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Re: Fostex FR-2 Battery Life

Subject: Re: Fostex FR-2 Battery Life
From: "oryoki2000" <>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:48:19 -0000
Antti Sakari Saario <> wrote:

> We just bought a Fostex FR-2 and are only getting
> about 15-20 minutes of recording time...

That does seem to be a shorter recording time than
I have seen reported by others.  If you completely
discharged your rechargeable batteries by accident,
perhaps the batteries are damaged.=20

To test, I'd try recording with a fresh set
of alkaline AAs to see how long they last.=20
The FR-2 manual says a set of 2300 mAh alkaline
AA (or LR6) delivers one hour of recording.  Since
most alkaline AAs (Duracell, Eveready, etc) are
rated at 2750 mAh, you should get around 75 minutes
of recording if the FR-2 is operating properly.

Recorders that use AA battery sleds also include the
Marantz PMD671 and HHB Portadisc.  In my experience,
you're lucky to see 2 hours of recording from
a set of 8 rechargeable AAs in these machines.  And
the battery power seems to get low just as you are
presented with a great recording opportunity!

If you don't want to be swapping battery sleds,
consider an external battery pack.  One such
battery that has given good results is the
Power-Runner PR2E (Lithium Ion, 4000 mAh @ 12V, $49).

I don't have an FR-2, so I have no personal experience.
One report I read indicated that the Power-Runner PR2E
provides more than 6 hours of recording time with the
FR-2, even when sending phantom power to a pair of
microphones.

Here's a link to one source:

http://www.laptopsforless.com/portable-dvd-battery/pr2e.htm

I believe the Power-Runner PRE2 is being replaced with
the Power-Runner 2310 (also 4000 mAh @ 12V, $89).
The 2310 is available from many sources online, such as

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=3DVIEWPROD&ProdID=3D919

Let us know the results of your battery experiments.

--oryoki





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