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sweat on lma (lectro) transmitter


cinetj

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Hello everyone,

 

I'shooting now in one  of the hottest places in Brazil. Yesterday, I guess I paid the price. I started listening some static noise coming from one of my lma transmitters. I went to check out and somehow sweat got into the lma connector. It looked really nasty, some blue/green stuff. I've cleaned with alcohol; afterwards I drank some also. It looks much better this morning and it functions properly, but I don't want to keep my expectations too high. The green stuff means it has oxidized, right? Death sentence for the lma?

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Hi Cinetj,

Cleaning the connector is correct. Sweat probably ran down the cable, into the 5 pin. At this point, there is no reason to believe the transmitter is a goner.  In the future, either put a drip loop in the cable or run the transmitter upside down. (connector down). Some contact lubricant sprayed into the connector may hold back moisture in the future, however, I have little or no experience with such stuff. This is the reason for that awkward rubber boot on the mic wire on the SM series. A condom or equivalent over the entire transmitter with the wires facing down should be a total solution also.

 

Perhaps some users with real world experience can chime in.

Best,

Larry F

Lectro

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I on the other hand have practical experience with cleaning with alcohol and then drinking some!!!!

 

Seriously folks....I have had transmitters and at least one LMa in particular be so soaked in sweat, they did indeed start to produce some static.  A good cleaning that night of the connector, after I left it dry, did the trick.  The upside down mounting was my norm after that.  The transmitter has never given me a problem.  

 

cleve

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Hi Cinetj

I've had the same experience, except my transmitters were on sweaty hockey players. The condom on the transmitter broke.

I guess they weren't invented for that kind of protection. Rubber gloves work very well, but are bulkier.

Back to the transmitter. I cleaned them up as you did and mine have been fine.

Good luck

Peter

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Larry what do you mean by drip loop?

Let the cable droop down from the transmitter before proceeding up to the lavaliere. If sweat drips down the cable it falls off before ir can turn and go up the cable to the 5 pin. The best solution is still to turn the transmitter upside down. That forces a drip loop. So a drip loop is anytime a cable goes below a connector and then comes back up for a very short distance.

Best Regards,

Larry F

Lecro

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I feel kind of relieved. Thank you Larry and everyone else.  These are great advices that I'll be sure to follow from now on.

About the green/blue stuff, do you know what it is exactly?

That is corrosion of the connector contacts is due to the small voltages on the pins interacting with the salt, etc,. in the sweat. The green is typical of copper corrosion. Hopefully most of it occurred in TA5F mic plug, not the TA5M transmitter jack. You can inspect the male pins in the TA5M to see how much damage there is. If there isn't much visible, just keep the jack clean with alcohol.

Best,

Larry F

Lectro

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