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DSMC2 Compatible Batteries

Gene Sung

Gene Sung

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DSMC2 Compatible Batteries

This thread might be helpful to those about to invest in batteries for DSMC2.

1) Seems like currently with the DSMC2 Base I/O V-Lock Expander, mainly batteries that comply with RED protocol data. V-Mounts that do not follow Red battery status standards (ones that display Voltage) have a higher probability of not working.

What batteries on the market currently comply with Red battery standards? Here’s a few that I found, please add more

a) Red Bricks
b) PAGLink PL96e
c) Switronix Hypercore Red
d) Global Media Pro Red compliant models (but at 102mm they might be a bit wide).
e) Anton Bauer Cine series

What other batteries are Red Compliant?

2) I have non-Red compliant batteries. If I get a Base Expander (non V-Mount), can I attach a WC V-Mount plate to the back with the Red power cord and power the camera that way? Would that work?

3) Are there battery issues with other modules - ET, Base Expander, etc??
 
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2) By "not RED compliant" i'm assuming that you mean it doesn't transmit RED protocol data (reversed Sony SMB) -- Besides that, any V Mount battery should power the camera, but only display voltage data on screen. In that case, you can buy a cableless v-mount plate from Element Technica or Wooden Camera which bolts onto the back of the camera with or without an I/O plate. Or, buy a cheaper, cabled plate, that must be plugged into a I/O expander.

3) One slight problem I've discovered is that when you use one of the newer Anton/Bauer Digital 90/150/190 series batteries (the huge curvy ones) that the PTAP on the right side of the battery collides with the V mount base expander. That's a weird fringe case, but a bummer for anyone who has bought into that one particular system and planned to use it with that one particular v mount plate.

4) The RED DSMC system can only read batteries that communicate via reversed-SMB. Batteries using Sony SMB or IDX I2C can't be read by the RED... but maybe it's just a tweak in reading the software? Who knows.
 
Alexander Thomson said:
2) By "not RED compliant" i'm assuming that you mean it doesn't transmit RED protocol data (reversed Sony SMB) --
Click to expand...

hi Alexander, I edited my post with the proper terminology - Red protocol Data. Thanks

Is Red Protocol Data something that has to be specifically programed into the battery? Or is it a somewhat common standard that a random battery may have?

Apparently, right now with the DSMC2 Base Expander V-Lock, batteries the do not follow Red Protocol initiate some type of camera shut down, so quite a few batteries that worked before with the older DSMC1 will not work now.

Alexander Thomson said:
Or, buy a cheaper, cabled plate, that must be plugged into a I/O expander. --
Click to expand...

Do they sell something like this? A V-Mount plate with a Red Cabled plate that can piggy back onto the Base I/O V-Lock? This might be a good temp solution until they get the voltage working. Do you have a link or description on how I can get this to work?

I might be past the window of returning my current batteries, but if I had known, I would have just bought batteries that follow Red Protocol.
 
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I don't know if that is true with all batteries or systems... (The shut down thing).

has anyone with the Wooden Camera gold mount (cableless) plate for instance had an issue with camera shutdown initiation ?

Right now I'm using a cabled gold mount plate to base expander and have had no such shutdown issue.
 
Gene Sung said:
hi Alexander, I edited my post with the proper terminology - Red protocol Data. Thanks

Is Red Protocol Data something that has to be specifically programed into the battery? Or is it a somewhat common standard that a random battery may have?

Apparently, right now with the DSMC2 Base Expander V-Lock, batteries the do not follow Red Protocol initiate some type of camera shut down, so quite a few batteries that worked before with the older DSMC1 will not work now.



Do they sell something like this? A V-Mount plate with a Red Cabled plate that can piggy back onto the Base I/O V-Lock? This might be a good temp solution until they get the voltage working. Do you have a link or description on how I can get this to work?

I might be past the window of returning my current batteries, but if I had known, I would have just bought batteries that follow Red Protocol.
Click to expand...

Must be programmed into the battery from the factory. I think that's part of why Switronix and Paglink go out of their way to let you know that their batteries are RED compatible.

I did not know about the camera shut down issue. I'll have to search the forum and look into that.

<off topic> I'm hoping to run 3 stud batteries via a 3 stud to v mount conversion plate---that sort of thing worked great on my Litepanels, audio recorders, etc. However, it is literally just a plastic sandwich of the two mount systems with a red + and black - wire ----- no intelligence circuitry whatsoever. I had no problem running batteries that didn't communicate with the DSMC cameras, but we'll see what happens when I try to power up my DSMC 2 next week. </off topic>

Wooden Camera and a few others sell cabled V mount plates which run into the 6 pin Lemo port of a DSMC or a DSMC2 I/O expander. WC V-Mount (Epic/Scarlet) - Wooden Camera
 
Dan Kanes said:
Right now I'm using a cabled gold mount plate to base expander and have had no such shutdown issue.
Click to expand...

Hi Dan, are you able to just screw on the Gold Mount plate right into the back of the Base Expander? I might have to go that route.

I believe I've read that the Red runs fine when it's cabled. It just the non-cable solutions like the V-Mount I/O adapter that is having trouble.
 
I'm hoping to run 3 stud batteries via a 3 stud to v mount conversion plate---that sort of thing worked great on my Litepanels, audio recorders, etc. However, it is literally just a plastic sandwich of the two mount systems with a red + and black - wire ----- no intelligence circuitry whatsoever. I had no problem running batteries that didn't communicate with the DSMC cameras, but we'll see what happens when I try to power up my DSMC 2 next week. </off topic>
Click to expand...

I plan to do the same thing. If it wotks it will solve 3rd party battery width issues too.
 
Obviously hoping for a quick firmware update that will allow for non-Red protocol batteries to work, but until then this might be an easy modification / temporary solution for using a cabled plate with the Red V-Mount I/O Module

TempVMount.jpg
 
Gene Sung said:
Hi Dan, are you able to just screw on the Gold Mount plate right into the back of the Base Expander? I might have to go that route.

I believe I've read that the Red runs fine when it's cabled. It just the non-cable solutions like the V-Mount I/O adapter that is having trouble.
Click to expand...

Yeah, for now I'm using the cabled, attached to the back of the base expander gold mount.

when the wooden cableless situation comes out I'll be going that route.

i believe the shutdown thing was already rectified by firmware
 
Sean Keen said:
This will work for me, but I still hope i can use dsmc2 red v mount expender with some cheap batteries
Click to expand...
im wondering which is slimmer, the v-lock expander, or the i/o expander plus wc mount?
 
The nice thing with the Red I/O V-Lock is that it seems a little less bulky / lighter than the Red I/O Non-V-Lock + WC cable-less solution. Plus the I/O V-Lock has a D-Tap and USB built which is really useful. Also, it's just nice to have 1 less cable with the Red I/O V-Lock.

I need to hit the ground running when I get my S-W, good chance this week, so might have to do a temporary solution until the firmware is update. Pains of early adaption.
 
Dan Kanes said:
i believe the shutdown thing was already rectified by firmware
Click to expand...

I spoke with an S-W I/O V-Mount owner this past Friday, and he said it's not fixed yet, but Red is working on it. He tried 3 different "dumb" batteries and none of them worked.

Another user listed this as a possible work around - but I don't have the camera to try it.
------
It might not solve your particular problem, but a temporary solution that's been mentioned elsewhere on the forums, and which you might want to try, is to hold down the LED charge status button on your battery for over five seconds, then remove the battery, then put it back on the camera. In some cases, this holding down of the battery's LED charge status button can reset something in the battery and allow it to communicate properly with the camera.
 
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My slightly informed hypothesis is that a battery that communicates via SMB is received by a RED expecting reversed-SMB---meaning that a 100% battery is read by the RED as 0%, which causes the camera to shut down. Maybe? Who knows. But that could explain why fully charged v mount batteries send the RED into a panic but 3 stud & voltage only batteries are okay.
 
Alexander Thomson said:
My slightly informed hypothesis is that a battery that communicates via SMB is received by a RED expecting reversed-SMB---meaning that a 100% battery is read by the RED as 0%, which causes the camera to shut down. Maybe? Who knows. But that could explain why fully charged v mount batteries send the RED into a panic but 3 stud & voltage only batteries are okay.
Click to expand...

like your creative thinking but what about 50% charged batteries... when the bug shows up they also show 0%
 
Michael Lindsay said:
like your creative thinking but what about 50% charged batteries... when the bug shows up they also show 0%
Click to expand...

EDIT: It happens both cabled and cable-less.

Damn.
 
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