Nothing is more frustrating than turning on your transmitter…and…finding out it doesn’t work. Like with winter colds, sick transmitters can take some diagnostics to figure out and cure. Here are 4 suggestions to help prevent problems before they start:
1. Don’t place the transmitter against bare skin. All transmitters are susceptible to becoming damaged from moisture, including sweat (and everyone sweats). Sweat is a carrier for water, salt and oils which can leech into the transmitter and corrode the circuit boards and other parts. Once sweat or other moisture seeps inside the unit, there is no wiping or removing it. So how do you prevent this? By placing the transmitter into a pocket, pouch or baggie; or (best option) using one of our specially-designed silicone covers. Pro tip: keeping transmitters – and especially their antennas – away from skin also improves RF transmission, bodies are mostly water and water absorbs RF.
2. Don’t leave batteries in an unused transmitter. Best practice is to remove them when you are done with a project or a job and replace them with fresh ones when the unit is used again. At best, batteries that are not powered up can lose charge over time. At worst, they can corrode or leak, thereby irreparably damaging your unit. In general, we recommend that you use fresh batteries for each job, performance, sermon or gig. Because our units provide very high-performance RF and audio, they do use a fair amount of current. New or freshly charged batteries are part of the formula for success.
3. Don’t wrap cords or mic cables around your transmitter when it is not being used. Over time, this practice will damage the cord. Mic cords cannot be repaired or replaced if damaged. Disengage the mic and wrap it loosely to prevent pinching or kinks. Most lav mic manufacturers provide a pouch or small plastic box for storage. If yours didn’t come with anything, we sell our MICBOX (sold with our lav mics) and our small zippered pouch, part #35939 (sold with the HM172 headset microphone) separately, for a reasonable cost.
4. Don’t trust the repairs! We don’t mean this literally, of course! When a unit is repaired and returned to you, immediately power it up and test it. Ensure that it works properly before storing it. Each unit that we repair has a 90-day warranty on the repairs. We need to know sooner rather than later that the repair wasn’t adequate, so we can then correct it under warranty. Sometimes, we learn that users have received a unit back from repair, then stored it for months until the next time they need to do a job, when they discover that it doesn’t work properly. This is rare, but it does happen.
Our products have reputations for withstanding heavy demands over a long lifetime, and the care you give them goes a long way in keeping them in peak performance.
- The Lectrosonics Service & Repair Team
