Taperssection.com

Gear / Technical Help => Remote Power => Topic started by: wheresjerry on June 05, 2010, 08:32:54 AM

Title: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: wheresjerry on June 05, 2010, 08:32:54 AM
 :o
I picked up one of these externals to run my marantz 671 a few weeks ago after having killed a few externals in the field.

http://www.batterygeek.net/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=9%2D12%2D130%5FBATTERYGEEK  (http://www.batterygeek.net/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=9%2D12%2D130%5FBATTERYGEEK)

Tho, it seems expensive, I was able to fully charge it up, and run my deck with phantom power on, and record household noise for a total fill of 1 8 gig card, recording at 16:44, and 36 minutes short of the second one! It totals around 26+ hours of record time.  Certainly it is on the expensive side, but to record regular concerts, and the yearly festival or two, you'd certainly never have to worry about remote power, well, almost depending on how much you record.  The stress of running short on power is eliminated, carrying around dvd batteries, AA's, chargers, how and where can I charge, all this gone!   ;D
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: skotdee on June 05, 2010, 04:06:37 PM
Im with ya on this one. I use their 10-14-100 model, originally bought when I had a 671 but using now on an R-44, and you can't kill this thing! For a typical 3-4 hour concert, it doesn't even lose one light on the power meter. I ran it at Bonnaroo last year and Wanee this year for 8 Hours plus each day and only lost one light. I've often wondered just how long it would go if given the chance...
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: hardrain62 on August 27, 2010, 10:00:09 PM
Hot damn, this seems like EXACTLY what I need for my DR-100. My DR-100 has a 5V charger, though. Would this thing fry my machine?
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: NOLAfishwater on August 28, 2010, 10:37:18 AM
I have the 10-14-100 to run a pair of Schoeps m222/nt222 tube microphones and it will only lose one light after 4hours of being on. Usually fire them up 20 minutes before the show and let them run through the set break. Great battery company that stands behind their products.
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: kirk97132 on August 28, 2010, 11:04:29 AM
That link shows a $250 battery?  Wow, that's kinda steep.  I can relate to an extended run time but not at that kind of price. 
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: wheresjerry on August 28, 2010, 08:37:03 PM
That link shows a $250 battery?  Wow, that's kinda steep.  I can relate to an extended run time but not at that kind of price.
Yes it steep, but to be able to record two sets of mule, a jackie green set and six hours the next day at a party and only used one bat (At 80% remaining) makes perfect justification of this battery. Yup, it is expensive but losing a recording because your battery trapped out os just not worth it to me. Never worry about it during a show, priceless.
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: SmokinJoe on August 28, 2010, 11:29:55 PM
Some of us spend  time at festivals saying 'hmmm this battery has two  lights  left,  that should get me through  the next two sets."  Then you lose a set because you guessed wrong.   I lug 9 SLAs and 6 DVD batteries to a  festival and stress over when to change them.   Karl brings one LIon  and he's good for 3 days.   How much is  it worth to you to NEVER  have to stress about battery power again (at least  for a few years)?   When I think of it that way, I don't question his rationale.

When a guy lists  his "vaporizer" ahead  of his mics on his signature...  you can tell a man is heavy into reducing taper related stress.   ;D
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: wheresjerry on August 29, 2010, 06:31:31 AM
Joe, is absolutely right on my way of looking at it, things do seem to happen when you vape before tape......typically a mistake or two like forgetting to change a battery or push record-pause when you thought you pushed record. I sometimes call those f-ups part-timers disease, but anything to avoid those mistakes does make a vapor-taper like me a happy boy, I mean cough-cough old fart.
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: run_run_run on August 30, 2010, 04:07:48 PM
great thread Karl is the man
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: kirk97132 on August 31, 2010, 10:40:19 AM
Some of us spend  time at festivals saying 'hmmm this battery has two  lights  left,  that should get me through  the next two sets."  Then you lose a set because you guessed wrong.   I lug 9 SLAs and 6 DVD batteries to a  festival and stress over when to change them.   Karl brings one LIon  and he's good for 3 days.   How much is  it worth to you to NEVER  have to stress about battery power again (at least  for a few years)?   When I think of it that way, I don't question his rationale.

When a guy lists  his "vaporizer" ahead  of his mics on his signature...  you can tell a man is heavy into reducing taper related stress.   ;D
9 SLA's well I can see the value then not to mention you need a pack mule just to haul all those batteries.  I'd say recharge them but plugging in 15 chargers would be an issue all it's own. 
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: dactylus on September 04, 2010, 11:01:58 AM
Some of us spend  time at festivals saying 'hmmm this battery has two  lights  left,  that should get me through  the next two sets."  Then you lose a set because you guessed wrong.  I lug 9 SLAs  and 6 DVD batteries to a  festival and stress over when to change them.   Karl brings one LIon  and he's good for 3 days.   How much is  it worth to you to NEVER  have to stress about battery power again (at least  for a few years)?   When I think of it that way, I don't question his rationale.

When a guy lists  his "vaporizer" ahead  of his mics on his signature...  you can tell a man is heavy into reducing taper related stress.   ;D

^
9 SLA's - WOW.  And I thought that I carried a load.  I utilize a small two wheeler when warranted.   ;D  Makes it much, much easier on the bad back.



Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: page on May 13, 2011, 10:25:02 AM
Some of us spend  time at festivals saying 'hmmm this battery has two  lights  left,  that should get me through  the next two sets."  Then you lose a set because you guessed wrong.

I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight this. I had a battery die last night after registering 3/4 to 2/3rd full an hour prior. I've had my tekkeon battery do the exact same thing, register as full or nearly full for 5.5 hours and then in 90 minutes lose what appears to be 3/4th of a charge and die. At first I thought it was just the tekkeons that had bad meters, but now I'm starting to think it's all regulated voltage batteries.  >:(  :'(
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: datbrad on May 13, 2011, 06:14:26 PM
Some of us spend  time at festivals saying 'hmmm this battery has two  lights  left,  that should get me through  the next two sets."  Then you lose a set because you guessed wrong.

I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight this. I had a battery die last night after registering 3/4 to 2/3rd full an hour prior. I've had my tekkeon battery do the exact same thing, register as full or nearly full for 5.5 hours and then in 90 minutes lose what appears to be 3/4th of a charge and die. At first I thought it was just the tekkeons that had bad meters, but now I'm starting to think it's all regulated voltage batteries.  >:(  :'(

Saw you didn't have levels during the second band. So that was the battery for your sax? Was it freshly charged before the show?
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: page on May 13, 2011, 09:05:33 PM
Some of us spend  time at festivals saying 'hmmm this battery has two  lights  left,  that should get me through  the next two sets."  Then you lose a set because you guessed wrong.

I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight this. I had a battery die last night after registering 3/4 to 2/3rd full an hour prior. I've had my tekkeon battery do the exact same thing, register as full or nearly full for 5.5 hours and then in 90 minutes lose what appears to be 3/4th of a charge and die. At first I thought it was just the tekkeons that had bad meters, but now I'm starting to think it's all regulated voltage batteries.  >:(  :'(

Saw you didn't have levels during the second band. So that was the battery for your sax? Was it freshly charged before the show?

Na, it should have been just under half charged (mathematically based on use and draw) but registered near full on the meter. It's dead as a doornail now though, won't even charge. Had 2 charges on it and maybe 80 hours of use total. It's outside the warranty period so that's toast... I'm not sure if it's a bad meter or if it's a bum unit. Live and learn, I'll patch mine with Drew's later.

just sucks that you didn't have a meter and had to calculate stuff. Now you have a meter and it's wrong so in some ways it's a false sense of security and you're still back to doing the math. Once I figured out the meter on my tekkeon wasn't accurate, I was ok. It was just getting caught out like that and learning.  :-\
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: drewloo on May 13, 2011, 10:04:20 PM
I read this on the Battery University site:

Battery Fuel Gauge

One of the main tasks of the smart battery is to establish communication between the battery and user. A fuel gauge that indicates state-of-charge is part of this effort. When pressing the TEST button on a fully charged SMBus battery, all signal lights illuminate. On a partially discharged battery, half the lights illuminate, and on an empty battery all lights remain dark or a red light appears.

While the SoC (state of charge) information displayed on a battery or computer screen is helpful to the user, it does not assure sufficient runtime, because the fuel gauge resets to 100 percent on a full recharge regardless of how much capacity the battery can store. A serious miscount occurs if an aged battery shows 100 percent SoC while the battery’s ability to hold charge has dropped to 50 percent or less. We ask, “100 percent of what?” If, for example, 100 percent of a good battery results in a four-hour runtime, the same indication with a battery holding half the capacity would run for only two hours. The user should know that the fuel gauge only shows SoC and capacity is missing.


So a battery might show that all bars or lights are lit after a charge but it doesn't have any relevance to how much capacity the battery has left.  I've never really trusted those battery meters on the wally world batteries after getting burned by a full set of lights on the meter several times. 
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: Myco on May 14, 2011, 07:50:37 AM
I've had two of these for years and I swear by them. Jerry is right, you can't kill them. They are the ultimate festi battery and blow the Tekkeon's out of the water, and I've got two of those too.
Title: Re: battery geeks external dvd battery
Post by: odmen01 on May 17, 2011, 06:10:23 PM
Totally agree with myco...................cheers >:D >:D