Remote Location Data Wrangling

[Will Keir]

I'll be shooting with my crew in remote locations and I need a way to store footage from my 320GB Red Drive and 2x 16GB (lexar) FLash Cards using my 2010 17" MacBook Pro and field drive like my G-Tech Raid Mini.

I was hoping to run a system through the bus powered FW800 port and avoid the need for a power station of some sort, but I tried to daisy chain the field drive and the RED drive and the RED drive would randomly eject itself, then mount up again. I'm thinking because the single FW800 port on the MBP can't provide enough power for two hard drives simultaneously.

Anyone out there, if your doing what I'm doing and it's working, would you please share your method and any suggestions?

Thanks a ton,

Will Keir

 

[Mark Stock]

Red Drives should not be bus powered.

 

[Anson Fogel]

Deal with this a lot

Deal with this a lot

We've dealt with this a lot on shoots where we are without power for days and weeks. Of course, the default is to shoot drives without formatting until you get to power - I've never had a problem with a drive (use a FRESH new cable) on camera, never. Only bad used cables, and problems during Xfer. So we have shot to a drive for 3 days without backup when no other good option existed.

That said, you HAVE to get a remote power system and plug in power supplied for RED drives, Laptop and Gtechs: here is out system:

Remote, waterproof pelican with sealed gel battery, solar charge controller (in same case) and watertight input/output quick connectors
Military 120W flexible solar panel, folds up super small, bombproof
2 Gtech 1TB raids
MacBook Pro 17
Esata adapter for MBP
Dual FW800 Lexar Card readers - use one per card to deal with heat buildup and swap
Very Small portable inverter with 2 120V plugs
Power strip
All this (except power / battery case) fits in a field data and power peli case

Charge battery pack whenever the sun is out diligently
Charge MBP fully from power system, then unplug
Plug in strip, gtech raids and RED drive power supply (do NOT run RED drives from bus power)
Plug all into MBPro
use R3D data manager current version, copy data to Gtechs - run MBP on its battery, drives from the power system (can't run at same time without an inverter and battery that get too big to be portable, but no problem)
Verify all shots are clean in Clipfinder or using proxies on laptop by playing each all the way through

Repeat.

 

[Anson Fogel]

Oh, the alternative to all this is to simply have enough red CF cards to shoot while away from mains power without a reformat and care for the cards like they are your children. We've done that by renting cards.

 

[joe hedge]

How are you going to charge the camera batteries?

Never really understood the whole bus-powered GRaid Mini thing, it drains the laptop battery pretty quick, then what?

 

[Anson Fogel]

The Gtech raids are NOT bus powered, we use the 120V power adapters and plug them into mains power or in remote power the inverter. Power NOTHING off the laptop (except card readers).

We use the same system to charge red batteries.

We did all this on the Grand Canyon, shot every day for 22 days without ever seeing power or a generator. Used the same system in Ecuador, and other places...

 

[Erich Ocean]

here is our system:
[snip]

Anson, thanks for this detailed info! Very informative.

 

[Will Keir]

Red Drives should not be bus powered.

HUmm..? When I talked to RED tech support they told me the FW800 RED drive is bus powered and not to plug in the power cord. They said the power cord is only for USB.

I guess the dual power from the fw800 bus and the power cord can cause damage from too much power? Because they told me this, I've been avoiding plugging the power and 800 cables at the same time like I've been avoiding store bought salmonella eggs.

I don't want to damage or destroy my 320GB RED drive.

Anyone have a definitive answer on this conflict?

 

[Will Keir]

Remote, waterproof pelican with sealed gel battery, solar charge controller (in same case) and watertight input/output quick connectors

Is this a pelican case you bought and modified or is this something you can purchase? I'd like to see some pictures of your setup if you have a chance.

Thank you for all the helpful information, it is much appreciated.

Best,

 

[Curran Giddens]

I don't want to damage or destroy my 320GB RED drive.

Anyone have a definitive answer on this conflict?

It is now recommended you use non-powered FireWire cables along with the AC adapter. That way you aren't on bus power and you won't have any power going through the FireWire cable to worry about.

 

[Anson Fogel]

Will,

The power system was purchased from Barry at PowerEnz - don't even THINK about another OTS solution, I tried them. Barry's systems are the only thing beyond building one yourself that really do the deal. He has a lot of info and options on his website, and his service is great - he'll make what you need.

The potions of my system that I got from Barry are:
Flexible solar panel
Pelican case w/battery, integrated solar charger and waterproof 12V inputs and outputs, with quick connect female cigarette plug adapters that fit into the case when not in use.

I bought the micro inverter from another source.

http://www.powerenz.com/store/

 

[Johnny Friday]

Most of my work is out in the field either on a boat, camped in the jungle, desert or mountains.....some key items in my kit when out in the field are:

*EU1000 generator for power
*standard red kit
*Affordable USB back up HDD's -- but recently FW800 drives.
(i personally do not use the RED Power adapter to avoid ANY possibility of problems or damage) I've used them in the past and find that i ALWAYS have plenty of time to back up drives so the power adapter really does not offer me much benefit.
*MOST IMPORTANT: I ALWAYS take in the field, on a boat or to any place that i do not know the exact power source ratings....if it's 115v or in the case of boats and Mexico....can spike to 125 to 135 volts causing damage to computers, hard drives etc.... Power Regulator. Not a surge protector plastic power strip---i find those NEVER work and have burned out plenty of gear using them and they just fry. But a heavy duty voltage regulator---with a heavy magnet inside....the heavier the better.

Here's a pic of our download/viewing station while camped out for a week on an island in Micronesia.

 

[Von Thomas]

There have been cases where the FW 800 port has failed in a laptop due to the the use of a RED Drive without a power cable. ALWAYS USE THE POWER ADAPTER WHEN USING THE RED DRIVE'S FW 800 PORT FOR TRANSFER!!!

 

[Nir Shelter]

Where to start?
Kind of feels a bit cheap posting so much information that took me years much experience, trial, error and experimentation to figure out.
But for the sake of the greater good:

Never ever no matter what you do rely on luck cause like most ladies she will change her mind at some point.
This means always back up your media CF or HDD no matter the cost I can not emphasize this enough DO NOT leave a Red drive or CF not backed up for more than a few setups much less a day.

I very often use a power inverter from a car running into a UPS if this is not possible then a solar powered charger + gel battery into a UPS.

There is no way around using a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) the lightest I have is a 500VA UPS it is a power surge protector and battery back up that will last up to ~8 min when running my full data kit if the power is cut. Naturally for larger setups I have larger UPSes but this one weighs 6 KG and is 26CM/27CM/8CM it is the smallest most robust one I could find. Worked in the desert (Australia gets kind of hot in the desert...) by the sea and in the city with out fail.
It is a Powerware 5110 series made by Eaton;

http://powerware.eaton.com/Products-services/Backup-Power-UPS/5110.aspx?cx=22

Or

http://powerware.eaton.com/UPS/selector/SolutionOverview.asp

As for the FW800 port question do not power the Red drives off the FW800 port use a power disconnected FW800 cable from USB FIRWE.COM;

http://www.USBFireWire.com

They are very helpful and have some great products that make our life easier and safer. Use the drives power adapter and one of these cables to guarantee the most protection of the FW800 port on your drive.

As for field raids there are a few options out there such as Stardom, Taurus and G-Tech. Either will be good best to power them of AC as well rather than get a G-Tech mini raid and try a daisy chain off the FW800 port as you discovered it might not be able to support the load.

Use an Expresscard 34 to Esata adapter there are many out there but my preference is Silicon Image 3132 chipset. Has worked great and proved to last long with no errors you should be able to achieve a read of ~110MB/sec when reading the checksums or R3D files. You wont be able to do so with FW800.

Be sure to perform a 3-way check on all media involving a checksum/R3D visual spot check and an OS check as well (folder size number of files etc...).
I have over the years caught out errors by each on of these checks that the others didn't pickup on. Use what ever software you like as long as these checks are performed.
By the way a visual spot check means looking at the R3D not the proxies. The proxies are meaningless when it comes to data integrity checks, talking from experience of getting corrupt R3D with good proxies.

Hope this helps,
Nir.