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utterly baffled with 1200A
We are utterly baffled on 1200A issues.
This is the situation:
We have 6 FCP systems (some are 4.5/OS 10.3.7 some 5.02/OS 10.4.2) We have 4 1200A decks. 3 have “gone down” (FCP will not recognize the decks) We have been using these decks for 8 months now and within the space of 48 hours these decks have gone down. All deck functions work except the FW connection to FCP.This is what we have tried:
-Both FCP 4.5 and 5 systems (neither worked)
-With and without FW drives attached.
-All deck menu setting are according to Panasonic’s guidelines and/or reset to default.
-Reinstalling FCP 5
-reinstalling the FCP DVCPRO HD component v1.1
-We’ve taken it to the local Panasonic tech guy and he is baffled also.We did have a couple of power outages last week. All systems should have been pluged into a house generator/surge protector but; these decks get moved alot and they might have been on a non-protected connection.
Variable in the last week are: power outages, OS upgrades, FCP upgrades, QT upgrades, and the additon of Lacie FW drives.
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8 Replies
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According to the Panasonic guy you should not remove the FW cable when the deck is on. He said this is what fried the boards.
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Scott,
Who from Panasonic gave you this information? Did he tell you if there is a tech bullentin which has been released to warn end users of this major issue?
Tony Salgado
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Scott is correct. We fried out FW card on our 1200A by removing the cable while hot.
It cost us about $1200 and a few weeks to get a replacement.
RayRay 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. -
I don’t know his name. This was second hand. But he was the regional Panasonic guy.
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Yeah, it’s true! I fried my FW card the same way. They will not officially admit it, but the FW connection is not hotpatchable, like FW is in general, so always turn off the deck when connecting or disconnecting FW cable.
JS
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[john sharaf] “Yeah, it’s true! I fried my FW card the same way.”
John
should have stayed on Saturday at the Last Varicamp.
I cover that in the day 3 post session….Sorry man. I have heard of more than a few getting zapped lately. It seems to happen most often when the 1200a is powered up and then connected to the computer.
a good rule.
TURN OFF the 1200a Deck BEFORE connecting a FW cable to it.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation -
Gary,
Sorry I missed the last day of the Varicamp, but I had a pressing assignment! I really enjoyed the camp, learned a lot and met some very interesting folks.
My FW damage occured almost a year ago, so your lecture would not have saved me, but I am amazed that still there is no official notification from Panasonic as to the necessity of powering off for connections. I had a major screaming match with them over the repair, for which at first they quoted $5000 and three weeks turnaround! Fortuneatly we came to a much more favorable and quicker solution.
It’s interesting to note that I recently had occassion to need repair for onen of my 8.4″ LCD monitors; the pigtail connecting the control box was damaged, and I discovered that the factory broadcast repair shop will not handle this item; they refer you to a third party repair facility that must do answering machines and toaster ovens! I suppose this is both good and bad, but it did cost over $200 to fix a connector.
JS
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There was a bulletin that went out in the last couple of years about certain Mac portables that suffered from a faulty FireWire port design. I don’t remember what the exact problem was, but some site had a detailed analysis and found that there was a missing capacitor or some such simple safeguard that was missing.
FireWire is hot-swappable, otherwise it isn’t FireWire or IEEE-1394 or whatever you want to call it. Panasonic should be held accountable and not be charging customers for a faulty design.
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