A major (possibly) benefit of the new firmware?

[Old George]

I've got a high capacity Anker battery pack connected to my MK2 Bushmaster, as other owners have discovered they tend to power down after 20 to 30 minutes because the Bushmaster draws so little from them.
Like other owners i have wired up a 80ma 'grain of wheat ' bulb to address the shut down issue, a couple of days ago i decided that if i was only going to listen to a few tracks at a time why have the bulb connected? it probably draws twice the power of the Bushmaster, so for short-term listening it seems wasteful.

At this point i should state that i had the shutdown issue before fitting the new firmware chip. So a couple of nights ago i decided that i'd just listen to a few tracks before going to bed. I'd disconnected the bulb loaded some tracks, i was listening to music for over ninety minutes without power shutdown. I ended the session because i was ready for bed....It was after 3AM! I have no doubt that i could have continued if i hadn't been so tired.

The following night i spent over an hour listening to music without power down and without the bulb connected.
Could the new firmware be responsible? Either way, i'm delighted that the power shutdown issue may be resolved.
I'm keeping the grain of wheat bulb on standby just in case.......

[Theadmans]

Very interesting George - I have the upgrade chip and grain of wheat bulb too.

Can you post here again after say a week and let us know if this is still working please.

My bulb connection is lashed up with a load of insulating tape. If after a week your BM is still OK I will remove all the tape and see if mine still works !

[Covenant]

I have the new chip and mine still shuts down. The bulb became disconnected and mine shut down after half an hour. I have had the odd occasion when the Anker has lasted a few hours, doesn't seem to be a pattern to it.

[Old George]

Very interesting George - I have the upgrade chip and grain of wheat bulb too.

Can you post here again after say a week and let us know if this is still working please.

My bulb connection is lashed up with a load of insulating tape. If after a week your BM is still OK I will remove all the tape and see if mine still works !

Will do Adam.:)


I have the new chip and mine still shuts down. The bulb became disconnected and mine shut down after half an hour. I have had the odd occasion when the Anker has lasted a few hours, doesn't seem to be a pattern to it.

Indeed Jerry, i might come to the same conclusion through further testing. So far this morning the battery has been running for 75 minutes without break.
I've got some tracks running a loop, i'm going to check every 30 minutes or so to see if the battery holds up.

[Old George]

Back to the drawing board.:rolleyes:

At some point between two hours and ten minutes, and two hours thirty minutes the Anker battery powered down.
I'll be more than happy if this is the new norm for my battery, i seldom get the chance to listen to music for a couple of hours at a time.

I'll continue to keep the bulb disconnected, should the battery revert to it's original 20 minute shutdown then the bulb is at hand.

Adam, do you have your bulb connected with one of these?..........CLICK (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Way-DC-Power-Splitter-Cable-Cord-for-CCTV-Camera-2-Male-1-Female-5-5mm-2-1mm-/390683268220?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item5af689947c&clk_rvr_id=607404768028&afsrc=1)
If not then do consider purchasing one, then it will take you just seconds to connect and disconnect the bulb.

[Theadmans]

Back to the drawing board.:rolleyes:

At some point between two hours and ten minutes, and two hours thirty minutes the Anker battery powered down.
I'll be more than happy if this is the new norm for my battery, i seldom get the chance to listen to music for a couple of hours at a time.

I'll continue to keep the bulb disconnected, should the battery revert to it's original 20 minute shutdown then the bulb is at hand.

Adam, do you have your bulb connected with one of these?..........CLICK (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Way-DC-Power-Splitter-Cable-Cord-for-CCTV-Camera-2-Male-1-Female-5-5mm-2-1mm-/390683268220?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item5af689947c&clk_rvr_id=607404768028&afsrc=1)
If not then do consider purchasing one, then it will take you just seconds to connect and disconnect the bulb.

Yes George I have got one of those cables now you mention it. So in fact I don't have to undo all the insulating tape holding the bulb onto the cables jack socket end. I had forgotten this is how I wired it - I stashed the whole lot down the back of the Hi-Fi - so switch over is easier than I thought.

Anyway I think I will still wait to see how you get on with your experiments (now that Jerry is reporting he still gets problems). Sometimes I listen to my rig for a few hours at a time so I would prefer to avoid any shutdowns.

[Old George]

Yes George I have got one of those cables now you mention it. So in fact I don't have to undo all the insulating tape holding the bulb onto the cables jack socket end. I had forgotten this is how I wired it - I stashed the whole lot down the back of the Hi-Fi - so switch over is easier than I thought.

Anyway I think I will still wait to see how you get on with your experiments (now that Jerry is reporting he still gets problems). Sometimes I listen to my rig for a few hours at a time so I would prefer to avoid any shutdowns.

Back to 20 minute shutdown Adam. :(

[Theadmans]

Ah well George was worth a try !

If you have any spare cash at the moment you might want to consider buying the 2nd Gen Anker Battery :-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/20000mAh-Multi-Voltage-Portable-External-Camcorders/dp/B00GSLRKJO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395762723&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+20000

...I have discussed this on another thread but it looks like Anker have lowered the shut off point on this 2nd Gen battery from 80 mA on your battery to 50 mA on the new one. May just be enough to let the BM2 carry on working. It would be great if someone could try it out.

[Old George]

Ah well George was worth a try !

If you have any spare cash at the moment you might want to consider buying the 2nd Gen Anker Battery :-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/20000mAh-Multi-Voltage-Portable-External-Camcorders/dp/B00GSLRKJO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395762723&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+20000

...I have discussed this on another thread but it looks like Anker have lowered the shut off point on this 2nd Gen battery from 80 mA on your battery to 50 mA on the new one. May just be enough to let the BM2 carry on working. It would be great if someone could try it out.

Hi Adam, i spotted this one shortly before i acquired mine, the 50 mA shut off might just be a tad too high? If someone buys one and gets consistent results then i might be tempted, for now i'm happy to revert to fitting the grain of wheat bulb.;)