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Gear / Technical Help => Remote Power => Topic started by: Electric Cowgirl on November 03, 2003, 12:58:46 PM
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I'm running EW Sr77 into a UA5 (with phantom power) into a laptop at 24/96. I am having some trouble powering this system.
I have tried a 12v ecocharge, dies during the second set every time, and a 9.6v rat shack rechargeable battery, which only lasts about 1.5 hours with a full charge.
To give some perspective on the 77s(power hogs), 2 lithium AA in an MP2 will last about 1.25 hours....max.
I was thinking about purchasing a second 9.6V, since the battery pack I have has a spot to plug in a second battery(splitter). Will this give me twice the running time??
I would really like to be able to run for the opener and the both sets on one battery if possible.
Anyone have any ideas?? THANKS ;D
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What does EcoCharge recommend?
They should be able to help you figure out what size SLA to use.
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I have tried a 12v ecocharge, dies during the second set every time, and a 9.6v rat shack rechargeable battery, which only lasts about 1.5 hours with a full charge.
What mAH capacity is the 9.6v Rat Shack battery? Is it NiMH or NiCD? What's the capacity of the EcoCharge 12v?
Knowing this information will allow us to roughly calculate your current draw and identify what capacity battery you'll need to get through a whole show.
Yes, plugging in a second 9.6v Rat Shack will give you double the run-time, assuming [a] it's the same mAH capacity as the first one, and the battery connectors are wired in parallel.
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Becky, you're better off getting the second battery & swapping it out when you're close to draining the other (keep an eye on your watch / windows clock).
If you need power for your lappie, batteryspace.com sells a portable laptop power pack that is 4500mAh (I think, don't quote me) that has a plug to go into your DC in - makes your laptop think its plugged into the wall.
You could also check out their 3000mAh 9.6v RC battery, it's been linked here a few times.
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Lappy
http://www.batteryspace.com/product.asp?0=238&1=287&3=172
what I use for my UA-5
http://www.batteryspace.com/product.asp?3=209
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ah, my old combo (almost, I had SR-71's)
Keep in mind that the earthworks draw a ton of phantom power, much more than any other mic that we'd use. That said, adjust your powering calculations accordingly. I'd just pick up a few extra battery packs and change them as you need to. One thing I did when I was running the UA-5 off RC packs is buy a panel mount voltmeter from the shack (about 5 bucks if I remember correctly). Wire that sucka inline and you can monitor when you need to change packs. When the voltage drops to about 8.8v (IIRC), you need to swap 'em out.
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>>To give some perspective on the 77s(power hogs), 2 lithium AA in an MP2 will last about 1.25 hours....max. <<
if that's happening to you, there's somethign wrong. i've run sr77s for over a 3 hour show off lithiums in an mp2.
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Becky, pm me if you want the nmas show from Minny. Sorry you had troubles. Show came out really well, I ran both 4022>v2>hhb and 4022>v3>m1. Both sound really good, one sounds better imo. ;) The v2 copy has a tiny dropout in it, bad spot on the tape, I think.
Personally, I'd ditch the sr77's, but we all know it don't take much for me to ditch gear. Good luck on powering solutions. Marc.
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last spring my friend had a problem with her UA-5 and sr71's. i believe those things sucked so much power that it ended up frying some resister in the UA-5. She was able to send it back to oade for repair but it still set her back for a while. she also powered it with 2 9V ratshack batteries i made her, but I would suggest using a big ass SLA. i have had a 7amp SLA battery since last spring and i have only charged it 3 or 4 times so far ( once after running it 2 days a b-roo) and i tape very often. best of luck.
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Thanks for the suggestions guys!! I am not sure on the capcity of either battery(at work and don't have them with me) but it would be worth calculating.
I cannont switch batteries during the set....If I lose power to the UA5 my laptop will no longer recognize it without restarting, and that takes too long. I need to be able to run thru an entire second set on one battery. I will try adding a second 9.6v since they are wired in parallel. I will report back after this weekend.
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i'm not sure if i'm reading what you're saying correctly but you don't want to run two 9.6v battery packs simultaneously, the purpose of having the ability to run two packs is to allow you to be able to do hot swaps of the batteries.
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I am going to pick up a second battery today. I will try to do a hot swap tonight...if there is even a slight interruption of the power the laptop will lose signal.
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Good Luck :)
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But if the batteries are the same there shouldn't be a problem with running them at the same time correct?
-Kevin
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Yeah, you can run both of those suckers at the same time without any problems whatsoever. I did it successfully on numerous occassionas, and will test it tonight using 6v 4000mah bats with my mini-me! But, to reiterate, just run them both and use high capacity batteries and you should be OK becky.
D
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I ran the SR77 > UA5 for a while, and the current draw wasn't a problem. I ran two 1600Mah batteries from RS wired in sequence and never had any issues. With my V2 it isn't an issue, the V2 handles them just fine.
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D- That's what you said about the single battery!! I TOLD you it wouldn't be enough juice for the earthworks.
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Becky-
How long does it take for your computer to shut down and turn back on? Are you using WaveLab or SF?
Phil
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To give some perspective on the 77s(power hogs), 2 lithium AA in an MP2 will last about 1.25 hours....max.
Wow...I knew they were hogs, but didn't know they sucked that much juice. I've ran the KM140's for approx. 10 hours with Lithium AA's in an MP2. They will most likely run longer, I just don't risk it after that.
Chapper
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There's something wrong with your setup if the 77s drain a pair of lithiums in an mp2 in 1.25 hours.
-Matt
P.S. The current draw of the mics is pretty much negligible when compared to the rest of the gear. The reason that people often have problems powering Earthworks mics is that their phantom power supplies cannot handle putting out 10 mA at 48V. My preamp is spec'd to 15 mA so I have no trouble, but the UA5 is only spec'd to 10, and I'm guessing why that device has problems with the 77s. Again, this has NOTHING to do with your run time, but everything to do with the possibility of frying your phantom power supply.
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bingo to what matt said. i've run mp2-s and sr77s for 3-4 hours plenty of times before
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Perhaps there is something wrong with my OLD set-up. I could not run my 77s thru a second set on two lithium AA. I would have to change batteries mid set to make sure I got it all. I only used AA if I forgot my ecocharge.
Phil- I have not timed how long it takes to reboot my laptop....but it seems like it takes forever....at least 1.5 mins. I am using wavelabs 4.0....which is working really well.
Also the RS 9.6v batteries are only 1000mah....so I picked up a second one late last night. Will test the hot-swap idea this evening.
Thanks guys!
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Also the RS 9.6v batteries are only 1000mah....so I picked up a second one late last night. Will test the hot-swap idea this evening.
Thanks guys!
well that would explain why you wouldn't make it more than an hour and a half!
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Yeah, plug in the fresh battery and then unplug the almost drained one. Your UA5 should never know the difference!
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Alright.....
My Ecocharge is offically dead. Won't hold a charge, only gave me about 15mins of power. Anyone know where I can recycle this POS??
Hot swapping the 9.6Vs worked fine(tested at home). I ran one battery for first set, and thru set break(only power, no phantom). I plugged the second battery in for second set and just ran both batteries. No problems.
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Hey becky, in the future if you want to have both plugged in do so when they're both freshly charged.... They'll drain evenly & you won't have the battery with the higher charge trying to recharge the older one.
Same thing goes for mixing batteries of different amperages - not a good idea.
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Thanks! I just assumed that when the lower charged one died the other would just keep truckin. The thought of one battery charging the other didn't even cross my mind.