monitor battery to sled power solution

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

Made up a d-tap to A/B plate / cable combo to feed into the 3rd battery plate onto the XCS ultimate from the monitor battery.

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Or P-Tap (D-Tap) to P-Tap (D-Tap) so the bottom of the sled stays flat.

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

Yes, but the d-tap on the sled is not protected by the diode, meaning it back feeds into monitor battery...

[Afton Grant]

Sorry... I just want to make sure I'm understanding what's happening here. Jens, are you basically providing power to both the monitor as well as the battery position directly under the post with just one battery mounted to the monitor?

 

I do similar things with P-tap cables on my PRO base once in a while when I want a certain physical battery placement, but a different electrical battery configuration. For instance, if the camera is real light, I can use only one battery, but still have all three (cam, aux, mon) lines powered by using a P-tap to stand in for a battery on one of the other plates.

[Afton Grant]

...and actually, as Alec suggested, do you need a diode if you just do P-tap to P-tap?

 

You have two plates, one with a battery, one without. You connect the two via their P-tap ports. How would the second one feedback into the first if there is no battery on it?

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

On the XCS ultimate, all 3 batteries are feeding into the same power stream / computer distribution system.

 

That means you can use 3 batteries to power the camera.

 

In my case for balance purposes I use only 2 batts in the rear position and one on the monitor.

 

In order to feed power into the 3rd, center battery position I'm using my cable / plate.

 

Yes, you can feed into the d-tap, but due to system configuration, it backfeeds some power out of the d-tap. In order to avoid that, it is better to feed trough the actual battery plate input pins.

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

On the PRO 2/3 battery base with the standard 12/24 Volt three battery block that isolates the front battery as the "monitor" battery, there should be no power feedback issues. Having never flown a monitor light enough that I wanted to do this configuration until now (new Cinetronic 2), I've yet to do this. I'm wondering if you could have a possible power issue via the 8-Pin Lemo that provides power to the monitor (as well as SD video). One could always unplug this cable since the monitor is being powered from its own AB battery, but SD video would have to be run through a BNC cable (not a big deal). Until I have my HD level from Cinetronic, I'll be using a down converter and the XCS level though which requires that 8-pin Lemo be connected. Does anyone have thoughts about power feedback through it when their is a battery on the monitor and the P-Tap connecter is running power to the AB plate under the post (and thus sending power to that 8-Pin Lemo). Since its all the same battery, I don't see a problem.

 

Thanks.

[RonBaldwin]

I made a plate like this to move a battery lower or to a different position for balance a while back (though I sliced the ab plate down quite a bit for no apparent reason).

 

Maybe a diode in the ab plate on the monitor will solve the problem? I have flown like this for a year or two and had no issues (though I do notice the power does go where it's not supposed to go sometimes). I have been wanting to add the diode for a while...just forgot about until I saw this.

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

Parts

 

http://m.bhphotovideo.com/mobile/detail?R=135979_REG&BI=225&kw=ANSOXLR&cm_mmc=SEM-_-PLA-_-225-_-ANSOXLR

 

 

http://m.bhphotovideo.com/mobile/detail?R=69225_REG&

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Well, I called my question into Chris from Cinetronic and got a cool answer regarding the PRO. Turns out that the 8-Pin monitor Lemo when left plugged in carries power back to the "monitor" battery (front battery) on the sled. So, all you need to do is put a battery on the back of the Cinetronic and skip the one under the post and you are still in business with all of your video/power Lemos on the Upper J-Box!!! If you wanted too fly four batteries, and had one on the monitor and on the front sled position, then you'd be putting them in parallel which is not the end of the world, but they should be of roughly equal age and charge state (unless you add a diode). I personally would rather not fly four batteries though. Once again the simplicity of the PRO's wiring pays off.