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Gear / Technical Help => Remote Power => Topic started by: cincykid on August 20, 2014, 10:58:54 AM
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Hi,
Recently, I bought a Mini Me in the yard. I need to get a battery to use in the field. I have no skills; I cannot build my own sled. I'm also concerned I could fry the mini me if I go buy the wrong thing (polarity??) on amazon. Please help! There are three things I will need:
1. battery (Hopefully under $100/ 8 +hrs)
2. a cable to connect the battery to the mini me
3. ideally a s/pdif cable with both ends that are angled
the rig could be: active akg CK61> mini me> 661
If you can link me with someone that has the same rig or can build me one of the three that would be great! In sept I hope to record with the new set up for Ratdog, Moe., Freeman.
PS:
I noticed DigiGal builds a cable that allows the mini me to have two digi outs...is there a benefit to use the Aes/ebu to carry the signal more than the s/pdif? Or is it just the awesomeness of two digital outs?
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The MiniMe can run 6-14v, so a battery is pretty wide open. You could consider a Naztech battery which is about $90, it will have a cable and multiple tips so you don't have to worry about a battery cable then.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007URKIGC?pc_redir=1408375895&robot_redir=1
As far as a SPDIF cable, I would ask Ted to make you one, costs about $35.
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=133186.0
DigiGal could make you a AES> SPDIF for around the same price but there's no real advantage on that other than a second digi out. One thing to keep in mind is the MiniMe is quite irregular shaped so chopped right angle cables would be my recommendation as to limit any additional height.
PS- Ratdog cancelled all shows through Jan. Sorry...
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The voltage range the Mini-ME supports depends on the Version of Mini-Me - Version A and B (possibly) (are black) required 7.5V or above
C versions have a silver casing
If your miniME supports 6v then it will be marked as such above the power connector (6-14V)
Version A did not have the power marked - no idea about B
The C version is rated at 5.5W so if you run 12V you will pull about 500mA at 9V you will pull about 620mA
- this means a 5400mA 9V DVD battery will last you at most 8.8 hours
The Naztech battery above is rated at 55.5 Wh so you can get probably 8-9 hours out of it assuming the battery efficiency is not factored in (as is typical of these Chinese battery makers nowadays)
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the mini me is black.
Thanks for the links!! I will contact ted cable.
So sorry to here that Bobby is not touring and I had two pit seats too.
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The spdif connection on the mini-me is notoriously flaky. I always used the aes out when I had one.
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the mini me is black.
Thanks for the links!! I will contact ted cable.
So sorry to here that Bobby is not touring and I had two pit seats too.
If you bought Geoff's then it's a Rev A
Only the first batch was rev A (first 25 - 50)
The second rev B
The rest where rev C
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Great advice in this thread. I'll just add that I think the requirement power the Mini-Me 8+ hours is going to be tough. The mini-me is a bit of a power hog and I'm not sure how long it will last on a Naztech battery or similar. I can't remember the exact power draw specs, but recall it chewing through my standard 6v eco-charge pretty quickly. If you need to power it for that long continuously, I'd imagine you'll need to spend a bit more for a high capacity battery, otherwise two dvd batteries might work for non-continuous powering.
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^^ Ted could probably make the OP a dual-input battery cable so he could hot-swap DVD type or other batteries to the Mini-Me. Not a "set and forget" option, but it would enable the OP to continuously power the MM without turning it off.
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Thanks for all the great ideas! The last post about a cable to hot swap batteries is neat.
First, I will contact Ted about the dual-input battery cable and custom xlr cables to connect the MM to 661. And I will buy one Naztech battery to get started.
Later on, I will try to get Digigal to make a cable so I can use the AES output, and buy a second battery.
I noticed at Xmas jam that my 661 over heated (had been running for over 6 hrs) and shut down temperately (I removed AA batteries and let it cool for 10 min then put fresh batteries in). I was unhappy yet I love pushing the limits of gear. This new rig should be able to power through even those marathon recording events.
I don't record festival often yet having a rig that I can hot swap batteries and hook up two data storage devices to allow for uninterrupted taping should be fun.
Thank you taping community for the support. :)