 Battery Powered Fryup - watch that polarity
Took my field surround rig out to remote Keanae in East Maui for a dawn recording on a project I'm helping a cameraman friend with.
Spent some good time the previous week getting everything wired and packed up really nice; new color-coded cable looms & correct hardware. I'm running Logic on a Macbook and an Ensemble Mobile and Grace Lunatek V2 off of Bescor 12v Video Camera belts. The battery belt 4-pin xlr plugs into a splitter and one leg goes to a volt meter on my table and the other goes to a second splitter, that I pulled new from a Bescor box, that plugs into the Ensemble and the V2.
Drove an hour and a half to arrive at dawn, dragged the gear into a raised area in the middle of a taro paddy, set up the table and stands and mics and shotgun on a stand and sat down and turned everything on. Neither the Ensemble or the V2 would light up. I had 13v on the meter, tried switching wires, batteries, still no go. Measured 13v at the plug that goes into the unit, scratched my head. Why would 2 separate units that were used days before not turn on?
Decided to check every wire and found that the Bescor Y connector I had connecting the 2 units was factory wired reverse polarity. It must have fried both units the moment I first turned things on, and it didn't show on my meter because the Y connector was parallel to the meter in the circuit. Later, when I took it out of line, the damage had already been done.
We had to postpone the shoot, lose a whole day, and now I've got to deal with getting the units repaired. Neither has a fuse that's blown. I'm hoping that all I'm facing is replacing blown diodes (each one has an LED next to the input plug on the power supply board, that I assume is there and sacrificial for that purpose) which can be handled by my local tech.
I know I should have meter tested every wire and connector as part of my preparation; usually I trust redundancy and feel secure in having backup cables.
I wonder what sympathy, if any I'll get from Bescor or B&H who sold me all the Bescor stuff. Has anyone had any experience in this regard?
__________________
Aloha,
Jonathan Starr
Big Gorilla Sound
Twixt reef & jungle
Wailuku, Maui | 
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