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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 :)

PRO I/O Module.... Work with dragon?

Tim Bradley said:
the Pro I/O is the best Red module ever! Works perfectly with Dragon.

It has a fan but it is never louder than the camera fans, intact its almost silent all the time.
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Disagree. My Pro I/O fan is louder than EPIC DRAGON and about the same as SCARLET DRAGON. I would be thrilled to see RED made a dead-silent Pro I/O module some day.
 
Michael Tiemann said:
Disagree. My Pro I/O fan is louder than EPIC DRAGON and about the same as SCARLET DRAGON. I would be thrilled to see RED made a dead-silent Pro I/O module some day.
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Really? I find this incredibly strange and never ever thought there would be a fan (much less noise) on the Pro I/O. What would possibly generate enough heat to warrant a fan?

After all this time I was finally ready to buy one, but if it's noisy I won't bother.
 
Fan in io has never been a problem for me
 
Paul Hazlett said:
Fan in io has never been a problem for me
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I will admit it has been a while since I attached my Pro IO, and perhaps the latest firmware runs the fan at a lower speed. But it is not silent, and in a recording studio (my environment), every single noise generator is noticeable.
 
I use the Pro IO module all the time with Dragon. It's a great module and I'd be very unhappy without it. The fans do make noise unfortunately. Most of the time I can get away with it but there are times when we need to blimp it, which always scares me because of possible overheating. I can't stress though how great this module is.
 
Michael Tiemann said:
Disagree. My Pro I/O fan is louder than EPIC DRAGON and about the same as SCARLET DRAGON. I would be thrilled to see RED made a dead-silent Pro I/O module some day.
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I disagree Michael. There is almost no noise generated from my Pro I/O. I would send your Pro I/O back for repair as its obviously defective.
 
This is all very interesting I have been getting enormous amount of heat generated in my i/o module and I have never heard any fan noise! I am wondering i there any method for polling the internal fan?
 
Alan, I had to send a ProIO to RED because the fan was NOT turning. Basically after about 30mins (enough time to do a blackshade) it would get surprisingly warm to the touch (substantially warmer than the brain).

I took off the bottom fan vent and the fan was NOT spinning. It should always be spinning at varying speeds depending on the heat generated. It's complete BS too because, like you, I don't live in the states; the replacement fan is like $5, the labour is $100, and the shipping was around $300, not to mention the headaches trying to convince customs that I've already paid duties/taxes on the item (this is also why they should be putting RED stores in other countries, rather than different states).

The reason it generates heat is because it does debayering of the raw image data, which requires a CPU and other electronics. They could make a silent one (that would be waaay less weight and use way less power) if they did it like the +1 and used the already debayered HDMI output... Maybe they should.
 
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Mike P. said:
Alan, I had to send a ProIO to RED because the fan was NOT turning. Basically after about 30mins (enough time to do a blackshade) it would get surprisingly warm to the touch (substantially warmer than the brain).

I took off the bottom fan vent and the fan was NOT spinning. It should always be spinning at varying speeds depending on the heat generated. It's complete BS too because, like you, I don't live in the states; the replacement fan is like $5, the labour is $100, and the shipping was around $300, not to mention the headaches trying to convince customs that I've already paid duties/taxes on the item (this is also why they should be putting RED stores in other countries, rather than different states).

The reason it generates heat is because it does debayering of the raw image data, which requires a CPU and other electronics. They could make a silent one (that would be waaay less weight and use way less power) if they did it like the +1 and used the already debayered HDMI output... Maybe they should.
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Hey Mike I appreciate your response. I have a horrible feeling the fan in my i/o is not working at all. Never heard it, can't detect any air movement. I was surprised to hear people citing fan noise issues. I assumed there was nothing in there.

You are right about the heat factor it transmits up to camera so after 40 mins to one of recording interviews I get a camera shut down from the excessive heat. When ever I run the camera without i/o it can run for hours with no grief.

Ill contact my Bomb squad rep and see what wen can do about this. Thanks so much for the words of wisdom.
 
Alan Maxwell said:
Hey Mike I appreciate your response. I have a horrible feeling the fan in my i/o is not working at all. Never heard it, can't detect any air movement. I was surprised to hear people citing fan noise issues. I assumed there was nothing in there.

You are right about the heat factor it transmits up to camera so after 40 mins to one of recording interviews I get a camera shut down from the excessive heat. When ever I run the camera without i/o it can run for hours with no grief.

Ill contact my Bomb squad rep and see what wen can do about this. Thanks so much for the words of wisdom.
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Ditto - Same problem I've always had with my Pro IO - I am sending it back wham my dragon gets called in. Love it when it works.
 
Holy schnikies... I thought I was the only one; an outlier. I hope it doesn't happen again as ~$400 for a replacement fan on an already exorbitantly expensive $3750 part is a little... Excessive (to put it politely).

It's easy enough to check; take the bottom vent off the ProIO (two T10 torx screws, I think), and boot up the camera with the ProIO attached... If the fan is not spinning, it's busted and needs to be sent back to RED. Again, I had it confirmed from RED: the fan should constantly be spinning (the amount is controlled based on temperature). Anecdotally, even at max speed, it's usually less noisy than the brain with only the original front fan (though with adaptive they get wicked close). If it sounds louder that's likely because it's closer to your ear when operating.

When you take the vent off, it actually looks as easy as you'd think to replace, the problem is that the connector is inside the housing, which means it needs to be disassembled, which means warranty voided if you did it yourself. Such BS.

That said, when you need it, it's arguably the most compact way to get proper ins and outs (second RED display, TC, BNCs, full-size XLRs/four-channel, etc....power out is apparently useless, though).
 
Well Dam......... I think I need to take my bottom cover off..... I've never heard this thing make a SOUND! Argggggggg.... Whyyyyyyyyy!
38 freaking hundred dollars with a 5 dollar fan that gives no warning of pending doom lol. I also had no idea that this little box did it's own debayering..... Nice.

NOPE IT'S SPINNING..... Hummmm I wonder if the fen IS giving owners of the Pro I/O notice of pending doom by spinning loudly??
 
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You should also be able to feel air being pushed through the ProIO (out the top vent). It's very faint (because the grills are horrible restrictive), but you can feel it. Honestly, you'll know if it isn't working by how hot it is gets -- with fan, it basically doesn't change temperature and without fan it gets warm (almost hot) to the touch (way warmer than the brain).

And, as I said earlier, the ProIO is generally pretty awesome (though I've only had it for the last couple gigs). Sure I wish it was cheaper (being that I think it offers almost mandatory functionality) and lighter (since it makes DSMC go from pint-sized to full-on production camera), but there's a lot of features that I didn't anticipate using that are incredibly handy (to be honest, I originally only bought it for 4ch/full-size XLRs).
 
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Has any 3rd Party built a Pro I/O equivalent? I agree Mike, the 4-channel XLR is a must to make the camera standard, and of course the 2nd port. But at $3,800 it's just way too much...especially with the heat and noise issues.
 
I was under the impression that modules were proprietary, so no one else was allowed to make them without getting sued by RED. DSMC would have been a hell of a lot different had it been opened up (look at FoolControl/HotLink as a prime example of what 3rd parties can do in mere months). We would've had functioning Meizler-style modules for less than the cost of the ProIO, I'm sure. And a couple of Toia mock-up modules definitely would've gotten made (e.g. a module the size of a module adapter, but with just two XLRs & physical levels knobs for like $500... proxy modules, etc.)
 
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