RED Drive gets very hot during FireWire off-load. Is it normal?

[Serge Tsipis]

Normally I have no need to fill 640GB drive up to the top, but it happened on my last 2 days of shooting. I just didn't have a chance to off-load it after first day wrap. When I finally got it plugged to MacPro FW800 port with 800 to 400 cable, copying took about 2 hours. I noticed drive being very hot at the end of the process. 50C or maybe 60C.

There is an issue with this particular drive - it doesn't mount via it's FW800 port, so I use 800-400 cable. It never gets that hot while shooting, even when I run the camera for a whole 8-10 hour shift... No other issues with it, recorded takes seems to be fine, drive speed is normal, etc.

Is this normal and I just didn't notice before, because I normally use 100-200GB on it? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Serge

 

[ericyoung]

FW400 is pretty slow, so not surprised it took 2hours. It probably would get that hot if you were recording continuously on camera for two hours! When you're copying, the drives will be spinning full speed all the time.

Sounds normal.

One caveat - Red recommends NOT using bus power to power the Red Drive, although many people have done so without problems. Red supplied a mains AC adaptor with each Red Drive to take the load off the Firewire/USB buses as the Red Drives are quite power hungry. Bus powering may or may not contribute to failure of the Firewire ports, although hot plugging the Firewire cable is more likely the culprit for that.

 

[Serge Tsipis]

Eric, thanks for you answer!
Do you know power requirements and connection polarity for the RED drives? I have quite a bunch of drives but no PSUs... Is it 11-18V, 1A, tip "+" / sleeve "-" ?

 

[ericyoung]

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?111511-Help!-RED-drive-power-supply-polarity

 

[Serge Tsipis]

Got it! 12V DC, 1.5A, tip positive. Thanks again!

 

[ericyoung]

Got it! 12V DC, 1.5A, tip positive. Thanks again!

And voltage regulated.

 

[Serge Tsipis]

Yep! I'm also thinking of a backup battery in the chain to make the supply unbreakable...

 

[ericyoung]

Most professional DITs I know have at least a small Uninterruptible Power Supply in line to provide some protection against power surge and outages while accessing media. It's good practice, albeit rather heavy & bulky!!