Topic: My First Epic Fail

[suites]

Well last night I was taping the Green Day show down here in Miami and ran out of battery power at 45 minutes in.

Here is the story:

I run this rig:   Church Audio Cards > CA-9100 > Edirol R-09HR (16/44.1), Kingston 16g

I put in new batteries (2 x AA (Duracell copper tops) in the R-09 and 1 9v (Duracell) in the CA-9100 just before the gig.  The AA were part of a 8 pack and they were the last 2....bought from walgreens within the past 2 months.

I taped Kaiser Chiefs for 35 minutes, turned off both units, starting running for Green Day and around 20 minutes in it said low battery.  Then cut out at 45 minutes.


Does anyone have ideas on why this happened.

I think what I learned is that I need to get a one of those battery checkers and check them each time.

I just hope it was bad batteries, I mean I should get at least 4 hours or more under regular conditions.

I have used this rig 15 times without this problem.

Any thoughts?

[Belexes]

I have the rig you have and I get 4+ hours from fresh AA's. I use Rayovacs.  Looks like you may have had some bad batteries. 

[Brian E.]

my first epic fail was losing a whole Chicago Theatre Ben Folds show somehow.  It just deleted on my JB3.  No idea.

I was so pissed.

[Brian Skalinder]

Yeah, probably dead batteries.  New != good.  I've had my share of new, but bad, batteries over the years.

FWIW, I used rechargeable AAs for a while, and had generally good experiences with them.  It's important to have a quality charger, I found.  I used one of the Maha models from ThomasDistributing, but I'm sure it's discontinued / superseded by now.  Not sure which is the best these days.  Might be worth a try.

[bgreen]

i get about 5 hours running that same rig on regular alkalines

8+ if I get the lithiums  

You must have gotten a bad batch of batteries unless of course you kept the backlight lit. That will run them down really quick.

[elwoodblues]

Im gonna say bad batts as well, i've run my r-09 on niMH rechargeables for upwards of 9 hours before in testing and almost 6 on regular alkalines. I've run my church pre for over 9 hours in testing on 1 9volt.

[greenone]

Yeah, probably dead batteries.  New != good.  I've had my share of new, but bad, batteries over the years.

FWIW, I used rechargeable AAs for a while, and had generally good experiences with them.  It's important to have a quality charger, I found.  I used one of the Maha models from ThomasDistributing, but I'm sure it's discontinued / superseded by now.  Not sure which is the best these days.  Might be worth a try.

And at least with rechargeables you know they're fully charged...alkalines out of the box, sometimes it's a crapshoot.

[Brian E.]

what do you guys recommend for a AA rechargeable setup?  Was going to head over to Walgreens.

[Brian Skalinder]

I'd stay away from Walgreens, personally.  The batts might be okay, but I doubt the chargers they carry are up to snuff.  Poke around Thomas Distributing.  I've had two Maha chargers that were both excellent.  Looks like Lenmar now has a much bigger line than they used to, but I'm not directly familiar with them.  Generally speaking, higher mAH rating = longer battery life, so you may want to go with batts rated at >= 2500 mAH.

[Brian E.]

thanks Brian

[notlance]

At the risk of turning this into a remote power thread, this is also a very fine charger:
http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-BC-9009-AlphaPower-Battery/dp/B00077AA5Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1249491697&sr=8-1

As for batteries, I'd look into the low self-discharge NiMH types such as these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LNI5VC/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

[Brian Skalinder]

Ahhh...thanks for the link, notlance.  I've always heard great reviews about the Eneloops, now I know a bit more about why. 

[Brian E.]

thanks!

[DaveG73]

Regarding the 9v I have had more than one really new, first use battery die on me (Energiser/Duracell). It was enough to make me invest in a tester and always have a spare in the bag.

Been using rechargables in the recorder for a while with no issues.

As always YMMV and I am in the UK for whatever milage that may entail.

Dave.

[blastroknow]

Bummer - bad batteries can happen.  Checking voltage with a meter is certainly a good idea and will help get the confidence back so you aren't fighting the urge to look at your recorder every 5 minutes during a show.