Most of time, I keep the Portadisc in pause mode while on a site. The
NiMH batteries (not the most expensive ones, though) will give me about
hour of autonomy when fully charged... As I always have the second set
with me, that gives me plenty of autonomy.
A weak point of the Portadisc is its "battery charge" meter, that I find
to be less accurate than I would like. It will show the charge go from
95 to 75 very quickly, then it will stay at that level for a long while
before going gradually down to about 30. The bottom of the scale
(30..10..0) is again very fast. I experienced several times a automatic
shutdown well before I expected it to happen. Now, I am a lot more
careful. I suspect it is the meter, but, of course, it could also be the
way the batteries are giving away their charge.
Dominique Laloux
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Walter Knapp
> Sent: 03 September 2003 19:23
> To:
> Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] HHB Portadisc
>
>
> Jeremy Minns wrote:
> > I bought a Portadisc recently. My battery consumption is high, a
> > maximum of
> > one hour of recording per set of 2200 mAh NiMH batteries,
> with very little
> > use of 'pause'. I am unable to charge the batteries in the
> recorder for
> > some reason and perhaps the two problems are linked.
> >
> > If I didn't live in Brazil I would return my recorder under
> guarantee
> > but
> > unfortunately it would cost US$150 to ship it to the States
> and I doubt
> > whether HHB would cover the cost of shipping it back.
> >
> > Apart from the battery problem the Portadisc is a great machine.
> >
> > Jeremy
>
> There is a switch inside the Portadisc behind the battery
> caddy. It says
> "Charge OFF - ON". Set it to on and you should be able to charge the
> batteries. That switch is in there in case you are using
> alkalines and
> plug it in, so it won't try and charge alkalines and I know mine was
> shipped with charge off. This info is in the owner's manual.
>
> You should probably verify the condition of your batteries.
> Maybe try a
> new set. That's way, way too fast a battery usage. At that discharge
> rate the batteries should be very hot to the touch. If they are not,
> they do not have anywhere near 2200mAh in them. It's far more likely
> that you have a problem with the batteries.
>
> Note with the charger in the Portadisc, try charging for at least a
> couple hours after the green charge light is completely out.
> It goes out
> at something like 80% charge. If after doing a long charge in the
> Portadisc you don't get at least 3 hours (combined pause plus record
> time) then you do have a problem. If you do get that much,
> then you were
> charging the batteries wrong. If you are still short time it
> still does
> not tell if it's batteries or Portadisc. Feel them after
> running a half
> hour or so. If they are not hot, it's batteries. Even if they are you
> are not sure.
>
> From my dealings with HHb, I'd expect that they will make
> arrangements
> to fix it if it's really bad. You should contact your local HHb
> distributor, and you have one in Brazil according to HHb's list. I
> expect you'd only have to get it to them and they would
> handle the rest:
>
> SK Audio Professional Products
> Rua Barao de Jaguara 1481, cj 142, Centro Campinas,
> Sao Paulo, CEP 13015-910, Brazil
> Tel: 011 55 19 3234 6364
> Fax: 011 55 19 236 8997
> Email:
> www.skaudio.com.br
>
> Walt
>
>
>
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