Camera Shut Downs

[Gavin Rizza]

Hello Everyone,

We're coming to the end of 4 weeks of intensive shooting with the RED ONE and in the last few days we've had some problems with our camera, seemingly randomly, shutting down. No power down or other warning just suddenly no power.

This has happend, so far, with two different batteries and with no obvious problems with our VLok adaptor (cable completly intact and connectors on both Batts and VLok pins are clean and clear of any forgien substance).

It has not yet happend while shooting and as we're still going I've not had the oppertuntiy to test with mains.

Basically, random shut shut downs with no clear cause. Any ideas? Do you think it could be related to the fan?

Thanks as always

G.

[Mark Pugh]

Can you make the camera shutdown by bumping the battery? if so you'll need the plate to be replaced.

[Michael Morlan]

I have that battery-bumping-shutdown issue with one of my battery/drive cages. The other works fine.

Michael

[Gavin Rizza]

Tried the cable but didn't think to bump the mounted battery.

I'll give it a go then get back.

Thanks guys

G.

[David Wyatt]

Have you got the new pins or the old pins?

[James T Mather]

you don't need to replace the plate - take a long nosed pliars and very gently bend the pins forward ie: away from the plate (we are talking percentages of eighths of an inch here) - this happens to mine after after a lot of miles on the road - once you've bent the pins slightly it should be good for a few months - NB - this shouldn't inhibit the plastic plate from sliding down (ie: it should still be able to cover the pins (albeit a little tightly).

[PaulClements]

If none of the above work get the camera to Red and ask them to check the internal cables connecting to the Power Lemo socket. These can become loose and this exact issue occurs, the looser it gets the quicker it does it.

We had this problem occur immediately after one of our cameras went in for the upgrades. As such we took it back because the upgrading had obviously effected it. They re-did the upgrade and discovered the loose connection was the problem, simple really.

Paul

[Gavin Rizza]

Once again, many thanks to all.

Shoot is still going on as I type so still no chance to test bump/pin theories. David, not sure if we have new or old pins. How would I tell. Cradle arrived early Feb '09.

Paul, when you say get back to RED I take it you mean in the US? Heard some news from a couple of Arri guys the other day that the UK RED service centre in Pinewood might be open soon. Any of you have any news on that?

G.

[Brent@RED]

Yes, we are wrapping up final details on the RED EUROPE facility to move from "upgrade only" to more services...

BC

[Gavin Rizza]

Hey Bret

Great news. No slight on the great work you guys have done but a service centre close to home will be such a relief.

I look forward to hearing more when the time comes.

[Gavin Rizza]

Okay, so it's clear that it is a problem with the VLok pins.

The slightest tap kills power to the camera in an instant. This is NOT GOOD! :0

Is this issue down to "wear and tear" or poor design on the mount?

Brett, Can I send this to the RED Centre in Europe?

Thanks again for the suggestions.

G.

[Gediminas Vansevicius]

Had the same problem on one of our cameras, I also believe this was the reason for one of our red drives failing to work during the shoot. But after the camera and plate came from the upgrade it seems to be no longer an issue. As to the Red's European service centre, I can only speak praise of it. Our camera had one of HD-SDI ports broken as a result of a cameraman's handheld running improvisation without regard to the cable length. I couldn' relate that to something being covered by the warranty in any way, and yet the camera came back from the upgrade with the port fixed! Where else could you find such a support and service?

[hans de vries]

Had the same thing with one of the batteries. The pins do not seem to protrude into the the holes in the battery far enough. I'm a bit of a handy man so I figured: either the the plastic block with the pins needs to move toward the battery or the battery needs to move toward the block; I chose the first option and it works fine now. Don't do it yourself if you're not so handy, because I'm sure it voids the warranty on the battery plate.

[Gavin Rizza]

As to the Red's European service centre, I can only speak praise of it.

Gediminas, How where you able to arrange your camera being sent there instead of the US? Is there info on the forums or website that I'm missing? Or should I just get in touch with the European Support Centre directly?

G.

[Gediminas Vansevicius]

I sent the camera and battery plates as part of the upgrade program offered by Red for everyone with the cameras that require such an upgrade. I believe the upgrades come preinstalled starting with the more recent camera serial Nos.

[Brent@RED]

BlueGirl Media, can you tell me what camera serial number you have so I can check to see if you have current gen battery plates.

BC

[Gavin Rizza]

Hi Brent

Ours is SN 5028.

Thanks for looking into it.

Gavin :)

[Gavin Rizza]

Hi Brent

Any idea if we have new or old plate?

Thanks

G.

[Brent@RED]

Should have new.

Did you do a support ticket yet on RED.com to tech support? Email me at brent - at - red - dot - com if not so we can start the support process.

BC

[Gavin Rizza]

Thanks Brent

I'll email that today.

Gavin

[Gavin Rizza]

Brent

Big thanks, Alan is getting it sorted.

Gavin

[sadie]

Hi

We're on our third day of shooting and we've been having some unwanted shutdowns occur. Yesterday, the shutdowns occured three times when apparently no one was touching the camera. We were connected by the red brick, and have a modulus attached to the camera that is being powered off the battery. There were no excessive amounts of heat and I tried seeing if we had the tapping issues but it does not seem to be the case. Any ideas? can the wireless signal be interfering with the camera, provoking it to occasionally shutdown?

thanks for any suggestions!

[Chris Parker]

same thing happened today on one of my REDs. it has been gradually getting worse. i sent a replacement battery plate to the shoot and have yet to hear back from them (usually means the issue is resolved).

i have also had more of the camera shuts down then restarts with blue screen on RED LCD problem. but i think this is a build 17 bug, so we re-installed the firmware, did a black shading calibration and that should help for a month or so. by then, i hope i am on a (much) more stable build 20......

new color science is great, but even more stability would impress me more. hope it's the best of both worlds with build 20. for me, nothing so far beats good ol' build 16.

anyways, this battery pin problem sure is a pain, as it is happening on several (at least 10) working cameras in my area.

i hope that this is resolved in the epic X release, by use of better pins on battery plates.

[jimhare]

I had this problem so I got the belt pack to try to ascertain if it was the cradle. Early days but seems to have fixed it.

I should have known since I could run it on A/C without ever restarting and batteries always did. Should have been obvious but I had assumed it was a software issue when running off batts. Appears to be simple hardware.

I'll know more after more testing but I recommend swapping the cradle to see if it helps.

[sadie]

Thanks for your input guys, i'm going to get an exchange on the vmount, maybe that will resolve the issue. if not then i guess i will reinstall the firmware. Any other suggestions that I can check on before reinstalling the firmware would be greatly appreciated. THANKS AGAIN!