Jason Manzano Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Hello friends, I have an SRB with all of the optional attachments, and I am about to build a d tap cable. Unfortunately, I am completely inexperienced with using a d tap to power anything. Does this connector exist on the camera or the battery? Should I expect that camera will be using d tap for something else and be prepared with some type of splitter? If it helps, I am preparing to connect to a Sony F5 which doesn't have the slot for an SRB. Related question: What if I am on a camera that has neither a slot nor a d tap option? Does anyone make an external power supply for the SRB to solve this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freeheel Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Lectro make a battery sled for the SRB which is a must have. In my experience D taps are often empty and most often used to power some sort of sun gun or LED panel. I would expect everyone to have radically different experiences with that though... I prefer to run off camera power when I can, but the Lectro sled covers your ass if that power supply is not available to you. Cheers, Brent Calkin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Tirrell Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 It all depends... - Depending on the battery make there could be a tap on the battery plate or on the battery itself. - Depending on the camera or load-out the D-tap could be free or used for powering a toplight or host of other accessories. Including monitors and recovers. - Depending on the situation there could also already be a splitter in place. - also depending on the camera there could be a 12v power output in back with either 4 pin xlr or some other standard port. Anton Bauer makes a nifty 4 port splitter that works nice for most applications. But if it was me personally I would have both a d-tap cable & splitter and a 4pin xlr to 2 receiver cable made up. Otherwise as far as what the options are I would start here. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Adapter-Cables/ci/3728/N/4028759420 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Manzano Posted July 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Very helpful. I just ordered the sled which I didn't know existed, and I will be building a 4 pin xlr power cable as well. Thanks gentlemen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Lots of useful Dtap connectors here. Including my personal favourite the PCX3 which is 'dual' in the sense that it has both male and female connectors built into the 1 thing - so they stack. I'm using these as a 'hub' - my power leads have 1 of these on 1 end and the necessary connector or device on the other. The lead with a male 4p hirose (with a PCX3 on the other) can be used to bring power to the 'hub' or from it. I'm trying to move away from the hirose power connectors wherever possible as the straight 1s (*) project the cable out from the device quite along way (compared to right angle coax or Dtap) which can cause them to be easily damaged and personally i find hirose tricky to repair as you need a flat (6mm?) wrench, a spare female hirose connector and some attention to detail/patience with the thickness of the cable and the cable gland (or maybe its just me :-). In short: Make your power leads with dual Dtaps as well as the other connectors you need and you should have a convenient way of powering from most things (by using the dual Dtaps of to combine different leads if needed). dan. * i know audioroot make right angle hirose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnpaul215 Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 Side note: Unless I really know the camera package, 99% of the time I have external power ready for my hops. There are lots of little cameras in play now. Even cameras with power out can have a blown fuse, and that's usually not field serviceable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Tirrell Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 Side note: Unless I really know the camera package, 99% of the time I have external power ready for my hops. There are lots of little cameras in play now. Even cameras with power out can have a blown fuse, and that's usually not field serviceable. depends most of the full sized eng cameras made in the last 15 years or so don't use fuses but do have a circut breaker that usually looks like a round rubber disc discretely hidden in the bottom back kind of under the xlr inputs. The thing is when it pops a lot of camera ops unless they are really seasoned don't know it exists. Its a simple push button to reset type. I mention this here because quite a few people here may be on the receiving end of this type of power issue and not even realize how trivial it is. That is unless it is a legitimate issue like moisture in the power-system causing a short or bad battery plate etc.. Which is how I learned about the reset switch from a camera engineer, why yes I did draw the camera with a faulty battery plate that caused intermittent shorts on the day I was sent 2 hrs away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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