More Usage and thoughts

[Jonathan Thursby]

HI I am currently in your country in the Mohave desert filming Ken Block Jump a rally car 100feet.
Yesterday in the heat the system temperature after prolonged use reached 66 degree on all three decks.
I noticed that using a mixture on Sandisk extreme 3 32 gig and transcend cards the sandisk didnt like the heat as the recording froze on playback but the transcends were fine.
I also had one deck not like to stop recording it froze on the the screen stop recording, I had to reboot.
Can u implement reducing file size less than 20% as it really is a nightmare to que up small sequences for play back.
Also another very annoying thing is everytime you power down the unit it forgets the 48volt phantom power, it does seem to ask you when you power up if you want it but pressing the sqaure button sometimes works and other times not. then going forward in menu to select it you cannt select ch2 and have to come straight back to top menu then forward again, all time consuming.
I have some DMA errors come up that are not in manual?
Also a on screen display that says cf warning see manual???
As you have not got and voltage monitoring facility I would like to put my own hardware voltage cut, with a basic 3 colour led to show level. I know this will invalidate warrantry etc, but could you let me know a sensible place on the mother board to do this. When I get back to the UK we will do this anyway.

When are you shipping Nano to UK?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Jonathan,

I assume that you are reporting 66 degrees Celsius, as reported as the internal temperature of the Flash XDR.

This temperature is well within the operational range. We have tested it to 100 degrees Celsius.

I am also assuming that you had the Flash XDR's in direct sunlight for hours in order to reach 66 degrees.

The SanDisk Extreme III cards are rated at -25 C to +85 C.

I am assuming that you do not have the current firmware loaded into your units.
With the current firmware, we do remember the state of the Phantom Power.

DMA problems indicate a problem with reading or writing to your CompactFlash Cards.

We need to ensure that you are using the current firmware and proper CompactFlash Cards.
If you call our support line, we can assist you with this.

The on-screen display "CF Warning" is to alert you that you are using a Transcend CF card, which may be harmed by Apple Leopard Operating System. This is documented in the manual.

If your battery system does not provide voltage monitoring, then I would recommend you build a XLR to XDR cable with the battery monitoring circuit. In this way, you would not be voiding the warranty. I do not know of space on the circuit boards for the function you wish to add.

I will discuss the 20% minimum file size with our developers.

We will be shipping the nanoFlash to the UK in June.

[Jonathan Thursby]

Firstly one of the units was old firmware so all now latest.

I am not sure about jump in pictures every 2 seconds aprox created by heat.

I had excact same problem today on another xdr deck with transcend cards.

My camera in put is from Toshiba HD1

I don know if camera gives an unstable output or flash seems to loose sync but seems to go away when power is remove from both

The temperatures reached are based on system temop and this is what is experienced in the rally car after the car and recorders have run for 20 mins.

[Jonathan Thursby]

Also I had a few occassions when the XDR refused to stop recording after stop was pressed.
I know pressinbg the power button shuts unit off but loses last file.
If the file size % was reduced and or unit was forced to close last file or repair last file on boot up would be good

[Jeff Silverman]

Johnathon,

I can confirm that the XDR not properly stopping while recording is a common occurrence. We had 4 out of 8 XDR's do this just this weekend in on 2 separate unrelated shoots with different clients (all on race cars). People were using firmware .50 (1 unit) and .73 (3 units) and Kingston 133x 32Gb cards to QT, Long GOP, 50Mbs. We have had numerous catastrophic problems with XDR's in part few months and strongly recommend that no footage be recorded on an XDR which is irreplaceable.

I am fully prepared to defend my comments.

Jeff

[Mike Schell]

Hi Jeff, Jonathon-
I suspect the problem is related to a glitch on the incoming HD-SDI signal. We have duplicated this sort of problem in our lab by quickly plugging and unplugging the HD-SDI cable. Naturally in high vibration environments, like a race car, you are much more prone to experience issues with all connections. We don't see a problem in our lab, but it's an ideal environment with no vibrations.

We'll accelerate our plans to add code to overcome any HD-SDI issues, such as loss of lock. We can simply repeat the last frame until the lock is reacquired and then continue recording as normal. We should be able to complete this code in the next few weeks.

Best-

[Jeff Silverman]

Ummmmm, Mike, you told us that was fixed some time ago.

Jeff

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Jeff Silverman

Ummmmm, Mike, you told us that was fixed some time ago.

Jeff

Hi Jeff-
Understood, this is a rather complicated. We did make some corrections, but clearly it needs further work. I will personally spend some time working on a solid solution.

Best-

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Jeff,

Sometime ago, we fixed the Flash XDR firmware to handle the loss of the HD-SDI signal, such as when a cable was unplugged, or when a camera was powered down.

After that fix, we learned that a very brief loss of the HD-SDI signal was not coverded by our fix.

An intermittent HD-SDI cable (or a loose connection) is not currently handled gracefully. This problem can be duplicated by unscrewing the BNC connector, then backing out the connector slightly, then immediately pushing it back in.

We will be working on a fix for this problem.

[Jeff Silverman]

Mike and Dan,

Thank you for your responses. Every cable I supplied was brand new Belden 1855 with freshly crimped and tested 75ohm connectors. The run was very short, about 15'. The cameras we consider very reliable.

The recovery for your system needs to continue recording when it is possible to do so in the absence of the depressed stop key or trigger. Just close the current file and start a new one. No other reason should stop the unit from recording. It would also be very useful to indicate on the unit when it is seeing an error in the incoming SDI.

Having corruptions and problems only revealed when the client plays something back on a computer later is not a good way to discover problems. Trust me, I have 2 people who used units this weekend who have a few things to say about that.

Jeff

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Jeff,

We will be working on fixing this issue.

Our plans are to record the last good frame until we have another good frame.

[Jonathan Thursby]

I was using A toshiba HD 3 chip camera mounted the whole system on our WRC anti vibration mounts and used 3 inch newly crimped BNC.

We used to film the WRC for 10 years when we recorded onto DV tape using a 3 chip toshiba. Appart from a few motherboard modifictions we replaced BNC and y/C connector for a motorsport connector ( Lemo) this stopped any vibration issuses.

Looks like we may have to do same here.

[Mike Schell]

Hi Jeff, Jonathan-
I am now working on a couple of different approaches to detect an incoming HD-SDI glitch and either close the current file and restart or to simply repeat the last frame until the HD-SDI re-locks.

While I don't doubt that you have experienced these problems, I would point out that we have many Flash XDRs now working very reliably in the field. The Cash Cab program has used 8 Flash XDRs for 4+ weeks of solid recording without issue. We have a customer in New Zealand who has just finished a 13 week shoot without any problems. I am sure there are plenty of other examples.

I understand that you need a recorder that works in extreme vibration and "high-intensity" environments, so we will continue working to make the HD-SDI reliable, even under these conditions.

Best-