JuicedLink eating up batteries
 

Hey everyone,

I've been lurking around for awhile and it's been really great to have all this knowledge available when I need it. I have several new (to me) in the box JuicedLink DT454 preamps that I use with a 5d mkii and I've been noticing two things:

- A fully charged 9v battery only powers the JuicedLink for about 30-45mins max.
-A fully charged 9v battery won't properly power the system fresh, it needs to be drained down a little.

Has anyone else noticed this? Do I have a setting wrong? As far as I can tell everything is proper. I have it set to 48v PH, Low Gain.


It's making me paranoid everytime I grab it for a shoot. And is very frustrating because it's hard to get 9v batteries where I'm at.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: JuicedLink eating up batteries
 

"a fully charged 9v battery won't properly power the system fresh, it needs to be drained down a little"
- Don't have a clue, but certainly not normal.

If an unbalanced device (like the Sennheiser EW100 receiver) is plugged into a Phantom powered mic input, it can partially short out the PP and drain batteries quite rapidly... or the Juicedlink is could be faulty. I have no experience with them and don't know the manufacturer's stated battery run-time specs.

Re: JuicedLink eating up batteries
 

I shot about 2 hours of video the other day with a JL. I had a Sanken COS-11D with phantom in one input and the VideoMic Pro (no phantom, no additional in-mic gain) in the other. I was careful to turn off the preamp and VMP when not in use, but they were probably both on for 3 hours total. At the end, the original batteries (that weren't new to start with) were still going strong.

The problems might be, 1) your mic or input, 2) a bad cable???, or 3) a faulty preamp. Can you try a different mic and cable? That would help narrow it down.

Re: JuicedLink eating up batteries
 

I've never heard of 'draining down a little' either. They should last longer than 30-45 mins, are you using name brand rechargeable batteries
and you're sure you're fully charging them?

Contact Robert at juicedLink, a very personable guy, I'm sure he'd like to know about your problem and offer some advice ...

Contact / Support : juicedLink, Unique and Trusted Solutions for Audio and Video Production

Cheers.

Re: JuicedLink eating up batteries
 

The JuicedLink is a really nice accessory. I'm using a DX211 that I've had for a couple years. The only thing I don't like about it has been the "centering 'pin'" that is made out of nylon. It broke. Other than that, it's been great. Also uses a 9V battery and it's lasted for what I feel is quite a long time.

Getting back to your 9V battery issue, I read in the Owners Manual http://www.juicedlink.com/downloadda...nual_EN_02.pdf where it says on Page 29:
"o Consider a microphone that will work down to 12V phantom power. This will considerably extend the battery life of the DT454. There are many excellent modern microphones with this capability."

Since you're running 48V this is obviously part of the problem.

A contributing factor MAY be if you're running a monaural mic system instead of a stereo system but have the second channel set to the "ON" position. Even if it isn't being used it MAY be consuming power by running current from the 9V battery through a rectifier to generate the 48V.

There is a discussion in the Manual about phantom power settings that would address the above:
"1. Choose what function the phantom power generator circuit should perform by selecting PH: OFF / 12V / 48V on the selector switch.
2. Route the voltage produced by the phantom power generator circuit to the XLR input which requires phantom power with PH: ON / OFF switch for the corresponding XLR-L or XLR-R input."

Page 24 talks all about powering and battery life but I didn't read this but if you haven't it would probably be helpful. I did read this part, though:
"Alkaline Battery Life
Battery life varies, and depends on numerous factors. Use of phantom power (DT454 only) takes up battery resources, especially at 48V. See the “Phantom Power” section for tips on optimizing power efficiency. Here are some estimates for typical continuous usage from a fresh 9V alkaline battery:
No Phantom: ~7hrs With one 2mA mic @12V: ~5hrs (DT454only)
With one 2mA mic @48V: ~2hrs (DT454only)"

Bottom line: running 48V really sucks the battery down just by running 48V. Throw in some other factors as previously mentioned and that might account for the shorter life.

Re: JuicedLink eating up batteries
 

Thanks for the advice gentlemen. The microphone I'm using is a Rode NTG-1. And I'm using standard Durcell 9v batteries. I'll do some testing with the PH to see if the NTG-1 will run off of 12v. Both the DT-454 and NTG-1 are military issue so I don't exactly have an option to upgrade unless I want to spend out of pocket money. I'll contact Robert on the issue, I don't know if any of my other guys are experiencing issues with this set up as I'm the first that I know that has tried it here. Must be why I found a box full of JuicedLinks just laying forgotten. I also have a Videomic and Videomic Pro that I've been using, but the NTG-1 is by far my favorite of the three so I'd like to be able to use it worry free.

Re: JuicedLink eating up batteries
 

Josh asked, "I'll do some testing with the PH to see if the NTG-1 will run off of 12v"

The Rode NTG-1 is not designed to operate at +12V, you won't realise its published specs to get that favoured sound.

Robert Rozak from juicedLink is a member of DVinfo, send this link, he gets very busy but he might comment.

Cheers.