How to not burn your SDI / HDMI Ports
Hey guys, this is my first time writing an article in english so I hope you understand if write something wrong during the article. The most important here is the message, and this is a very important knowledge for those who works with camera and similar equipments.
If you want, you can read this article in portuguese clicking here.
So, as I said I want to talk about a very important subject that every day we have someone asking in some A/V group, forum and etc. It’s true that you can burn your SDI/HDMI ports in some situations? And how we can prevent this to happen?
First answer is: YES! You can burn your SDI/HDMI port! And there’s three most common ways to this happen. And VERY important: all that I’ll say here can happen with ANY camera of ANY type and brand.
- First — Both SDI and HDMI:
The most common problem happens when you use your camera and some external acessory like a monitor, a wi-fi transmiter or any acessory like that, connected to the same power source.
Attention: I mean, this can happen with ANY type of power source, doesn’t matter if is a V-Mount battery, G-Mount battery, NP battery or any other type of battery with multiply power outputs, any battery adapter with multiply power outputs and even powerbanks with multiply power outputs.
The problem is: if the power source outputs are not eletrically isolated and if they don’t share the same ground, when some short-circuit or discharge happens, the shield of the SDI or HDMI cables will be the ground and this will leads the discharge directly to the ports, burning one or both ports.
These types of discharges and short-circuits happens more than you can imagine. Sometimes, just a small hit on the cable, battery or adapter can cause a small disconnection of the system (battery or cables) and create a discharge or short-circuit, and that’s it.
The simple solution is use two different power sources for each equipment. One battery for the camera, one for the acessory.
Or you can use an battery adapter with a fuse, that will prevent the problem too.
- Second — Only SDI:
Talking about SDI cables, some unshilded cables can cause this problem when you are connecting or disconnecting some acessory, a external monitor, wi-fi transmiter or anything else, to a SDI cable that is already connected to the camera, doesn’t matter if you’re are or not using the same power source for both equipments.
What happens is: if the positive pin make contact before the negative pin this will close the circuit and one or both SDI ports will fry instantly. Use of a low quality cable or damaged cable will improve the chances of this happen.
To prevent this, you need to use a shielded cable that need have the shield connected to the case ground on both devices and always connect the SDI cable AFTER the power source and disconnect the SDI cable BEFORE the power source.
Attention: doesn’t matter if your camera and/or accessory is or not turned on. In both cases this can happen.
- Third — Both SDI and HDMI:
When you connect some power source after you connect your cables. If some short-circuit or discharge happens, the cables can work as the ground and this can burn the ports.
To prevent this you have to connect all the power sources but keep the camera and acessory turned off and then you can connect the SDI/HDMI cables.
When disconnecting the system, turn off the camera and the acessory, remove the cables from both ports, then disconnect the power source.
It’s important to understand that sometimes someone can think:
“I’m connecting and disconnecting everything in every way possible, in any order during years and this never happened!”
Yes, nothing will happens until it happens!!!
So, it’s always better prevent the problem. For this I would say that these steps will prevent every situation:
- How to prevent burn your SDI/HDMI ports:
Take this rule: SDI/HDMI LAST IN, FIRST OUT.
So, first you will connect all the power sources, in camera and monitor or any other equipment that will be connected with the camera through SDI/HDMI. Than you can plug the cable. You CAN plug the cable in one of the equipments before plug the power source, what you CAN’T is have the cable connected in both things (camera and equipment) before plug the power sources.
To change a battery or unplug any power sources you NEED unplug one of the sides of the SDI/HDMI cable. Always.
1 — Always buy good and shielded cables.
2 — Always connect your acessory and camera on different power sources.
3 — Always connect all the power sources first and keep both, camera and acessory, turned off and then you can connect or disconnect and SDI and/or HDMI cable.
With these 3 steps you will reduce any chance of burn your SDI/HDMI ports close to 0. But yes, I understand that sometimes you are on a rush and need to change a cable and you can’t wait the camera turn off and on (for some cameras this can means a lot of time). In that case, grab your faith and pray to not be your day.
Cya on the next article!
Wrote by: André Rodrigues — https://linktr.ee/souandrerodrigues
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