Line6 XD-V radio mic inconsistent battery life

[cedd]

Hi all

I own 6 XD-V70 beltpack systems and recently added 2 XD-V55's as well to take me up to 8 channels in the rack (my standard rack size - V70's were discontinued otherwise I'd have had more of them).

 

On the whole they've been pretty ok, but I'm starting to see some really worrying battery level readings when they come back in after a show. They quote 8 hours life, and for the first few shows I happily got 2 performances out of them, with still a couple of hours showing on the meters (my other 16 mics are Trantec S5.3 - 10 hours on 1 AA, so easily 2 shows per battery).

 

I had one battery leak in a pack a couple of years ago. The tolerances on the beltpack battery compartments seem really tight and as the batteries heat up slightly they become pretty tight - I think probably the cause of this leak. I cleaned it up as best as I could (terminals all back to shiny silver) but ever since this pack has only done 5 hours per battery change before it dies.

 

More recently I added the two V55's, which are supposed to have the same battery life, but often they'll come back with only an hour or 2 showing up on the meters after a single show while the others are still showing 5 or 6. These packs are new.

 

Another couple of the V70's have started coming back with really quite low battery readings recently. Some as low as forty minutes after only one show. This has been consistent over a few battery changes (i.e. it wasn't one dodgy batch of batteries).

 

Part of me's tempted to say it's the battery monitoring rather than the battery life itself, but I'm too scared to find out! I need to set up a scientific experiment, maybe with a timelapse camera pointing at the backs for a day, but it won't happen for a little while due to shows. I have had instances where I've let one of the packs metering a low number go out for a second show as an experiment (where somebody had a single line early in act 1 of a show) and the pack did come back dead when the others weren't - implying the metering is at least somewhere near accurate.

Also annoyingly, I've recently switched to CPC's Pro-Elec branded batteries (not related to my problems - the above was still consistently happening on my previous GP Alkaline batteries, which have always been great) and they're slightly larger than the GP's (but still within the AA battery spec) and the battery compartments are so tight that I'm struggling to get them out of the packs after a performance (probably due to heat and swelling) without tools.

 

Just wondered if anybody else using these packs was having similar problems?

[paulears]

Similar battery life on my hand held 70 systems - in fact - I'm using a set of batteries per show, because trying to squeeze 2 is not 100%. I've started to become the battery demon. The question I ask on the second show is "did you out new batteries in?" and I get the answer "yes" - however this is actually really no, because the battery status monitor says full, yet in perhaps fifteen minutes has changed to almost flat, and they didn't change the batteries at all. I keep saying that I don't care if it's got plenty left - swap it.

 

My guitar system is now also playing up - the battery compartment catch having worn enough to mean that tape is needed to keep the thing powered up. I've been very pleased with the performance of them, but they are not lasting very well at all, so next purchase will be back to Sennheisers. A shame - because I really like the sound, but the battery life and plastic parts are starting to annoy.

[cedd]

Yep, I've got a battery compartment door doing just the same thing. My mics are very low mileage, certainly compared to a dry hire business - they've probably been out on 10 to 15 shows maximum over the last couple of years.

My biggest piece of advice with these mics - never keep batteries in them for a period of time - if they go green then it's an absolute nightmare. I'm currently waiting on a replacement ribbon cable to arrive because the one between the main board and the power/mute/LED board has failed on one of mine. Thankfully it's failed switched permanently on, so I'm just taking the batteries out every time.

 

My other gripe - some mini xlr conectors (REAN in particular) don't lock in any more. Again, very low mileage connectors really.

 

I too love the sound quality, but to be completely honest I'm about ready to give up on them.

[Shez]

Mine are a little inconsistent with battery run times. I still tend to get two shows out of them but I'm perhaps less confident in that than I used to be. One of my early packs had the battery drain issue where I think they pretty much shorted the battery so the whole pack became uncomfortably warm - that was fixed under warranty. One battery door has to be taped up now. I've had to replace one input connector after a user tried to unscrew the mic plug rather than pulling it!

 

Where do you source your spares, Cedd? Full Compass is the only place I've found that advertises them but they've ignored my requests for pricing.

 

I'm not ready to give up on them yet - I've invested a lot in them and as the packs are so (relatively) cheap, having to replace the odd one isn't the end of the world.

[cedd]

I sourced my spares through the Yamaha Spares side of Sontec (Yamaha bought Line6 a while ago). They had the battery door in stock but not the ribbon cable. This thread has actually just reminded me to chase it as it was the end of August when I last heard from them.

 

I've accepted that, no matter what the battery readings, mine are getting new batteries every show. It's a faff as it doesn't fit in with my 2 shows per battery regime for the Trantec's.

 

Thinking about it, I bought mine from Thomann. I bet they're still in their 3 year warranty. Wondering if I can ship the ones that have gone "hungry" back to them for repair. It's always worth a shot.

[boswell]

We have 12 Line 6 beltpack systems and replace the batteries each performance, not worth taking the chance of a couple of batteries ruining a show. So we use the cheapo CPC Prolec batteries as we only want them to last 4 hrs.

We take the same attitude with our eight G3 systems, not worth the risk, new batteries every show!

Chris, I presume it is Sontec.co.uk that you use for spares? no mention of Yamaha on their site

 

 

[sclg]

Same here. I just do one show then change batteries. I have 6 of them. Put new batteries in all of them and at the end of the show some will show 4 hours left and some 1 hour!

I like the sound and they are reliable but the 'time left' reading is just a joke.

Steve

[MarkPAman]

I don't think I've ever got close to the 8 hours from any of mine (6 handheld + 3 beltpacks) even when they were new. I don't think they've changed over the 4 years or so I've had them. I tend to allow about half of whatever the meter says after they've been on for a while, which gives me a good safety margin.

 

As I work mainly with gigs, I usually use the previous night's ones for the soundcheck then swap them all at the end of that. I try to keep the old ones that still had a good reading for other uses, and dispose of those that were saying less than an hour.

[richard_cooper]

Just wondered if anybody else using these packs was having similar problems?

When I used to have 12 XDV-70 belt packs, I would regularly do 2 shows with them, and the battery indicators were fine once they had been switched on for 10-15 mins, but did have a tendency to read almost full immediately after switch on regardless of actual state of the battery. These packs had a very hard life, and for the most part were remarkably reliable. I did have a couple, however, that started to exhibit much reduced battery life. One of which would discharge a new set of batteries in around half an hour. These plus physically damaged ones went back to line6 (back when their service centre was in Rugby) and were fixed up fine. I can't tell you what the repair was as Line6 seemed to charge me £45 per pack to change the socket, regardless of what the fault was....

 

I haven't used them since Yamaha took over, but I've been told getting them serviced is now nearly impossible. A real shame as the Rugby service centre used to turn them around for me next day, the work was perfect, and always cost £45/pack.

[cedd]

Had a huge faff with my Line6 packs this last 2 weeks on panto. Battery life is now becoming unusable. Same brand batteries as always (which are still doing 10 hours plus in the Trance S5.3's). Now getting packs back with 20 minutes showing on the battery meters after only one show. Had one come back completely flat.

One pack now requires tools to get the batteries out every time, while others do occasionally. Also got one pack now that won't power up unless you hit it (but once it powers up it's fine and won't power off if you hit it again). One receiver has developed a high pitched whine on its' audio output which is barely audible but I know it's there and can definitely hear it through the PA - present whether the TX is on or off, and when selected to multiple channels.

In short, really struggling to trust this kit any more. Very much thinking of cutting my losses and moving to 8 channels of Trance S5.3 in channel 65 (now MLEC can re-tune channel 70 Trantec to channel 65).