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Wireless Microphone Batteries


frost

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rechargeables have thier uses on short displays / shows of known duration, but not viable for conferences (esp. ones that overrun by an hour! :) ) etc - the lower voltage (1.2 to 1.5v, or 2.4 to 3v for 2 cell transmitters) means that the transmitters are pulling more power, and with the voltage curve of NiCd batts being level until a sharp drop to zero - the Tx / Rx battery strength meters are rendered fairly u/s, and 2 or 3 hours out of a NiCd set is fine for short shows, but not conferences with up to 4 hour sessions with possibly a 5 minute loo break where the loo is definately the priority.
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rechargeables have thier uses on short displays / shows of known duration, but not viable for conferences (esp. ones that overrun by an hour! :) ) etc - the lower voltage (1.2 to 1.5v, or 2.4 to 3v for 2 cell transmitters) means that the transmitters are pulling more power, and with the voltage curve of NiCd batts being level until a sharp drop to zero - the Tx / Rx battery strength meters are rendered fairly u/s, and 2 or 3 hours out of a NiCd set is fine for short shows, but not conferences with up to 4 hour sessions with possibly a 5 minute loo break where the loo is definately the priority.

 

 

the fischer amps ones were 2200mAh and easily lasted well over 10 hours of use in sennheiser 300 series radio mic's. They did an entire day of tech rehearsals, and were still going the next morning when I came back to work.

I've never used any other kind of rechargeables in radio mic's due to the problems you have stated above, but I was recommended these. We got them on a demo for the panto, they were excellent and we subsequently bought them. They have already saved money over buying disposables!!

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Modern (and expensive) battery and charger systems are definitely a big step up from the old styles of Nicads that could barely power a mic, let alone give decent life.

 

The big problem for me (and probably for many others on this list) is justifying the initial capital expenditure. I no longer own any radio mics myself, renting them as required for specific projects. These projects are for a variety of theatres, corporate clients and amateur groups. Each of these clients probably only represents 2 or 3 projects/weeks per year, so it's hard for any one of them to justify the expenditure in their own right and it would be almost impossible for me to make any money by buying the gear and hiring out "battery charging services" or something. Alas, much easier just to put in an expense claim for 80p a Procell or so.

 

So...I'm interested in the idea of modern rechargeables, but at the present costs I can only see them being a realistic alternative for a theatre or group with: a) it's own equipment and b) a steady throughput of work every week.

 

Bob

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Gold Peak gold PP3 from CPC in our Senn evo kits (and the same branded AAs in the less preferable gen 2 kits we own) - we are however looking at moving to NiMHs - any threads on this already, or thoughts?

 

Anyone done it on 16 odd kits used a few times a week?

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the fischer amps ones were 2200mAh...

 

Ahhh -I always seem to have NiCd's in mind whenever anybody mentions rechargeables, totally forgetting the fact that NiMH has been around for years now...

 

is the battery level meter more faithful than on NiCd's, or is it a similar drop off?

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Procells every time here, and don't go anywhere near rechargables, too much scope for an almighty balls-up! Once the job is done, old batteries binned, unless anyone wants them for home, maglites etc etc.

Our AKG WMS4000s have a sexy battery meter telling you how long you have left, but can't say I have any idea how accurate they are, once again, too risky to trust them on a conference, I'll just bung in new ones at the start and again at lunch. Rather a couple of quid's worth of batteries than the embarrassment of drop out/silence.

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the fischer amps ones were 2200mAh...

 

Ahhh -I always seem to have NiCd's in mind whenever anybody mentions rechargeables, totally forgetting the fact that NiMH has been around for years now...

 

is the battery level meter more faithful than on NiCd's, or is it a similar drop off?

 

 

to be honest, I don't know. Used on the sennheiser 300's, they very quickly lost the first bar of charge, then sat on the second all day. After this point I got bored and went home. In the morning, a few still showed one bar of charge, and the rest were flat. I never actually ran them down that low during the runs obviously, but on the occasions when I did have to use them for two shows on the bounce, they never went below the 2 bars. Also, they didn't suffer any detrimental effects from being re-charged after only a few hours use.

 

Unfortunately I think that as people instantly dismiss recharge-ables, they will take a while to catch on.

I disagree with the comment about too much scope for a balls up. I have had no end of disposable battery problems , however with the fischer amps batteries, each cell can be proved before you start using them on shows, so you discard faulty ones a long time before you get anywhere near the paying public. The chargers have an indicator to tell you that they are charged, so if they are not then you don't use them. If the worst comes to it and the charger breaks, then it's just common sense to have a backup set of regular batteries anyway.

 

SeanT I had 18 sets that were used twice a day for three months, they worked excellently. I would strongly recommend them

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they very quickly lost the first bar of charge, then sat on the second all day

probably due to the 1.2v per cell thing... not spitting out 1.5 as expected, they 'appear' to be not full...

lso, they didn't suffer any detrimental effects from being re-charged after only a few hours use.

beauty of NiMH over the oldies - no 'problematic' memory effect...

Unfortunately I think that as people instantly dismiss recharge-ables

as per my previous post.... (ahem...)

a few still showed one bar of charge, and the rest were flat

that is promising... at least the packs detect the batteries are getting low - and not going from 2 bars to nothing in a snap.... and the ones that had lasted all showed the same low charge....

 

cheers for info...

 

A.

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To the questions:

What batteries do you suggest to use, and how long do they last on average?

 

I use the Fischer Amps 9V cells in my Evolution G1's - they have been absolutely rock solid in use.

I've used the AA's as well but was caught out by a charger developing a fault on one occaision, it took a dislike to charging 4 batteries at the same time.

The PP3s last a consistent 5 hrs and I got bored testing the AAs in the G2 transmitters after 12 hours runtime - "long enough" was the conclusion on battery life

 

The 19" chargers are expensive but they quickly pay for themselves and you have the bonus of arriving at the theatre with a fresh set of batteries waiting for you in the charger. I went from buying about 500 pp3s a year to none at all in the last 18 months.

 

For alkalines I found the Vartas to be very cosntistent and good VFM. - Unless you are pushing the batteries to the limits of their capacity most reasonable quality alkalines will be fine.

 

Ian Cunningham

Solus Technical Services

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Strangely after talking with one of the crew from Starlight, he told me that Autograph still don't send the re-chargeables out on tours. Wonder if they know something we don't
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Strangely after talking with one of the crew from Starlight, he told me that Autograph still don't send the re-chargeables out on tours. Wonder if they know something we don't

 

They don't use rechargeable batteries as they make lots and lots of money from selling batteries to shows. It would loose them a HUGE amount of money to use rechargeables.

 

A lot of theatre sound companies rely on consumables ( batteries / mics / PVC / Gaffa ) to make up the money from a really poor rental rate.

 

So yes they know something we don't!

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