Nagra VI Firmware Requests - Page 6

John Willett · 7th March 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by meltemi

I have a question:

Did anybody ever get a harddisk working properly on the USB port of the Nagra VI ? Details please.

I have not tried as I use the internal and back-up on CF cards.

You *have* had the mod. done? haven't you?

meltemi · 7th March 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Willett

You *have* had the mod. done? haven't you?

Mod done by the factory. USB sticks work.

I think its a power issue on he USB port.

tsvisser · 8th March 2010

what format is your HDD? I think it has to be FAT32.

meltemi · 8th March 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsvisser

what format is your HDD? I think it has to be FAT32.

It's a WD5000ME (My Passport Essential, not the latest version), factory formatted with FAT32.

The harddisk clicks when connected, but does not seem to properly spin up. The Nagra VI indicates NO DISK and gets hung up, when I disconnect.
Had to switch it off and on to get it running again.

John Willett · 8th March 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by meltemi

The harddisk clicks when connected, but does not seem to properly spin up. The Nagra VI indicates NO DISK and gets hung up, when I disconnect.
Had to switch it off and on to get it running again.

This is an indication of not enough power.

I have had this happen on several USB drives on several PCs - they would OK if plugged in via a hub with external power supply - or powered with an external supply direct to the drive.

Try doing the above and see what happens.

A more modern drive which draws less power may work fine.

Larry Elliott · 8th March 2010

I too have had similar problems and they are power related. The Nagra complies with the USB standard, but some drives draw more current.

Larry

meltemi · 8th March 2010

Thanks John and Larry.

The HDD works flawlessly with my computers.

It is a power problem related to the Nagra VI, as some external powering (y-cable) gets the HDD working.

WD rates the power consumption at 500mA for the drive, plus the USB to SATA bridge. This seems reasonably low. Other HDDs I own (Samsung, Toshiba) are rated at 700mA or 800mA, but I didn't try with these.

May be a hardware revision or getting the second USB port might help to solve this problem. So its rather a hardware request than a firmware request.

_________
Martin

tsvisser · 12th March 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Elliott

I too have had similar problems and they are power related. The Nagra complies with the USB standard, but some drives draw more current.

Larry

Hi Larry, can you confirm that what you experienced was power related? If you hook up an external power supply it works, or you just tried a different model that you assumed drew less power? I have a gut feeling that the Nagra doesn't play nice with certain USB to IDE/SATA chipsets, although I'm certainly not counting out power as the root of the issue.

Larry Elliott · 12th March 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsvisser

Hi Larry, can you confirm that what you experienced was power related? If you hook up an external power supply it works, or you just tried a different model that you assumed drew less power? I have a gut feeling that the Nagra doesn't play nice with certain USB to IDE/SATA chipsets, although I'm certainly not counting out power as the root of the issue.

Tom,
No I cant confirm that it was a power issue in relation to one specific drive. I didn't think of the chipset issue. Just that drive worked on all computers I used it with but not on the VI.
Larry

tsvisser · 12th March 2010

I had a somewhat similar issue with keyboards, those keyboards that contain a USB hub or some other device that is not compliant with the Nagra's version of the USB/keyboard driver are not recognized. The Apple keyboards contain an intermediate hub that buffers the USB port and the actual keyboard device, therefore you can't use Apple keyboards with the Nagra. I have a hunch that they only wrote in a very narrow window of compatible drivers for USB connected devices.

Swing · 18th March 2010

Sorry if this is off-track a bit.

Plush and others have commented on the DAC performance of the VI compared to other good DACs such as some by dCS. If anyone has experience with the performance of the DACs in both the VI and the Lavry DA924 I would be grateful to hear comparative opinions based on that experience. Thanks much.

fasma · 19th March 2010

sorry another off topic, I was wondering if any one knows of alternative carry bags for the Nagra VI. Like a frontpack rather than a shoulder one which just gives me huge pains. thanks

meltemi · 20th March 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by fasma

alternative carry bags for the Nagra VI. Like a frontpack rather than a shoulder one

There are alternative carry bags for the Nagra VI from
Camrade
Nagra VI « camRade | carrying bags for professional AV equipment
and Kortwich
Kortwich: Nagra
however, no frontpacks as far as I know.

meltemi · 6th April 2010

New external mic preamp (2ch ?) announced at NAB for Nagra VI

2010 NAB Show: NAGRA USA, INC.: External Preamplifier

John Willett · 9th April 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by meltemi

New external mic preamp (2ch ?) announced at NAB for Nagra VI

2010 NAB Show: NAGRA USA, INC.: External Preamplifier

Link does not work.

marvin100 · 9th April 2010

Works for me. Anyway, it's a short press notice:

Quote:

Nagra will present a new stand-alone microphone preamplifier. These external preamplifiers can be used as two additional inputs for the Nagra VI or as external preamplifiers for any other recorder where existing preamps are judged to be inadequate quality.

John Willett · 9th April 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvin100

Works for me. Anyway, it's a short press notice:

Thanks - funny thing is, it works now but did not when I tried it earlier.

Cheers.

fasma · 14th April 2010

Hi all

since I upgraded to the latest firmware, I get unstable battery load indications. It can range from red to- half green and back.
Anyone else noticed it? Or is it unrelated to the upgrade and my (still new) battery has problems?

John Willett · 14th April 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by fasma

since I upgraded to the latest firmware, I get unstable battery load indications. It can range from red to- half green and back.
Anyone else noticed it? Or is it unrelated to the upgrade and my (still new) battery has problems?

Not noticed this myself - give John Owens at Nagra a shout (or John Rudling at Nagra GB if you are in the UK).

meltemi · 14th April 2010

Excerpt from Kudelski Group Annual Report 2009:

"The Nagra VI is designed using a VHDL platform, which makes it possible to upgrade digital circuits with simple software upgrades, thus facilitating the device’s future evolution. In order to respond to user demand, a new version containing more tracks is being developed."

http://www.nagra.com/IMG/pdf/kudelski_ar_09_EN.pdf

Bié · 21st April 2010

The Nagra VI accept SSD?

Tks,
Bié

tsvisser · 21st April 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bié

The Nagra VI accept SSD?

Tks,
Bié

I haven't tried it myself, but one of the firmware upgrades specifically addressed SSD support.

Bié · 21st April 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsvisser

I haven't tried it myself, but one of the firmware upgrades specifically addressed SSD support.

Tks,
Bié

tsvisser · 9th July 2010

3.0 is a big one.

The VI can now record 4 analog channels and 5/6/7/8th via AES now, making it an 8 channel recorder. In addition, channels 1-6 can be recorded as ISO tracks with a mix recorded to 7/8. Previously, recording the mix limited recording to 4 ISO tracks.

NAGRA VI is now 8-channels!

John Willett · 3rd September 2010

Nagra put v3.02 on the website today.

There was a v3.01 bug-fix a couple of weeks ago.

While recording this week I discovered a small bug which Nagra *immediately* sorted. I told them my problem at 7pm on Wednesday - they started work on the problem at 7am on Thursday and the fix was on the website early this afternoon. Less than 36 hours from reporting a problem to a fix is totally amazing and is customer service beyond the pale - superb.

The problem - the back-up to CF did not happen on my recording this week.
The bug - I had only selected to copy the 6 tracks I was recording rather than all 8 - it appeared that as I had not ticked 8 it did dot work.
The fix - update v3.02 - I installed it this evening and everything perfect.

Nagra don't only deserve brownie points - they deserve an actual brownie.

tsvisser · 2nd December 2010

So I finally got around to playing with the Nagra VI in a mix context and attempted to use the pots as faders. Of course the pots are normally set for mic / input gains. Once you set for channel level, you loose the ability to trim the inputs. In order to quickly access this ability, there is a shortcut key that allows access by pressing the menu left + right simultaneously. There are two major problems with this.

1) When you press left + right, the pot then goes into the input trim mode, but it does not give you any visual representation of where the current level is set. Any movement of the pot at all causes a destructive change in the level and there is no way to determine what the previous level was, certainly not useable when trying to make minor trim changes. There is also the possibility of having gross level jumps / cuts, if your pot was previously set very high or very low. There is also the complication that there are four pots and the machine will not know which one you want to change, since the pots are not touch sensitive... so either four separate meters will have to be displayed, or a new screen that shows a picture representation of the current pots and their location. If they fix this, in at least adding a meter that showed the previous set level before one touches the pot, the dual action of the pots would actually be useable in a dialogue recording context, as one should be able to wait between lines to initiate the change. For music, or situations where you can't time changes between lines, the better solution...

2) Implement a fader locate function. Fader locate is a pretty common feature for digital mixers that do not have motorized faders / pots. One goes into locate mode (initiated by the menu left + right shortcut) and you would typically see an inverted display, whether LEDs, LCD bar, etc... that shows the current set level, and the current physical fader location. One simply moves the fader to the current level (during which time no changes are made to the level), at which point the display reverts back to it's normal non-inverted mode and further changes to the pot now affect the level. Thinking through this a bit more, once one releases the menu left + right shortcut, I suppose the machine would have to re-enter fader locate for the channel level setting too. This would all be a pointless conversation if we were to receive MIDI or USB based control surface support!

21st April 2010	#171
Bié Gear interested Joined: Aug 2009 Location: São Paulo, Brazil Posts: 24	SSD > Nagra VI The Nagra VI accept SSD? Tks, Bié

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8th March 2010	#153
tsvisser Lives for gear Joined: Feb 2007 Location: Honolulu HI Posts: 1,852 Thread Starter	what format is your HDD? I think it has to be FAT32.

8th March 2010	#156
Larry Elliott Gear addict Joined: Aug 2006 Location: Auckland , New Zealand Posts: 325	I too have had similar problems and they are power related. The Nagra complies with the USB standard, but some drives draw more current. Larry

8th March 2010	#157
meltemi Gear nut Joined: Jan 2010 Location: Switzerland Posts: 117	Thanks John and Larry. The HDD works flawlessly with my computers. It is a power problem related to the Nagra VI, as some external powering (y-cable) gets the HDD working. WD rates the power consumption at 500mA for the drive, plus the USB to SATA bridge. This seems reasonably low. Other HDDs I own (Samsung, Toshiba) are rated at 700mA or 800mA, but I didn't try with these. May be a hardware revision or getting the second USB port might help to solve this problem. So its rather a hardware request than a firmware request. _________ Martin

12th March 2010	#160
tsvisser Lives for gear Joined: Feb 2007 Location: Honolulu HI Posts: 1,852 Thread Starter	I had a somewhat similar issue with keyboards, those keyboards that contain a USB hub or some other device that is not compliant with the Nagra's version of the USB/keyboard driver are not recognized. The Apple keyboards contain an intermediate hub that buffers the USB port and the actual keyboard device, therefore you can't use Apple keyboards with the Nagra. I have a hunch that they only wrote in a very narrow window of compatible drivers for USB connected devices.

18th March 2010	#161
Swing Gear interested Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Paris Posts: 13	Sorry if this is off-track a bit. Plush and others have commented on the DAC performance of the VI compared to other good DACs such as some by dCS. If anyone has experience with the performance of the DACs in both the VI and the Lavry DA924 I would be grateful to hear comparative opinions based on that experience. Thanks much.

19th March 2010	#162
fasma Gear Head Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 64	sorry another off topic, I was wondering if any one knows of alternative carry bags for the Nagra VI. Like a frontpack rather than a shoulder one which just gives me huge pains. thanks

6th April 2010	#164
meltemi Gear nut Joined: Jan 2010 Location: Switzerland Posts: 117	New external mic preamp (2ch ?) announced at NAB for Nagra VI 2010 NAB Show: NAGRA USA, INC.: External Preamplifier

14th April 2010	#168
fasma Gear Head Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 64	Hi all since I upgraded to the latest firmware, I get unstable battery load indications. It can range from red to- half green and back. Anyone else noticed it? Or is it unrelated to the upgrade and my (still new) battery has problems?

14th April 2010	#170
meltemi Gear nut Joined: Jan 2010 Location: Switzerland Posts: 117	Excerpt from Kudelski Group Annual Report 2009: "The Nagra VI is designed using a VHDL platform, which makes it possible to upgrade digital circuits with simple software upgrades, thus facilitating the device’s future evolution. In order to respond to user demand, a new version containing more tracks is being developed." http://www.nagra.com/IMG/pdf/kudelski_ar_09_EN.pdf

9th July 2010	#174
tsvisser Lives for gear Joined: Feb 2007 Location: Honolulu HI Posts: 1,852 Thread Starter	3.0 is a big one. The VI can now record 4 analog channels and 5/6/7/8th via AES now, making it an 8 channel recorder. In addition, channels 1-6 can be recorded as ISO tracks with a mix recorded to 7/8. Previously, recording the mix limited recording to 4 ISO tracks. NAGRA VI is now 8-channels!

3rd September 2010	#175
John Willett Lives for gear Joined: Feb 2008 Location: Oxfordshire, UK Posts: 5,291	Nagra put v3.02 on the website today. There was a v3.01 bug-fix a couple of weeks ago. While recording this week I discovered a small bug which Nagra immediately sorted. I told them my problem at 7pm on Wednesday - they started work on the problem at 7am on Thursday and the fix was on the website early this afternoon. Less than 36 hours from reporting a problem to a fix is totally amazing and is customer service beyond the pale - superb. The problem - the back-up to CF did not happen on my recording this week. The bug - I had only selected to copy the 6 tracks I was recording rather than all 8 - it appeared that as I had not ticked 8 it did dot work. The fix - update v3.02 - I installed it this evening and everything perfect. Nagra don't only deserve brownie points - they deserve an actual brownie.

2nd December 2010	#176
tsvisser Lives for gear Joined: Feb 2007 Location: Honolulu HI Posts: 1,852 Thread Starter	So I finally got around to playing with the Nagra VI in a mix context and attempted to use the pots as faders. Of course the pots are normally set for mic / input gains. Once you set for channel level, you loose the ability to trim the inputs. In order to quickly access this ability, there is a shortcut key that allows access by pressing the menu left + right simultaneously. There are two major problems with this. 1) When you press left + right, the pot then goes into the input trim mode, but it does not give you any visual representation of where the current level is set. Any movement of the pot at all causes a destructive change in the level and there is no way to determine what the previous level was, certainly not useable when trying to make minor trim changes. There is also the possibility of having gross level jumps / cuts, if your pot was previously set very high or very low. There is also the complication that there are four pots and the machine will not know which one you want to change, since the pots are not touch sensitive... so either four separate meters will have to be displayed, or a new screen that shows a picture representation of the current pots and their location. If they fix this, in at least adding a meter that showed the previous set level before one touches the pot, the dual action of the pots would actually be useable in a dialogue recording context, as one should be able to wait between lines to initiate the change. For music, or situations where you can't time changes between lines, the better solution... 2) Implement a fader locate function. Fader locate is a pretty common feature for digital mixers that do not have motorized faders / pots. One goes into locate mode (initiated by the menu left + right shortcut) and you would typically see an inverted display, whether LEDs, LCD bar, etc... that shows the current set level, and the current physical fader location. One simply moves the fader to the current level (during which time no changes are made to the level), at which point the display reverts back to it's normal non-inverted mode and further changes to the pot now affect the level. Thinking through this a bit more, once one releases the menu left + right shortcut, I suppose the machine would have to re-enter fader locate for the channel level setting too. This would all be a pointless conversation if we were to receive MIDI or USB based control surface support!