Topic: Marantz PMD 660

[aberg]

about to purchase some batteries for my 660...

I was thinking about picking up Energizers and just wanted to ask if anyone  had any trouble with this brand?  I know the 660 can be a bit fickle about the battery contacts...

The new 660's don't have any battery contact issue problems. Mine didn't have any problem at all.

I used energizer e2 lithium and Powerex 2500mah NiMH rechargeables in it with good success.

[bobbygeeWOW]

I had some battery issues until I carved the plastic back where it had been preventing the positive battery end from touching the metal contact on the 660. Since then energizers and powerex's have both been fine.

[Corbin]

Thanks guys

I might get a 4 energizer e2 lithiums as a backup set of batteries...How long do they last in a 660?

[tfs8271]

OK, so is anyone having issues with batteries that are not freshly recharged? The third time I've used batteries that have been charged to ~2700mAh each about two to four weeks before using and the 660 lost power before the 3.5 hour mark.

I'm sure it is not the 660 but the power supply.

[Nick's Picks]

a fresh set of lithium e2s will run a 660 for a freakin' long time.  longer than you'll need outside of a festival.

[ingsy]

OK, so is anyone having issues with batteries that are not freshly recharged? The third time I've used batteries that have been charged to ~2700mAh each about two to four weeks before using and the 660 lost power before the 3.5 hour mark.

I'm sure it is not the 660 but the power supply.

I have had this problem as well, but well before 3.5 hour mark.  The shitty part too was that when it died, I lost the recording.  This is the only time I had lost power, and it could have been a one time event in terms of losing the recording.  But I always re-charge the night before the show now.

a fresh set of lithium e2s will run a 660 for a freakin' long time.  longer than you'll need outside of a festival.

Agreed....I started out running these before I got my rechargables, and I remember adding up the sets and I think it came out to around 8-10 hours but I am not sure.  Since having the power issue above, I like to rely on the e2's for shows that I can't live without.

[dcaley]

.... Lexar + WCM660 =

what is the speed of the card? i noticed some noise when i used an 80X 1gb lexar a few weeks ago.

[bobbygeeWOW]

OK, so is anyone having issues with batteries that are not freshly recharged? The third time I've used batteries that have been charged to ~2700mAh each about two to four weeks before using and the 660 lost power before the 3.5 hour mark.

I'm sure it is not the 660 but the power supply.

That sounds like what was happening with me - eventually realized I was only running on two batteries.
When I carved the plastic back on the 660 to allow the positive battery end to actually touch the 660's contact, been fine since.

[ingsy]

OK, so is anyone having issues with batteries that are not freshly recharged? The third time I've used batteries that have been charged to ~2700mAh each about two to four weeks before using and the 660 lost power before the 3.5 hour mark.

I'm sure it is not the 660 but the power supply.

That sounds like what was happening with me - eventually realized I was only running on two batteries.
When I carved the plastic back on the 660 to allow the positive battery end to actually touch the 660's contact, been fine since.

Do you have pics of this?

[RobertNC]

.... Lexar + WCM660 =

what is the speed of the card? i noticed some noise when i used an 80X 1gb lexar a few weeks ago.

I am running Lexar 2GB 80X Platinum II cards and have not had any noise problems so far.

[tfs8271]

OK, so is anyone having issues with batteries that are not freshly recharged? The third time I've used batteries that have been charged to ~2700mAh each about two to four weeks before using and the 660 lost power before the 3.5 hour mark.

I'm sure it is not the 660 but the power supply.

That sounds like what was happening with me - eventually realized I was only running on two batteries.
When I carved the plastic back on the 660 to allow the positive battery end to actually touch the 660's contact, been fine since.

Do you have pics of this?

I've shimmed but I haven't carved yet. Looks like might the next thing I do. I have put the set of batteries on the charger but I will look to discharge them first and then charge to see if two of them are full and the other pair is dead.

There are picture somewhere on this, so I will try to find the link.

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=55029.msg735407#msg735407

[bobbygeeWOW]

That sounds like what was happening with me - eventually realized I was only running on two batteries.
When I carved the plastic back on the 660 to allow the positive battery end to actually touch the 660's contact, been fine since.

Do you have pics of this?

I don't have a pic, but here's kind of what I mean:

       660 body
------- ++ -------------------------------
      |         |


         ------
        |      |
    --------------
   |                |
   |                |

Battery  compartment


The positive end of the battery (with the little nub sticking out) has to go between those two little thingies sticking out into the 660's battery compartment. I found that those little plastic thingies were barely preventing the battery's little nub from touching the 660's metal positive battery contact (shown with ++ ). In my case it made the 660 run on only two batteries - which meant I barely got the whole show on a full charge.... Since I whittled the plastic back a bit everything's been fine

Clear as mud? 

[flintstone]

Aaaaahhhh....ASCII CAD....voted best drawing tool of 1994!

Flintstone

[ingsy]

^^ Nice.  +T for the help.  I am fairly sure I need to do that paper shim trick, a few times I put batts in and only got half meters, I thought it was the battery charging issue but it is most likely this.  ts.com is the best.

[tfs8271]

Disregard my above posts about my batteries going dead...I'm sure I'm just an idiot.


Used a set of charged batteries at Gregg Allman (90 min show). Then the next night I was thinking of going to Primus (never did) so I pulled those and saved them for back up while putting a fresh set in. Forgot all that last night and pulled the fresh batteries out (thinking they had been used for Gregg Allman) and replaced them with the actual batteries from the Gregg Allman show.