Gear / Technical Help > Battery Boxes, Preamps, Mixers, ADCs, and Processors
Church Audio UBB Issue
joeldotc:
I just received CA14 cards and an ugly battery box from Church yesterday and I'm having some issues with the battery box. For reference, I'm using a Roland r-05 recorder.
The mics work fine when I plug them directly into the mic input with PIP turned on. But, when I try connecting them CA14 > UBB > line-in, I get nothing. I've been testing them by playing music out of a speaker right in front of the mics. I'm making sure that the battery is connected properly and that the terminals are making proper contact.
Now here is the really weird part - if I turn the battery around and press the opposite terminals to the connector, I get input from the mics. This is challenging to do because the 9V battery wont actually connect in this orientation, so I need to hold the battery and battery box together in this position.
Anyone have any ideas what I might be doing wrong? Or did CA just build the battery box incorrectly - and if so, any ideas on fixes? Hoping this is just an issue on my end and not with the battery box. I was planning on taping two shows this coming Tuesday and Wednesday.
Rairun:
It is very strange that you do get some input if you switch the battery orientation around, and that will probably invalidate what I'm going to say here, but a couple of things to keep in mind:
- The CA-14 cards are not very sensitive. I don't have them, but my CA-11s are around 16 dB less sensitive than the Roland R-05's internal mics.
- LineIN@40 is 7 dB quieter than MicLow@40, and 26 dB quieter than MicHI@40!
- In my experience, a battery box (depending on maker), might attenuate the signal by 1 dB or so.
So just to make sure you're REALLY not getting a signal, you should turn PiP off, connect the CA-14s to the BB and then to the MIC input, and use the highest gain you possibly can (MicHi@80). This will give you a gain of +46 dB, which should be enough for you to hear yourself speak next to the microphones. If you can't hear anything, I'm afraid the BB is not working.
joeldotc:
--- Quote from: Rairun on February 25, 2024, 06:05:35 AM ---So just to make sure you're REALLY not getting a signal, you should turn PiP off, connect the CA-14s to the BB and then to the MIC input, and use the highest gain you possibly can (MicHi@80). This will give you a gain of +46 dB, which should be enough for you to hear yourself speak next to the microphones. If you can't hear anything, I'm afraid the BB is not working.
--- End quote ---
Just tried this - I do get input when I have it like this, but my voice is below -40db. When I'm playing music as loud as possible directly into the mics, they get up to like -30db.
For comparison, when I plug the mics directly into the MIC input with 1.2 V PiP (I cranked it up from 0.9 V), my voice pretty much gets right up to 0db and the music is completely clipping. So it doesn't seem like the BB is providing any power to the mics.
Not sure if anyone has a UBB to compare, but I attached a picture of mine with labels added. Seems weird to me that the POS terminal lines up with the output of the battery box and the NEG terminal lines up with the mics, but I can't see under the shrink wrap so I can't be sure.
EDIT: Just tried doing the same setup (PiP off, CA14>UBB>MIC input) and tried unplugging the battery while playing music into the mics. The levels immediately went up (not as high as with PiP on, but still) when the battery was unplugged. This gave the same levels as CA14>MIC without PiP turned on. So yeah, seems like the battery connection is wrong. :(
vanark:
For less than the loudest music, in my experience, you need to run mic in on the recorder. The BB can supply power without amplifying the signal. It is not a preamp. I think it is working as expected.
joeldotc:
--- Quote from: vanark on February 25, 2024, 11:03:31 AM ---For less than the loudest music, in my experience, you need to run mic in on the recorder. The BB can supply power without amplifying the signal. It is not a preamp. I think it is working as expected.
--- End quote ---
See my update on my last message. The battery actually reduces levels when I plug it into MIC input with PiP off. Also, I'm expecting the shows I'm seeing to be really loud, so I don't think MIC input is the best option.
If I cant get this sorted by the day of the show, I'll run the mics into MIC input with the PiP up, but I imagine I'll get some distortion since Chris Church seems to recommend that his mics always receive 9V for loud stuff.
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