting my 70d's Are you 100% sure you had your USB battery ON and the BUS POWER option came on when you turned your 70d on Because that would explain for the short runtime on AA batteries! Maybe when it stopped, you turned the USB battery ON and then it worked fine after that, correct? BUT, if you didn't have AA's in your 70d, and you were just running off of USB batteries[like I sometimes do], then it certainly wouldn't explain the AA internals theory I just had lol

Also, exactly what SD card are you using for your 70d A "Write Timeout" error would've warned you what happened, so it couldn't be that, especially just running 24/44.1 on 2 channels, so I'm very concerned about your issues! Can you reproduce the issues at home possibly if you have the time? I would certainly want to find the problem, before I gave up completely! It really is a great deck, and has proven very reliable for me the 1.5 years Ive owned mine

[jbell]

I have a USB cable you can have that has worked with mine!!  I have 2 of them so the extra is yours if you want it.

I'm sure no one cares at this point but I just recorded my first and last show with the DR-70D.

Facts:

- current firmware
- card from approved media list (erase formatted prior to the show...tested for roughly 16 consecutive hours with no issues prior to the show.)
- battery that others have used successfully (and had plenty of juice when the recorder decided to stop recording)
- 2 channel, 24/44.1 with phantom on channels 1 & 2

-> recording just stopped after about 45 minutes...recorder powered off by itself while the battery was perfectly fine (recorder powered right back on after I discovered that it had turned off)

Fuck it. I don't have the patience for this shit. Anyone with more patience than me wants this thing, send me an offer. I'll throw in the battery, battery cable, a card, and a hard case.

[2manyrocks]

 It sounds like maybe the external battery wasn't connected as external power when the unit was powered up. 

My suggestion would be a test run at home on fully charged batteries.

[voltronic]

I agree with everyone else.  It's most likely user error.  This happened to me once, and I realized that after an earlier sound check, the unit powered itself down after a while since it was not recording (by design).  I quickly turned it back on and pressed record when the concert started, but I had forgotten to power on the external first.  As a result, it ran off the internal AAs and then died an hour and a half later.

When you use external power, turn on the battery first, then the 70D.  It will ask you to confirm USB STORAGE or BUS POWER.  Select the second option.  If that message never comes up, then it didn't detect the battery.

[morst]

I'm sure no one cares at this point but I just recorded my first and last show with the DR-70D.

is there any juice left in the internal batteries? Sounds like the power pack was not turned on, which has happened to me! If the deck was shut off and the battery pack was not turned on when the deck was restarted, that's the simplest time for this error to occur.

Bummer. 

[ashevillain]

I agree with everyone else.  It's most likely user error.  This happened to me once, and I realized that after an earlier sound check, the unit powered itself down after a while since it was not recording (by design).  I quickly turned it back on and pressed record when the concert started, but I had forgotten to power on the external first.  As a result, it ran off the internal AAs and then died an hour and a half later.

When you use external power, turn on the battery first, then the 70D.  It will ask you to confirm USB STORAGE or BUS POWER.  Select the second option.  If that message never comes up, then it didn't detect the battery.

Haven't had time to look into it any further but this might be what happened. I didn't think I had internals in there but maybe I did. Fuck.

This issue aside. I think I don't like taping anymore. I just got back into it and I think my reasons for doing so were misguided. Might see my rig for sale soon (again).

[voltronic]

Time to move this to the next discussion thread.  Part 7 is here.