Cantar v1.29 user manual 2004 Sept 28
p.6
Start Stop
(9 o’clock)
To start Cantar up, main selec-
tor on STOP, press either
the front panel [batt-1] or
[batt-2] button for a couple of
seconds.
All displays flash and the message panel lights up to
confirm that Cantar has started correctly. On the
leftmost circular display, the internal disk icon blinks
for 3 to 5 seconds, the times it takes for the disk to
wake up; it is surrounded by the icons of the cur-
rently routed tracks. At startup, the message panel
shows batt-1 and batt-2 voltage, plus the system day
and hour.
To shut Cantar down, put the main selector on STOP,
maintain pressure on the [Shift] fat blue key then
[batt], ‘Goodbye’ shows.
Important notice:
when in STOP the internal Hdd
sleep mode makes the current drain be a mere
270mA. To keep the high stability internal sync-clock
reference, do not switch off Cantar during the wor-
king day. The sleep mode activation can start one
second after STOP, see TECH chapter.
The twin battery safety
The low power high efficiency circuits used in Cantar
offer the longest working time of all portable multi-
track digital audio recorders.
With a single set of on-board NiMH batteries, the 15
hour Cantar outperforms all other portable digital
recorders.
The day Aaton Li-Ion batteries are available (March
2005) the 22 hour Cantar will approach the prover-
bial Nagra-4 endurance.
And with the twin battery system you will never be
taken by surprise.
Working on a cart from a cable connected mains
powered or heavy duty supply, ALWAYS leave one
battery onboard and activate both supply inputs.
The onboard battery will buffer the possible mains
power voltage drops or cable bad contacts; fur-
thermore, Cantar on STOP, moving the cart and
unplugging the power cable, it will run the TCXO
sync clock for hours.
Minimum voltage
An auto switch-over is done 300mV below the
operator’s set ‘Low Batt’ warning. It allows the
use of either 12.5V NiMH (10.8V warn ing, 10.5V
switch-over) or 14.4V Li-Ion (12.7 warning, 12.4V
switch-over).
A two beep alarm tone is heard and the display
shows ‘left/right bat low’. As soon as the power vol-
tage drops under10V, i.e. too low to run the recor-
der, both input are put on-duty.
If during a recording you must change a battery,
press the two buttons to activate them both before
you remove the depleted battery, this is a good
safety measure in case you would unplugg the wrong
one...
Maximum voltage
16.6V is the absolute maximum voltage to be applied
to all Cantar power sockets. This rule applies to the
firewire input socket as well.
Never connect a G3 G4 G5 MacIntosh desktop
which delivers 30V onto its firewire output to the
Cantar firewire socket. See
Pull Backup
chapter.
Battery check
In TEST the battery voltage is displayed every 10
seconds. This voltage also appears in all positions of
the main selector whenever you momentarily press
the batt-1 or batt-2 buttons; pressing longer on one
of these buttons forces the on-duty battery.
Power
