Topic: Marantz PMD 671 in the field Part 3...

[spreadheadtom]

anyone have problems when an external battery starts to drain?  Recording this weekend was awesome till I swapped batteries (wal-mart 9V)  Listening to the last 4 acts that played, I started losing levels about 1/3 of the way of the second act with the fresh battery.  Levels keep dropping off all through the last act. 

does this sound like a battery issue to you guys?

  Tommy

[drewloo]

Sounds like your phantom-power supply was dropping...um, maybe.... just a guess.  Maybe your battery wasn't as fresh as you thought or it's going bad.

[Chuck]

anyone have problems when an external battery starts to drain?  Recording this weekend was awesome till I swapped batteries (wal-mart 9V)  Listening to the last 4 acts that played, I started losing levels about 1/3 of the way of the second act with the fresh battery.  Levels keep dropping off all through the last act. 

does this sound like a battery issue to you guys?

  Tommy

Hmmm... My experience is that the when the batteries die, the recorder shuts off. I haven't experienced the record level dropping.

Is your Walmart 9v really 9v DC? or is it the 7.2v version? We have heard that the 9v works, not sure about the 7.2v...
...anybody?

[spreadheadtom]

anyone have problems when an external battery starts to drain?  Recording this weekend was awesome till I swapped batteries (wal-mart 9V)  Listening to the last 4 acts that played, I started losing levels about 1/3 of the way of the second act with the fresh battery.  Levels keep dropping off all through the last act. 

does this sound like a battery issue to you guys?

  Tommy

Hmmm... My experience is that the when the batteries die, the recorder shuts off. I haven't experienced the record level dropping.

Is your Walmart 9v really 9v DC? or is it the 7.2v version? We have heard that the 9v works, not sure about the 7.2v...
...anybody?

definately 9V...same as the first battery that lasted close to 6 hours.  After I changed the first act is fine and starts dropping after that.  I'm gonna give the battery a fresh charge and give it a run test soon.

[spreadheadtom]

anyone have problems when an external battery starts to drain?  Recording this weekend was awesome till I swapped batteries (wal-mart 9V)  Listening to the last 4 acts that played, I started losing levels about 1/3 of the way of the second act with the fresh battery.  Levels keep dropping off all through the last act. 

does this sound like a battery issue to you guys?

Tommy

either a battery or mic issue imo.  are the drops in dB drastic ones or more of a gradual decrease? 

more of a decrease. by the end of the last act, I was down to practically no levels. (which makes me think that it was the batterty.)  I noticed that the right channel had dropped some, so I thought maybe the mic had been turned a little or something.  Stereo matched mics, so I don't really have to adjust anything seperatly.  didn't think much else about it, but last night after transferring is when I noticed exactly how bad it was.  If I wasn't computer stupid I would screenshot some of the levels for you.

[spreadheadtom]

it started in one channel and when it was all said and done it was both channels.

when I get home tonight I'll try and figure out how to post some screenshots. 


thanks for the input guys!!

T's all around!

[Chuck]

FWIW, If you are on a PC and what to do a screen capture.... 

Get the image on screen that you want to capture, hit the "screen print" button on the upper row of keys. Then open MS Word to a blank new document. With the cursor on the page, press "CTRL" and the letter "V" at the same time to paste the image into the MS Word document. Save that document.

[spreadheadtom]

FWIW, If you are on a PC and what to do a screen capture.... 

Get the image on screen that you want to capture, hit the "screen print" button on the upper row of keys. Then open MS Word to a blank new document. With the cursor on the page, press "CTRL" and the letter "V" at the same time to paste the image into the MS Word document. Save that document.

I'll try when I get home.  thanks!!

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

anyone have problems when an external battery starts to drain?  Recording this weekend was awesome till I swapped batteries (wal-mart 9V)  Listening to the last 4 acts that played, I started losing levels about 1/3 of the way of the second act with the fresh battery.  Levels keep dropping off all through the last act. 

does this sound like a battery issue to you guys?

  Tommy

Hmmm... My experience is that the when the batteries die, the recorder shuts off. I haven't experienced the record level dropping.

Is your Walmart 9v really 9v DC? or is it the 7.2v version? We have heard that the 9v works, not sure about the 7.2v...
...anybody?

Those were my thoughts as well. 

I DO have mine set to Auto Power off.  Is yours set to auto power-off Chuck?

Tom, hold down the Menu/Store button until you see Preset flashing then use the F.FWD/+ button (press 4 times) and it should display A.PowOff, does it say Yes or No below it?

In auto shut-down it'll save the file before it runs out of juice, I haven't tried running it down without the auto power-off so I have no idea what it'lll do.

[spreadheadtom]

what has me confused is that the battery level indicator,after the show, still had 1 green light on it.

I'll try and get something up tonite and let you guys look at it.

[Chuck]

anyone have problems when an external battery starts to drain?  Recording this weekend was awesome till I swapped batteries (wal-mart 9V)  Listening to the last 4 acts that played, I started losing levels about 1/3 of the way of the second act with the fresh battery.  Levels keep dropping off all through the last act. 

does this sound like a battery issue to you guys?

  Tommy

Hmmm... My experience is that the when the batteries die, the recorder shuts off. I haven't experienced the record level dropping.

Is your Walmart 9v really 9v DC? or is it the 7.2v version? We have heard that the 9v works, not sure about the 7.2v...
...anybody?

Those were my thoughts as well. 

I DO have mine set to Auto Power off.  Is yours set to auto power-off Chuck?

Tom, hold down the Menu/Store button until you see Preset flashing then use the F.FWD/+ button (press 4 times) and it should display A.PowOff, does it say Yes or No below it?

In auto shut-down it'll save the file before it runs out of juice, I haven't tried running it down without the auto power-off so I have no idea what it'lll do.

I just checked. Mine says "No"
What's the skinny on that again?
I thought it determined whether the deck shuts down after a cetrtain amount of time.  To that I just say no! I guess I'll have to get the manual out again.

[spreadheadtom]

lets try this..




edit...didn't work.........I'm an idiot

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

anyone have problems when an external battery starts to drain?  Recording this weekend was awesome till I swapped batteries (wal-mart 9V)  Listening to the last 4 acts that played, I started losing levels about 1/3 of the way of the second act with the fresh battery.  Levels keep dropping off all through the last act. 

does this sound like a battery issue to you guys?

  Tommy

Hmmm... My experience is that the when the batteries die, the recorder shuts off. I haven't experienced the record level dropping.

Is your Walmart 9v really 9v DC? or is it the 7.2v version? We have heard that the 9v works, not sure about the 7.2v...
...anybody?

Those were my thoughts as well. 

I DO have mine set to Auto Power off.  Is yours set to auto power-off Chuck?

Tom, hold down the Menu/Store button until you see Preset flashing then use the F.FWD/+ button (press 4 times) and it should display A.PowOff, does it say Yes or No below it?

In auto shut-down it'll save the file before it runs out of juice, I haven't tried running it down without the auto power-off so I have no idea what it'lll do.

I just checked. Mine says "No"
What's the skinny on that again?
I thought it determined whether the deck shuts down after a cetrtain amount of time.  To that I just say no! I guess I'll have to get the manual out again.

Nevermind Chuck, "If the 671 is not operated for 30 minutes during stop or play pause, power is automatically shut off to conserve battery life when A.PowOff is set to Yes"

I was thinking it was a safe shut-down in the event of low power.  I still think the unit saves before shut-down, but I'm not positive on that.  I've used it to transfer some dats and had it shut down because I forgot to plug it in (was just running off internals) and the file was there.

I say rig it up at home with weak batteries and see what the symptoms are in reguards to phantom power, see if it drops off.  It might vary from internal/external batteries.  The only external bats I have are 12v SLA's, so my test wouldn't tell you much, you'd probably want to run a 9v battery for a better test since a weak 12v is still above 9v.  I shouldn't have sold all my wally world 9v's, oh well.

[sygdwm]

tommy- is it possible that heat was an issue? just curious, as it had to have been over 100*.

[spreadheadtom]

tommy- is it possible that heat was an issue? just curious, as it had to have been over 100*.

it was pretty warm in the bag.  but,when all this was going down, it was dark and not as hot.

when I get some time, I'm gonna run test both batteries again and see what happens.  Hopefully  can get it done before panic.