Topic: SAX>722 issue

[Brian Skalinder]

UPDATE:

I bought new batteries and it works fine,  now i know stay away from energizer.  i had bought 18 badbatteries for the cruise.  now i know.  thanks again for the help

Great news, Jon!  I don't think any battery manufacturer is immune from bad lots of batteries.  I've had bad "new" batts from the two big names, Energizer and Duracell.  At any rate, good luck in the future with your batts...

[jmerin]

thanks brian, its crazy 12 bad ones

[PH]

I've gotten bad energizer AA's on two occasions. I bought some a few months ago that were totally dead right out of the box. An 8 pack of them. I thought my wireless mouse was broken, took me forever to figure out it was the batteries. Like two days!

I switched to the usb mouse and then about a day later it dawned on me that it might be the batteries.

Great advice Skalinder! I'd give you a +T but I'm not allowed to yet.......

[shaggy]

Man, this is an eye opener!  I use these cheapy GP Alkalines (chinese) that I can get for 100yen a 4 X AA pack or 1 X 9V for 150yen.  Been using them since I have been here and never had an issue.  Maybe a letter to them would be prudent!  In the US I ususally buy Duracells (ultras are awesome) but use those Ikea (repackaged Vartas) that you can get 8 X AA for $2, those have never been a problem either.  I have had NiMH that have been failing despite complete discharge and charge cycles.....2000mAH Energizers (made in Japan no less) and 9V 150mAH Rayovac (chinese).  Lately these 9V Ultralife Lithiums are what I have been using in the Sax.  In fact, there is a UK vendor selling them for $40/10pack delivered (if you are in the UK, it is 20quid).  You can get like 14 plus hours out of them!

[silentmark]

UPDATE:

I bought new batteries and it works fine,  now i know stay away from energizer.  i had bought 18 badbatteries for the cruise.  now i know.  thanks again for the help

damn, that sweet Jon! Crazy shit for sure, i would run it on 'high' gain setting fwiw, but i guess on '0' youd be fine too

FYI, don't run your gain setting at "0" as it will introduce noise into your recording. You may not hear it during a loud passage but during the quiet ones it's loud and clear ...

Also look into running Ultra Life Lithiums, pricey but I could get close to 15 hours of run time from a pair. The other option is to get a SLA and power the sax that way. I've been using a 12v since I got sick of recording usage & changing batteries in the sax. It is a trade off to be sure. Oh and don't worry about the 12v being less than what the sax "requires", your battery light will flash at a quicker pace but you'll be OK.

[jmerin]

thanks i run it at low gain, and i am working on a power solution, 2 lithium ions,

jon

[smokydays]

I bet that some causes of buying new batteries that are bad is that they sit around in the retailer's warehouses for too long and they do not rotate their stock as it should be rotated.  Glad it was only bad batts for ya.

[Brian Skalinder]

FYI, don't run your gain setting at "0" as it will introduce noise into your recording. You may not hear it during a loud passage but during the quiet ones it's loud and clear ...

This strikes me as counter-intuitive.  I've experienced precisely what you mention when running Sax @ 0 gain > V3.  Any idea why the Sax is more noisy at 0 gain?

[BayTaynt3d]

Alright, with all of this battery talk, what's the best way to confirm/test that a battery is good? Is there something at RatShack that'll do it? They have battery testers, but they look hella-cheesy? Could you use a voltmeter or something like that? (I'm clueless on this front as you can tell.)

[WiFiJeff]

Alright, with all of this battery talk, what's the best way to confirm/test that a battery is good? Is there something at RatShack that'll do it? They have battery testers, but they look hella-cheesy? Could you use a voltmeter or something like that? (I'm clueless on this front as you can tell.)

I am looking at this:

http://www.ztsinc.com/mbt1.html

Pricey (about $69 at BatteryStation.com) but looks to do what I need.  Anyone try it?

Jeff

[silentmark]

thanks i run it at low gain, and i am working on a power solution, 2 lithium ions,

jon

That will work too jon as I also have a setup to run on two 9v walwarts ...

[PH]

I just a simple Radio Shack volt meter to test any alkaline batteries. Just press the red wand to one side and the black to the other and you get the voltage the battery has left. Most all batteries have the proper voltage they are supposed to output right on the label, so it's easy to deduce. I've found many batteries to have slightly differing voltages, even inside the same pack.

[silentmark]

FYI, don't run your gain setting at "0" as it will introduce noise into your recording. You may not hear it during a loud passage but during the quiet ones it's loud and clear ...

This strikes me as counter-intuitive.  I've experienced precisely what you mention when running Sax @ 0 gain > V3.  Any idea why the Sax is more noisy at 0 gain?

Agreed. I never looked in to the issue further as the simple solution was not to run it at 0 gain 

[Brian Skalinder]

A few options for externally powering the Sax, which takes 12v - 24v external power, and 2 x 9v internal power:

• 2 x 9v li-ion wired in series to provide 18v *
  
• 1 x 12v li-ion battery
• 9v li-ion battery wired through a slightly modified battery tray, i.e. tricking the Sax into thinking it's running on internal batts so you can stick with a single 9v li-on instead two, or a bigger/heavier 12v - 24v li-ion.  This requires drilling or dremmelling a small hole into the battery trays (if I recall correctly, the Sax has two trays?).  Split the cable from the 9v li-ion in parallel, so instead of the original 2 leads (one +, one -), there are now 4 leads (one pair each of + and -).  Feed the wires into the battery trays, one +/- pair per tray.  Affix the wires to a wooden block or some such, so they're lined up with the Sax's internal terminals.  Put the block in the tray, along with the affixed wires - the block will hold the wires against the terminals.  The Sax now thinks it's running on internal power, which means <1> the low battery indicator will work (don't think it works on external power, but I could be wrong), and <2> you have fewer / smaller external battery to schlep around.

The latter option may not be worthwhile given the availability of the newer 12v li-ion batteries.  But it's one to consider, at any rate.

*  I should add:  no idea if that's possible, it's just one potential solution.  Not my fault if your batts blow up or you fry your Sax!  Based on follow-up posts, looks like this doesn't work.

[Brian Skalinder]

Has anyone ever wired two wally lions serially? I didn't think you could do that with those packs.

I should add:  no idea if that's possible, it's just one potential solution.  Not my fault if your batts blow up or you fry your Sax!