2008Cameras (Film/Video/HD) forum
RED camera power supply failures caused by V-Mount battery connection issues and cable voltage drop
18 years old. Gear and prices may have changed since.
What the thread found
- Plastic degradation around positive battery sockets on RED lithium batteries can obstruct proper contact between battery and mount, causing intermittent power loss or complete failure to deliver power.
- Repeated mating and unmating of batteries with chargers or mounts can cause premature wear to socket plastic, possibly due to misaligned pins with spacing errors of a few thousandths of an inch.
- Damaged battery sockets may be temporarily repaired by carefully scraping away excess plastic with a knife, though this is an unreliable long-term solution.
- Voltage drop across long power distribution cables (8 feet or more) combined with high current draw can reduce available voltage at the camera to dangerously low levels, causing shutdown or breaker failure.
- Small gauge wire and multiple connectors in the power distribution chain contribute significantly to voltage drop.
- Replacement battery sets showed signs of socket damage even before use on set, suggesting the problem was inherent to production units rather than localized to one package.
Depends on
- Reports are from 2008 when RED was a new product; current manufacturing may differ.
- The root cause of socket plastic degradation remains unclear and was not definitively confirmed by manufacturer.
- Experience is specific to RED lithium batteries paired with V-Mount systems and adapter cables.
- The comparison suggesting one battery manufacturer was more reliable than another cannot be confirmed from this thread.
Gear in this thread
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