HVX Plays opossum? Opossibly.

bherr

bherr

Well-known member
Last night I was trying out the Bebob Foxi I just received on my HVX200. At first I didn't have the connector jack all the way in the focus/iris socket, and the Foxi control worked, but pushed all the focusing range into a tiny bit of the control's usual travel.

When I seated the connector completely, the HVX went dead. No display on the LCD, no viewfinder display, no LED on the back indicating Record/VTR status, no sign of function at all. I could open the tape drive cover, but that was it. I tried replacing the battery with another. The camera made its usual power-up grunt, but was otherwise still dead. I figured the Foxi had somehow fried it, and I started looking in the manual for a reset button. Turns out there is one, but ipushing it didn't change anything. The only thing helpful in the manual that I found was that the camera has a condensation mode during which, if condensation is detected, the camera does absolutely nothing.

I decided to let it sit before calling Panasonic. A few hours later, I removed and replaced the battery, turned the power on, and the camera came to life. Was it the Foxi, or did I somehow trigger the condensation mode some other way? The camera hadn't been through any temperature changes for hours, but the Foxi plug problem might have been coincidence. So...I tried plugging in the Foxi again. The HVX went dead again. I made sure the Foxi plug was seated. It was. I waited an hour and tried the camera again. It came to life, normal as can be, and the Foxi control worked properly. I've turned the camera on and off since then several times with no problems. I haven't tried plugging the Foxi back in, but will do so with the power off from now on.

I didn't find any posts here about the HVX hibernating like it did, and I've not heard of any similar problems from other Foxi users. It seems like Panasonic should have a "P2 Override" so the camera can still be used with P2 recording even if moisture has been detected in the tape transport.
 
Last edited:
My HVX200 is playing 'possum again, only this time it's not waking up. It hums when I plug the battery in, then is unresponsive. No image is visible in the viewfinder or on the LCD panel. Pushing the reset button does not change anything. Has anyone seen this problem? Any suggestions? The Foxi controller was not involved this time -- the HVX had just been in its case for a few days since its last use, when it worked fine.
 
Very strange. I have been using the Foxi for over a month now and have never experienced anything like you describe. I plug and unplug it regularly with the camera on without issue. It sounds like a call to your dealer may be in order.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble,

-filmstox
 
Here's the follow-up in case this problem comes up for someone else. The problem recurred, so I took in for service. After two weeks and a "couple" of new circuit boards, the problem's gone. The camera was dead except for the zoom, which would operate even with the power switched off.
 
As said in the first post, I did push the reset button. Several times. So did the rep at the vendor's shop. And his tech. I have to guess that the Panasonic techs tried that before they went to the trouble of replacing circuit boards. Even if the reset button had worked (it did nothing) it would not be a good fix for the camera repeatedly going dead when it was virtually out-of-the-box-new.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top