Topic: Can you power a ua-5 on 12 volt sla??

[VA_TAPER]

fwiw I was poking around the power input section of the ua-5 today and it uses a Rohm BP5220 DC-DC converter to provide 5v internally.  That thing is rated to handle anything from 8 to 38 volts.

Not that I'd recommend using 38 (heat generation?) but you ain't gonna blow anything up with 12 volts.

Now if you could find out how many amps the UA-5 draws from the DC-DC converter at 5v and check the spec of the Rohm to see how much it can provide it might be possible to jump an additional 5v out from the converter, put a jack on the back of the UA-5 and then JB3 users have a regulated 5v source to run off of when their using a UA-5.  Call it the UA-5 dklein mod

peace, chris

[dklein]

Hey - I like your thinking!  That's fucking brilliant.  Unfortunately the converter is only spec'd to 1 amp - probably not enough for both.

It generates a little heat just running the UA-5 with a 9.6v - not sure what it would do with more load.  The JB3 pulls over 0.8 A when the hard drive writes and well over 1 A when it boots up.  And any time it doesn't get adequate voltage/current, it just locks up.

Here's the converter specs if you want to check it out

[Lee]

would it be possible to swap the converter out for one that can handle a higher amperage?  What's the internal draw on the UA-5?

[dklein]

would it be possible to swap the converter out for one that can handle a higher amperage?  What's the internal draw on the UA-5?

You'd need something that would fit in there (on the board).  Might be tough.  I also noticed that it comes after a DC line filter, so they took great care to make sure the power is clean before it hits the electronics.  You could introduce noise by connecting another device after the filtering.  

Probably not worth the effort.  Easier to just split power from your source.  I've got a little setup that runs the JB3 and UA-5 from a single 9.6v - straight 9.6 for the UA-5 and a regulator for the JB3 (I've used both a 5v reg and a car adapter reg set to 4.5v