HDW-F900 maintenance.

[Guest Richard Deppe]

Hello to all, I just took responsibility for the 900 here where I work. We have been getting some weird RF warning signals with the camera whenever we fire it up the first time each day we shoot... I know about letting the camera aclimate and we have been doing this. The warning seems to go away after an hour or so. and there does not seem to be an issue when we play the tapes back!!

Does anyone have a checklist for field cleaning and maintenance of the 900,

1.How often should a cleaning tape be run thru the camera.

2. Would you recomend pulling the side of and cleaning the record head with a Qtip? Any other suggestions whilst the side of the camera is off.

3. Anyone have an opinion regards the hrs meter and when the camera should recieve professional attention.

Hope this is not too much of an elemantary request or that it is not too mundane, maybe we could start a list of everyones top-tip for troubleshooting and keeping the 900 in beautiful working order.

[Elhanan Matos]

If you take a look at the operations manual there should be a small chapter about maintenance. But every once in a while it is good to take your camera somewhere for general maintenance.

[Tim J Durham]

Hello to all, I just took responsibility for the 900 here where I work. We have been getting some weird RF warning signals with the camera whenever we fire it up the first time each day we shoot... I know  about letting the camera aclimate and we have been doing this. The warning seems to go away after an hour or so. and there does not seem to be an issue when we play the tapes back!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Two things I can think of:

 

1) One of the boards may not be seated exactly right and a contact point is only intermittent until

the camera heats up and the contacts expand. Have you tried re-seating the boards?

2) condensation making cross contact until camera heats up and dries it out. Is the AC turned way up or down overnight? Try opening the tape door in the morning and blowing a hair dryer in there on a low setting. See if it stops doing it.

[Mike Brennan]

Not sure if the below is relevant in your case...

Mike Brennan

 

From the Sony Support Engineer site.

Knowledgebase Document: 202005067

f900H model

 

 

" the RF system error rate ischecked using an HR5-1A alignment

tape that isdifferent from the tape used to align the RF system,

the check may indicate that the error rate isout-of-specification,

even after the RF system alignment is completed successfully

When this condition occurs, insert the recorded tapeinto the

studio VTR, and play the tape tocheck the errorrate. A green

channel condition indicates that the RF system wasaligned

successfully NOTE: The procedure to check the RF system error rate is

described in the following sections ofHDW-F900 Maintenance

Manual, part 2, volume 1:

Section 6-7-9, .Alignment Tape Channel Condition Check

(Step 1) Section 6-7-14, .Alignment Tape Channel Condition Check"