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Paglink batteries

Antti Pirskanen

Antti Pirskanen

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I recently received PL96e Paglink batteries for my Scarlet-X. The in-camera battery remaining percentage display doesn't work with the APU-IDX V-mount plate, but other than that, they do work as advertised. I also ordered a PL96t with a numerical LCD display but that one wasn't delivered yet. I think it's still being field tested.

They can be used and charged while linked. Hot swapping works and the time remaining display on the batteries themselves adjusts itself depending on the size of the battery stack. When you click on a button on the battery it displays the capacity of that battery with a 5 segment led. When you click the button a second time, it displays the time remaining for the entire stack.

I also got the PL16 two channel charger that charges 8 batteries in 9 hours. It has a built in 100W power supply with a 4-pin XLR connector. The charger has a fan, but it's not very loud. Maybe about the same as the Scarlet fan at 35-40%.

So far, I've been happy with this battery solution. I went for V-mount instead of AB because V-mount quite prevalent here in Europe.
 

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Antti,

I too have acquired some PagLink batteries and LOVE them! I travel quite extensively. These babies are "certified" for air-travel with no restrictions! I've noticed that they last quite a long time. I have a "massive commitment" to Anton Bauer with four chargers and about 20 batteries in total... however, more than 2/3 are reaching the end of their life cycle... so I started looking at my options. I purchased some IDX "Gold mount to V mount" adapters so I don't have to replace each and every battery plate on my equipment. (I own many cameras, and some by other manufacturers).

I'll say this... on our power hungry F800 camera... we wer able to shoot with just 3 batteries all day long! I would have had to use at least four Hytron 140s! I was impressed!

I think once the word gets out on these bad boys, they will take off in a big way!
 
I have bought 2 chargers and 8 batteries... If PAG iron out a few tinny niggles then they will be really difficult to beat.. Then we will buy more and it is a ideal system for nearly everything we do. The way you can power from 1,2 or 3 batteries and charge loads on a tiny charger is fantastically flexible

I spent 40min over there and they seem sharp and committed.. Their power hub and micro charger are also very interesting

Ps Pag has been around for ages
 
Hey Antti ...nice batteries never heard of them look interesting.

A word of warning about "piggy backing" those batteries if you don't have the back secured with those stainless screws. Apparently the camera mount can fail, heres a link to the thread.

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?79161-Epic-Back-Module

P.S. Can you post a link for where the batteries are sold ?
 
Last edited:
Just notice Antti mentioned the charging thing already, sorry!

Antti, how are you finding the loupe that attaches to the touch LCD? As good as a Bomb EVF?

Steve
 
Steve Phillipps said:
Antti, how are you finding the loupe that attaches to the touch LCD? As good as a Bomb EVF?
Click to expand...

Steve, I haven't used the Bomb EVF, but the Grid Suportes loupe is certainly good enough for using the touch LCD in bright sunlight. There is some distortion at the edges, but it's really not an issue IMHO. The magnetic attachment is quite secure and firm, but I would still prefer a more secure, locking attachment to the LCD. It's great value for money for sure. I use the side handle for UI functions when the loupe is attached.

Mike, I purchased the batteries from Production Gear Ltd in UK. Thanks for the warning about the potential breakage of the back of the camera. I think that most of the time I'll be using one battery only, but I still have to verify that hot swapping works with the side handle redvolts too.
 
I did some testing with 3.2.19 firmware. The hot swapping of the v-mount battery works as expected when there is a redvolt in the side handle. Also, it switches over to the side handle battery seamlessly when the v-mount battery dies. But I just can't figure out why the capacity information doesn't work in the viewfinder. Does it work with some other brand of third party V-mount batteries?
 
I think most 3rd party batteries only send over voltage info (15v and then when it gets down to ~12v you should consider swapping). There are a few that send %, but I was under the impression that it was NOT plate related, but battery related. I'm really digging the battery piggybacking...
 
The APU-IDX plate does NOT support transmitting Red battery percentage. Not all plates support it. I expect if you were using a compatible plate (e.g. The Switronix epic/scarlet v-mount plate) it would show percentage
 
Thanks for reporting your experiences. I've been using my L95e's on my Scarlet and have one of the new chargers and these batteries on my shopping list. I've always loved PAG, but they seem to have very little presence in the USA, at least amongst REDusers. The new L96e's are about £50 cheaper per battery, but don't have the awesome linking system.

Justin
 
Harrison Diamond said:
The APU-IDX plate does NOT support transmitting Red battery percentage. Not all plates support it. I expect if you were using a compatible plate (e.g. The Switronix epic/scarlet v-mount plate) it would show percentage
Click to expand...

Ahh!! Thanks for clearing this up. I didn't even bother to research this before purchasing the APU-IDX plate. I simply assumed that it must be fully wired since it is one of the more popular and well regarded battery plate solutions.

I just can't see the logic of leaving this very important feature out of the APU-IDX plate. I much prefer seeing the run time in viewfinder instead of having to press the button on the battery. It would probably be a trivial addition during the production of the plate, but too much of a hassle to re-wire the plate afterwards when the hirose connector has already been soldered.
 
Yes, this looks like my next battery investment.

Michael Lindsay said:
I have bought 2 chargers and 8 batteries... If PAG iron out a few tinny niggles then they will be really difficult to beat.. Then we will buy more and it is a ideal system for nearly everything we do.
Click to expand...

Michael, can you elaborate a bit, what are these tiny niggles?
 
Nils J. Nesse said:
Yes, this looks like my next battery investment.
Michael, can you elaborate a bit, what are these tiny niggles?
Click to expand...

My only real niggle was the percentage gauge. PAG had originally met up with Red to get things working with Red 1 and I think it just needs a little tweak to work with EPIC/SCARLET.

Basically I have seen with my eyes the battery percentage working with the PAG link batteries on a Scarlet.... but at the moment it is a completely random and unlikely. These batteries are very smart and are field upgradeable so we are just waiting for PAG to finish fine tunning the upgrade. When that is done I can't see another V-lock battery touching them for flexability and functionality. We use them for lights, sound kit, field data downloading as well as our cameras.

Stacking on a small footprint charger is a killer feature on its own...

I will keep the pressure on ;-) and report back...

PS on a side note I'd like PAG to make a custom plate sits on a battery and powers mutliple SSD readers and popular small esata Raid 1 drives.
 
I bought a set of 4 of these paglink batts and they've worked flawlessly. They last a good 90 minutes or so and fit very ergonomically to the WC plate. Piggy back option has also come in handy. Plus they offer a pretty good remaining time estimate on the case of the battery once under draw. They're a UK based company but I'm sure there will be resellers in the US. Here's their site : https://www.paguk.com/landing/PAGlink
 
Harrison Diamond said:
The APU-IDX plate does NOT support transmitting Red battery percentage. Not all plates support it. I expect if you were using a compatible plate (e.g. The Switronix epic/scarlet v-mount plate) it would show percentage
Click to expand...

It would be tricky to wire the lemo up after it is already wired... But a little upgrade kit would be possible. Containing a magnet and a new cable (prewired with a lemo)???
 
JustinC said:
Thanks for reporting your experiences. I've been using my L95e's on my Scarlet and have one of the new chargers and these batteries on my shopping list. I've always loved PAG, but they seem to have very little presence in the USA, at least amongst REDusers. The new L96e's are about £50 cheaper per battery, but don't have the awesome linking system.

Justin
Click to expand...

Justing, I think the L96e can be linked they just dont have the display. Where I'm looking they are about 70-100 pounds cheaper. Here they cost 190
http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/pag_9303

This is what they write about the PAGlink PL96e

"PAGlink is the only system that allows you to combine the capacities of two to eight batteries, to achieve super-high capacities and a higher current-draw capability. It is the only system that allows you to charge batteries whilst linked."

I think I will get one e and one T so the T can display the time. Expensive bugger the T
/Andreas
 
Antti Pirskanen said:
Ahh!! Thanks for clearing this up. I didn't even bother to research this before purchasing the APU-IDX plate. I simply assumed that it must be fully wired since it is one of the more popular and well regarded battery plate solutions.

I just can't see the logic of leaving this very important feature out of the APU-IDX plate. I much prefer seeing the run time in viewfinder instead of having to press the button on the battery. It would probably be a trivial addition during the production of the plate, but too much of a hassle to re-wire the plate afterwards when the hirose connector has already been soldered.
Click to expand...
Once you shoot with it enough you'll learn at which voltage you need to change your battery at. I don't mind it. If you go over to the DSMC Accessories part of the board and read Brooks Willards post on his VF plate he explains why they went with voltage instead of %. I don't remember why entirely to be honest. But it's in there. I'll post if I can find it.
 
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