Odyssey 7Q Battery question

G

Gene Sung

Veteran
Hi Mitch (or anyone in the know)

I'm hoping to power my FS7 and 7Q with the same small battery.

I found this Sony BPU60T which has a power terminal out - 4 Pin 2A (max).

http://www.pro.sony.eu/pro/lang/en/...rs-batteries-power-supplies/bp-u60t/features/

My question are:

1) Will this battery power both the FS7 and the 7Q?

2) Can I get a custom cable from Convergent that has the 4 Pin 2A side that goes to the 7Q plug on the other?

Thanks, and since the FS7 is a bit of lost child in the DVXUser forum, I figure I'd post this in the FS700 forum since this is where most of the 7Q questions exist.
 
as far as i saw it, the batteries you want to use have a voltage of 14.4V, and the connector on the back of the battery supports currents up to 2 ampere.

i suppose the highest current of the battery can be I=56/14,4= 3,9 A.

in the fs7's battery thread there was mentioned that the fs7 uses something around 20 watts, which would equal around 1,4 ampere @ 14,4V, so plenty of headroom left.

i think my 7Q draws up to 10-15 watts @12V (worst case) which would equal a current of 1,25A, so plenty of headroom left here as well.

in short - yes, it should work.

my guess: one of these batts would power the fs7 plus 7q around 2 hours, possibly less.

edit: not sure where i got these 85wh from.. the battery has a capacity of 56 Wh, post edited. Mitch's comments below seem more reasonable to me anyway...
 
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The problem is that while that power port may be able to output up to 2amps, what is not clear is how much the total battery can output before it's thermal fuse will shut it down. If the battery is just powering that jack then I'm sure it is fine, but what if there is a high draw on the battery from the camera as well? Then I don't know what the total draw limit is on the brick.

Sony says this 60w battery should power an FS7 for about two hours, so I'm gonna say that the camera is basically a 30whr draw (it's likely a little less but that's a simple number to work with). When recording 4K the Odyssey7Q+ can draw as much as 18w, with an initial spike of up to 25w. It's a 14.4v battery, so we are under that 2amp threshold, but if you run the numbers of a 60w battery connected to a 30whr FS7 and an 18-25whr Odyssey7Q+, you get around an hour of battery life. But that is assuming that the internal fuse allows for about 4amps total draw, which is an unknown. If not then you'll trip the fuse. If yes, then it will maybe last that hour. After that every time you hit record the increased draw from the Odyssey7Q+ will likely shut down both the camera and recorder. Also, taking a battery like this and sucking it dry in an hour is not good for it even if the internal fuse allows it. Don't expect a long life span from these little batteries when used and abused this way.

I believe that Hawk-Woods in the UK is building a similar battery of its own with a P-Tap on the back. I talked to them about a month ago about it so don't know if it is yet available, but it was designed specifically for this sort of use. I think it has a bit more capacity than the Sony brick but can't recall the details. A quick glance at the website doesn't show the version with the P-Tap yet, but they may just be late in getting the website updated so you may wish to reach out directly.

See the link in the post above to understand why do not wish to manufacture a Hirose-4 Odyssey power cable. It won't work on most cameras (such as the F5/F55) and can cause expensive damage on many other cameras, including most 2/3" shoulder-mount type cameras.
 
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Mitch, can the Odyssey's power requirements be laid out more clearly? the 8-12W power draw mentioned on the website doesn't really match your explanation of 25W above... pretty confusing, and your users can brick their batteries because they calculate with the wrong values...
 
We found 4K ProRes to require a higher draw then originally anticipated. We have have revised the specs. It used to require up to 15w and we changed that to 18w.

The peak amp draw is just for initial start of the SSDs when they go from standby to record. It's a short peak followed by an immediate dip in the draw. Most batteries won't even notice but there is a chance that an internal thermal fuse would trip. If this does happen the battery is not lost. Different thermal fuses require different rest times, but it will eventually return to nrmal. Might just be minutes.
 
I'm sure the BP-U60T is capable to run the camera and the odyssey simultaneously, the socket is designed to output 2A for LEDs so 14,4*2=28,8W max. The question is the runtime and the cable. If the runtime is more than 90mins its a very attractive solution to power the odyssey.
 
McReedy said:
I'm sure the BP-U60T is capable to run the camera and the odyssey simultaneously, the socket is designed to output 2A for LEDs so 14,4*2=28,8W max. The question is the runtime and the cable. If the runtime is more than 90mins its a very attractive solution to power the odyssey.
Click to expand...

Read above about the Odyssey needing 24w spike, though. There is potential that you could push the battery too far, or if it works initially it may not work later as the battery voltage drops.

Personally, since the Odyssey will work best with the RAW out from the XDCA unit, I'll just stick to v-mounts and running a d-tap to the Odyssey.

Mitch, the XDCA-FS7 has a power out... looks like 14.4v up to 2A, is it a 2-pin Hirose? Is there possibility that this would work with the 7Q?

I might invest in a set of PAGlink V-mounts, which don't have D-taps directly on them... but they make a plate with modular power outs. Just weighing my options.
 
I'm not so sure the DC out jack on the expansion box has that high a threshold. I would want to confirm it before saying anything. I would also caution that if it is a Hirose-4 as on other Sony cameras, the power must be spread across multiple pins as one pair of pins are definitely not rated for that my draw on such a connector.

That's why I lean towards the P-Tap. I know it's a plastic plug, but it also uses those big banana jack pegs and it is standardly rated for 70w of power. The P-Tap was originally designed for sanguine lamps so it had to be able to handle a hefty load, while the Hirose-4 was originally meant for wireless mike receivers floating at just a few hundred milliamp draw.

Switronix and others make a "sandwich plate" which is designed to fit between the V-mount on the camera and a V-mount brick, and it has several power outputs for various accessories. That's one way to get either a P-Tap or other high-draw rated power output for the Odyssey7Q. Or a brick with a P-Tap built in.
 
Hey Mitch,

What about these Swit BP-U60 batteries for powering the FS7 and the 7Q? They have a D-Tap out, so I'm assuming the 7Q would be getting the same amount of power as the camera. Seems like the D-Tap is different than the Sony BPU60T with the 4 pin 2A (max) power terminal.

http://dolgin.net/zen_dolgin/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=163

I'm going to buy the V-Mount bricks, but if I don't use the XDCA Back Attachment, still would be nice to power the 7Q as well without an extra battery on the back of the 7Q.

Swit is suppose to be coming out with a chipped version for the FS7.
 
It might work, it might not. The problem is both how much is that P-Tap port rated to feed as well as how much can the entire battery output at one time before tripping the thermal fuse. I only know the Hawk-Woods bricks are supposed to be okay because I discussed it with them.

Several accessory makers are coming out with battery adapter mounts that will fit into the back of the FS7 but accept full sized bricks in either V-mount of Anton Bauer. I think this is a good thing if only because the camera is definitely front heavy and any weight towards the back is a good thing. I think both Movcam and Tilta have shown prototypes for this, and I think there were one or two others as well. Another solution is to use a large battery brick on the Odyssey and then run a P-Tap cable to power the camera. Wooden Camera has a nice rig for this with the Odyssey mounted in the back and you could do something similar with mounting plates from several companies such as Ocean Video, Movcam, Nebtek, etc. Even Arri has a nice rig for this now. So even if you choose not to go with the breakout box you could always still go with the larger bricks and have the weight located right where you want it.
 
Westside A V has the AB and IDX plates in stock. Both for FS700 and FS7 as well as for the Odyssey.

We also have Sony BPU and L battery plates in stock that fit on the Odyssey or the Cheese plate for our camera rigs, this can be handy you can power the FS7/FS700 with the original batteries and separately power the O7Q/+ with the same batteries if you don't want to invest in big bricks.

Anyone interested can contact me directly for custom plates and cables, I have all the parts in stock and can ship any combination of battery-plate/cable/mounting-plate. There are many combinations available.

Now that the O7Q/+ are using up to 18w with the great new recording options, I recommend using 14.8v BPU batteries or Bricks, the will give you much longer run times and no dimming of the screen when recording.

We are offering upgrades for anyone who has our Odyssey plate with a L battery plate to a BPU plate. Contact info@westsideav.com if you would like to upgrade.

FS7wavekit.jpg

FS700wavekit.jpg
 
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