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Gear / Technical Help => Remote Power => Topic started by: mblindsey on March 01, 2009, 09:26:31 AM
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Since there is a thread on cheap Wally World Lion Batteries over in
the eBay forum, I thought I would run a quick test to answer a
question that someone had asked me. Exactly how long can one of those
batteries power an R-44 with phantom on all four channels recording at
48k/24bit?
Instead of searching this board to see if someone else had already
answered this question, I decided to find out. I have:
2 x 8GB cards (one Transcend, one generic MicroCenter)
2 x MC930's
2 x AKG460/CK61
1 x FM stereo that will run all day
The results:
- I filled up the first 8GB card with each of the 4 x mono files being
1.91 GB (2,056,134,656 bytes). That is 3:57:58.694
- The 4 x mono files on the second 8GB card 1.86 GB (2,000,563,328
bytes). That is 3:51:32.783
- Got 4 x mono files on the third run of 1.17 GB (1,263,599,616 bytes). However, THESE FILES ARE CORRUPT AND CANNOT BE READ. I suppose I could recover them, but given what they are, I don't feel like investigating it.
My rough math follows: "You can safely record ~8.5 hours of something @48k/24bit using 4 channels of phantom powered mics on an R-44 powered by a Wally World 5400 mAh Lion battery. As with any advice I may give around here, try it out yourself before betting your life on it."
--Michael
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Excellent, thanks for your testing!!! I hadn't tested, but it always seemed I had plenty of runtime.
From what I read on the other R44 threads, the internals should seemlessly kick in if the external dies, so with 8+ hours and seemless switch over to internals if necessary, that should be pretty good for most situations. Now I need to order some of those low-discharge NiMH batteries that I can just keep in there for reserve backup.
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I had some rechargeable AA's in the recorder when I filled up the first 8GB card, but I pulled them out for the rest of the run since I wanted to see if the R-44 would write the files graciously if the external battery failed (it didn't and I expected that).
I always run the recorder with AA batt's in it, and since I currently have 3 of these wally world batt's, I always swap them out at set breaks and never even get remotely close to using them up.
I suppose at some point near the end of the external Lion's juice there is probably a performance hit on the mics (just guessing and not sure when/for how long)??
I'm going to do the same with one of my other identical batteries just to see if there are any surprises...
--Michael
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good to know Michael, thanks for the test.
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thanks for your time. that is more than enough time for me.
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Just for grins, I did the same test today with a different battery (same model) and got the same results.
--Michael
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Question....were you using a new li-on battery...or a seasoned one?
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Question....were you using a new li-on battery...or a seasoned one?
I've got three of them...just guessing, I'd say each has been charged about 12 times on average. They rarely get discharged, but rather lose their charge sitting in the bag waiting for the next show.
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There is something that I just can't get my head around. Why is it that my V3, that provides phantom/pre/AD for only two channels, lasts about half the time as the R-44 that is doing all those things plus writing files with 4 channels?
How can they be that far off in power usage?
--Michael
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There is something that I just can't get my head around. Why is it that my V3, that provides phantom/pre/AD for only two channels, lasts about half the time as the R-44 that is doing all those things plus writing files with 4 channels?
How can they be that far off in power usage?
--Michael
Bump...'cause I really don't know....
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Michael,
I read some stuff about audiophile word clocks tending to pull a lot more power than a "standard" clock. It's also possible that the V3 does not have as efficient internal voltage regulators so simply burn up more of the input power as heat.
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Just filled up a 8GB card at 16/44.1, 12:36:38.661 (2002080944 samples). AKG 481 X 2. Still have 1 green bar left on the DVD battery.
Tomorrow I plan on taking the XLR outs on the Mytek Stereo96 DAC and plug them into the other two channels (simulating a soundboard). Add in the AKGs and run at 24/48. Stereo X 2. I'll report back tomorrow night.
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Tomorrow I plan on taking the XLR outs on the Mytek Stereo96 DAC and plug them into the other two channels (simulating a soundboard). Add in the AKGs and run at 24/48. Stereo X 2. I'll report back tomorrow night.
right at 12 hours
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mblindsey wrote, in part:
You can safely record ~8.5 hours of something @48k/24bit using 4 channels of phantom powered mics on an R-44 powered by a Wally World 5400 mAh Lion battery.
Interestingly, the R-44 power jack label states a current draw of 1.2A, whereas these figures come out to ~.64A (5.4Ah / 8.5hrs = .64A), just over half the stated consumption! Nice that Edirol is so conservative about that, though I wonder under what conditions it might actually draw 1+ amps.
Plus, the Wallyworld and other LIon DVD batts are 9v, right? Since higher voltage = more efficient power transfer, and since the R-44 can take up to 16v, I wouldn't be suprised if the run time were a little better per Ah at higher voltage, like 12. Anyone besides me tempted by SLA? ;D
Peace,
Sanaka
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And since I'm sure you're all silently clamouring for further insight into sanaka's obsessiveness...::) here (http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,121665.0.html) is a thread I started about a new battery I found that looks pretty impressive, possibly 14+ hours of R-44 runtime, in which I reference mblindsey's test from this thread.
Peace,
Sanaka
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Turns out I was wrong about 12v being better, and the battery in the thread referenced in my above post is therefore overkill and overpriced. See here (http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,121789.0.html) for some info I got from Edirol.
Peace
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Just filled up a 8GB card at 16/44.1, 12:36:38.661 (2002080944 samples). AKG 481 X 2. Still have 1 green bar left on the DVD battery.
Tomorrow I plan on taking the XLR outs on the Mytek Stereo96 DAC and plug them into the other two channels (simulating a soundboard). Add in the AKGs and run at 24/48. Stereo X 2. I'll report back tomorrow night.
5400mAh or 8000mAh?
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5400
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can these walleyworld batteries be linked together w/ jumper cables? Output from one>input to another>output>device? Just a thought, and wondered if anybody has tried this, it would save on changing out 1/2 consumed batteries during setbreaks, etc.....
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can these walleyworld batteries be linked together w/ jumper cables? Output from one>input to another>output>device? Just a thought, and wondered if anybody has tried this, it would save on changing out 1/2 consumed batteries during setbreaks, etc.....
I use hot swap set up so If needed I can swap batteries on the fly anytime I want. It's really easy to make with very basic soldering skills. All the parts are available at ratshack. The same parts would make up the cable you describe also, but in essence isn't that the same thing since you will have two batteries hooked up? And if your battery is half dead at set break it may be time for a new one. Depending on the rating but a 5400mAh battery will run my R-44 for a long time. I haven't timed it out but I have done 5 hours with no problems on older DVD batteries.
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At Mountain Jam, I was running 4 channels, 24/48. Only phantom on one set of mics..After 5 hours, my 5400 Battery only lost one light, after 6 hours two lights....Didn't want to chance it and switched out at that point. Battery has been cycled about 25 times.
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i tested mine with a R44 and got 10+ hours easy on a fairly new 5400mah
stereo x 2
24/48
phantom to one set of mics
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FYI.... slightly relevent.
I have an R4 (not a R44). I went to a show last night, recorded for 3+ hours on a 5400mah DVD player battery. When I got home it has "1 LED left" (out of 3). This morning I plugged that into my computer to copy some files over, running off that same battery with 1 LED left. I got the files copying, which probably took about 10 minutes... forgot about it, went to work, and the battery died mid day of course.
Since my computer happens to be linux, I can see in the log files...
- Plugged in R4 with battery with 1LED left at 7:30am, copied some files, assume copy was done by 8am.
- R4 was left idling. Wasn't recording, or phantom on, but the hard drive was spinning I presume, and the screen was lit up brightly.
- R4 USB connection dropped out at 2:08pm
So that's 6.5hours of idle time after the battery read "1 LED left". I guess I always thought that was like driving around with you gas guage on an 1/8 of a tank, but it's probably more like 1/2 a tank. But, I'm not going to take chances I don't think.