Andrew C Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 Made of clear plastic so you see how many you have in hand (also non conducting ). Like those things on garage paydesks for mints or gum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete10uk Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 Made of clear plastic so you see how many you have in hand (also non conducting ). Like those things on garage paydesks for mints or gum. https://cdn.thingiverse.com/renders/82/0c/19/fd/36/photo_preview_featured.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 That sort of thing indeed. I'd have made it harder to take batteries out of the top if it were me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.X Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 What's hard? The requirement for multiple chargers? Most people have more cells than charger slots. If you don't have enough charger slots you have a tray perhaps - maybe labelled nicely - FLAT and another - FULL, but this has never been reliable when multiple people are involved. I can only go from my own experience of charging regimes. Perhaps I just take less care than I should, but having a box of batteries that all have different analyser results, and keeping track of all this drives me mad. I do this on my video batteries, and on these I write the running time, which means they all have something sensible on them, but even with 3, 4 way chargers, from time to time somehow a full one turns out to be flat. Perhaps I'm careless, or maybe just busy? No problem having more batteries than chargers, but just have enough charging slots for the # of batteries you use each day at least. Still not a problem.You don't have to keep track of every battery's capacity, you just have to chuck them when after testing they are not up to your needed capacity. The numbering is so that you can keep track of when you last tested.Most people don't use the right chargers either. Has to be a smart charger like the PowerEx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 Well - I just asked my Sound 1 if he fancied sending back the 3000 AAs that just arrived, and replacing them with rechargeables and he was somewhat negative too - two words and the second was off. I'm also not yet convinced some problems come because two cells at a time often means one good one with one not so good, and the idea of keeping them as pairs wouldn't work either. I'm sure I'll change my opinion at some point, but the battery system is with dry cells, a simple one. With recharging it gets to be important and more complicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Is it a fair test of battery life to just leave the pack (with mic connected) sat on the test bench? Does it make a difference if there are significant audio levels going through it (as opposed to background office noises)? I ask as the rechargeables I've been testing are still showing 2 bars after over 14 hours - considerably longer than the GP alkalines I normally use. If they behave that well in the real world, I'll be a happy bunny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fincaman Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Is it a fair test of battery life to just leave the pack (with mic connected) sat on the test bench? Does it make a difference if there are significant audio levels going through it (as opposed to background office noises)? I ask as the rechargeables I've been testing are still showing 2 bars after over 14 hours - considerably longer than the GP alkalines I normally use. If they behave that well in the real world, I'll be a happy bunny. I would think it's a fair test, there would be very little difference in battery drain between the way you are testing them and live use. I tested mine like that with various batteries and the battery life was identical to live use. Well - I just asked my Sound 1 if he fancied sending back the 3000 AAs that just arrived, and replacing them with rechargeables and he was somewhat negative too - two words and the second was off. I'm also not yet convinced some problems come because two cells at a time often means one good one with one not so good, and the idea of keeping them as pairs wouldn't work either. I'm sure I'll change my opinion at some point, but the battery system is with dry cells, a simple one. With recharging it gets to be important and more complicated. Well after all I've said about rechargeable batteries it does seem that the expense of using AAs is not that great, I am as we speak doing a survey of AA battery life with some surprising results (will publish on this forum when finished). My ageing radio mics use PP3s and the cost saving is massive several 1000s of pounds over the last 6 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jevans Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 It's incredibly easy, really. If you re-read Paul's posts, he's quite clear - easy if you are the only one involved. Try to imagine a big production, with many radio mics, being swapped between cast members by different crew on different nights/matinees... You mean... just like that case study on Wicked linked to further up? http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif There's just as much human element involved in changing disposables - either just forgetfulness, or one pack already being off the table when the batteries are done, or the A1 having one at the desk for checks while the A2 changes the batteries etc. etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackbsound Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Hi All, First time posting on my new account as I can't remember for the life of me what the old one was.. A large amount of the musicals in the west end and many of those on tour including mine now use rechargeable cells for radio mics with no problems at all. We use Duracell cells (2400Mah duralocks I believe). These have been fine with our Sennheiser 5212's and G series TX/RX's. Occasionally we do have a cell discharge quicker than normal but this is usually caught in time by the team backstage and for principle performers we use two packs and two mics anyway so we are usually protected (this is very rare though!). It save's a fortune on batteries and for shows that are touring abroad it also saves on shipping costs and the headache of trying to find suppliers all over the place. We have 3 sets, each set colour coded and we cycle through them each week, with a "refresh" every 3 or so weeks. The only problems we have come up with is that the rechargeable are the tiniest bit wider than a standard dry cell and therefore don't fit into some wireless handhelds. They also don't seem to work best when in constant use and cycle, after a series of 2 week on 1 weeks offs our failure rate went up, but the cost of buying a new set of rechargeable after this was still cheaper than dry cells. Hopefully that will alleviate some peoples worries.. Save the environment and use rechargeable's! J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Let's look at this another way! Hands up anyone who runs their smart phone on dry batteries! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted November 26, 2016 Share Posted November 26, 2016 No, but then my iPhone repeated tells me there is only 20% left, then dies before I read the message properly. Shall we just call this a draw? Five years ago, it was virtually 100% in favour of dry batteries. Now much more like 50%, and I guess in five years time, most will come with a pack fitted and a charging dock socket on the rack panel you slot the packs into - that would be a really sensible solution - integrate the charging system into the receivers, so they could ID the radio, determine charge stats and sort them! Nobody has done this yet I'm aware of. 6 way chargers for comms radio systems cost £200-300 for proper current controlled ones - You'd think Sony or Sennheiser would add these devices to their systems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmxlights Posted November 26, 2016 Share Posted November 26, 2016 Yes there is I know beyerdynamic have a multi charger but the price of it is quite high. Its for the Opus 900. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleah Posted November 26, 2016 Share Posted November 26, 2016 integrate the charging system into the receivers, so they could ID the radio, determine charge stats and sort them! Nobody has done this yet I'm aware of. 6 way chargers for comms radio systems cost £200-300 for proper current controlled ones - You'd think Sony or Sennheiser would add these devices to their systems? And ideally make it so you can also charge the cells out of the TX (and so keep spares) for that occasion when you come to use a TX and the battery is flat.... :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 4 shows down........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 Better news from my panto... oh yes there is! I bought four sets of Ansmann 2500mAh cells. The bad news (boo!) is that they don't fit in my Line6 beltpacks so they were all running on the usual alkalines. Instead, I used the rechargeables in four G3 beltpacks with a not particularly well planned out recharging regime. They happily did two shows on one charge on a couple of occasions and got through another after only about half an hour in the charger. Battery gauges spent most of their time on two bars, as expected, but never gave me any cause for concern. Nothing ran out mid show or gave any problems. I didn't toggle two sets, instead choosing to just use them all for each show. This probably made their management a little more simple. I always kept their pairs together; it was interesting to see that the charger sometimes indicated differing states of charge for each cell out of the pairs used together. So that's kept 40 cells out of the recycling bin and saved me a whopping £8.10 which is still less than the cost of the rechargeables though... Question now - are there any rechargeables out there that are the same size as standard alkalines and so fit in the tighter battery compartments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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