Richard Nault Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 PS: I made a simple way to avoid the wall wart Speaking of wall warts... Anyone found a reasonable replacement for the OEM iPower AC adaptors? Checked with a retailer and apparently, iPower won't sell them. I think I'm on charger #3 simply to get a power adaptor replacement. Cheers, Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Mayer Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 Speaking of wall warts... Anyone found a reasonable replacement for the OEM iPower AC adaptors? Checked with a retailer and apparently, iPower won't sell them. I think I'm on charger #3 simply to get a power adaptor replacement. Cheers, Rich That's kinda odd, since I had one break the output wire right at the wall wart strain relief. I emailed Richard and asked if I could buy just the wall wart and he sent me one for free. The postage from Canada to the US was probably more than what the wall wart cost. Thumbs up to Richard... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael P Clark Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 If you have a 12v output available, you can wire the cable to a 4 pin XLR and use that. I did that with one for my cart, to avoid the wall wart, and never had issues. Thinking of doing the same for the follow cart, with a Cart Power supply I have laying around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berniebeaudry Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 That's kinda odd, since I had one break the output wire right at the wall wart strain relief. I emailed Richard and asked if I could buy just the wall wart and he sent me one for free. The postage from Canada to the US was probably more than what the wall wart cost. Thumbs up to Richard... I had the same thing happen. I rely on my iPowers and needed a quick solution so I split open the casing (razor knife along the seam) and there was enough wire in there to splice it back together. I was able to reassemble everything including the strain relief which I had to cut apart. I used electrical tape instead of glue to hold everything together. If it breaks again it'll be easy to get apart. Regarding other 9 volt rechareables: Be careful that they aren't slightly oversized. One tv station that bought another brand of rechargeable got some stuck in their gear. Bernie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Nault Posted August 15, 2011 Report Share Posted August 15, 2011 That's kinda odd, since I had one break the output wire right at the wall wart strain relief. I emailed Richard and asked if I could buy just the wall wart and he sent me one for free. The postage from Canada to the US was probably more than what the wall wart cost. Thumbs up to Richard... Cool. I'll call the manufactur--, uh, the distributor! Cheers, Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gilbert Posted August 15, 2011 Report Share Posted August 15, 2011 I've been through 3 iPower chargers now, always the same fault, and a couple of friends of mine have had the same problems too, so I bought a generic switchable PSU, it was a struggle to find one offering the right voltage, but a supplier in the UK (Maplin) have them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 Good day chaps. Here in South Africa I use all the Lithium I can get from Europe and the states. I think that the efficiency you get in a days work out of the technology is valuable. Piece of mind is priceless ! I wanted to know if anyone has invented a AA version of the ipower yet ? I have 3 sets of g3 units that I currently use on HD cameras for scratch mixes or for IFB. thats 1 transmitter and 3 recievers. Thats 8 AA every +-6 hours. So on feature work my car, trolley and bags get polluted with used AA batteries. Is there a solution? I also have a IDX charger with 4 np1's and 3x Deep cycle 40amp hour marine batteries for the cart and about 12 ipower 9V batteries. All this keeps me going even if the turn around time/ charge time between shoot days become less than 8 hours. thanks Greg Albert From Cape Town Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundtrane Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 Greg - 2500-2700 mAh NiMh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan chiles Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 Greg, Try Milnerton Market.. 2450mAh Energisers are cheap! I have 12 and getting good run times in Lectro SMQV and amazing run times on Sennheiser G2 Tx. I also got an 8 way charger from Meltzer Industries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason porter Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 Do the cameras have a power tap? The G2's can be externally powered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 I'm pretty sure that the G2/R units cannot be powered externerly. Jonathan are thos batteries true 1.5V? Cause most of those system are 1.2 that I found. - can you send me the address for that place in milnerton? Oh and just to let you know too my 788 still hasn't arrived! I feel that the sonosax maybe was the better choice. Oh well next year maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blankenship Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 I'm pretty sure that the G2/R units cannot be powered externerly... Sure they can. I haven't used this particular unit, but the Sennheiser DC2 enables G2 series wireless units to be powered from the DC power outputs on camcorders: http://www.sennheise...adapters_021825 They sell for under $60 each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundtrane Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Greg - 2500-2700 mAh NiMh... Sony Eneloop - about 2500 mA Sanyo - 2700 Ipowers, many others too Chargers - 8 bay - MAHA - excellent, 4-bay Maha-excellent, iPower-have not used Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnpaul215 Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 I run my G2s on PowerEx AA rechargeables and they last all day (at least 12 hours). I use them for camera scratch track and wireless boom talkback. For my 9volt Lectros, iPowers... for the AA Lectros I use PowerEx and a few other brands of high capacity AA. The only time I use disposable lithiums if i REALLY need the extra life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Karlsson Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 I have used the iPower 520mAh in my Lectros with good results for about six months now. They last for about 6 hours. I use Sanyo Eneloop 1500 AA's and charge them with Maha Powerex (which is also a battery analyzer and tells me the Eneloops are about 2000mAh). Last week I did a 12 hour shoot with these AA's in my SD442 and left it on pretty much the whole time. The next day, I decided to test how much juice was left (usually, I just re-charge regardless of how long the day has been). I plugged in the 416 with phantom on and plugged in the headphones turned up about halfway (12 o'clock). I randomly turned on tone once in a while, and powered the mixer off and back on a few times. It took about 5 hours before getting to where the low battery flashing kicked in. So in other words 4 of these AAs ran the 442 for a total of about 16-17 hours. Pretty good, I'll say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimPitot Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 Yup, Powerex AAs will run a G3 for 14hrs easy, but its worth noting that they do need a fresh charge, if you let them sit a couple of days they tend to drop off quite a lot. iPowers in an Audio Ltd tx will get 8 - 10 hrs on a fresh charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry B Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 Furher to the whole I-Power question, I bought my first yellow rack of these little beauties a couple of years back, and I agree they are fantastic. I have about 20 of them now at various ages and rather than throwing good ones out I want to know how to identify the dud ones. Does any one have a dependable test of the state of any given battery though? I think any battery should be tested under load, so a volt meter alone isn't gonna cut it. I've been to my local Jay-Car (Australian Radio Shack equiv.) they have battery testers but they don'y list Li-Po as being "testable" Jerry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 Does any one have a dependable test of the state of any given battery though? When a battery begins to give out sooner than usual. this, of course means keeping track of them in some fashion, like numbering and dating them (see the battery bottom) Some power users (TV stations, networks, daily shows, news departments, etc)date them, and then just routinely replace them at certain time intervals (YMMV), the most cumbersome method would be keeping logs of the number of uses and disposing of them after a certain (YMMV) number of uses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gilbert Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 A voltmeter is fine, if they top out at the same voltage, and give you a low voltage warning at the same voltage every time, they're OK, it's easy to see anomalies if you test regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundtrane Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 How to test a 9V for capacity: Use a Lectro Tx/Rx with a lav connected, the Rx output to any DAW (Pro Tools/Audacity etc that can record for hours continuously). Start the REC on the DAW the moment you switch on the Tx. Go do anything you want to, and when you get back to the DAW, you will see how long the Tx has been transmitting and when it went out. Any DAW will give you the duration of the clip accurate enough to decide the capacity of the 9V under usual load. If you want to, you can repeat the test twice for each 9V battery. IMHO, this is an easy way to get a real check, without having to keep your eyes on the Tx. -vin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason porter Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 I just switch my 411 receiver to the "timer" mode instead of "battery type" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 Ipowers. I still have some from 4 years ago that are still in use. Fantastic value!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BudRaymond Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 I've started using these HiTech batteries. Easily last over 6 hours in a 400 series Lectro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Lightstone, CAS Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Bud, The HiTech cost $11 each if you buy 12 or more, but they only sell their proprietary 2 battery charger. What is the charger you are using? They are cheaper than the iPower (about $16ea. in bulk) and only with a 3 month warranty. The HiTech have a 1 year warranty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zack Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 I've started using these HiTech batteries. Easily last over 6 hours in a 400 series Lectro. Now these I'm interested in, cheaper too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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