redmag 1.8 any speed differences using "usb power" vs Dc power?

[Joel Arvidsson]

I wonder if there is a point to use the dc input to the redmag 1.8? Its much more convenient to just use the usb cable to power it if its the same speed. The other option is to use two usb to power the redmag but I rather use them for the location disks.

I have no dc cable for the swedish dc outlets... dont know why red does not include them as the us dc cable is included.

Tired of carrying the basestattion around just to power the red 1.8 mag. But I think its better to trust this then just the usb bus power. Is the usb, as reliable and fast as the dc option?

 

[Todd T]

I did an 18 day shoot with a red mag 1.8 connected to ESATA with USB power and had no problems with speed.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

I did an 18 day shoot with a red mag 1.8 connected to ESATA with USB power and had no problems with speed.

So you used the esata cable plus the the usb to dc power it? Could you not just used the esata or do esata not carry any power?

 

[Todd T]

Correct, ESATA carries no power.

 

[Shane Kelly]

Esata doesn't carry power. I use the USB power all of the time, works fine. I would think that there's no speed difference between the two.

 

[Todd T]

The older (larger) red mag stations need the additional power (USB or wall-wart) to operate.
The smaller ones with USB 3.0 work just fine with one cable.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

I have the old version. Seams to work fine on usb power but i have littke priblem to trust it.

 

[Rob Anderson]

The only REDMAG Station power issues we've had were via USB 3 with the 512 GB mags. Those required the DC power cable. The other mags worked via bus power only with no problems and no discernible decrease in transfer rates.

 

[Björn Benckert]

I think the power cable is only needed when you daisy chain a few cardreaders or use esata without USB.

 

[Ryan De Franco]

Use AC power whenever you can. USB is reliable if that's all your doing. Try not to share the USB bus with other devices if you're doing intensive transferring.

A client of mine was downloading 5K Epic, 5K Canon Timelapse, GoPro Timelapse, and Ikonoskop 1080 Uncompressed all through one laptop and had issues with corruption due to the massive throughput from all the different card readers. Strongly suspect DIT's powering of card readers via USB bus power was part of the issue.

Your USB esata firewire etc cables are like the machines running your film development tank.... they deserve the same precision science and white glove handling as the lab scientists use...

Ideally you want a UPS providing 100% clean power via AC that will kick over to battery backup if the power to your drives and card reader suddenly dies for whatever reason. I have seen it happen on set where DIT insisted on being plugged into the studio wall rather than the distro, the director's iPhone was plugged into the same studio wall circuit, and when just that charger was unplugged DIT lost LiveGrade picture, drives, backup, everything. Just from unplugging an iPhone. Get a UPS and never worry about this**** again.