Ronin smoking

[Luke Rihl]

Hey all,

Ive used my DJI focus on my ronin a million times and never had an issue. Last night I went to use it on a friends ronin, he has one of the cheaper made version 2 ones with the hard foam case. He had never used the Ptaps on his ronin before because he's mostly doing DSLR stuff. So I plug the gear in, turn on the ronin, and the power box on the bottom of the ronin starts smoking..I immediately shut it down. Now my focus gear gets no power at all. Tried both cables and Ptap directly from a switronix battery and nothing. Any ideas of what happened? Is this thing totally fried now? I found another instance online of this exact scenario happening but much worse, where the Ptap on one of the newer ronins completely melted a cable. Didn't see anything like this in the DJI focus thread. Any one have any information they can add? I have to be due a replacement focus, right? Thing is 6 months old.

 

[Zachary Abitz]

Sounds like maybe the p/d tap was plugged in to the wrong polarities. I've heard of this happening but never understood how considering the shape of the p/d tap ends but people do it. Heard about a guy getting his Flanders monitor fried by his first AC plugging it in wrong.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Yeah a couple of my accessories have been fried by novices somehow with the ptaps.

 

[Nick Gardner]

Biggest cause for letting the smoke out of the electronics is reversed polarity. Always look and line them up. Blind stabbing in is bad.

Nick

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

But color coded tape on the port and cable

 

[ericyoung]

P/D-tap connectors have rather loose tolerances - especially if not from the same manufacturer. Is your friend's Ronin OK?

Always, always double check polarities on these connectors!

IF in doubt, use a multimeter to check polarities. I think I even read somewhere that Panavision & Arri had opposite polarities on some of their power cabling(may be one of those myths) - so be doubly careful if renting from more than one rental house and/or interfacing your gear with someone else's!

 

[Nick Gardner]

No myth. Arri 3 pin 24v power is the opposite polarity from Panavision 3 pin 24v power.

Nick

 

[Luke Rihl]

Thanks for the replies all. My friend's Ronin is fine, although I have not tested the port since the smoking occurred. To the people suggesting polarity, let me clarify. I personally plugged it in, the correct way. I'm very familiar with polarity issues, regularly using Bartech and Taradek in the same setup. Afterward I even went back and tried plugging it in backwards while everything was turned off to see if it would start to slide in, thinking maybe I had a moment of stupidity..not a chance. You'd have to get a hammer if you wanted to fit this plug in the wrong away. Like I said, my friend had never used the Ptap ports on his gimbal before. That being said..whats the possibility that the port on the ronin was factory wired with the polarity reversed? Really not sure what else it could be..6 month old follow focus with fresh cables, totally fried. Regardless, any suggestions on a repair short of sending it back to China?

 

[Bill Totolo]

The cable itself could have been wired to arri standard instead of US standard (straight vs. reverse polarity). Have you checked the cable?

 

[ericyoung]

... That being said..whats the possibility that the port on the ronin was factory wired with the polarity reversed? Really not sure what else it could be..6 month old follow focus with fresh cables, totally fried. Regardless, any suggestions on a repair short of sending it back to China?

Get a multimeter on the Ronin port, if the Ronin output is still working that is.

 

[Fabio Lanzone]

Get a multimeter on the Ronin port, if the Ronin output is still working that is.

And if not, the replacement board is only 150$.

But... are there two versions of the original Ronin? I have the one with the red colored case, is this the only difference or the newer is also cheaper made?

 

[Gene Sung]

Thanks for the replies all. My friend's Ronin is fine, although I have not tested the port since the smoking occurred. To the people suggesting polarity, let me clarify. I personally plugged it in, the correct way. I'm very familiar with polarity issues, regularly using Bartech and Taradek in the same setup. Afterward I even went back and tried plugging it in backwards while everything was turned off to see if it would start to slide in, thinking maybe I had a moment of stupidity..not a chance. You'd have to get a hammer if you wanted to fit this plug in the wrong away. Like I said, my friend had never used the Ptap ports on his gimbal before. That being said..whats the possibility that the port on the ronin was factory wired with the polarity reversed? Really not sure what else it could be..6 month old follow focus with fresh cables, totally fried. Regardless, any suggestions on a repair short of sending it back to China?

IMO, you have to really, really try hard to plug a P-Tap in backwards. I've purposely tried on a number of device to plug it in backwards (OFF, of course) and I have never been able to get it to go in no matter how hard I pressed. So unless someone is super determined to plug it in backwards, probably not the issue.

EDIT: I spoke too soon. I just got a new D-Tap cable and tried plugging it into my FS7 Swit battery backwards and it went in pretty easy, LOL. I will add, the port on the specific battery looks a bit large and it's my only battery that goes in backwards easily. But I doubt the OP plugged it the D-Tap in wrong as he seems to know what's up.

 

[Luke Rihl]

Got a multimeter on the Ronin today, ports are fine. Opened up the cable, wiring is fine. Really stumped. Opened up the follow focus gear, smells like something is toasted but its too deep to find. Top boards are fine but I guess it will have to be replaced.

 

[ericyoung]

It could just be coincidence with a fault.

A short circuit in your focus gear draws too much current, overheating the wires in the Ronin which start smoking (usually white smoke of insulation melting).

Looks like you were lucky to disconnect fast enough that the Ronin wiring survived - having said that your friend should maybe get the Ronin's internal wiring checked in case the insulation is so damaged that it's on the edge of a short circuit.