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Red Weapon CF Forged powering down spontaneously

B

Brian Liepe

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My brand new forged cf weapon just started shutting off spontaneously over the last two days. Full Red Bricks and no warning indications regarding power issues. I called Red and tech support asked what I was powering with the camera. I told them I have my weapon evf, the 4.7" and a teradek cube (running off the d-tap on the v-lock I/O module). I was told that the camera has trouble powering anything more than the evf and the lcd..... Does anyone else think that a new 60$ camera not being able to power additional low draw accessories like a cube is completely absurd? Why is there a d-tap port on the I/O module?

The problem persisted and we lost time and shots. I shoot for a living and I'm really struggling here. This is the 2nd weapon Red has shipped me. The operating system on the 1st weapon crashed, rendering the camera unusable.

If anyone else is experiencing similar problems, please speak up. I don't think it's fair to have to settle, and deal with defects like this.

I really want want to stick with Red. Shopping for an Alexa makes me nervous but I can't have this happen again.
 
Brian Liepe said:
My brand new forged cf weapon just started shutting off spontaneously over the last two days. Full Red Bricks and no warning indications regarding power issues. I called Red and tech support asked what I was powering with the camera. I told them I have my weapon evf, the 4.7" and a teradek cube (running off the d-tap on the v-lock I/O module). I was told that the camera has trouble powering anything more than the evf and the lcd..... Does anyone else think that a new 60$ camera not being able to power additional low draw accessories like a cube is completely absurd? Why is there a d-tap port on the I/O module?

The problem persisted and we lost time and shots. I shoot for a living and I'm really struggling here. This is the 2nd weapon Red has shipped me. The operating system on the 1st weapon crashed, rendering the camera unusable.

If anyone else is experiencing similar problems, please speak up. I don't think it's fair to have to settle, and deal with defects like this.

I really want want to stick with Red. Shopping for an Alexa makes me nervous but I can't have this happen again.
Click to expand...

Hi Brian,

I’m sorry to see that you’re having issues with your WEAPON.

The Technical Support team at RED would like to help you resolve this issue. Please submit a Technical Support request on support.red.com and attach the log file from this camera as suggested in your call this morning. We will forward the log file information to our Engineers for further analysis.
 
You sure it's not your batteries? I just found out that a certain brand of battery doesn't like my current v-mount plate and when they get very lightly knocked, they lose connection on the v-mount plate and the camera shuts off. It very well may be that and not the camera itself.
 
I recently had something interesting happen with my R1 where I was getting intermittent shutdowns. I figured it must be the battery plate because the camera would remain powered when using AC power. Maybe a bad Lemo connector. But then I tried multiple battery plates and all of a sudden I couldn't even power up at all. AC power still worked but none of the battery plates would work any more. Was perplexed. Tried another battery, same thing. Then tried a third battery, and it worked. Some more testing and I determined it was the two batteries. Even though they show full charge, they are not powering up the camera and were probably responsible for the intermittent behavior from before. I think perhaps there is something going on with the contacts. I had these all gold plated by Switronix a few years ago as I had had other issues with RED brick's standard contacts.

So, it's not out of the realm of possibility that you have some battery issues. In my case, I would have guessed lemo connector before the batteries so I was surprised.

Now, as far as the other camera and the on board software, sorry to hear you have had issues with both cameras. RED will get you sorted.
 
We've had many accessories running off PTap plates with the camera without issues, but in rare cases where there has been I work backwards from the easiest swap out points and sometimes it can be a battery or even poor PTap cables (or Lemo if you're running that config but sounds like you're DSMC2 cable less). Current draw & distribution can be severely impacted by a simple cable and it's definitely worth ruling those things out before considering an issue with the brain itself.
 
Thank you everyone for your input. I am running cableless and all Red Products - no 3rd party plates or batteries. The only item made by another manufacturer is the Teradek cube.
 
Also, I'm on a plane now finishing up a data transfer and I double, triple checked my simultaneous recording settings for ProRes AND .R3Ds - The ProRes is nowhere to be found. I can definitely see this as a user error. Any insights?
 
Steve Sherrick said:
I recently had something interesting happen with my R1 where I was getting intermittent shutdowns. I figured it must be the battery plate because the camera would remain powered when using AC power. Maybe a bad Lemo connector. But then I tried multiple battery plates and all of a sudden I couldn't even power up at all. AC power still worked but none of the battery plates would work any more. Was perplexed. Tried another battery, same thing. Then tried a third battery, and it worked. Some more testing and I determined it was the two batteries. Even though they show full charge, they are not powering up the camera and were probably responsible for the intermittent behavior from before. I think perhaps there is something going on with the contacts. I had these all gold plated by Switronix a few years ago as I had had other issues with RED brick's standard contacts.

So, it's not out of the realm of possibility that you have some battery issues. In my case, I would have guessed lemo connector before the batteries so I was surprised.

Now, as far as the other camera and the on board software, sorry to hear you have had issues with both cameras. RED will get you sorted.
Click to expand...


When using ronin we somtimes power camera from a V lock sitting on the back of the armorman. Then when the camera ac by mistake plugged the dtap cable going from the battery plate to camera straight into the battery d tap and not the battery plate our weapon behaved very odd as it was not getting enough power out of that port on our blueshape graphites.

Simply the camera worked but shut down unexpectedly and had issues with the gui not showing the histogram and other quirks. Also playback did not work.

So to me this very much sounds like battery issues especially if there where problems with two cameras after each other.

So I would:
First test with different battery.
then look if it runs with no issues using a ac adapter.
Then if it still has issues check the connectors of your power module possibly greaze them with conector fluid. try with different moduel, base i/o or such. and then if it still does not run properly you might have a brain issue.
 
most likely a battery issue, i had this exact same thing happening on two batteries from switronix, had to send them in and got new ones in return, no problems after that so far.
 
Nick Morrison said:
We've also noticed that not all batteries are made the same, and are considering a jump to Blueshape.
Click to expand...

Yes, When I bought my blueshape from their agent here in town they told me Graphite is the battery model for weapon. And even though he did not tell my straight up, it was not hard to tell that they have had some trouble with their other battery models that where not built for the high consumption.
 
Also think it's probably the batteries. I bought two Kayo Maxtar 177 wh batteries to use on my Osee monitor. They have an on-battery charger which makes them heavier than most. Tried them on the WEAPON while waiting for the new RED slim v-mounts and found if I bumped them accidentally I could experience a non-scheduled shutdown.

Don't know if the fault lies with the battery connectors, the battery weight, or the base v-lock expander (doubtful)... I've had no problems with the battery/v-mount on the Osee so far, but that doesn't move while powered up.
 
Brian Liepe said:
The operating system on the 1st weapon crashed, rendering the camera unusable.
Click to expand...


That is an unusual one. I have had a Forged CF since November and it has been rock solid. I don't use any d-tap accessories, but I have had an OMOD Command for a while, which consumes a lot of juice to power the 3D LUTs and other cool stuff inside. I have that an the 7" LCD. I have the Redvolt XL module on mine since I only use Redvolt XL batteries. If your camera goes down again, hit me up, I live in the area. Hopefully your issues get sorted out though and don't need a backup.
 
I had a random power down on set a few weeks ago. MG Weapon. Shut down our set for two hours while a replacement body was sent to us. We tried everything. Stripping everything off the camera. AC power only. Then only random and intermittent power ups - but the display was very erratic and full of all kinds of artifacts. We let the body sit for 20 mins powered down. Then tried powering up. Nothing. Camera was shipped to RED. Their diagnosis - "a faulty component was replaced". So these ticking time bombs do exist. Frightening really. I'm giving Red the benefit of the doubt. In the 8 years I've owned Red's - this is the first major on set shut down I've had. I'll trust they fixed it.
 
Hey Brian, sorry to hear about your troubles - I know how frustrating that must be...

I am also leaning towards battery issue. You have mentioned that you are using RED BRICK - how old is that battery and how heavily was it used in that time? All batteries have only certain number of times they can be put through re-charge cycle. This number can be drastically shorted when the battery is abused. Letting it run all the way to empty, keeping it in a hot car during summer, etc... - all these (and many others) contribute to shortening of a battery's life span. Such a battery would then behave as you are describing - not providing sufficient current to run the camera and the accessories. So as Björn and other have suggested - try other batteries and also try running the camera from mains using the AC power supply. If you are still having problems even when using the AC power - most definitely follow up with RED via the support ticket path...

I hope you can resolve this soon...

P
 
Elsie N said:
Also think it's probably the batteries. I bought two Kayo Maxtar 177 wh batteries to use on my Osee monitor. They have an on-battery charger which makes them heavier than most. Tried them on the WEAPON while waiting for the new RED slim v-mounts and found if I bumped them accidentally I could experience a non-scheduled shutdown.

Don't know if the fault lies with the battery connectors, the battery weight, or the base v-lock expander (doubtful)... I've had no problems with the battery/v-mount on the Osee so far, but that doesn't move while powered up.
Click to expand...

I have the same issue with those same batteries. I think it may be the size of the holes for the power connectors are too big as I have other batteries that are as heavy which don't have the issue. So, I know it's the battery and something to do with the connector.
 
Had this same issue today for the first time. Happened multiple times, luckily never while recording. Redvolt XL batts and not a temperature issue. Latest firmware. Magnesium weapon.
 
Hi everyone,

thank you so much for contributing to this thread! After A LOT of testing, I determined that I had a bad batch of Red Bricks - they were a few years old and couldn't hold a charge. I tested brand new generic bricks and the camera didn't like them either, powering down in the middle of menu commands. I purchased a set of brand new Red Bricks and everything works beautifully. It was such a relief! Thanks again for all of your suggestions!
 
I love my Redvolt XL batteries and the XL module. It's cableless, has great ergonomics and so far it's been an rock solid powering solution for my Weapon CF. I had a D-tap to two pin Lemo cable made for the AUX port in the back of the XL Module, so it runs a wireless follow focus and teradeck flawlessly, as well as the 7"cableless touch screen and old 5" touch screen all at the same time!

I also have an old MG1 Concepts AB plate I kept from my Epic setup and can use Anton Bauer batteries, and have used it to power my weapon, with very few complaints about that. My hope is that Red doubles the capacity of the XL batteries sometime in the future, but even still with just three XL batteries I can run all those things I mentioned above, all day long, if i keep the other two batteries on constant charge.
 
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