been a while since i posted, so here are some things i have found:
taped the Comes A Time gig at the greek a couple of weeks back. used 40 NiMH & 8 alkaline batteries in the course of the day and still did not get the whole show on my 671. glad i was running DAT out of the FP33 as well. i have never had this problem before. further investigation reveals that the 2500 and 2400 Lenmar NiMH batteries are fat enough that when the battery sled is dropped in the tray, the contacts are shifted enuogh to make the connection weak. i can pinch the deck in the middle of the battery cover and the deck will shut off. the best run time i had with this deck was using the 2000mah lenmars, they are a nicer fit in the sled/tray. To make the higher capacity batteries, lenmar and the other manufactures add girth and length to the case, note that the positive tab on many high cap NiMH batteries is shorter. SO BEWARE fitting the big capacity batt's into this deck. at least test it out at home bewfore heading to the show. the fat batt's do not let the sled move in the tray so that the springs in the end can keep the sled up against the contacts, plus i think the high cap batt's raise the sled up enough to make the contacts sketchy.
ohh, what i did get (all but the last 45min) came out NICE!
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Doug Oade is only recommending the Cross Technology BC900 battery charger for NiMH recharging. i ordered mine today from thomasdistributing.com for about $50 delivered. the charger will cycle batteries until they reach their max charge and it will display each battery's charge level!!!!!
http://www.thomasdistributing.com/la_crosse_bc-900_battery_charger-display.phpso, seeing as how i had a couple of sets of batteries that had only been cycled 4 or 5 times, i may have also been struck by bad or not-fully-charged batteries. after the new charger arrives i will see.
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after much wrangling with levels on the 671, i finally went with doug's suggestion of "7" on the 671 input and then setting the level on the FP33 to get good levels on the 671. worked like a charm - NO MORE TICKS. HOWEVER the FP33 levels end up so low that the unbalanced signal out of the FP33 as well as the headphone levels are pretty low... i miss having the nice loud headphones... i may try an attenuator cable into the 671 and see what that does. in the end, i think i will have to send the 671 to doug for some custom work to get the 671 to live happily with the output level of the FP33. and YES i know the FP33 can output MIC levels and YES i could just run that into an ACM 671, BUT i really dislike losing the LINE IN that happens when doing the ACM mod.
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MEMORY, MEMORY
i spoke to D&M pro today. they only recommend Lexar, PNY, Viking, Hitachi, & IBM for media. i have been running Delkin 4G cards with poor results (at least one 1sec burst of static in my recording each time i used the card) as well as the basic A10 ScanDisc 4G with great results. i spoke to Delkin today as well as a couple of weeks back and their answer as to why i always get a burst of static on their cards is that their cards are not optimized for continuous write. so i caution all of you to look carefully at spec before purchasing CF cards. my memory retailer buddy was amazed t6hat the cheapie ScanDisc worked until he went to their website where he noticed that the cheapie card is the only card (of all levels they make) ScanDisc indicates will work with digital audio devices. he also commented that Lexar was way out of line pricewise. (remember that ScanDisc invented the CF card...) anyway, i can find PNY 4G cards for $200 and i need to grab a couple of cards fast...
has anybody any experience running PNY CF cards?
can we get some posts of what people are using for memory including size??? and whether they are successfully recording and PLAYING BACK their recordings???
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yes, the deck will run on 10v or greater, i can confirm from inhouse testing. it needs the 15v in order to be able to charge the NiMH. i plan to run 12vSLA to get rid of the NiMH issues this run, then do some heavy research. btw, i am building my SLA battery packs with a 4 digit digital voltage display. will try to post a picture tomorrow or the next day. the display only pulls 1ma, so it can actually be on all the time or can be made to turn on when you plug in the 4pin XLR.
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the meters are not as nice as my ole HHB PDR1k. but that does not really bother me, what really bugs me is that the preamp issue clouds the usefulness of the meters. you can overload the input, ruin your recording, and still have your recording showing that it never peaked higher than -6dB. i would also LOVE to have some sort of peak light for each channel. still i have the FP33 up front, so i have to use that now.
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i have 6 Govt Mule shows coming my way starting friday nite at the fillmore. i gotta solve this memory issue pretty d*mn cop-chop.
neil in san marcos
