Topic: MR-1 questions?

[jaz]

  So I was at the Mcdowell Mount. Music Fest in AZ this past weekend. The first run with the korg MR-1. Made battery packs (4 AA) after calling korg for the plug size and polarity. Packs worked great. For a while. To my understanding on some of the sites that sell the product, recommend to recharge the internal battery after six hours of use. But it seems to me the product should be just fine if you still have external battery life going to the machine after six hours. Granted its not often I run for six hours with minimal breaks but this issue is a small draw back. Anyway So I had the external pack ready to go into my 3 act of the day (franti) after recording Hot Tuna and NRPS so when the machine went down it was about 5 hours of recording time. I plugged in another pack with a full charge and the screen light up, just the back light no txt blinked a couple times, then the red recording light came on for i few seconds, then nothing. It just shut off. I thought the red light that came on might have meant it was too hot to continue? It's said on some sites the unit gets too hot and there are risks of frying the PC board inside. I guess I'm lookin to see if anyone has had this experience with this unit. Comments and help PLEASE. Thank!   

[boyacrobat]

you made the packs, just maby you should re check your packs wiring joints etc
everything.

maby mr1 needs more juice for proper shut down
dont run packs fully empty but rather split the loads
of juice so you are stopping with proper juice for tidy shutdown
before going 2nd or 3rd pack

i will order korgs packs direct hoping they have the edge
on proper juice for mr1.

g

[landshark]

Hey Jaz -

I also have an MR1, and one thing I can say for sure is that it is VERY finicky about getting the right voltage.  There are a couple threads about this throughout Tapersection, but people have measured the device and found that, if the external voltage drops much below 5v (like, to 4.6v or so), the device switches to internal battery and runs from there, with the expected hit to battery life.

I have also found that if the internal battery is not already pretty well charged, hooking it up to an external power source doesn't always work, particularly if the source is at all below 5v.  I find if my internal battery is run down, I need to charge it for half an hour or so before it will even "wake up" and run off an external source. 

If you're going to run it for extended periods, make sure you've got batteries that will put out 5v the whole time - normal voltage drop from batteries will shorten your recording time.

Good luck!

Mike

[jaz]

Thanks guys! Great input. I think I'm gonna buy this ....  http://www.powerstream.com/BP-23.htm   Some reason I can't link the direct product but just look to the right and click there link. It looks like a nice product. But back to the original Questions for a a minute. Has anyone tried to run the MR-1 over 6 hours or there abouts ...trouble free?

[tedyun]

Off the internal battery, I got just under 3 hr of recording time, recording to DFF format.

The other problem I had during my last recording was that when recording just over 2 hr is that I received a "Disk Full" error, when there was over 14 GB of free space on the drive. I believe the disk was fragmented because over the last couple o months, I was transferring files off and on from the MR-1 to my computer. Reformatting the drive fixed the issue, and this means that in the future, I will probably reformat the drive every time before an important gig (just like reformatting a flash card when you replace it in your digital camera).

With external power, the above replies are pretty much spot on. Just going from experience, to get 6 h of recording, I would advise keeping the internal fully charged and burning through your external batteries before switching to the internal. It definitely is finicky when it comes to hooking up an external source. With some external batteries, when I plug it in, it doesn't always switch to the external right away. I find myself unplugging, then replugging the battery pack.

For external options, the free Korg AA battery pack is probably the best and most reliable one I've used. I don't like it because it isn't rechargable (although some have reported you can use some brands of rechargable AA's with it).

I have a USB battery pack, but you have to be careful about the one you buy. It has to have an output of over 800 mA, and most have an output of 500 mA or less.

For the last option, I have a 9V DVD battery plugged into a Bumblebee VR box that outputs 5V. This is a bit bulky but does the trick because I can carry around multiple DVD batteries and swap them when one is drained.

So for the marathon 6+ h sessions, I would recommend going in with a freshly reformatted drived and a fully charged internal battery. Initially start off with an external battery plugged in. The AA battery pack is probably the best option, where you can replace the batteries. If you're like me and prefer to use a rechargable batteries, the Tekkeon Universal that you are looking at is a good, but expensive option. If you are handy with DIY electronics, you can build a voltage regulator and use a number of rechargable options.

Thanks guys! Great input. I think I'm gonna buy this ....  http://www.powerstream.com/BP-23.htm   Some reason I can't link the direct product but just look to the right and click there link. It looks like a nice product. But back to the original Questions for a a minute. Has anyone tried to run the MR-1 over 6 hours or there abouts ...trouble free?

[jaz]

  Yeap, I got the disk full error tonight while doing a transfer. Had 13 gig left on the drive. Only odd thing I did was unplug the wall power from the machine, onboard battery read full. Then about ten minutes later I come in tape is still playing and the machine read Disk error full. Well I guess I just need to learn how to work around these issue's. You have all been helpful to  me. Thanks!!!!         

[jaz]

  OK 1 more question. Does the MR-1 take a charge through the USB port also?

[tedyun]

Nope! Kind of baffling why they separate the power from the data like this, much like the iRiver HP-120.

However, there is this Y-cable from DealExtreme that is made for the Sony PSP that allows you to plug one side into a USB port, and then the other two jacks into the MR-1 (power and data). It costs $2.40 (free shipping).

http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8693

The company is in China, and it took a long time for them to process the order. I have however ordered from them on multiple occasions, and there is no problem.

The other problem is that to charge from a USB source is that you need an current of 800 mA or more (see guysonic's posts). Hooking it up to a computer is ok (these usually supply 1 A), but the output of batteries can vary. Most batteries I've seen are less than 500 mA.

  OK 1 more question. Does the MR-1 take a charge through the USB port also?

[jaz]

OK so last night I got  my new battery pack. It's a lipo battery said to run most laptops for 4 hours or more, so its a long runner for sure. So anyway I ran the ran the stock mics that come with the MR-1 on reformatted HDD at 16/44.1, while I was sleeping last night. I wake up to an "error time limit message" I then drop the files in my media player. I have 3, 1h 41m 28s files and 1, 55m 37s file, totaling six hours about. So even with good battery it looks to be 6hours is it.... well what do you want for 223$...... Oh ya this was done at home so i had a small PC fan blowing on the machine to keep heat down. 

[landshark]

Was there anything else on the hard drive?  Was the error message maybe caused by filing up the hard drive? 

[tedyun]

At 16/44.1, you should have plenty of room on the HDD. I think the problem is that the maximum continuous file that you can record is 6 h in length (check the manual). If you want more, you have to stop and restart another recording. I am not sure if they fixed this issue in a firmware update, but it doesn't sound like it.

I don't think it's a battery issue. If you bought that Tekkeon that you were looking at, you should have had plenty of power. Was the MR-1 dead when you came back to it (ie., was the external and internal drained), or was it still running off one or the other?

OK so last night I got  my new battery pack. It's a lipo battery said to run most laptops for 4 hours or more, so its a long runner for sure. So anyway I ran the ran the stock mics that come with the MR-1 on reformatted HDD at 16/44.1, while I was sleeping last night. I wake up to an "error time limit message" I then drop the files in my media player. I have 3, 1h 41m 28s files and 1, 55m 37s file, totaling six hours about. So even with good battery it looks to be 6hours is it.... well what do you want for 223$...... Oh ya this was done at home so i had a small PC fan blowing on the machine to keep heat down. 

[jaz]

At 16/44.1, you should have plenty of room on the HDD. I think the problem is that the maximum continuous file that you can record is 6 h in length (check the manual). If you want more, you have to stop and restart another recording. I am not sure if they fixed this issue in a firmware update, but it doesn't sound like it.

I don't think it's a battery issue. If you bought that Tekkeon that you were looking at, you should have had plenty of power. Was the MR-1 dead when you came back to it (ie., was the external and internal drained), or was it still running off one or the other?

OK so last night I got  my new battery pack. It's a lipo battery said to run most laptops for 4 hours or more, so its a long runner for sure. So anyway I ran the ran the stock mics that come with the MR-1 on reformatted HDD at 16/44.1, while I was sleeping last night. I wake up to an "error time limit message" I then drop the files in my media player. I have 3, 1h 41m 28s files and 1, 55m 37s file, totaling six hours about. So even with good battery it looks to be 6hours is it.... well what do you want for 223$...... Oh ya this was done at home so i had a small PC fan blowing on the machine to keep heat down. 

The MR-1 was bright as day and on with the error message when i came back to it in the a.m. The external was barley half gone. So yes I would say it has that 6 hour limit. Then it will need a restart. Not a big deal. just over 6 hours at cd quality 16/44.1 only used nearly 4 gigs on the drive. Plenty of room left so I think it just needs to be stoped and restarted then it will probably run for another 6+ hours and so on till the HDD runs out. So bottom line it I guess with a good battery you can do 6 hours at a time till the drive is full. So not a bad deal I guess. Thank you all so much you all have been a great help.