axel

Quicklock would work, but destroys the boom thread and becomes sluggish over time

yes, I had a loose data pin connection in the battery cup/cable joint. The error was intermittent and was actually hard to reproduce by bending the cable. But Audioroot still recommended to replace the battery cup. Finally I did and the problem was gone.

A colleague, whose (old) Ambients still work like new, told me he uses a bycicle grease called "white grease". I thought to be smart and tried the grease provided by Ambient for their threads on the poles (it is also white): Bad idea, all treated Quicklocks got stuck and were only possible to open the way like Johnny Karlsson showed. I cleaned the grease out and they were like before: a princess to open only with the right sense of touch. Now I changed to the Rycotes and ... YES! easy true one hand operation. No fails within first year.

dear all, I have tested the ZMT4 and I am about to go for it with 4 units for booms and car/plant mikes use mostly. I will pair them with a RX-4 standalone receiver. I am a novice to Zaxcom ecosystem and I am wondering, if there is a reasonably slim and straight forward way to establish a Zaxnet connection to 4 ZMT4s for adjusting gain and frequencies. It would be great, if I did not have to dig into menus on receiver for a sole command and also not having to add much weight to the bag. I record to a Cantar X3 and want to stay with it. Will a QRX100 paired with a Zaxmote dongle do the job even if the TX are operating on a different frequency that is not covered on the QRX 100 block? Thank you for recommendations and real word experience

you must take into account the energy efficiency of the battery charging process, which is considerably less than 100%. Proper testing measures the discharge capacity. What the specs say: Eneloop Pros are rated by a minimum guaranteed capacity value, that is usually surpassed in real-life tests. 2600 - 2700 mAhs are realistic values and capacity wise they easily outperform major brand Alkaline batteries. Other big brands like Sanyo also meet their specs, but they lose their charge a little quicker, if the battery is not used immediately. Eneloops will still hold like 90% after a few weeks. With no-name brands the specified capacity is usually overrated by minimum 10% PLUS they will lose their charge pretty quickly when lying on the shelf unused PLUS they will lose their recharging capacity sooner over time. All the same I don't really like the Eneloops, because they have a fatal inclination to dismantle their outer shell much sooner than they lose their charging capacity.

search for chargers with a TEST option: In TEST mode those start charging the battery until it is totally full, switch into discharge and track the ammount of energy that is extracted during the whole discharge cycle, usually in mAh. Afterwards they charge the battery until it is full again and keep displaying the real capacity of the battery, among other parameters. In most cases, they discharge with half current of the charging process. A complete charge - discharge - charge cycle can take more than 24 hs, depending on the current you feed to the battery and its capacity. Like this one: https://www.amazon.de/BC-700-Akku-Microprozessor-Schnellladegerät-schwarz/dp/B000WILI42/ref=asc_df_B000WILI42/?tag=googshopde-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309851262444&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17581102760851636233&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9062727&hvtargid=pla-627944371117&psc=1&th=1&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=65356965287&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=309851262444&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17581102760851636233&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9062727&hvtargid=pla-627944371117

Thanks Joppe for this nice little 8-bay NP-50 chargers. I was surprised they work on 12V as well, so I'll put one on my cart.

Brent, how do the Sanken cables perform in the long run, after your Xylene treatment? I mostly use DPA Lavs and found that any treatment with alcohol or even stronger ingredients seems to dilute the softeners from the cable shield and lets their Mogami cables become totally stiff after some years. So in recent years the most "aggressive" cleaner I use is dishwashing detergent and since then cables keep their softness.

I once heard it stood for "motor only sync", but do not know myself what the meaning could be.

hi WrineX, I need one of your 8-bay chargers too. Add me to the list, please!

I have owned a 788 for some years and currently work on a 833 for docus and a Cantar X3 for scripted cart work (with typically 10 wireless channels). I've never used a Sorpio. I am mostly doing rather fast paced TV series with like 5-8 minutes a day and I love the X3 especially for: - metadata handling (native X3 supported by a wireless keyboard is faster and with better overview than SD remote on a separate iPad; Cantar lets you edit metadata during record, including use of shortcuts for scene advance. I often find myself listening to the slate and typing in the new number. Batch edit of multiple takes, like inserting or deleting comments or correcting slate numbers of takes way down in the list is also easy. ) - playback capabilities (scrolling through the waveform of a lav mike brings you to the line in question in 3 seconds + with track solos right on your finger tips you can jump through the tracks on playing back and forth with the scroll wheel. I am frequently checking overlaps, lav issues etc immediately after the take & I can be very quick to give an OK on sound. Not even try that with the 788 or 833. - compactness: even the stand alone X3 recorder with it's linear faders, scroll wheels and the big screen provides a dedicated cockpit for piloting it. I've skipped the "Cantarem" external faders and never used a Cantaress for weight reasons, as my cart has to be carried up the stairs in narrow locations frequently. The only add ons are a cheap wireless keyboard and a set of 8 extra rotary faders to quickly control more inputs and if necessary mix more than 10 tracks. - X3 is very versatile and can cope with even rare requirements. The setup screens are comprehensive and quick to access, but the logic is different to SD. Scorpio menus will be more familiar to you if you have used a 633 before, but it will be a matter of the first week only. To be fair, the plus points for the Scorpio would be - the price tag - the more familiar menu structure - the Cedar Option - some more mic inputs (X3 got "only" - maybe it consumes less power (X3 typically draws between 15 and 25 watts)

on top of the SMBUS info those IE batteries can be "branded" by software. So Aaton at first only provided basic SMbus functionality like discharge % and provisional runtime with non Aaton branded batteries. With branded ones you could also see the actual capacity vs nominal capacity, nr of charge cycles and some more.

G2/G3/G4 will work fine with IEM, robust setup, great reach, batteries last for 12+ hs. You can add EK1039 as additional Rx, wich are user freindly and a little cheaper, built like tanks, sound is OK for IEM and no compromise in reach.

audioroot now has two "half size" battery lines, the classic 49 WHs and the "neo" 48 WHs. The difference is that the new "neo" ones sport an oled display that lets you read all battery data even without being connected to SMBus gear. The slightly smaller net capacity seems to be due to the additional power needed for the display and ICs. But the price is awesome: the new series is about 30% cheaper than the traditional (101 USD instead of 145). With new Software Cantar X3 can now also read non Aaton battery data, so very likely the Mini can do it too.

Hi Olof, I'm a little late to chime in, but there are a few "specialities" you might want to know about your SX-R4: - CF card: the thing is a matter of firmware. The initial release in 2007 or 2008 was indeed with only "mix"tracks to CF. Current Firmware allows for all tracks to CF. I'd recommend to upgrade to the latest version for hassle free operation with UDMA cards. - There is a SD to CF adapter made by Sonosax specifically for the SX-R4. With this you can run up to a 512 GB SDHC Sandisk extreme pro card. I do use my R4 also as a direct AES backup for my Cantar X3 and just leave it recording with 8 tracks throughout the day. When the HDD is full, the SX-R4 continues recording seamlessly to SD only. -The original 30 Gb HDD is quite small, but mine is still functional. Noizboyz in the Netherlands offered an SSD upgrade 2 years ago, but they say there is no more parts available (I wanted to upgrade early this year) - SXR4 is reliable and easy to record. There is not many features, so no errors to commit either, just a good sounding easy recorder. - The playback engine is a bit clumsy and unusual to operate, but if you don't have to use it too often you can get along with it. - Metadata: are limited to scene and take numbers and some indicators like "circled", "wild" or "no good", but metadata handling is hidden inside the menus and slows you down. - Power: SX-R4 is the most power efficient recorder ever (big plus!). An external halfsize audioroot battery (49Whs) will carry it through most of a long day. 6 AA cells the inside the internal battery compartement give you another 5 hours, 6 Lithium disposable AA's would go for up to 7 hs. But careful, Lithium cells in the inner compartement are interpreted as "first choice power" until their voltage drops below 1,5 V , so they get depleted first an only then the external power will be drawn (no switch to select beteen intl and extl power). With NiMH cells in the inside compartement, SX-R4 will switch to internal powering only when it does not see external powering. Power switching between intl and extl goes seemlessly even during recording, just make sure the inner battery compartement is properly closed making a safe contact, which is somewhat of an issue with my very first batch recorder. - Mixing: There is no downmix possible! You can just record ISO's and select for a coice of summed channels for the 2 outputs or your phones. This is not state of the art for modern location sound, but good for use as a 2nd unit or ambiance recorder. - Channel count: You have great 4 Mic pre's with georgeous transparent limiters and 2 line inputs, which by no means should be overloaded (can destroy audio on other tracks too!) With a proper input cable you can add up to 8 digital inputs too. The coice of inputs can be selected for cannel pairs only and is rather fixed which goes where. - Form factor: SX-R4 is very light and small, but just big enough for easy handling.