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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 :)

Serious Anton Bauer Issue

A

Alexis Hanawalt

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I just got back from NAB where my camera was demo'ing on the show floor for 3 days. 2 of these days, the camera refused to boot up in the morning for about 20 minutes. Finally, it would boot up and all would be well.

I have the Anton Bauer QR-RED, so I walked over the the AB booth and had a guy come over to take a look. He said the battery is performing normally, wasn't sure what the problem could have been.

Then, the next day, I brought the QR-RED over to Stuart in the Red booth to show him that curiously, 2 pins are missing from the Lemo. (Pins 1 and 6 according to page 60 of the Red Manual.) Stuart simply said, "They shouldn't have done that." He indicated that there's never any reason to remove unused pins from a connector.

Finally, tonight, I read this passage, also on page 60 of the manual:

Note: It is very important that both of the +VBATT and –VBATT pins are wired
up. DO NOT fabricate any power cables with just one each of the +VBATT and
–VBATT pins wired up, as this can damage the camera power supply assembly.
Click to expand...

So, I'm not using battery power with my camera until this is addressed or fixed by someone from Anton Bauer. So, PLEASE, while you guys are replacing the angled connector with a straight one - add those pins.

I thought I was making a smart choice by working with a brand that has a reputation to protect, but the right angle, the missing pins, and the stupid hot glue on the back make me feel like I've been suckered.
 
it is possible you got a defective cable. Those Lemos are a bitch to solder and sometimes the little pins can get damaged and come loose. Still sucks.
 
I've got two of those things still wrapped up in the bubble wrap due to the right-angle/ short cable issue. I know the boys at Abel will take care of me and I'll swap them when the improved versions appear, but I too am a little disappointed with Anton Bauer. This accessory was a loooong time coming and it's less than their usual quality.
:(
Harry
 
Be careful with what you say :wink:

Meaning that we've taken a lot of crap from RED (and we still are), being in beta and everything, just so we can have it earlier rather than later.

I understand that your angry but lets chill and ask them again gently. It's either that or we have to wait for the gear for forever. There's a lot of demand out there and a lot of manufactures that's trying to catch up. We either let them come out with the gear and we test proof it hahahaha. Or we have to wait for a year or so to get it.

Just my 2 cents


Fredrik
 
AB battery and RED-ONE

AB battery and RED-ONE

As it was brought up on this forum rather than via a PM, let me clarify what was said.

a) The two missing pins looked like the ones used for serial communication by the RED-BRICK battery to the camera. We build all our cables with all six pins present in the LEMO shell, even when we don't use those pins. So I DO NOT KNOW if the two pins being missing could be a cause for a failure to boot up, but it is a possibility to be investigated.

b) If the 4 pins that are in the LEMO have been wired up per our instructions, then they would NOT be violating our warning. I DO NOT KNOW if they did or didn't wire it up this way, but its clearly something that Anton Bauer can quickly answer by a phone call.

c) Its easy to misread the pin assignment. Pin 5 and pin 1 are on either side of the key, so its possible the missing pins were pin 5 and 6 - the serial communications pins - or 1 and 6 - a ground and one of the serial communication pins.

A picture would help.
 
I'll check with Anton Bauer and get back to you.
 
I had conversation with some of the guys on the floor and it was clear they didn't have a lot of knowledge about our Red world. I was talking to a floor person who called over the "guy that will know" and he was a bit lost on the whole thing. He even asked why I would want to take the battery off of Reds drive mount. I explained that you don't always use the drive - lots of us will use flash - you want a lighter rig. etc... I think they make good products they just need time to figure it out and get it right.
 
Stuart, I'll post an image when I get home tonight. Understand that after several days of using the camera with the AB setup and then reading the warning in the manual, I was very alarmed.

I posted publicly as an alert to others in case this is an issue that could cause damage - and to snap Anton Bauer out of the laissez-faire attitude they held on the show floor when I brought this to their attention repeatedly.
 
Alexis,
We have had some issues w/ AB...specifically check that your battery is fully charged when starting the camera (in some cases if we tried to start the camera w/ a 1/2 charged AB battery the camera would not boot)
 
digitalfx said:
Alexis,
We have had some issues w/ AB...specifically check that your battery is fully charged when starting the camera (in some cases if we tried to start the camera w/ a 1/2 charged AB battery the camera would not boot)
Click to expand...

Now that's interesting, wonder why?

What batteries are you guys using. I have Hytron 140 and haven't had those problems yet.


fredrik
 
digitalfx, Both my batteries were full when this happened - it seemed that just leaving the battery onboard for a while allowed the camera to boot after what must have been 20 minutes. We walked through every logical permutation we could imagine that could be causing trouble...

weirdcrew - hytron 140's here too. 90% of the time, they've performed fine - but the couple times the camera didn't boot up would be awful if I'd been on set...
 
The Red draws a lot of amps, I imagine particularly at start up, most AB hytrons and Dionics can't deliver that high of an amp load if they are less than full up. I have run into this problem with the 435, and the D-20 as well. In steadicam world, you use a Ni-cad to supply the amps while the dionics supply the volts. I have also had this problem with a Varicam and a shit pile of AKS, again nicads fixed the problem.

Not saying this is the problem, just my experiance.

Nick
 
arrinick said:
The Red draws a lot of amps, I imagine particularly at start up, most AB hytrons and Dionics can't deliver that high of an amp load if they are less than full up. I have run into this problem with the 435, and the D-20 as well. In steadicam world, you use a Ni-cad to supply the amps while the dionics supply the volts. I have also had this problem with a Varicam and a shit pile of AKS, again nicads fixed the problem.

Not saying this is the problem, just my experiance.

Nick
Click to expand...

I do believe you're right. Just realized that there's been once or twice when it has happened and we've then believed it to be flat, thinking it was so recently we put it on hahahaha.

This is a bummer
 
arrinick said:
The Red draws a lot of amps, I imagine particularly at start up, most AB hytrons and Dionics can't deliver that high of an amp load if they are less than full up. I have run into this problem with the 435, and the D-20 as well. In steadicam world, you use a Ni-cad to supply the amps while the dionics supply the volts. I have also had this problem with a Varicam and a shit pile of AKS, again nicads fixed the problem.

Not saying this is the problem, just my experiance.

Nick
Click to expand...

That was the initial concern - but the AB guy said that wasn't our problem... the battery had all it needed to power up the camera... also tried booting without the monitor or drive plugged in, but that made no difference.
 
In theory you shouldnt need the missing connectors according to the red manual. Have you had anyone test out the to connections with a multimeter to make sure they are working? If you are around LA i can do it for you just PM me.
 
Dear Anton/Bauer QR-RED users,

I appreciate all that is said on the board, to a point where profanity is not an acceptable manner to speak to anyone!

1) The QR-RED mount has had NO electrical or mechanical problems. We had a QR-RED mount on our camera with HyTRON 140's and Dionic 90's and had no issues at all. This was for all 4 days at the NAB Show.

2) The two additional pins are NOT needed in this situation since there is no communication with 3rd Party batteries and RED cameras. If they did communicate, then the pins would be needed to relay that information.

3) We are currently making ALL QR-RED mounts with a straight connector on them. If you are not happy with the right angle connector, then you are free to return the mount to Anton/Bauer and we will put a straight connector on for you, free of charge.

4) The hot glue on the inside of the mount is enough to hold the cable in place. However, since there is much disappointment about this, we will be changing the mount, adding a space plate and using a different strain relief. This will be incorporated in our next build. One of the reasons for the hot glue was because there was no extra space due to the diameter of the cable and the minimal space.

We understand that we cannot manufacture a product that everyone will be 100% completely satisfied with, but we do our best to make everyone happy.

Also, in regards to a HyTRON 140 (or HyTRON 100), there ARE NO problems in starting up a high speed camera (435) or in pulling high currents from these batteries. We used "D" cells in these batteries and they are more than able to handle high spikes in current, unlike ANY lithium ion batteries or our HyTRON 50 (which uses a 4/3A cell).

Thanks.
Paul
 
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