Blinking LCD - Camera won't boot

[Pedro Guimaraes]

I have had that exact problem with 2 bodies on my last job. The bodies were rented from keslow camera.

I'm now on week 7 of a 3D RED feature and one of our 6 week old bodies is doing that exact thing about once a day.

It is extremely annoying.

I just unplug everything. Power up just fine. Then start pluging things in. Works like a charm.

Just sucks that a 6 week old camera is doing this. This happened on build 20 and the latest build.

I think when the movie is over he will send it back for inspection.......

any insight into this problem would be great........still have 1 more week of shooting!

 

[nicolas de chateau thierry]

We test with all unplug and the camera don't boot ...
what do you think ?

 

[Jameson Jordan]

Okay, so this problem has not gone away for me, but I feel like I've at least found a bit of a pattern to it and at least some kind of method to work through it... or I'm just becoming superstitious...

Either way, here's what I've noticed and what I do:

1) When I boot up the camera on a new day for the first time, it seems to always work for some reason -- monitoring plugged in or not (still, I usually leave everything unplugged... since I'm becoming superstitious)

2) When the camera has been running for a full 1.5 hours, and we're ready for a switch, I power down, unplug monitoring, attach battery and power up within 5-10 seconds. This almost always seems to work, no blinking.

3) The blinking seems to occur when we power up, get a frame, then power down for 20-30 minutes (or take lunch for 30 minutes) and then power up. This break in the 1.5 hour battery-power-cycle seems to somehow break the camera's rhythm of feeling like booting up.

I guess it sounds crazy, but once the camera doesn't boot right up and starts the blinking... it'll keep doing this as you keep retrying.

4) Here's what I do if I fall into a blinking rhythm: Powerdown. Unplug monitoring (and storage). wait 5-10 seconds. Power up -- time the blinking for 2 minutes (You have to stare at a stop watch because it's the longest two minutes of your life). Power down, wait ten seconds, try again. Usually around the 30 sec mark, or the 90 sec mark on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th try you'll see that 'booting...' text and be home free.

This troubleshooting has taken as long as 15 minutes for me, but usually takes less than 6 mins.

I know it is not a solution, and as soon as I get a window of time I'm gonna try to take it into RED -- but this has tentatively been working for me.

Let me know how it plays out for you guys -- and RED, let me know if there's anything to this 'power-booting-rhythm' or if I've gone camera-god-superstitious.

 

[Jameson Jordan]

My camera's booting issue seems to have been resolved with Beta Build 21.4.1! -- So I recommend that to all who've had this problem.

Also I have another strange workaround for those on a shoot that need a temporary fix (this worked for my camera almost every time) -- something I call:

"Hot Cable Theory"

Before you boot, unplug everything (including the power cable) attach the battery, THEN plug in the power cable, THEN boot.

The same goes for DC power -- make sure the LED on the RED Charger is green (indicating power through DC cable) BEFORE plugging in the cable to the camera, THEN Boot. (sometimes you have to plug the cable into camera before the LED turns green, but if that's the case, unplug it and plug it back in before attempting the Boot).

Not sure how/why this helps, but it seemed to help when my camera was having the issue.

In any case, a big thanks to RED for the new BUILD!

 

[fatfatjames]

I am a sound guy, so i do not own any camera... i have this problem since build 20 and now 21... i did not have any luck of booting up the camera with my denecke sb2a timecode box attached to the camera... so far 3 camera reject the box... and i have not get a chance to use any other camera... It is like what you guys said the lcd at the rear just keep blinking... I hear the denecke sbt have better luck with the camera...

 

[Alex Carr]

This is a real hardware problem, it has to do with the camera's power supply. I had a steadicam guy drop the camera because he was upset that he had to re-balance per the difficult shot. Camera never booted properly again and 100% follows the symptoms here. Something got unplugged or shifted, Later on I heard about a $1500 repair.