Topic: Sony D10 battery

[hurrysundown]

I bought an old Sony D10 DAT but it needs a good external battery pack.  where do i go?  Also need same for Tascam DA-P1.  thanx.

[Stagger]

Do you have the battery shaped insert that allows you to plug in external power? The D-10Pro I and II are very old school in their powering options (really designed like a pro video camera of the same era) in that everything goes through the battery bay in the back. Both the AC and DC units are shaped like a brick where the AC has a 2 wire terminating in a 2 prong plug and the DC just has a coaxial female plug. When I had my D-10 ProI, Carl beck and I actually made a pack out of a 12v SLA cube battery from Radio Shack with open terminals that accept "slide on" connectors. We then just got a plug that fit the D-10 DC adapter and soldered it up. While it was heavy and cumbersome, it was pretty bomb proof and ran the deck for over 6 hours. The one down side is that I usually had to carry some extra fuses for the DC adapter in case I put the connection clips out of phase on the battery in the dark. No big deal but it would blow the protection fuse in the DC adapter.

These days you can probably get a Li-on "Wally World" type 12v battery similar to what folks use for pre-amps and such and save some weight. I know my old rig (AKG c34>S42>EAA PSP2 or Sonosax>AD1K>D-10 ProI) required a total of 2 12v batteries, when doing 3 set or other long shows, and my backpack weighed a good 55lbs before throwing in the 2 liter Platypus of Bourbon. At the 2003 WsP Halloween show, I remember having to run several blocks in Manhattan to catch up with friends holding a cab with a pack that was easily 70lbs. Thought I was going to die and my friends were pissed at me because it took me an extra 2 minuets  .

Anyway, I hope this helps (I'm not much of an expert on DA-P1s) and if you have any more questions feel free to ask or send a message to carlbeck as he helped me build the original stuff.

[hurrysundown]

Thanx for the kind note and info.  I haven't taped in forever, and bought this deck, which is just a D-10 made prior to the pro models.  it doesn't even have a digital in, just mic jacks and analog RCA ins/outs.  Kinda cool i think.  I only ever patched into decks at shows and lost my backpack w/my Casio DAT at SCI Vail 2001(got way to high prior to show).  I just got these decks in 07' on e-bay so I could play my tapes and covert them onto a HDD.  Now am going to The Dead at Verizon and thought maybe I should try to patch.  But maybe I should just d/l it the day after.  I had gotten a power supply for my Casio from Eco-Charge but I guess they are outta business.  Thanx again for the energy you gave to my post, and hope u groove some good shows this spring.  Peace, Eddie

[Stagger]

Ahhh. the original portable DAT. Sony always tended to overbuild their new tech. For years I had my father's TC-152SD which was Sony's first portable cassette deck (portable in this case meant weighing about 30lbs before the 6 or 8 D cell batteries it took to run the thing. I still believe that throughout my analogue days it made better cassettes than my Nak deck. I don't remember if the non pro versions also used the Battery shaped DC adapter like the Pro I and the Pro II but the lack of digital inputs and outputs kind of cripple the regular model for most recording and cloning uses. The only use I know of is using an outboard Pre with no outboard AD (mics>pre>RCA cables (or XLR>RCA depending on the pre)>D-10.

If it doesn't have DC input on the body of the recorder (like the Pro series) the adapter you need is the "dcp-80" adapter.

The DA-P1 is the better option. This site has instructions for making your own Lead Acid battery for a DA-P1 but there are probably better solutions if you do a search in the Remote Power section here on TS.

If you do patch, you will have to find someone running 24/48. The Tascam will omit the extra bits but it can not lock onto a 96kHz sample rate.