Battery Problems

Question...

My Red-Eye has been great, but it just quit working in the middle of a gig this weekend.

Response...

Please test the battery for me. 90% of returned Red-Eyes simply have an exhausted battery.

Red-Eyes or Twins can be powered by 48V XLR Phantom Power, 9-18V Pedal Board power, or by the internal 9V battery. If more than one power source is connected, a circuit in the Red-Eye automatically selects for use the power source that gives the best performance.

Normally, most users connect the Red-Eye or Twin to a sound system via the XLR connector. Normally, the sound system supplies XLR Phantom Power to the Red-Eye and the Red-Eye’s battery is not used. The battery is there for “insurance”, so you can play if you hit an old venuethat doesn’t have Phantom Power, or if the sound tech forgets to turn on the XLR Phantom Power to your channel. As long as Phantom Power or Pedal Board power is actually present, the battery is not needed.

Fire-Eye products are designed to use the International Standard 48-volt XLR Phantom Power. Some small sound systems and mix boards supply lower voltages that may not adequately power Fire-Eye products.

Players may not realize that, on occasion, they are not getting Phantom Power and are actually running on the battery. So every once in a while try the battery check, below. Battery life running on the battery is about 200 hours for the Red-Eye and about 100 hours for the Twin. Customers that usually run on Phantom Power typically get 2 or 3 years out of a battery.

Power Check Light...

The Red-Eye and Twin both have a Power Check Light. On the single-channel Red-Eye it is right next to the Instrument Input jack. For the Twin, it’s at the upper left corner of the top.

Red-Eyes have a power check circuit that activates briefly each time the Red-Eye is powered up.

If the XLR cable is plugged in first (before an instrument cable is connected) the Red-Eye will power up on Phantom Power from the XLR cable. Watch the light as you plug in the cable. If the light illuminates briefly, Phantom Power is good.

If 9-18V Pedal Board power is connected first, the light will illuminate briefly if the Pedal Board power is good.

When an instrument cable is plugged into the Instrument Input jack (before the XLR cable or Pedal Board power is connected) the Red-Eye will power up on the battery and the light will illuminate briefly if the battery is in the first 3⁄4 of its life. If the light doesn’t flash, the battery is in the last 1⁄4 of its life or is exhausted.

Battery “surface charge”...

If a battery is exhausted and is not used for a few hours, it can develop a temporary ability to support a light load. The Red-Eye electronics draws very little power and an exhausted battery with a surface charge can run the Red-Eye for 5 or 10 minutes. If the Red-Eye’s Boost is then turned on, the Boost Light illuminates. The light actually draws more current than the analog electronics and will exhaust a dead battery’s surface charge immediately. When a customer calls and says “My Boost Button is bad. My Red-Eye runs fine until I turn on the Boost.”, the problem may simply be an exhausted battery and no XLR Phantom Power or 9-18V Pedal Board power is connected.