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Lectro SRc field reports?


jonathan chiles

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On 12/3/2016 at 3:39 PM, Travis Williamson said:

There was a long thread on the Australian Sound Recordists and Boom Operators FB page describing a similar problem with the SRC as pictured above. The Original Poster made many videos from his tests, experimenting with the anomaly. It was fascinating and very sad to watch. Perhaps there was a 'bad' early batch?

Would you mind please linking to that Facebook group? As I can't seem to find it. 

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  • 3 months later...

Good afternoon, all,

The SRC problems reported early on centered on vulnerability to high power sources in the 450 band - typically walkie talkies.  There was a fairly high incidence of reports involving A1, fewer for B1 and even fewer for the C1 band.  Keep in mind that since each involves a different group of frequencies, each is a discrete design with variances in components.   In September, the A1's were resolved with a systemic RF board design change.  The fewer B1 units we received got a change up of a number of components to correct them - it wasn't pandemic in the B1 band - most seemed great but a few had hiccups.   The C1's were even fewer in number and in some cases the fixes that helped in the lower bands weren't as effective.   B1 and C1 have the same basic board revs.  It's hard to determine the serial numbers involved (like a changeover point) because we went back and upgraded a number of units in stock that were not sequential.  So, we have been handling it on an as needed basis for units exhibiting issues.  As always, our engineers can never leave a design alone for long and we have been working on continued improvements for the SRC due to some export frequency bands from which we learned new tricks and incorporated that in to new board spins.  

So, officially, we feel the A1 and B1 bands are now solid.  C1 is also very good but randomly we encounter one or two that hiccups - we are getting very good at catching that in QC. (Half the battle was duplicating the circumstances)  If you are having issues, contact our service department - it a warranty thing.   Units going out the door - as testified by many happy users now - are working well.  

Just remember, not all interference problems are traceable to the design corrections we have found.  Often it is environmental coming from a source that we don't know about.  The coordination looks good but there is another unknown RF source in the neighborhood that just messes with everything.  My point is that not every symptom is the result of early design glitches - but regardless, you know we will take care of you.

Larry will hunt me down otherwise - and he gets especially grumpy without his hammock time.............

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45 minutes ago, alenK said:

Thank you. I greatly appreciate Lectro's ability to share this info. I find the open and honest disclosure to be reassuring and it bolsters my confidence in the brand and its products. Thank you.

+100%

One of my favorite things about the company is that they are always active and honest on this forum and that we always get the answers we need.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/2/2016 at 7:51 PM, jhop said:

i am afraid i have bad news to report with my src experience. there are issues present in these units. i work with a cameraman who has his own hops he likes me to use. the rate stays the same so im happy to oblige. i have used my srbs and his audio limited transmitters for years with zero issues. since 'upgrading' to the src, i am getting random rf dropouts and hits, i lost a line with talent when a hit came out of nowhere. i have gone back to the srb being my main unit and the src as number two....there is something problematic happening that is beyond my ability to solve in the src.....i am including pics below to show the difference in what the src and srb are receiving in interference in my bag setup072a41b2e6817454096ae45bd1e09b1c.jpg


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Same issues here. I probably need to send them in. What's the turnaround time for updates?

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  • 3 months later...

Hey All, 

Just wanted to keep this thread going and updated as I recently had issues with an SRC-C1 and interference with Walkies and much lower range than my SRC-A1 and SRB block 26.  I contacted Lectro for service and received this reply few days ago:

 

Hello, unfortunately it has recently been discovered that some SRC-B1 and SRC-C1 receivers are exhibiting unusual RF anomalies.  Our engineers are working tirelessly to come up with a resolution.  Please keep checking in with us every week or so for updates.

 

Rene Rodriguez

Sales & Technical Consulting

Lectrosonics, Inc.

 

Has anyone sent theirs back and gotten it fixed or did you get a similar reply?  If anyone hears anything please keep us posted.

 

Thanks!

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Here's a thought about the SRc software, and forgive me if it had been covered already. 

Smarttune: Once you scan to find your perfect frequency, the number only blinks once or twice on the screen. Then it goes away and asks you to sync. Great if you're using LTs. Bad if you're using SMs. By the time you reach down to set your transmitter the number has disappeared. 

 

Click click and you're back to the home screens to find your new frequency and then back into the smarttune feature a second time for the 2nd channel. 

 

Was this all intentional?

 

cheers

adam

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Hey All, 
Just wanted to keep this thread going and updated as I recently had issues with an SRC-C1 and interference with Walkies and much lower range than my SRC-A1 and SRB block 26.  I contacted Lectro for service and received this reply few days ago:
 

Hello, unfortunately it has recently been discovered that some SRC-B1 and SRC-C1 receivers are exhibiting unusual RF anomalies.  Our engineers are working tirelessly to come up with a resolution.  Please keep checking in with us every week or so for updates.

 

Rene Rodriguez

Sales & Technical Consulting

Lectrosonics, Inc.

 

Has anyone sent theirs back and gotten it fixed or did you get a similar reply?  If anyone hears anything please keep us posted.

 

Thanks!


Nice that Lectro are finally admitting there are issues, when I was having issues with mine they seemed to insinuate that I was using the gear incorrectly or that their gear was performing as intended. I returned mine for a SRB some time ago.


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  • 2 weeks later...

This is for Larry, or one of his engineers. 

 

I have one SR-C that I use in my kit with 411a and PSC RF Multi. 

 

I seem to experience higher RF sensitivity with the SR-C compared to the 411a. That is, it exhibits RF overload way before the 411 do. In a complex multi Radio mic situation (20-30 mics) it's hard to balance what the SR-C needs as against the 411. 

 

It also suffers from two way radio interference in a random way. When stands in front of me and keys on sometimes there is no interference, sometimes one frequency will drop out, but at another "key on" a different frequency will be effected. 

 

Getting distance between the antenna and the two way radio helps. 

 

I had thought of replacing all my 411 with SR-C but not really going to move forward with it while there are these problems. 

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Tough decision for me as I am very attached to the reliability of 411s. I am talking about a cart set up where I have 4 x 411 in a rack mount combiner (Lectro UMCWB) As most of you know, we need to have minimum 6 wires on cart setup for most scripted work. One option is to find a used Lectro Six Pack and buy 2 more 411's  But the new tech and compactness of the SRC's is appealing as long as I am not giving up anything...

For a cart setup imho use a venue two hands down


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  • 1 month later...

Had some bizarre issues with my SRC A1 today. SMDWB was the transmitter. Happened at two different locations (15min drive apart). Crew had no walkies. 

 

I had very poor range, even though the selected frequency had no activity at all. 15ft or more away and I'd get the standard RF hiss/hits. By comparison, I had another talent on a Block 21 SMQV with no issues (on a frequency that WASN'T 100% clear). 

 

I was also getting these very strange sounding buzzing/whining noises that would get louder around dialogue, doesn't sound like regular RF issues. Example attached. 10DDT03_4.wav

 

I changed frequency, to another block in fact, didn't solve either issue. I had to pull the SMDWB and switch to a Block 21 SMQV/SRB combo. 

 

Not sure if the problem is the SRC or the SMDWB, will do more tests tomorrow. 

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788, 1x SRB, powered by audioroot.

 

G3 transmitter as hop/IFB in band B so 100mhz away and on the other side of the bag. Still, I tried turning it off, didn’t fix the range issues though I can’t tell if it was connected to the weird sound I attached.

 

 

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