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Gear / Technical Help => Remote Power => Topic started by: daverinuk on January 20, 2005, 11:28:20 PM
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So I go to tape Galactic with my new Valence Ncharge...
All charged up, I plug it in and I'm good to go. About 15 minutes into the opener I open the lappie to take a look at the levels and the Valence is dead and my comp is at about 88% battery power. It couldn't have lasted a few minutes.
I powered down and was able to record all of Galactic on the internal.
Does this happen often? Is the Valence just a total dud? If I return it, what are the chances of getting another dud?
I tried recharging it and doing so actually almost shorted out my laptop charger. Leaving it plugged in drained my internal battery a bit.
I'm taping two shows this weekend and need to pick up new batteries...am I wasting my money/time?
David
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i have 3 valences and have never had this problem.
although one of mine is getting older and won't hold a charge as long as it used to.
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i have a similar problem. I called them, they replaced it. Still having similar trouble. I'm looking into some other battery system.
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Well, I exchanged the battery at Best Buy.
This time I used it to tape and it lasted about 2 hours, but that's with checking the display more often then probably necessary and even burning a disc off the battery.
So I guess it was just a bad battery the first time.
Thanks for the help...
David
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Curious if the guys having trouble are having issues with the new models or the older models. I have 2 of the older N-Charge and have never had that happen to me. I have noticed 1 thing with 1 of my batteries. The power draw seemed to be going in waves becasue my lappy would say AC power then battey then AC over and over. This happened only 1 time and the battery hadnt been charged for a while. That battery is now my backup but i havent seen it happen since. It was weird.
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I had an ElectroVaya PowerPad die after 2 years of constant use. The connector on my Valence didn't quite fit correctly and it broke the power plug on my laptop (yes, my laptop was listed as compatible). That bulky right-angle connector put too much lateral force on it and broke off the plastic tip of the male coax. After a $200 repair, I don't use it in the field anymore.
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Ok...this is weird. The second battery that lasted fine for the first show just crapped out too!
It was (supposedly) fully charged, it'd been in my backpack about a month...I plugged it in to record Steve Kimock and it was totally dead. Luckily I found a plug and got the show.
I'm getting them from Best Buy. Is it better to order from Valence direct? Anyone else have problems with Valence and Powerbooks? I really don't want to keep returning them! I need an external battery I can rely on!!
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the valences will lose charge over time, especially if you have the plug adapter connected to it... I know my VNC-65 (I think thats what it is) will go from a full charge to no charge in a month or so just sitting.
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What model of valance are u using ? Mine will loose charge slowly over time. I always charge them full the day of a show. If I had mine set aside for a month there would be little or no charge (I leave the power adapters plugged in)
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I've got the newer one. The one you can pick up at Best Buy right now, whatever model that is.
Good to know that they just lose charge and it's not another dead battery. Come to think...that may have been part of the problem the fiirst time. I guess I just assumed if it wasn't being USED, it would hold a charge. Still makes me a bit nervous, but I'll give it another shot and always bring my AC adapter to shows.:)
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Mine will loose charge slowly over time. I always charge them full the day of a show. If I had mine set aside for a month there would be little or no charge (I leave the power adapters plugged in)
me too
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Ok, bumping this back because I want to make sure I'm not going to screw up my computer power adapter...
I get that they'll lose charge fairly quickly, I can live with that now that I know, but last night I was charging up the Valence and it caused my Apple power adapter (the white box part that plugs into the wall or the extension cord) to heat up so much you couldn't hold on to it and this made it stop working momentarily. I unplugged it, cooled it down and it worked again after that. I finished charging the valence with the power adapter between two ice packs.
Seriously...is this what it's going to be? Is it something specific to the mac that's doing this? Is there nothing that might work better for me?
Thanks for the help so far...just don't like having to use ice packs when I charge a battery. :-\
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I"ve never had that problem either. You say that after you unplugged it and pllugged it back in, it still heated up?
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Yes. It got so hot it quit working all together. I HAD to unplug it and plug it back in to "reset" it so that it would even work to power my computer. I can't say for certain if it heated as much when I continued charging because it was between the ice packs. The ice did melt a bit though.:( I'm just thinking that much heat has to be bad...
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i agree...it certainly can't be good to get that hot.
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I just recently got a used Valence, and my laptop wallwart gets REAL hot when charging too. I actually blew another charger I had when I first tryed to charge the batt. I didn't realize that the Valence wants to pull like 3amps from the charger, the one I was using was rated 500ma :-[ oops. Thats prolly why the laptop wallwart gets so hot. If your's is reated at less than 3amps, it may be working real hard. Mine is rated at 2.7, so it's close enough (I hope). I def won't charge mine when I'm not home...
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wow. i never had that problem (heat) w/ mine. are you sure you guys have the right tips?
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wow. i never had that problem (heat) w/ mine. are you sure you guys have the right tips?
Yeah, there's only one set of tips for Apples. My wallwart (?):) says AC input 1.2A. Maybe that's why. Can you get an apple charger rated higher?