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Tiny antenna for Nomad?


bendybones

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14 hours ago, Jose Frias said:

Correct, active amp. It has a DC jack on one of the sides, and I have a power cable wired to hirose to power off of my Audioroot distro. It's very low power draw, about 100mA. It's a 1W amp, OEM by Sunhans for Sound Guys Solutions, but specially tuned and filtered to work with Zaxnet.

I have done some very unscientific tests, and have found there to be 25-50% range increase overall with just a rubber duckie straight on the amp. More impressive though is the better reception through walls and other hard surfaces. I'm using it on my current show to transmit audio and timecode to cameras and haven't had a single drop out in audio according to camera operators, even with some of them being in other rooms or areas, though I haven't been over 50 feet away from them either.

I would imagine that a different / directional antenna would maybe provide increased range towards a specific direction, but on this show cameras can be in any direction so probably not ideal for me right now. I remember seeing Sam Kashefi post a small directional antenna not long ago, it looked good.

This is such good news and I am sure it will be great on carts too with an L-Com antenna. The DC power draw will be way more elegant than what I currently have. All in all a winner without even trying it. When can we expect to lay our hands on these?

Tony

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tony Johnson said:

This is such good news and I am sure it will be great on carts too with an L-Com antenna. The DC power draw will be way more elegant than what I currently have. All in all a winner without even trying it. When can we expect to lay our hands on these?

Tony

 

 

Why not just get on Ebay and buy one?

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5 minutes ago, Wandering Ear said:

That's great to hear that it's such low power draw.  Does it put out a lot of heat?

 

Less than a watt and a half? I doubt there is any heat. 

2 hours ago, Tony Johnson said:

This is such good news and I am sure it will be great on carts too with an L-Com antenna. The DC power draw will be way more elegant than what I currently have. All in all a winner without even trying it. When can we expect to lay our hands on these?

Tony

 

 

Tony, What does "elegant" mean in current draw terms?

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100ma x 12v = 1.2 watts of power dissipation and would radiate the same amount of heat as a 1.2w light bulb.  However, how that 1.2w is dissipated via the chassis would affect how it feels to the touch at any given point.

Remember, Ohm's Law is for your protection!  Support your local Electromotive Force.

 

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50 minutes ago, Constantin said:


I'm not sure you've been following the conversation...

I would be curious to see how the one on ebay compares to the particular test piece here. 

3 hours ago, Wandering Ear said:

I disagree.  I have seen 1 watt rf amps that put out a lot of heat.

Are you saying the amount of current pulled was 1 watt? How was that measured?

1 hour ago, AnuarYahya said:

all this heat chatter makes me wonder how the body copes with such bombardment of microwaves.. I mean I'm probably still going to buy one anyways, but still.. 

Yes, me too. When I was a kid the microwave ovens really put out a lot. Made me not want to stand in front while it was cooking.

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1 hour ago, Constantin said:

Well yes, but that's not what you said earlier and you were asking the wrong person. 

Anyway, it's not important

I was addressing anyone reading this, and I am not aware of a question. "I would be curious" is not a question. "I wonder is McDonald's still serving horrible "food"." Is not really a question, I guess it could be a rhetorical, we know the answer. Maybe it got lost in translation.

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On August 9, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Tony Johnson said:

When can we expect to lay our hands on these?

Not sure, I think Gene Martin mentioned within the next few months, but don't quote me on that.

On August 9, 2016 at 4:31 PM, MartinTheMixer said:

Why not just get on Ebay and buy one?

Because the Ebay ones are not specifically tuned for zaxnet, and they're all 2 and 3W amps.

On August 9, 2016 at 5:35 PM, Wandering Ear said:

That's great to hear that it's such low power draw.  Does it put out a lot of heat?

 

It does get hot, but not too hot that would be concerning. Reminds me actually of how hot the QRXs can get.

On August 9, 2016 at 8:51 PM, AnuarYahya said:

all this heat chatter makes me wonder how the body copes with such a bombardment of microwaves.. I mean I'm probably still going to buy one anyways, but still.. 

This is still a concern, but I guess I've chosen to be oblivious to it for the sake of getting better zaxnet range from the bag.

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Also, here's a photo that Kashefi posted on the Facebook Zaxcom group regarding his directional Alfa 7dBi antenna:

image.jpeg

Below is the link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZWPRUI?psc=1

This antenna will not work directly into the zaxnet connection on the Nomad as it is reverse polarity. You'll need an adapter (or this amp) to make it work.

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15 hours ago, Jose Frias said:

Not sure, I think Gene Martin mentioned within the next few months, but don't quote me on that.

Because the Ebay ones are not specifically tuned for zaxnet, and they're all 2 and 3W amps.

It does get hot, but not too hot that would be concerning. Reminds me actually of how hot the QRXs can get.

This is still a concern, but I guess I've chosen to be oblivious to it for the sake of getting better zaxnet range from the bag.

If you guys (and girls) could weigh in. What is it about the heat that has you concerned? 

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2 hours ago, MartinTheMixer said:

If you guys (and girls) could weigh in. What is it about the heat that has you concerned? 

I think generally the concern with heat, with any component of our gear, is that heat is an enemy and can often lead to shortened life, reduced performance and failure. Almost every electronic device we use produces heat and each manufacturer has to figure out the best ways to dissipate the heat (heat being a necessary and expected by product of the components and processing in use). There have been times in the past where the manufacturer has not figured out how to deal with heat --- the first StellaDAT got so hot that it would just shut down altogether, making it basically unusable on many jobs. Several of the RED Cameras, unable to deal with their own heat production, have had similar problems. So, bottom line, heat is always something to be concerned with until a piece of gear proves itself to be reliable and not subject to failure.

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37 minutes ago, Jeff Wexler said:

I think generally the concern with heat, with any component of our gear, is that heat is an enemy and can often lead to shortened life, reduced performance and failure. Almost every electronic device we use produces heat and each manufacturer has to figure out the best ways to dissipate the heat (heat being a necessary and expected by product of the components and processing in use). There have been times in the past where the manufacturer has not figured out how to deal with heat --- the first StellaDAT got so hot that it would just shut down altogether, making it basically unusable on many jobs. Several of the RED Cameras, unable to deal with their own heat production, have had similar problems. So, bottom line, heat is always something to be concerned with until a piece of gear proves itself to be reliable and not subject to failure.

Jeff, Thank you. I have taken devices apart before and been really surprised about how pitiful a job the maker has been at heat sinking. I switched from one mixer/recorder to a different one, and the heat went way down, along with wattage usage. Until I switched to the more efficient mixer/recorder, I was considering a huge heat sink attached to the top of the device. I had already inquired with the manufacturer about doing this, because I was concerned about sending all that heat in one direction. That last sentence is poorly worded, but I will leave it there. The manufacturer indicated this would not lead to new problems, but I changed devices, so I did not make the mod.

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