Premium Members Mark Karavite Posted March 10, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Hello friends, Does anyone know how the heater on a MK-V Hummingbird LCD is powered? I was shooting frigid exteriors in Chicago the other week, and my LCD was freezing up and the image greatly suffered. I knew the MK-V had a built in heater, but obviously it wasn't working. I managed to limp by with a locations heater pounding the monitor whenever I was docked, but not ideal. I contacted MK-V about the issue. The first email response said I needed to power the monitor from a 4 pin DC input, not the PRO connector, in order to power the heater. I questioned (to myself at first) whether powering the monitor from both the 4 pin and the PRO connector would possibly cause damage by feeding the monitor 2 power sources at once. I need to use the PRO connector, because my electronic level / frameline generator feeds video to the monitor from the PRO connector. I spoke directly with Howard about this power question, and he was unable to answer my question. Before I tear into the monitor with my engineer to diagnose the issue, I thought I'd pick the substantial braintrust here on the forum, hoping to shorten the learning curve. I'm not posting this as a statement to MK-V's customer service. There have been ample conversations here on that subject, so I'd rather avoid going down that road on this thread. Any helpful experience with MK-V Hummingbird heaters would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mark Karavite, SOC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Jens Piotrowski SOC Posted March 10, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Hello friends, Does anyone know how the heater on a MK-V Hummingbird LCD is powered? I was shooting frigid exteriors in Chicago the other week, and my LCD was freezing up and the image greatly suffered. I knew the MK-V had a built in heater, but obviously it wasn't working. I managed to limp by with a locations heater pounding the monitor whenever I was docked, but not ideal. I contacted MK-V about the issue. The first email response said I needed to power the monitor from a 4 pin DC input, not the PRO connector, in order to power the heater. I questioned (to myself at first) whether powering the monitor from both the 4 pin and the PRO connector would possibly cause damage by feeding the monitor 2 power sources at once. I need to use the PRO connector, because my electronic level / frameline generator feeds video to the monitor from the PRO connector. I spoke directly with Howard about this power question, and he was unable to answer my question. Before I tear into the monitor with my engineer to diagnose the issue, I thought I'd pick the substantial braintrust here on the forum, hoping to shorten the learning curve. I'm not posting this as a statement to MK-V's customer service. There have been ample conversations here on that subject, so I'd rather avoid going down that road on this thread. Any helpful experience with MK-V Hummingbird heaters would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mark Karavite, SOC the standard IMP/Lumavec Hummingbird/Blackbird has no build in heater that I know of, but a "DIMM" function that sets the brightness to 10% during standby times and let's the monitor stay warm......are you saying the monitor was not able to get to operating temperature from a cold start? also, if you un-screw the little black add-on box in the back of the MK-V version you will see where all the power lines are going....good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Mark Karavite Posted March 10, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Hey Jens, Thanks for the input. I am in the habit of just leaving the monitor on during cold temps. In this particular location, it was extremely cold, 8 degrees F + wind. The monitor worked, but the image degraded more and more as the monitor got colder & colder. MK-V marketed the monitor as having a heater for such conditions, but I guess I never really had it in such extreme conditions to notice a problem. I used to use my greenscreen for exteriors, but sold it last year so I'm 100% LCD now. I plan on tearing apart the black box you described, but it sure would be nice to have some knowledge of the inner workings, instead of taking time to figure it out with no schematics. MK-V can't (or won't) provide me with schematics for any of their gear I own. I have a really good electronics engineer locally who could fix anything in a minute with the proper road map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Jens Piotrowski SOC Posted March 11, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Hey Jens, Thanks for the input. I am in the habit of just leaving the monitor on during cold temps. In this particular location, it was extremely cold, 8 degrees F + wind. The monitor worked, but the image degraded more and more as the monitor got colder & colder. MK-V marketed the monitor as having a heater for such conditions, but I guess I never really had it in such extreme conditions to notice a problem. I used to use my greenscreen for exteriors, but sold it last year so I'm 100% LCD now. I plan on tearing apart the black box you described, but it sure would be nice to have some knowledge of the inner workings, instead of taking time to figure it out with no schematics. MK-V can't (or won't) provide me with schematics for any of their gear I own. I have a really good electronics engineer locally who could fix anything in a minute with the proper road map. I've contacted the panel manufacturer (Lumavec). They told me that they indeed delivered the MK-V OEM version with a heater part. You can contact them. Maybe they can help. info@lumavec.com Gill Ashby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Mark Karavite Posted March 11, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Thanks a ton Jens, I just sent Gill an email. I'll report back what I learn. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Mark Karavite Posted March 18, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 Thanks to Jens contact at Lumavec, Gill responded with the information below. I have yet to make the mod, but the plan is to utilize the seperate 4 pin lemo on the back of the MK-V Hummingbird monitor, and wire it directly to the D connector's pin 14 & 15. I'll make a cable that will either run from my P Tap on my front battery, or possibly from a spare DC output on my lower stage. Either way, this will power the heater only, while the PRO connector will still feed power & video to the monitor. Mark FYI, here's the reply from Lumavec: Hi We supply a OEM unit to MK-V who then build it into their housing and supply the breakout box on the rear of the unit with the connectors on it ie lemo, bnc etc. All OEM units supplied to MK-V are supplied with heaters. We do not know which connector MK-V wire the heater to. The heater is connected to the following pins on the 15way D connector Pin 14 - negative Pin 15 + positive Hope this clarifies the situation Best regards Gill MD Lumavec Ltd Stanton House Station Road Longstanton Cambs CB24 3DS Tel/ 0044 (0) 1954 260595 www.lumavec.com mobile 07785 726810 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Mark Karavite Posted April 2, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 Finally had a chance to look into connecting the heater. It is very simple. We are going to tie into the power from the PRO connector, mount a switch on top of the rear breakout box on back of the monitor, and connect power to pin #15 on the D connector, connect a common ground to pin #14, and it's done. Simple fix for anyone who owns this monitor. We would have done it yesterday, but I need to grab a switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Eric Fletcher S.O.C. Posted April 2, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 Finally had a chance to look into connecting the heater. It is very simple. We are going to tie into the power from the PRO connector, mount a switch on top of the rear breakout box on back of the monitor, and connect power to pin #15 on the D connector, connect a common ground to pin #14, and it's done. Simple fix for anyone who owns this monitor. We would have done it yesterday, but I need to grab a switch. Interesting though that Howard claims that it's wired up and functioning from him... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Jens Piotrowski SOC Posted April 2, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 Finally had a chance to look into connecting the heater. It is very simple. We are going to tie into the power from the PRO connector, mount a switch on top of the rear breakout box on back of the monitor, and connect power to pin #15 on the D connector, connect a common ground to pin #14, and it's done. Simple fix for anyone who owns this monitor. We would have done it yesterday, but I need to grab a switch. Interesting though that Howard claims that it's wired up and functioning from him... to top this off, the brightness and contrast controls are mixed up on the MK-V Hummingbird...! ...at least Howard is consistent.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Eric Fletcher S.O.C. Posted April 3, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted April 3, 2011 Finally had a chance to look into connecting the heater. It is very simple. We are going to tie into the power from the PRO connector, mount a switch on top of the rear breakout box on back of the monitor, and connect power to pin #15 on the D connector, connect a common ground to pin #14, and it's done. Simple fix for anyone who owns this monitor. We would have done it yesterday, but I need to grab a switch. Interesting though that Howard claims that it's wired up and functioning from him... to top this off, the brightness and contrast controls are mixed up on the MK-V Hummingbird...! ...at least Howard is consistent.... Pretty much does away with his claims as a Innovator when in reality he's a repackager that does a poor job at it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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