I've just started flying an Canon 5D3+24mm lens on a C8 using QC 6200 batteries with an MX-20 Tx and a GR24 Rx. I have the MX-20 set to voice response repeating the input voltage at 15 second intervals. I charge the batteries using a Hyperion SuperDuo i3 a charge current of 2C. I had a situation on a shoot yesterday where three out of eight batteries would cause the MX-20 to issue the "bing-bing, bing-bing" tone normally associated with the voice prompt of "Minimum Input Voltage" right after take-off and climb to about 15 feet AGL. I daren't take my eyes off the C8 due to ground proximity, and, after about 30 seconds at hover, the warning tone stops. I did have the shooter with whom I was working look at the Smart OSD display while the bing-bing tones were sounding and the SOSD showed something like 15.8v. The FC low voltage is set to 14.4. The Extension PCB was not flashing the LEDs. I've also checked the C8's SD card and the voltage doesn't drop below 14.4v until three minutes plus into the flight. The SD card data confirms that with a current draw of about 70-80A, the freshly charged battery voltage drops to 15.x volts within a few seconds of the flight. So one, apparently rational, explanation is that the bing-bing alert tones are also used for some other alert -- there was no voice prompt of "minimum input voltage" so that suggests a secondary use. However, I've searched through the fora and the MX-20 manual and can't find any reference to these warning tones being used for anything. Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon? Thanks Andy
Andy might be a compass deviation warning. If mag deviation is greater than what the gps deviation for your location says it should be I think I remember getting that type of sound. If that's it then when you did the initialization you were probably sitting over some type of ferro object.
Hi Gary: Thanks for the rapid response. Yeah.....we were at a dam demolition site and who knows what was subsurface. I tried to get as far away as I could from visible ferro, but that might be it. The GPX data doesn't show any anomalies as far as the compass. Magnetic field is around 108-112 in each sample, Inclination is 66(-2) or thereabouts. No bell ringers in the data that I can see. Do you get any kind of visible/textual message on the MX20 in addition to the bing-bing, bing-bing tones (as I said, I didn't dare look down), or is it one of those MS Windows messages you love to hate: "There has been an error, see if you can guess what it is." By the way did you see the H5D announcement? 24mm lens too. Thanks Andy.
Yes saw it today. But the links had nothing on the new lens, attachments and were thin on the camera itself. That said I just moved back to Nikons. I got a D800e, did some comparison tests and cropped 20x60 in sections at 13x19 were hard to see a difference between the two. Hold them at arms length and near impossible. D800 with a 20mm flys easily on the CS8. Been working to much to get some good flight photos but my fall shooting trip is just around the corner.
Yeah, the D800E looks killer. There's a comparison in the PPA magazine between the 800 and 800E. I moved from Nikon to Canon some years ago (mainly for the IS). Looks like it might be time to move back as I believe the 800's give you pure video video without icons out of the HDMI port? Andy.
Andy. Still playing with the video out. Need more time but you are correct about the no icons. But I have one of the small converters and I don't think I am getting full screen regardless of my settings on the camera. Since I primarily shoot stills it is a moot point. Wen in live mode the shoot rate is very anemic. Much less than 1 per second. Kind of disappointing. Mind you might be user error. But I'm going to mount another fpv camera on top of thens, simple Velcro strap. Gave that a try and with the lens I have on the fpv it pretty well matches the 20mm I am shooting.
Hi Gary: My current theory is that the HDMI protocol allows for device identification at some level and the CX760 (or any other HDMI device for that matter) alters its behavior based on what it is at the the other end of the HDMI cable. So what we really need for the CX760 is an HDMI converter that "fakes" being an HDMI monitor by whatever means necessary. Then the CX760 will emit screen icons and the shooter on the ground can see what the camera is doing. I've also noticed that the digital still rate on the CX760 is pretty low -- it takes quite a while to record to the SD card -- the tally light on the front of the camera turns on while it's writing to the SD card and it must be on for, maybe eight or nine seconds (!!) or so -- I'm using a fast Extreme Sandisk 45MB/s card so that suggests it's mostly sensor scraping/buffering that's the bottleneck. It must be using some on-board RAM to buffer the images if you're getting one per second. Andy.