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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Urgent help! On location Epic stuck

E

Ethan Knight

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I'm currently shooting a documentary in Israel, were on our 2nd day and my brand new EPIC (10 hours on the clock) is stuck in firmware upgrade mode.

Running latest firmware :4.0.8 now before you jump up and down and say why are you using it on a commercial shoot, I wanted to use the +1 monitor. The camera was working fine yesterday and we changed nothing.

We're suspecting it might be the side handle as its not turning on. Strangely it's powering the camera.

We tried: taking the side handle off and on, boot with or without RED mag, changed the LCD wire. Also did a hard reboot holding the power button for 10 sec, And all sort but camera is constantly booting in firmware upgrade and the only option is to shutdown.

So now my AC is shooting with the c300 be brought to do b-roll while I'm dicking around to trying to figure this out.

Please any help advice?
 

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A few things to try:

1. Run it from the mains if you can
2. Roll back to the latest release firmware - name the folder "force_upgrade" so the camera will do it automatically
 
Hard reboot is holding down the Power button for at least 15 secs. The fan may cycle a few times while doing this - after at least 15secs, wait until the fan comes on at 100% full speed, then let go.

Do it without the Side Handle attached if you have alternative power (remember the Side Handle, like all the DSMC modules, is NOT hot swappable - attaching and reattaching should be done with the camera powered OFF).
 
just tried both. upgraded to 4.0.10 no joy. side handle won't show anything on the display and when camera boots up it says SH 0% which isn't true as the battery is fully charged.

The hard boot didn't solve it as well. the camera works fine when of the mains without the side handle. but unfortunately we don't have an alternative power supply. we bought especially for this production 12 RED VOLT's

I'm soooo eff'n pissed off, have the world of responsibility on my shoulders as I convinced the production to shot on the EPIC.

The crazy thing is that i shot with it the whole of last week and it worked just fine.
 
Your new post gives more information. Have a good look at the contacts on the camera, and the springy "pogo" pins on the Side Handle.

!) Any broken, bent or stuck pogo pins? Any dirt, dust or grease or tarnish on them, or the camera body contacts.
2) If so, clean them with ideally a cotton bud and a drop or two of >95% purity IsoPropyl Alcohol (don't spray directly on contacts though). If those aren't handy, a clean pencil eraser used gently can work well.
Even if you can't see any contact contamination, it may be worth cleaning them anyway.
 
Thanks Eric, tried that as well. none of the contacts on the SH are bent or broken. I gave the whole thing both the camera contacts and the SH pins a good clean with compressed 'clean' air canister. it 'looks' super clean to me. The camera is 10 hours old so no chance for it to get dirty.

Just sent my support ticket.

I'm not a guy to rant and I understand things sometimes don't work but the eventuality of events and the timing just destroyed me.
 
Compressed air won't clean say finger oils. If you don't have IPA or pencil eraser, try a clean dry lens tissue or microfibre cloth on the contacts.
 
Is there anywhere local you can rent a Rear Battery Module or another Side Handle?
 
I had the issue with the side handle not showing power while powering camera. Happened after a firmware upgrade too. Same side handle did it on 2 cameras. Just power the camera from mains with the side handle attached and it should work normally again. Then reboot with side handle and battery. It worked for me on both cameras.

Hope that helps.
 
Cam Crowley said:
I had the issue with the side handle not showing power while powering camera. Happened after a firmware upgrade too. Same side handle did it on 2 cameras. Just power the camera from mains with the side handle attached and it should work normally again. Then reboot with side handle and battery. It worked for me on both cameras.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip Cam! I'll have to remember that one.

Hope it works for Ethan!
 
Ethan Knight said:
Thanks Eric, tried that as well. none of the contacts on the SH are bent or broken. I gave the whole thing both the camera contacts and the SH pins a good clean with compressed 'clean' air canister. it 'looks' super clean to me. The camera is 10 hours old so no chance for it to get dirty.

Just sent my support ticket.


I'm not a guy to rant and I understand things sometimes don't work but the eventuality of events and the timing just destroyed me.
Click to expand...


ethan try old firmwares from red.com
 
Cam Crowley said:
I had the issue with the side handle not showing power while powering camera. Happened after a firmware upgrade too. Same side handle did it on 2 cameras. Just power the camera from mains with the side handle attached and it should work normally again. Then reboot with side handle and battery. It worked for me on both cameras.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Actually, your tip indicates this could be a power logic confusion where the camera fails to detect the Side Handle is supplying the only power, so never goes through the usual logic handshaking to power up the Side Handle.
When you power from the mains, it doesn't look at the Side Handle to supply power, so then goes through Side Handle bootup OK. Once the Side Handle is running, it talks to the camera and sorts out any confusion.

Could be a bug which is fixable in firmware.
 
Thanks for your input gents.. but no luck, production halted and I won "most hated man on the set". we did what we could and shot off the mains, which meant getting the generator closer which pissed of sound dept. Later we switched to the C300 which worked flawlessly.

Situation is as follows:

1. EPIC powered with mains WITHOUT side handle - works great
2. EPIC powered with main WITH side handle - camera boots with "Firmware update successful". This happens irrelevant with or without a formatted SSD.


In the 2nd scenario the display on the side handle doesn't come on, the strange thing is that the side handle is still powering the camera but with 0% at the power meter. My DIT tried rolling from 4.0.10 to an earlier version with same results.

Now here comes a steaming rant...!!! The camera is 9 days old, with 12 hours on the clock. This is unacceptable from a 2000$ camera let alone a 33K $. As it stands now we have 6 more days of production, and are frantically trying to source a 2nd side handle.

I'm at disbelief, frustration, and above all I'm now in this dreaded place where I'm afraid to commit the camera and it's reliability on another shoot, cause it makes me look like a third tit..!!!
 
Peter Majtan said:
Might be easier to source a belt clip or other V-lock RED compatible solution with bunch of batteries...
Click to expand...

Yes, always useful to have a second portable battery solution - and a belt clip and a couple of Bricks are a good option (especially as they are RED products so it cuts out any 3rd party issues).

It sounds like the side handle is scrambled (as Eric said) and just needs a new update whilst plugged into a more solid power supply.
 
Couple more things to try, powering from AC mains.

Power off. Detach the +1 module. Attach the Side Handle. Repower.
Working now? If so, great! You can keep it working without the +1 module, or attempt to reinstall the +1 module (making sure to power off first).

If not, still with no +1 module attached, rollback to Firmware 3.3.15. Working?
If so, great! You can keep it working without the +1 module, or attempt to reinstall 4.0.10 followed by reinstalling the +1 module (making sure to power off first).

If not, I've run out of ideas!
 
Ethan, I know it is of little help to you, but I must say for others reading this thread, that shooting outside of the US (and I consider Israel part of the developing world, having shot there many times) without redundant backups for all critical systems entails a significant risk, no matter what the camera system. All cameras systems break down and while my heart goes out to you being stuck in the middle of a production with this kind of issue, I believe a production is only as reliable as its weakest link, and sadly, if anything can happen, it probably will. I would not not blame the camera alone for this kind of problem.
 
Eric: We've done all of our tests without the +1, as it was the first thing in our logic to offload.

Maybe I should clarify that the side handle's display is not turning on. Also tried to roll back to previous firmware but to no avail.

I'm in contact with RED and will post the eventuality as it happens.

Rob: Although that in principal I agree with you on all points raised, especially that the workflow is only as strong as it's weakest link, It's damn hard to digest that I've become a statistic.

I've shoot in many remote places before with a variety of camera gear without a hitch, so in a way there's an expectation from RED and it's high end gear.
 
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