Powering the FS-4 recorders at DVinfo.net

Derek Heeps · October 4th, 2016, 03:51 PM

Not long after I acquired my DSR500 WSP camcorder , a friend offered me a load of accessories which he no longer used - these included a number of PAG L95 batteries ( PAGLOK version ) but with the V lock adaptor to allow them to be used on my camera , charger , some radiomic kit ( Sennheisser 3000 series ) , and last but not least three FS-4 Pro HD recorders .

Now the three Firestore recorders came with mains adapter/chargers , but the onboard batteries don't hold much of a charge and , as far as I can tell , replacements are no longer available - unless someone on here knows better ?

The recorders all work fine - one ( in a black case ) is a genuine FS4 HD unit with something in excess of 300 mins record time capacity , and the other two ( in silver cases ) are standard FS-4 units which have had the software upgrades so that they function as FS-4 HD units , but only have around 170 min capacity - I've had a look inside and read up on here so know that fitting larger hard drives for extra capacity would be straightforward enough .

Besides the mains adapters , I got a 4pin Hirose to 2.5mm coaxial dc cable , which my friend told me I could use to power the Firestores from my camera , rather than being tied to mains power . The first time I tried to do this , the FS-4 worked for about 15 mins then gave the low battery alarm , so I had to switch it off - fortunately I was running tape as well ( not yet being confident in these units ) so the job wasn't compromised . On investigation afterwards , there was no output from the cable and , metering through the cable , there was no continuity . I presumed I had a duff cable and never bothered about it for a while since I was either recording conferences from a static position and therefore running off mains power wasn't a problem , or just doing short bits & pieces outside when I would shoot on tape , either with the DSR 500 , or more often , with my HVR V1e .

However , just recently I felt I ought to sort this out , so I blew £40 ordering a Hawk-Woods LA23 cable from CVP , fully expecting that to work - only it didn't :( This new cable meters through correctly , which the older one doesn't - so the earlier cable was indeed faulty , but , metering the pins on the 4 pin Hirose dc output connector on the back of my camera , there is no measurable 12V output - so it looks as though I have/had two faults ! I just found this out tonight , and going through the DSR500 manual I can see no menu or switching option to enable/disable the rear 12V output . I do have the onboard radiomic receiver case which is working with power from the camera , and don't suppose this disables the Hirose socket ? I might try removing the WRR box to see if it makes any difference . I have also checked the breaker button on the underside of the camera , but I presume this would trip the whole camera out anyway . My best guess is that there may be an internal solid state fuse which has blown , but will need to investigate this further . In the meantime , I've made up a cable using a PAG PP90 dc coaxial connector to a standard 2.5mm dc coaxial connector , with the required polarity change from negative centre on the PAG plate output to positive centre on the Firestore input - this seems to be working well enough , although it would be neater if I can get the 4 pin Hirose output on the back of the camera working .

The plan , ultimately , is to use the two silver units as FS-4 recorders , recording SD with the DSR500 , and taking power from the camcorder ; and to use the black FS-4HD with my HVR V1e , but for this I need to sort out another power supply since the internal battery lasts only a few minutes and the camcorder batteries are 7.2V ; I also need to sort out some sort of mounting solution for using with this camera , but am quite handy at metal fabrication so will do this as a DIY job .

I suppose the point of this post is just to see if anyone has come across this issue before , and if so , how they solved it ?

George Bean · October 5th, 2016, 01:30 PM

not sure if this is of any help as i have not worked with that camera but have previously used the firestores.

i used a separate battery pack from tekkeon that supplied power to the firestore, those have since been discontinued but this should work:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

it is selectable to an output of 12v and cables can be made or purchased to connect to the firestore. a mount can be made or velcro will work.

not as convenient as one power solution for the camera and recorders but might be easier.

Derek Heeps · November 3rd, 2016, 05:22 AM

Thanks George , that looks like a good device .

My other option would just be to get a powerplate so I can use a PAG battery , or indeed use a battery belt , both of which I already have .

Derek Heeps · June 13th, 2017, 06:28 AM

Just revisiting this thread , I've been using the Firestore recorders quite successfully for recording conferences - for which extended run time is very useful .

I made up a cable from the power tap on my PAG V mount to PAGLOK converter plate which sits on the back of my DSR500 - this supplies constant power to the dc in socket on the bottom of the Firestore and keeps it powered all day - either from an L95 battery which lasts for a couple of hours , or from my PAG mains power adaptor , which clips onto the plate instead of a battery .The PAG converter plate also mounts the holder bracket for the Firestore on its side . ( I'll take and post some pictures ) .

For use with my HVR V1e , I bought a 'Bebob Box' from the maker in Germany , this is a frame , with a sliding drawer for the Firestore , which mounts under the camera , and can sit between a tripod head and the camera . Onto the back of the 'box' , I mounted a PAGLOK plate and ran a dc lead from this to power the Firestore . If it is just powering the Firestore , a single L95 battery will run it all day . The HVR V1e can either be mains powered or from its own batteries , depending on location .

With an adequate power supply , I find the Firestores to be both reliable and easy to use .

When I first got the Firestores , the two silver ones had 40Gb internal drives and the black one an 80Gb drive . I managed to source a pair of 120Gb IDE drives , and one 250Gb drive ( 2.5" IDE drives are not so easy to come by these days , and certainly not in larger capacities ) . I started by upgrading the drive in one , and then testing it , before doing the others . The job was easy enough and I can now leave the black one recording for something in excess of 10 hours straight , which is ideal for a day long conference without missing anything . Afterwards I just pull the whole thing onto the timeline in FCP , then chop the recordings up into sessions and burn each session to individual DVD's for the clients .

I've also just bought , very cheaply , a 'new old stock' JVC GY-HD251 camera , which I've yet to receive , and will need to experiment using it with the Firestores ( which do show 720p among the recordable formats , but yet to be proven ) .

October 4th, 2016, 03:51 PM	#1
Derek Heeps Major Player Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Glasgow , Scotland Posts: 224	Powering the FS-4 recorders Not long after I acquired my DSR500 WSP camcorder , a friend offered me a load of accessories which he no longer used - these included a number of PAG L95 batteries ( PAGLOK version ) but with the V lock adaptor to allow them to be used on my camera , charger , some radiomic kit ( Sennheisser 3000 series ) , and last but not least three FS-4 Pro HD recorders . Now the three Firestore recorders came with mains adapter/chargers , but the onboard batteries don't hold much of a charge and , as far as I can tell , replacements are no longer available - unless someone on here knows better ? The recorders all work fine - one ( in a black case ) is a genuine FS4 HD unit with something in excess of 300 mins record time capacity , and the other two ( in silver cases ) are standard FS-4 units which have had the software upgrades so that they function as FS-4 HD units , but only have around 170 min capacity - I've had a look inside and read up on here so know that fitting larger hard drives for extra capacity would be straightforward enough . Besides the mains adapters , I got a 4pin Hirose to 2.5mm coaxial dc cable , which my friend told me I could use to power the Firestores from my camera , rather than being tied to mains power . The first time I tried to do this , the FS-4 worked for about 15 mins then gave the low battery alarm , so I had to switch it off - fortunately I was running tape as well ( not yet being confident in these units ) so the job wasn't compromised . On investigation afterwards , there was no output from the cable and , metering through the cable , there was no continuity . I presumed I had a duff cable and never bothered about it for a while since I was either recording conferences from a static position and therefore running off mains power wasn't a problem , or just doing short bits & pieces outside when I would shoot on tape , either with the DSR 500 , or more often , with my HVR V1e . However , just recently I felt I ought to sort this out , so I blew £40 ordering a Hawk-Woods LA23 cable from CVP , fully expecting that to work - only it didn't :( This new cable meters through correctly , which the older one doesn't - so the earlier cable was indeed faulty , but , metering the pins on the 4 pin Hirose dc output connector on the back of my camera , there is no measurable 12V output - so it looks as though I have/had two faults ! I just found this out tonight , and going through the DSR500 manual I can see no menu or switching option to enable/disable the rear 12V output . I do have the onboard radiomic receiver case which is working with power from the camera , and don't suppose this disables the Hirose socket ? I might try removing the WRR box to see if it makes any difference . I have also checked the breaker button on the underside of the camera , but I presume this would trip the whole camera out anyway . My best guess is that there may be an internal solid state fuse which has blown , but will need to investigate this further . In the meantime , I've made up a cable using a PAG PP90 dc coaxial connector to a standard 2.5mm dc coaxial connector , with the required polarity change from negative centre on the PAG plate output to positive centre on the Firestore input - this seems to be working well enough , although it would be neater if I can get the 4 pin Hirose output on the back of the camera working . The plan , ultimately , is to use the two silver units as FS-4 recorders , recording SD with the DSR500 , and taking power from the camcorder ; and to use the black FS-4HD with my HVR V1e , but for this I need to sort out another power supply since the internal battery lasts only a few minutes and the camcorder batteries are 7.2V ; I also need to sort out some sort of mounting solution for using with this camera , but am quite handy at metal fabrication so will do this as a DIY job . I suppose the point of this post is just to see if anyone has come across this issue before , and if so , how they solved it ? Last edited by Derek Heeps; October 4th, 2016 at 04:35 PM.

October 5th, 2016, 01:30 PM	#2
George Bean Major Player Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 248	Re: Powering the FS-4 recorders not sure if this is of any help as i have not worked with that camera but have previously used the firestores. i used a separate battery pack from tekkeon that supplied power to the firestore, those have since been discontinued but this should work: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 it is selectable to an output of 12v and cables can be made or purchased to connect to the firestore. a mount can be made or velcro will work. not as convenient as one power solution for the camera and recorders but might be easier.

November 3rd, 2016, 05:22 AM	#3
Derek Heeps Major Player Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Glasgow , Scotland Posts: 224	Re: Powering the FS-4 recorders Thanks George , that looks like a good device . My other option would just be to get a powerplate so I can use a PAG battery , or indeed use a battery belt , both of which I already have .

June 13th, 2017, 06:28 AM	#4
Derek Heeps Major Player Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Glasgow , Scotland Posts: 224	Re: Powering the FS-4 recorders Just revisiting this thread , I've been using the Firestore recorders quite successfully for recording conferences - for which extended run time is very useful . I made up a cable from the power tap on my PAG V mount to PAGLOK converter plate which sits on the back of my DSR500 - this supplies constant power to the dc in socket on the bottom of the Firestore and keeps it powered all day - either from an L95 battery which lasts for a couple of hours , or from my PAG mains power adaptor , which clips onto the plate instead of a battery .The PAG converter plate also mounts the holder bracket for the Firestore on its side . ( I'll take and post some pictures ) . For use with my HVR V1e , I bought a 'Bebob Box' from the maker in Germany , this is a frame , with a sliding drawer for the Firestore , which mounts under the camera , and can sit between a tripod head and the camera . Onto the back of the 'box' , I mounted a PAGLOK plate and ran a dc lead from this to power the Firestore . If it is just powering the Firestore , a single L95 battery will run it all day . The HVR V1e can either be mains powered or from its own batteries , depending on location . With an adequate power supply , I find the Firestores to be both reliable and easy to use . When I first got the Firestores , the two silver ones had 40Gb internal drives and the black one an 80Gb drive . I managed to source a pair of 120Gb IDE drives , and one 250Gb drive ( 2.5" IDE drives are not so easy to come by these days , and certainly not in larger capacities ) . I started by upgrading the drive in one , and then testing it , before doing the others . The job was easy enough and I can now leave the black one recording for something in excess of 10 hours straight , which is ideal for a day long conference without missing anything . Afterwards I just pull the whole thing onto the timeline in FCP , then chop the recordings up into sessions and burn each session to individual DVD's for the clients . I've also just bought , very cheaply , a 'new old stock' JVC GY-HD251 camera , which I've yet to receive , and will need to experiment using it with the Firestores ( which do show 720p among the recordable formats , but yet to be proven ) .