DR 680 Battery Question

[enjoyfebruary]

1 minute ago, IronFilm said:

What cavets did you come across with the DR680? 

In just a general sense? Or specifically about powering it?

[Hugh Palmer]

The main problem I had was simply a lack of meta data usability and no timecode. Otherwise with a 552 as a front end I found it a pretty decent little machine. 

[enjoyfebruary]

2 minutes ago, Hugh Palmer said:

The main problem I had was simply a lack of meta data usability and no timecode. Otherwise with a 552 as a front end I found it a pretty decent little machine. 

Agreed. Never had an issue with mine. 

[IronFilm]

On 7/8/2016 at 6:32 AM, enjoyfebruary said:

In just a general sense? Or specifically about powering it?

Curious as to what specific caveats there are when it comes to powering it that I need to watch out for?

At the moment I am using this ("Feelworld FW4600BP Rechargeable one Battery Pack 12V 4600mAh for Camera Monitor"):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141802274265

 

[Rick Reineke]

1. As I recall, when the external battery gets real low, the machine will exiit record and stop w/o saving the file. AND the take counter reverts to previous arbitrary. If this goes unnoticed, it will overwrite the previous files WITHOUT warning. 

2. If a new folder is selected and no file is written to it, if the machine is shut down, it reverts to the previous folder.

OTOH, if the power connection is pulled (by accident or otherwise ) it switches to the internal batteries w/o issue.. and the display's back light will extinguish (if so set).. an unintended warning system.

I don't currently recall a few other odd behavior issues since it was in 2013 I used the 680. Other than that, it performed splendidly. I used it in conjunction with a 442 and fed the #5 and 6 radio tracks line level. It's also one of the few machines that totally bypasses the mic preamps in line level. The SD card can also be hot-swapped as another consolation.

Make sure the latest firmware is installed which makes resetting the take counter much easier.

[Tom Duffy]

2 hours ago, Rick Reineke said:

1. As I recall, when the external battery gets real low, the machine will exiit record and stop w/o saving the file. AND the take counter reverts to previous arbitrary. If this goes unnoticed, it will overwrite the previous files WITHOUT warning. 

 

Although it would be designed differently now, when the DR-680 was created, that input was designed only to be used with the 12V AC power adapter, so it has no monitoring for gradual voltage decay that would happen when you feed it with an external battery based supply.  As you note, If you always have internal batteries installed, the auto-switch over mitigates the issue.

[Tom Duffy]

On 7/12/2016 at 7:23 AM, Rick Reineke said:

 

2. If a new folder is selected and no file is written to it, if the machine is shut down, it reverts to the previous folder.

 

Noted, and this will be fixed in the next firmware version (currently in testing) for the DR-680 and DR-680mkII.

[IronFilm]

On 7/13/2016 at 2:23 AM, Rick Reineke said:

OTOH, if the power connection is pulled (by accident or otherwise ) it switches to the internal batteries w/o issue.. and the display's back light will extinguish (if so set).. an unintended warning system.

 

 

On 7/13/2016 at 5:05 AM, Tom Duffy said:

As you note, If you always have internal batteries installed, the auto-switch over mitigates the issue.

Ah, so is *very* important it sounds to have charged internal batteries in the DR680!