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-   -   SxS and battery problems (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdcam-ex-pro-handhelds/135665-sxs-battery-problems.html)

Sami Sanpakkila October 12th, 2008 01:26 PM

SxS and battery problems
 
Hi all,

Ive been starting to get some issues with my EX1, nothing major but still.

1) often when I insert my bigger battery it says "battery error" and I have to take it off and put it back again.

2) Also nowadays every now and then both my SxS card "need to be restored". Only takes a second and after that all works fine.

Just wondering if these are symptoms of something bigger?

Sami

Alister Chapman October 12th, 2008 01:59 PM

Cards needing to be restored can be the result of many things, such as removing the battery without switching off the camera, unplugging the USB cable without ejecting the device from Finder or Explorer.

The battery issue could be dirty contacts, but should be investigated further.

Steven Thomas October 12th, 2008 02:06 PM

Never seen (or heard of) a battery issue.

Phil Bloom December 15th, 2008 11:13 AM

one of my bp u60 is coming up with battery error every time. You press the check button and the lights flash continuously.

Paul Kellett December 15th, 2008 12:27 PM

Sounds like a battery issue, (which is better than a camera issue), i'd try someone elses battery to see if it still happens.
Easier to get your dealer or sony to replace a battery than a camera.

Paul.

Alister Chapman December 15th, 2008 01:50 PM

We should not be seeing battery issues. The cameras and Batts are all less than a year old and most people are using the Sony charger so they should not be failing, even if used heavily it is reasonable to expect a years use from a Pro Battery. I wonder if an early EX1 with the battery drain issue has damaged the battery by over discharging it. Li-Ion batteries can easily be damaged if over discharged.

Simon Wyndham December 15th, 2008 04:49 PM

Quote:

Li-Ion batteries can easily be damaged if over discharged.
That would make sense because the safety mech for shutting power off doesn't apply when the camera is simply sucking the power out even when it is turned off.

Quote:

Also nowadays every now and then both my SxS card "need to be restored". Only takes a second and after that all works fine.
One possibility is that you think the camera is off, but it isn't. So many times I have thought I have turned the camera off but that damn switch has actually gone into another mode. I used to get this message a lot on the EX1 I had for a while, and I'm sure it was because I was disconnecting the battery while wrongly thinking the camera was off.

Alex Dolgin December 15th, 2008 04:56 PM

Simon, it is true that Li-Ion batteries can be damaged by overdischarge. In order to prevent this, they have built in safety circuits, they disable the battery in event your camera or light it trying to drain it too low. The moment you place the battery on a charger, it is enabled again.

Simon Wyndham December 15th, 2008 05:11 PM

Alex, yes I know. That is what I was saying. However could still be possible for the battery to over discharge. Despite having safety circuits in my AB Dionics, if I accidentally leave the camera on, once the circuits kick in the camera turns on and off intermittently, which of course takes power from the battery. There is an indicator on the side of the Dionics that basically tells you you to disconnect the thing now and put it on the charger already! :)

So I think that it is still possible to damage the batteries even with the safety circuits. And we do not know how this applies with early EX1's that drained power continuously.

Alex Dolgin December 15th, 2008 05:45 PM

Simon, I still think we are talking about two different things :-) The camera has it's own voltage level below which it does not function, so it turns itself off, or can do the turn on/turn off thing as you said. The Li-Ion battery has it's own built in safety circuit breaker set at a slightly lower level than the camera. This is to protect the battery from damage. Once that circuit tripped, the battery is playing dead, there is no display on it, it is trying to preserve itself. It would be self discharging very slowly, for several month before it reaches really really low level and is is getting destroyed.

Alister Chapman December 16th, 2008 11:58 AM

Alex is correct that the battery should have a cut-off to prevent deep discharge. However if I leave a battery on my EX and it gets discharged for a few days it takes a lot longer to charge than a battery that has simply reached the cameras cut-off, indicating quite a deep state of discharge.

Sami Sanpakkila December 21st, 2008 05:34 AM

I wrote to my dealer and this is the response I got regarding the battery issue and possible replacement: "Thank you for your e-mail. Because batteries are a consumable item they carry only a 90 day warranty from Sony..."

Sami

Glynn Morgan February 11th, 2009 09:21 AM

My Charger Whines
 
My Charger makes a whining noise when recharging the BP-U30 (havent got a U60 yet). My EX3 is very new, it is on it's third charge...

Is this normal?

Oh and as the manual doesn't say, can we remove/add batteries to the charger with the power on?

Simon Wyndham February 11th, 2009 09:39 AM

There's no problem with the charger, it makes that noise normally. It puzzled me at first where the noise was coming from, and I was searching the room high and low to find the annoying *!$&, but eventually tracked it down to the charger.

Sami Sanpakkila February 11th, 2009 09:39 AM

Hey Glynn,

Yes, the whiny sound is normal although annoying. I've been taking the batteries on/off the charger while its plugged in the year I've had them, no problems. Or do you mean if the camera is on with AC? Yep, you can do that too.

Glynn Morgan February 12th, 2009 08:28 AM

Oh thank you so much for letting me know. I feel a bit stupid asking so many questions, I'm just new to this line of camera and I am pretty neurotic about stuff going wrong. I appreciate the advice immensely.

Mitchell Lewis February 12th, 2009 03:35 PM

The high frequency sound is the way modern battery chargers charge a lithium ion battery. It a high frequency pulsed charge. It's easy on the battery and give better performance. (I used to race radio controlled cars, so you learn a lot about batteries and chargers)

Having to restore your card frequently, that would make me nervous. Try formatting your cards before you use them next and see if that makes a difference. There's been some discussion on another thread about whether to format or just delete all clips. From working with digital still cameras I learned that formatting a memory card helps prevent corruption problems that can build up over time. But other people on this forum have had no trouble deleting using the Delete All Clips function rather than formatting. So maybe it's not as critical with the SxS media.

But I think formating is worth a try. :)


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