My phantom mic suddenly went dead, any thoughts?

I

Iudex

Well-known member
Hey I had a Rode NTG-3 connected to CH-1 on my EX1, and I had CH-2 recording with the built-in mic for ambience. I was doing an interview.

When my interviewee finished answering one question, suddenly the signal was lost (I was monitoring with headphones). It was very notorious that it was lost exactly when he finished talking, but maybe it was just a coincidence. I wasn't touching the camera at all, no one was, it was standing still on a tripod with the mike attached to it (that was the strangest fact). And no, my headphones were OK, the signal was also dead on the camera indicator.

I wasn't able to make the microphone work, I tried many things:

1) I wiggled the connectors on both ends, signal remained dead.
2) I reconnected it, nothing.
3) I turned off and on the camera.
4) I changed the battery.
5) I connected it to CH-2.

Nothing worked. Maybe I also did something else, right now I don't remember. Sadly I couldn't fix it and I had to record the rest of it with the built-in microphone.

So I thought my mike was somehow fried, but today (two days later) I tested it again with the same XLR cable and it worked! How can this be?

The only difference I can think of is the battery, when it went dead my battery had little charge, 20% maybe. And the battery I changed it for when I was trying to fix it also had little charge because it was used before. When I tested it again today I used a full battery. But it shouldn't be the problem, right?

I'm confused because I don't know why this happened and I certainly don't want it to happen again during shooting. Maybe someone can provide a little insight?

Thank you very much!

I.

P.D. sorry for posting this in both EX1 and Audio forums, but I don't really know if it's camera related or mike related.
 
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Try opening up both ends of the XLR cable to look at the connections. Just to make sure there isn't a single wire shorting your signal that's moving in and out of place.
 
...and maybe I should read your ENTIRE post before I reply :)

you're right. sounds like batteries. couldn't hurt to check the cables too
 
The NTG-3 doesn't have batteries - it requires an external source of phantom. Could the camera have lost phantom as the battery was discharged?
 
It's never "safe to assume" anything with audio, but it might be the batteries. It's possible that the phantom power drops to an unusable level when the camera is low but that would be a big design flaw, or something you should get repaired. The cable could also be an issue as Matt T said, sometimes you get a single strand broken and it can short out and cause problems. And it could be a bad mic, though that would be low on my list. I would google the camera model and "+mic +problems" and see if you get any hits. If it's a camera/ batt problem your probably not the first to get hit by it. If it happens again try swapping the mic cable and see if that changes anything and try swapping the battery also, but separately. Actually if it were me I would hook every thing up and see if you can get it to happen again. Run down the battery and see if the mic cuts out.
 
But both batteries were not dying... just low. Why would they give up phantom supply? I will of course simulate the same situation and see what happens, thanks for your kind answers!
 
Since we are on phantom subject, I have a question for you guys. I just recently moved from film to HD and still learning. My HPX-170 said it feeds the mics that need phantom power (switch on/off). Does it mean I dont need an external phantom power supply or its just a switch you need to turn on in addition to the power suply? I just bought a plug in supply and wireless, so I might have wasted 250 $ CAN :-( ah well....
 
I tested my batteries and everything was OK, the mic received until the battery was fully consumed.

Any other ideas? :(
 
probably either the mic cable... it could be frayed inside..and is intermittent

or camera funk.


Today I was working with some smaller sony HDV cam..
and it was freaking me out..
i was hearing a major electronic buzz at the beginning and end of the takes..

After awhile troubleshooting..
there must be some kind of shielding problem with the motor whiles its speeding up and down.
The noise went to tape as well.

The best part is telling the director about it..and asking if they could please roll 10 seconds before calling action...
he didnt want too! so on a number of takes it'll be fun for post to have to replace.

Amazing when there is a Fischer 11 dolly..track..
full grip truck full crew.. and this crappy cam on top, when the companies main cam they own
is a cine alta. Im sure it was a client budget issues but still.
Sorry didnt mean to go off, other than..a lot of these kinda problems happen I find
in the smaller format cams.

They are a great bargin, but honestly not THAT much effort was put into the audio section of these things compared to the time/money on the visual side of the cam.
 
Guess I shouldnt complain.
They rented my Letus and lenses to put in front of the little HDV cam so at least I got a rental outta that.
(wouldnt have happened with their F900)

Of course I had to help out the 1st AC all day with it..hmm wonder if I could charge for that... ;)
 
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