LBA progress error and source lost

[Roelf Wentholt]

When recording as usual with my EX3 on the NanoFlash I got these errors: LBA progress error and source lost. What can cause this?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Roelf,

These are typically cased by problems with a CompactFlash card.

Be certain to format the card in the nanoFlash. If you have done this and still get this error, please try another CompactFlash card.

Are you using an approved CompactFlash card?

LBA Progress Error indicates that the nanoFlash is no longer able to communicate with the CompactFlash card.

[Roelf Wentholt]

The cards are both Sandisk Extreme III 30 MB/s. The strange thing is the Nano works pefectly with my Af100 and has errors with the EX3. I recently put new firmware in the EX3, could that have to do with this?
I had the errors again today with the EX3. Source lost is what the display says. Hope you can help. Apologies for not responding sooner. I do not use the Nano very often at the moment.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Roelf,

If the nanoFlash works with your AF100, then the nanoFlash is accepting HD-SDI properly.

I am assuming that you are also using HD-SDI to transmit from the EX3 to the nanoFlash.

If this is not working, then it may be that a menu item is set wrong, such as iLink being active in the menu.

When firmware updates are performed, sometimes menu items get reset or changed.

Now, the LBA Progress Error means that the nanoFlash is not communicating with the CompactFlash card. This has always been traced to a CompactFlash card problem.

If you see the info at the bottom of the nanoFlash screen, such as 1080p29, and you do not see "No Src", which is "No Source", then the camera is communicating with the nanoFlash.

If you see "No Src", then this is not a CompactFlash card problem, it is a communications problem with the nanoFlash not seeing the signal from the camera.

[Dave Sperling]

Roelf,
Are these actual errors, or just error messages?
Are you losing footage on the Nano? Is it not recording takes?
An error message story that happened to me -- At one point during a shoot a while back I noticed an error message 'Lost Source' on the Nano. I had recorded everything to the SxS cards on the EX so I knew I was covered, but later went and tried to troubleshoot the problem. Nothing was missing in the Nano files.
It turned out that I had hit 'record review' on the camera, which put the camera into playback mode and also interrupted the signal. The 'Lost Src' error message came up because of this; and once an error message comes up it doesn't clear automatically (it stays there until the Nano is turned off and reboots). It did, however, continue to record everything properly, even though it showed an error message.
Hence my questions about whether there were problems with your recordings?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Friends,

Yes, certain error messages in the nanoFlash are persistent.

So, when a serious error occurs, we keep displaying the error message until the nanoFlash is turned off.

We do this so that a serious error does not go undetected.

As Dave reports, if the HD-SDI or HDMI signal is interrupted while we are recording, we wil display "Lost Source".

The LBA Progress Error occurs when we are attempting to write to a CompactFlash card, but the CompactFlash card is not actually writing the data to the card's memory.

This has always been a CompactFlash card issue, one that goes away when using another CompactFlash card that is working properly.

[Roelf Wentholt]

Thanks for all your help. I will check the ex3 menu for "i-link".
On the recorded fooage there are real problems. Recording of image stops, and there is some loud noise and then nothing. I did not yet check if recording s picked up again after that. Another thing to check tomorrow.
What may play a part here is that I used these CF cards aso for my Nikon? But i did format the cards in the Nano and they recorded flawless on the AF 100.

[Jack Zhang]

I'd check that the SDI cable was not bumped during recording. If the connector or cable is knocked during recording, there is a risk that the signal would be lost.

i.Link must be disabled for the signal to be recorded from the EX3. You can also see if you could clean the contacts for the SDI connection.

Dave, been in the same situation. This is when "Last TC > TC" is very helpful.

[Roelf Wentholt]

I checked all the recordings and they are fine. That is the recordings that somehow showed the 'lost source' warning.
The problem I mentioned earlier "LBA progress" did not appear this time. In fact I only had that once. And that recording was damaged. Maybe it is something as dumb as having the card not pushed in the slot well enough.
The I link in the camera is disabled. I checked that too.

One more question: If I see the lost source message (caused for instance by playing back some footage when in Time Code Trigger Mode), and the Nano is still recording, will that recording be good?

So the precise question is: Is there a way to know if the warning is aplicable to an earlier disturbance where the present recording is good?

[Roelf Wentholt]

And I ordered new SDI-BNC cabels and I will have the contacts cleaned. Thanks for all the help and advice!

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Roelf,

1. Yes, if a CompactFlash card is not pushed in all of the way, then we could easily have trouble communicating with the CompactFlash card, thus causing the LBA Progress error.

On an idle day, you could just run some tests, formatting the card in question, recording until the card is full, checking the footage, then repeating the process at least one more time.

My best guess is that your SanDisk Extreme III card is good.

If you ever have a problem formatting a Card, then it is time to set that card aside. Unless it is later proven that that card is good, I would not use that card again. You card has a lifetime warranty in case it is proven to be bad.

2. It makes sense to me to stop a recording prior to playing back footage in the camera.

If you are triggering automatically, just allow a few seconds for the nanoFlash to close the files before playing footage out of the camera, or using Record Review.

3. If we see a glitch in the HD-SDI signal, any glitch, no matter high brief, we report this as "Lost Source" which is a persistant error.

A HD-SDI signal glitch can be caused by a bad or loose cable (and other conditions).

The nanoFlash cannot record during a HD-SDI glitch, but will resume recording after the glitch.

To the best of my personal knowledge, our Lost Source message indicates that we had a glitch while you were recording. Thus, I feel that it is best to check your footage.

I respect Dave Sperling's knowledge and extensive experience, so there may be some ways to cause an interruption of the HD-SDI signal, thus causing the nanoFlash to report a Lost Source Error.

During normal operation, you should not be seeing the "Lost Source" error message.

I hope I have answered all of your questions. Please feel free to ask more.

[Jack Zhang]

I've gotten this same message and it happened when Cache Record was turned on for a while with an HDMI source. I will not trust the Cache Record function as I count this as a pretty serious bug.