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Equipment mobility at weddings etc
Hi,
I’m trying to make my “mobile equipment” more mobile for weddings etc., as well as easy and compact to power at outdoor events (i.e., one solution for multiple situations)
Equipment in question is the camera (VX2000) and two wireless mic receivers (Shure PGX4 – although I wish I’d bought summat with remote battery condition indicators!)Camera can run off battery, but receivers came with AC adapter bricks (or briquettes…). This means I have to have portable power (aka inverter) with me. Going from DC to AC and back to DC seems kinda silly…
I’m guessing there’s a product that provides the “right kind” of DC voltage simultaneously to multiple DC devices like receivers directly from a DC source (i.e. without the need for an inverter), but several hours of surfing and dreaming up increasingly unlikely search keywords have yielded nothing.
The DC power source would presumably be a battery belt… that’s the easy part.Can someone
a) help me identify the right equipment
b) help me understand how best to carry all this stuff while being “appropriately attired” for a wedding shoot?
It’d be nice if whatever the “right equipment” is would have enough outlets to be able to power an on-camera light too, but I feel like I’m asking for a portable power station!All help appreciated…
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8 Replies
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What kind of power (AC or DC) do the power supplies OUTPUT TO the receivers?
What does the power input on the receivers say?
In other words, what voltage, current (amps / milliamps,) and AC or DC do the Receivers themselves run on?
If its DC, you can simply run them directly from batteries, if you connect the batteries with the right kind of plug to fit the jack on the receiver.
Post all the info you have and we can help you.
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OK. I just looked up info on the PGX4 from B&H
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Type of Receiver
PGX4 Rack/Table Top Mountable UHF Diversity ReceiverPower Requirements
12-18 Vdc @ 150 mA, supplied by external power supply
———————————-So its a ‘piece of cake’ to run this unit off of any kind of 12v battery (or set of batteries) that you’d like.
All you need is to buy the DV plug that matches the jack on the receiver and match the + – polarity correctly when you wire the cable.
I can’t see the exact jack, of course, so I can’t help with that, but its likely an easy match if you take the units to Radio Shack.
Post back for more info.
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(Thanx Thax… Duh – why didn’t I think of this? (rhetorical question))
So the 12V stuff is a doddle. That covers my mic receivers and most on-camera lighting.
But I was hoping to find a product that provides several outputs from one (12V) source, with each output having the facility to
a) select a voltage
b) select a polarity
Why? Because of the non-12V equipment I have and/or might acquire in the future. For example, camera…
I’d like the option of running my camera from the same external DC power supply as the other items (darned Sony InfoLithium batteries have that “memory effect” and I’m always scared of a battery manifesting that effect at a critical moment – yes I carry spares…)
VX2000 AC adapter outputs 8.4V at 1.5A (there’s a symbol just before the voltage – two horizontal lines – the upper one is solid, the lower one a dashed line. Can’t find the meaning of this symbol)
VX2000 batteries output 7.2V.
Sony sells a DCC-L50B car battery adapter that apparently you can run the camera from, but that’s just trading one power brick (AC-DC) for another (DC-DC).
I’ve been reading about DC voltage stabilizers, shunt regulators, active regulators… but I’m not electronically inclined (wiring a flashlight circuit is about my limit…)
Am I wasting my time looking for such a device? Am I wasting other peoeple’s time asking? (if so, multitudinous apologies!)The other part of my question related to carrying the equipment (especially wireless receivers) around on my person. I don’t want to scare people by looking like I’m wearing something that might detonate, but I do want to be mobile. Any suggestions, given that for the foreseeable future I won’t be trading my VX2000s up for anything that allows easy/direct attachment of wireless mic receivers? The only thing I can think of is a vest with pockets big enough for all this stuff. A large fanny pack (large pack not large f…) would work but it’d have to share my (rapidly-disappearing) waistline with a battery belt.
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<(darned Sony InfoLithium batteries have that "memory effect">
Lithium batteries do not have memory effect.
KB
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re – memory effect…
Sorry – called it the wrong thing.
It’s called “passivation” – but has pretty much the same end result as the “memory effect” – the battery shows full charge, then after 5 – 10 minutes it’s flat-flat-flat (or dead-dead-dead). Currently, three of my nine batteries are exhibiting this behaviour.
Here’s a link to one of a number of web pages that describes the feature/effect/behaviour:
https://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/battery/lithium.html
There are others – search for “infolithium passivation”
Bottom line – Sony infolithium batteries will let you down if you’re not on your guard.
For other people whose batteries are misbehaving – the above link also describes how to remove the passivation layer. -
I clip my Sony or Sennheiser wireless receiver (mostly just one) onto the handstrap, but there are a number of hot shoe adapters that have multiple clipping places as well. On another cameram I have a large nylon vable tie wraped around part of the body that is easy to clip onto. And someone makes a thing called the Rover (??) And the Fig Rig has lots of space for lots of stuff – but does indeed look diabolical
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[Reg from AB] “But I was hoping to find a product that provides several outputs from one (12V) source, with each output having the facility to
a) select a voltage
b) select a polarity”If they made one-
A) It would be so expensive, it wouldn’t be worth it.
B) It would be so HEAVY you couldn’t carry it.
C) I wouldn’t trust EVERYTHING to be powered by one unit. If it dies… your whole shoot dies.
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…and this probably answers my questions adequately.
Thanks for your input each…
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