[Superbaldguy]

I've made several optical recordings with my MZ-R909 (from my D-EJ925) over the last two weeks, and the NH-14WM cell seems to go down on juice unusually fast - is this normal when doing digital recordings? I'm not using the AA battery pack. The cell is only a few months old, and maybe charged a dozen times, at the most.

Maybe my gum is dying on me, prematurely.....

 

[Superbaldguy]

I think I solved this problem.

During optical sync recording, the red LED on the record switch stays on, all the time, so this certainly would put a drain on the battery. I will use the AA cell attachment during sync recordings, from now on.

What a dummy I am, not seeing this until a few minutes ago....Maybe Sony could sell me a new electronic brain.

 

[James]

From my limited but non-trivial experiences with MD recording, I don't think any LED indicators cause significant battery drain. It would be a poor indicator device that heavily penalized the user for a mere convenience! Rather, optical activity is just hard on the batteries. Panasonic strongly recommends using the AC adapter when using the optical connection on its CDP's, for example.

Hope that helps.

 

[LTUCCI1924]

When I record my mini disc from my cd portable player My mini disc batt. go real low. The mini disc instructions say to use the mini disc wal plug when recording. Even the cd player says the same thing so as to get a steady flow of juce to the unites in record mode.

 

[Benzo]

I had what I thought was "premature drain" on my gumstick, and even ordered a replacement, but found when I paid attention to my battery level that I would get more than a half hour of record time while the battery light was "blinking low". I've concluded that I simply have a non-linear battery gauge, and don't recharge until the machine actually shuts off from "low battery" (the extra gumstick comes in handy there).

 

[Superbaldguy]

I just realized there should be a significant drain using optical recording due to the actual light transfer; ever see the red beam coming out of the CD player when you unhook the cable? That's got to chew up juice and a high rate.

Either my gum is dying on me or I really must use the AA cell or the AC for optical recordings. Yes, I do remember reading about that suggestion in my MZ-R70 manual, an older unit I rarely use.

 

[James]

BTW, does anyone know if there is a difference in battery consumption between the optical source and recorder? That is, is there a comparable battery drain on the receiving end? It would seem to be the case, judging to our experiences.

I know the answer for this lies on some minidisc site, but I'm not curious enough to go rooting around for it.

 

[Superbaldguy]

I wonder if other recorders have LEDs or lights that stay on during optical sync recordings. As mentioned, I'm curious as to which battery gets the most drain during the light transfer with the TOS-link cable - the PCDP or the MD recorder? My D-EJ925's battery level did not drop any appreciable amount during all these digital recordings. (I did 10 of them)

I'm surmising the recorder's cell gets the lion's share of the load transfer, if not all, of the brunt of this. At least I've learned something from making these recordings.

 

[LTUCCI1924]

When I use my pcdp optic out my pcdp uses 4 aa batt. My mini disc uses 1 aa batt. I have noticed that the pcdp batt. last for months even when recording mode. It is the mini disc that gets the low drain and must use the ac plug. The pcdp is only playing the disc but it is the mini disc that is doing the recording and has much more batt. drain because of this.