Ok, well, my remote power works and all, using my eco-charge EC-90, but I have to boot up with batteries, and leave a fully charged one in, so for the intense current draws it can work. Like, when it tries to boot up, it can't, and just continues to try, and sometimes it freezes the JB3. My cell phone charger was only rated at 1A, and the JB3 pulls like 1.5A at most, so I'm guessing that's the problem. What are some ways around this? Lemme know! Peace, -Ian
I have the same problem with my RatShack and WallyWorld cig lighter adapters which put out 4.5V instead of 5.0 volts. It freezes sporadically, doesn't charge the internal battery completely. Only it sounds like your cell phone charger isn't able to put out the amps. Here's what I found about JB3 power use a few weeks back:
Yesterday I measured the current consumed by my JB3 while recording line-in using an external power source. My external power source is a $2 7805 5 volt regulator from RS. To use it I pull the internal battery so that the JB3 doesn't try to charge it with the external power. That would be a big waste of the external battery, plus it adds a whole bunch of hiss, clicks and beeps to the line-in recording.
Here are the results:
Boot-up and harddrive 'punches' : 750 mA spikes
Toggling thru the menus (back light on): 120 mA
At rest, no back light on: 70 mA
Here's the important one, Recording: 230 mA with an occasional spike to 750 mA when the HD punches, I'm calling it 300mA average.
The 7805 chip (and Leegeddy's variable volt box) consumes the exact same amperage as is sent to the powered devices. The excess wattage (Vin - 5 V)*amps goes to heat. In my case, it's a 12V supply, so (12-5 V)*0.3A = 2.1 watts of waste heat. The chip is mounted to a scrap piece of aluminum and doesn't even seem warm to the touch.
I also use a pre-amp which uses 30mA at 12V. Based on this, my 12 Ahr 12V SLA battery should last (12,000 mAhr)/(330 mA) = 36 hours.
Hopefully this will be useful for someone planning to use or build an external power supply for festivals, etc.
Cheers!
Todd in Buffalo
So build yourself a LM7805 chip based power supply. It is literally 3 solder connections, will give you very efficient conversion of voltage, plenty of mA, and is battery quality (no noise) power.
Good luck, and please PM me for any help I can offer,
Todd in Buffalo