Topic: TASCAM DR-2d - announced at NAMM

[ohm-ish]

Set to alkaline.

Try Ni-MH then? I'm not sure what it does excactly (just guessing voltage), but maybe one of them is better than the other for that type of batteries

[Gutbucket]

Alkaline would be the closer setting voltage wise as they are 1.5V nominal, vs 1.2 for NiMH.  It probably just calibrates the meter, but in case it also takes into account the discharge curve of the cell type and adjusts the deck's shutdown point (doubt it) I'll try the other setting when i get a chance.

[HarpDoc]

Gutbucket, thanks for being our guinea pig with the zinc batteries. That's very disappointing that you didn't get more time.

[andol123]

I managed to get 6 ½ hours (24bit/48kHz, no dual mode) out of a pair of Duracel Rechargable 2650mAh
(AA/HR6/DC1500 NiMH/1.2V) batteries. This was when setting the battery type to ALKAL in the setup menu.
When I had the battery type set to NiMH they've barely lasted two hours on avarage lately. Though a few months ago
I used the same batteries with battery type set to NiMH and recorded about 4h in 24bit/96kHz using dual-mode.
I'll have to do more testing.

[andol123]

2nd test: Battery type set to ALKAL using a pair of Vanson 2500mAh (N2500AA / 1.2V / R6 / SIZE AA Ni-HM).
Total recording time before the low battery warning showed up: 6h54m + an unknown amount of time due to I
forgot to remove the files from the previous test so I ran out of space without noticing.

[Will_S]

Just to clarify...it's the same exact NiMH batteries that run the deck longer at the alkaline setting?  Interesting.  But I wonder if in the long term the alkaline setting lets the batteries discharge too far.  I know alkalines start out at a higher voltage, but are they considered "dead" at a lower voltage than you'd want to discharge a NiMH to?

[andol123]

Yes. Same batteries.

Just recorded a show. Unfortunately the Vanson batteries (mentioned above) lasted 19minutes.
Didn't notice until 17 minutes before the end of the first set which lasted about 1h30m. Changed batteries (in the dark!)
to the Duracels mentioned above and caught the last 17mins or so of set1. At that point the battery indicator showed
2/3 remaining. This is not going to last the remainder of the show I thought, but they did! At the end of the show
battery indicator was still at 2/3.
1st set (first 19minutes):                          96/24, dual, gain: low, battery type:ALKAL, batteries: Vanson NiMH
1st set (last 17minutes):                          96/24, dual, gain: low, battery type:ALKAL, batteries: Duracel NiMH
2nd set + all encores (about 1h45m):      48/24, dual, gain: low, battery type:ALKAL, batteries: Duracel NiMH

I also have to add that the Duracel batteries are about 1 and a half years old. They used to be in my Nintendo Wii
controller. I've recharged them quite a few times. The Vanson batteries a quite new.

[Gutbucket]

I found a firmware update reported on Tascam's UK Facebook page.  Looking farther I see updated firmware available for download on Tascam's European site, but no mention on their primary US site.  What gives?

European division download page (tascam.de)-
http://www.tascam.de/en/downloads/current/DR-2d

US info page with download links for manual and tested card list, but no firmware updates (tascam.com)-
http://www.tascam.com/products/dr-2d;9,12,3866,19.html

New firmware is V1.01
Info screen on my recorder reports V1.00 0020

Changes are improved battery life (and mp3 recording and playback improvements). I'm tempted to install it, but wary since I don't have a copy of the old firmware to reinstall if something goes awry.  Any one install this yet? Any reason the Euro model would be different? Any other insights?



BTW, the Powergenix NiZn batteries seem to be lasting much longer than they did initially, but I haven't run another test to confirm just how much longer.

[Will_S]

Thanks for the heads up.  I noticed the European site has firmware updates for other models that also haven't made it to the US site yet (e.g. DR-08).  I'm going to try it tonight, I'll let you know if I end up with a brick.  I'm willing to take the risk because aside from battery life this thing is the bee's knees, but right now I just can't trust it on anything but alkalines (which hit 1 bar on the meter disappointingly soon too, although I think they'll last for a while at that state).

[Will_S]

Brave or stupid...we'll soon see.

Installed the firmware update.  Had a fresh set of alkalines in there.  Went fine.  Rebooted.  Got a battery empty warning (yes, it was set to alkaline).  WTF?  Swapped in some NiMHs.  Showed as full.  Swapped back the alkalines.  Showed as full.   

Am now running a battery life test.  Switched back to NiMH setting and put in some 2000 mAh pre-charged NiMHs that were last charged a month or so ago.  Running dual mode, line in plus MKE40s mic in running off DR-07 power.  Will update when I run out of juice.  Hopefully not for four hours or so!

[bgalizio]

Thanks for taking the plunge and trying. My new rechargeables get decent run time, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before this device doesn't like them any more. I ended up purchasing an external battery from another ts.com member, which ran the unit until my 16GB card was full... twice. Shouldn't be any problems with using that!

One annoyance with using an external battery is that the backlight is always on. Not sure if that's something we can change in the menu or not. It reads the external as if you're running off of AC power.

[Will_S]

Am now running a battery life test.  Switched back to NiMH setting and put in some 2000 mAh pre-charged NiMHs that were last charged a month or so ago.  Running dual mode, line in plus MKE40s mic in running off DR-07 power.  Will update when I run out of juice.  Hopefully not for four hours or so!

4 hrs 24 min.  Not bad, but not any real improvement over what I got with similar batteries in good shape under the previous firmware.  Honestly I'm not totally sure if these particular batteries ever gave me less than that.  I'll play with some others.  As long as I can count on 4 hours, that's good enough for me.

[Gutbucket]

bgaolizio, what external battery are you using?  I may look into one of those.
Will_S, does everything seem to be funtioning the same after the update ?

I have not yet run the firmware update.  Waiting to run a new battery time check with the NiZn batts 1st so I can do it again afterwards and compare. 

What firmware are most of you running on this thing? You can check in the Menu under Information, version is indicated at the bottom of the 3rd page.

[Will_S]

Will_S, does everything seem to be funtioning the same after the update ?

Hard to say.  I wasn't watching closely on my battery tests, but was a little surprised that the machine had completely shut off when I checked on it vs. before it seemed to give a low battery warning but stay on (not recording) for a while.  Maybe I was just too slow to check.  It did seem to save everything ok.

Ran a test with another set of batteries overnight.  These might have been the ones that were giving me ~2 hours before.  2 hrs 52 min.  Hmmm.

Menus etc. aren't obviously different, but I haven't tested extensively.

[bgalizio]

One of the batteries sold here:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=136752.msg1779112#msg1779112