DV5100 and low voltage AB batteries
 

Dont know any other forum to post this.

Ive dug my DV5100 out of spring hibernation but when I put my Anton Bauer batteries to it, I keep geting a LOW VOLTAGE error in the viewfinder even though I have 12-13V of power showing in the lower right of the vewfinder. I have the menu screen set properly to 14.4V battery. I also notice where the voltage of the battery shows in the lower right, it intermittently flashes the CAL (to me that means calculating?) like it cant determine if the battery is low or not? Right now I have the camera set to show minutes remaining, and not % or battery fill icon. But I never get a minutes remaining number.

Ive tried this with another AB battery and eventually get the same thing after 5-6 minutes of the battery being plugged into the camera, though I cant still shoot video. I just get LOW VOLTAGE in my viewfinder which is annoying. For now Ive turned off the voltage alarm.

Ive charged both batteries up on my Titan 2 and didnt seem to have any issues.

I must be missing something obvious. What am I doing wrong.

anyone have an idea?

i charge the batteries until I get a steady green light. And when I pluh my Hytron 120 in I get 16.0V.

But it just keeps flashing between the volts and CAL (with the little battery icon).

Chris, does the camera have a menu setting for the AB. A friend of mine has a Panny 200 DV camera and when I put my AB on it ( he uses 12v ac power most times ) I'll get a low battery warning flashing for well over an hour.

BTW the CAL is for calibrate. the camera & battery are trying to communicate to get accurate voltage readings

Yep theres a menu to set the type of AB battery. I did this and set it to 14.4V which is the battery type.

Tonight I took the battery off the charger (fully charged steady green light and placed on the camera. The battery eventually displayed full bars and a 3 for 3hrs in the LCD on the back of the battery. I also had 16V in the viewfinder, even though it toggled between 16V and CAL (calculating).

I may put the battery on the camera tomorrow night and just leave it on and see how long it goes until I get another Low Voltage viewfinder message. Tonight I just put the fully charged battery on to see if it would solve the CAL issue. I also flipped the battery remaining setting from minutes to volts and it did not change the CAL issue.

It does sort of sound like the camera and battery arent speaking the same charge language though dont it.

Is there an actual Anton setting. 14.4 while correct may have some slightly differnet perameters and throwing the communications off.

BTW It sounds like you have the digital batteries, Is that correct?

Yeah digital battery in this case, but Ive also tested with an AB Propac 14 Logic Series battery which I dont think is digital and run into same issues.

I did not see a specific AB battery option, just volts. I may adjust the volt setting in the menu and see if they fixes things. not likely however.

are you showing a calibrate flag in the Anton LCD window?
the chip might just need to be calibrated / reset.

try draining the battery completely. I was told once the voltage needed to drop to 10.6 v in order to reset the chip

well i hooked the battery on the camera and tried to drain it. started turning off camera around 11.6V and then i kept turning camera back on until I could get the battery down to 10.5V.

Then I recharged battery fully until I got the entire pie and a "3" in the LCD. Steady green on the charger station. Hooked battery back up and still getting 16.0V and CAL flashing on and off.

Around 12V or whatever I begin getting the LOW VOLTAGE.

I think the issue has to be with the battery. But its happening to my smaller battery as well. Im thinking the non-use through the spring affected them? I should still be able to full drain//recharge somehow to correct this.

yep, trying to drain it from the camera is dang near impossible. I ended up hot wiring an i-light to it. Depending on how bad your going to need it soon, you might want to shoot it over to AB's service. I had really good experiences with them ( and why I stick with the AB batteries). if it still good, they'll tell you so.

BTW how long have you had the battery, the warranty on the digitals are 3 yrs ( I got a Hytron 120 exchanged last year when it started going south after 2 years)

battery was used and bought from fellow dvinfo member. im guessing he had it a cpl years and ive had it a year or so.

I bet im getting 2-3hrs of camera power with it despite all of this. At least until I get into the 12s on volts before I get the LOW VOLTAGE which does make sense. Ive captured video with it. But its obviously not "synching" with the interactive data and I do wonder if Im getting a full charge worth.

i may try to drain the propac 14 battery and see if i get any diff results. they were stored for the same length...

Chris,

You can always call the customer support dept here at A/B or send in your batteries for a free evaluation. phone 800.541.1667.

Scott Keyworth
Anton/Bauer

12-13V is low power to at 14.4 volt battery, I always "fool" my camera in order to get more run time. I set the menu to 12V so you dont get a low voltage warning until 12volts.

The battery has nothing to do with the low voltage cutoff in the camera.
11.3v is 11.3v and when the voltage drops to that, the camera's done. some batteries depending on their age can fall off quickly when they get to that low voltage zone.

changing the voltage setting on the camera just gives you inaccurate info on battery life.
a friend's Panny DVC200 will flash low battery till the cow's come home with a fully charged Hytron 120 on it, change the setting to 14.4, it's fine.

Actually I beg to differ, changing the battery setting from 14.4V to 12.2V will give you a longer run time. When you have the camera set to 14.4V the camera will give you a low battery at about 14.5V and cut off at about 14 if you set the camera to 12.2V it will not give you a low battery until about 13.5V and it wont shut down all together until 11.8ish. Keep in mind some cameras have 2 battery settings 1 in the user menu and 1 in the engineering menu. The one in the user menu is just for your run time information the one in the engineering menu will actually control the cut off of the camera at which voltage it shuts down.