Did I blow up my new Panny monitor?

V

valladao65

Well-known member
OK, so I just got the new btlh80W panny monitor.

The one issue I was having was how to power the darn thing, It has anton bauer gold mount plate and an XLR DC-in plug. Why in the world dont they have a way to plug this into a regular 110 wall plug? -ugh- so, anyway...


I bought this brand new battery belt:

http://www.adorama.com/BOSLM18XLRNC.html?searchinfo=boslm18xlrnc&item_no=1

Its specs are: 12 volt 17.2 amp hour
I bought this model because it said it was "Panasonic Matched Starved Electrolyte Cells"
I talked to a buddy who said even if it had too high a voltage ( which it shouldnt), the monitor would only take what it needed. I'm guessing that was lame info.

When I went to plug in the battery belt, I saw sparks between the plug and the connector as I plugged it in.
My heart sank.

So, now it doesnt work, wont power up with the anton gold batteries or anything else.
I'm hoping I just blew a fuse, but have a sinking feeling I did more damage than just that.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do in this situation?
do I have to send it back to Panasonic?
I know there are a few companies with excellent reputations who do repairs on the HVX's - like Spec-comm. Do they handle monitors and the like as well?
I guess Im just looking for advice as to what I did and how I can fix it.

Its the weekend, so I cant take it to the local shop where I bought it until Monday, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

btw..Im on a shoot all day today, so I probably wont get to read your helpful answers until tonight when I get back...

thanks in advance,
Mike
 
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12V battery belt is no problem. You probably had reversed polarity somehow. If so, I am afraid it is more than just a fuse...
 
valladao65 said:
I talked to a buddy who said even if it had too high a voltage ( which it shouldnt), the monitor would only take what it needed. I'm guessing that was lame info.
Click to expand...

I can't help you on the monitor issue in general, but just to provide helpful info, your buddy has it backwards -- you always want the voltage to be as exact as possible. The amperage can always be higher than needed, however.
 
Ouch,
sorry to hear that Mike.
When working on my monitor, i took a risk and tried higher voltage than requested. I was lucky because my monitor has an internal component that shuts down operation when you feed it too much power. at least thats what I think because I fed it about 16-17v and it didn't power. but with 12v it did just fine.
(alex. sorry I haven't gotten back to you, but I'm sure this is what we talked about)

The panasonic at that price should have the same safety feature I would think.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the thoughts guys, I'll head over to where I got it here in Phoenix tomorrow and see what trouble I actually caused.
I've heard from a couple people who said the same thing as you siniarch, so thanks for that.
Is it at all common for the polarity to get switched?
I keep thinking back to the "4 is hot, 1 is not" thing...but then I think I got it backwards...
ugh..

in any case...
thanks for your help everyone
 
OK, the saga has gotten even more strange...

I took the monitor in to be checked out and it powers up fine using the panasonic 4-pin xlr power adapter ($675.00).

It wont power on using either my battery belt (which uses the same 12v dc in 4-pin xlr) or the anton bauer gold mount batteries.

Strange.

They're sending it in to Panasonic to be checked out.

Anyone else run into anything like this? or have any clue what's going on?
 
I dont own any anton bauer's so I'm not sure if they were Dionic Li-Ion or not. The service dept where I got the monitor used their AB batteries..I think they mentioned using the "90's" not sure if that helps or not.
When in the field I pulled the AB batteries off the HPX500 (not mine) we were using and those didnt work either.
 
OK, I do not think that my answer would help you directly, but at least to understand what is happening. The problem that you describe has something to do with the fact that the monitor uses more power on turn on - it is called in-rush current. The Li-Ion battery, on the other hand, has a current limit circuit breaker bult-in for safety. This is why on turn on the battery goes to sleep. If you can get a hold of a non Li-Ion battery, like AB Hytron, it should work. Still do not know what happened to the battery belt...
 
wow, great info,
thanks Alex.

I'll see if I can get my hands on a hydron batt. It'll be interesting to see what Panny has to say about it as the service guys recommended sending it back for a check-up.

Mike
 
Well...here's an update.

Im more confused than ever.

First the battery belt. If you hold the XLR so the pin holes are vertical, the schematic shows number 1 on top and 4 on the bottom.
It also says pin 1 is negative and pin 4 is positive.

The schematic of the Panasonic monitor has the pins numbered exactly the opposite. 4 on top, 1 on the bottom. But, it also says pin 1 is negative and pin 4 is positive.

Now here's the kicker. The voltage meter says the top pin is hot, and the bottom pin is negative.

This means the belt is correctly wired for the monitor, but the schematic of the battery belt is reversed.

Yet, here I sit with no monitor, no word from Pansonic on what exactly is the problem, and too afraid to use a brand new battery belt.

What are your opinions on whether Bescor (battery belt manufacturer) should pay for the monitor to be fixed or not? Are they liable, if something is indeed wrong with the monitor?
Should I have checked the polarity of the xlr pins before using the belt?
What did I do wrong?

I knew I should have taken that electrical engineering class back in skool.

Thanks!
Mike
 
On the XLR connectors we are using the pin numbers are marked next to each pin in small size numbers. Try to see if yours are marked.
 
The belt does have the numbers on the connector itself. 4 on top, 1 on bottom. The included schematic is wrong.
So, I guess this means the belt is fine and something is up with the monitor itself.
I'll try and be patient and see what Panasonic has to say. After waiting 4 months for this thing to arrive, I guess another week wont kill me - much.

BTW, the guys at EAR (in Phoenix) have been great throughout the whole ordeal. They even offered a replacement Panny 1700 for any critical shoots.
 
So I just heard from Panasonic.

Apparently there was a bad resistor somewhere in the works. Thats all the info I got.
They didn't charge me anything - which was great...but I'm still not sure what the problem was - or is.

Did my belt cauase this, or did it come from the factory like that? I'm still very nervous about using it.

I asked my retailer if I could bring in the belt when I pick up the monitor to have them with me as I check it out. They agreed with no problem.

Sorry to drag this out, but I figure information can't hurt.

Mike
 
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