RF Error Alarm using the Varicam. Has anyone else experienced it?

[John Sharaf]

Ray,

I have to say that I’ve experienced a similar phenomenon several times; I have no explaination other than perhaps a dirty head or maybe a tape drop out. All I could recommend is a good head cleaning. Let us know if this persists!

JS

[Ray Palmer]

John, you are spot on.
I cracked open the camera case and cleaned the Scanner, Drum, Head or whatever you want to call it.
It was dirty and I got a lot of oxide off of it.

Before I cleaned it, it was failing every 2-3 minutes with an RF alarm. After cleaning, I have been able to run an entire tape through it three times now without an error.
Life is good.
Thanks John,
Ray

Ray Palmer, Engineer
Salt River Project
Phoenix, AZ
602-236-8224 office
There are three types of people in this world, those that can count and those that can’t.

[Mariusz]

Ray,

One more thing that should be also done is to replace cleaning roller. Camera uses that roller not only to automatically clean heads when they get dirty but also to stop drum from spinning when you press stop.
If you had a problem with RF I am sure that roller is dirty too and it will make heads dirty again that will lead to the same problem soon. Panasonc authorized service centers have them available for replacement.
Regards,

Mariusz Cichon

[Ray Palmer]

Good Idea. Thanks for the note.
Ray

Ray Palmer, Engineer
Salt River Project
Phoenix, AZ
602-236-8224 office
There are three types of people in this world, those that can count and those that can’t.

[Rodrigo Lizana]

Ray : You should take good note of what Mariusz told you. We works very closely with the Varicam at Abel Cine Tech in NY so I believe it