Topic: Mix-Pre 3/6 USB Batteries (what works and what doesn't)

[fanofjam]

I was holding off posting until I got everything sorted out but I also had an Anker battery failure and unfortunately it damaged my Mixpre3.  The battery was a new Anker Powercore 20100mah (not the plus model) connected via the dual usba > usbc cable.  What's strange is that I'd already used the battery three or four times prior to this...but after the failure I did realize that the battery had been  a bit funny...one time I used the battery to record with and then after the show when I tried to use the battery to play the recording back it was dead...even though I'd just recorded an entire show with it with no indications that the battery was even low.  Anyway on the day of the failure, I was in my car the day after I'd taped and was attempting to play the recording back through the aux jack on the cars stereo system.  Powered from this battery, the mixpre started up fine but a short time later the battery started smoking. Of course I quickly unplugged everything.  The battery was obviously shot after that but I didn't have a means to check the mixpre3 until I got home.  Sure enough when I got home I discovered that it was damaged. 

The battery short took out the usbc port and the green-yellow-red lights around the fader knobs.  Otherwise the unit still works fine from the rear power terminals.  This happened last week so I haven't yet contacted either Anker or Sound Devices.

[larrysellers]

No fireworks with mine. Sorry to here about this.

[GDfan]

I was holding off posting until I got everything sorted out but I also had an Anker battery failure and unfortunately it damaged my Mixpre3.  The battery was a new Anker Powercore 20100mah (not the plus model) connected via the dual usba > usbc cable.  What's strange is that I'd already used the battery three or four times prior to this...but after the failure I did realize that the battery had been  a bit funny...one time I used the battery to record with and then after the show when I tried to use the battery to play the recording back it was dead...even though I'd just recorded an entire show with it with no indications that the battery was even low.  Anyway on the day of the failure, I was in my car the day after I'd taped and was attempting to play the recording back through the aux jack on the cars stereo system.  Powered from this battery, the mixpre started up fine but a short time later the battery started smoking. Of course I quickly unplugged everything.  The battery was obviously shot after that but I didn't have a means to check the mixpre3 until I got home.  Sure enough when I got home I discovered that it was damaged. 

The battery short took out the usbc port and the green-yellow-red lights around the fader knobs.  Otherwise the unit still works fine from the rear power terminals.  This happened last week so I haven't yet contacted either Anker or Sound Devices.

Ouch sorry to hear that.
Question, did you have both usb-a connections coming out of the one battery?
If so, I think the may have been the issue as it was drawing too much from the battery. The dual usb-a to usb-c cable is designed for 2 separate batteries.

[fanofjam]

I was holding off posting until I got everything sorted out but I also had an Anker battery failure and unfortunately it damaged my Mixpre3.  The battery was a new Anker Powercore 20100mah (not the plus model) connected via the dual usba > usbc cable.  What's strange is that I'd already used the battery three or four times prior to this...but after the failure I did realize that the battery had been  a bit funny...one time I used the battery to record with and then after the show when I tried to use the battery to play the recording back it was dead...even though I'd just recorded an entire show with it with no indications that the battery was even low.  Anyway on the day of the failure, I was in my car the day after I'd taped and was attempting to play the recording back through the aux jack on the cars stereo system.  Powered from this battery, the mixpre started up fine but a short time later the battery started smoking. Of course I quickly unplugged everything.  The battery was obviously shot after that but I didn't have a means to check the mixpre3 until I got home.  Sure enough when I got home I discovered that it was damaged. 

The battery short took out the usbc port and the green-yellow-red lights around the fader knobs.  Otherwise the unit still works fine from the rear power terminals.  This happened last week so I haven't yet contacted either Anker or Sound Devices.

Ouch sorry to hear that.
Question, did you have both usb-a connections coming out of the one battery?
If so, I think the may have been the issue as it was drawing too much from the battery. The dual usb-a to usb-c cable is designed for 2 separate batteries.

The first few pages of this thread discuss where people use the dual usba cable from a single battery and this Anker Powercore was the subject of the discussion.  In fact the focus of the discussion was whether or not the usba Powercore could provide sufficient amperage to power the mixpre.  Also it was specifically stated that both usba connectors needed to be connected to the same battery.  I'm curious where you got info that they needed to be two separate batteries.

[Gordon]

I got a couple of there HyperGear batteries for a song and have been using them with great success. Around 7 hours on a single charge and the red/black version can be had for $23 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KYUDAN4?ref_=pfb_29fjld6id8h4dnhiae7j64kjk55k&tag=hydfbook0e-20&ascsubtag=pfb-P01-V01-O5-T1-HI-4DCJUB&th=1

Great battery. Got about 7 1/2 hours. 2 channel. Lights and LED’s down to 1. Nice small size. Using it with a 1 foot cable. Very happy.

Just got one today and love the size!  Got the right angle c > c posted a while back and they show green on the mp6.  I have an Anker PowerCore+ 26800 which is great but it's big, heavy and overkill except for once or twice a year.

Has anyone run 4 channel with these?  Not way for me to really test that at home.  I don't have 2 sets of mics so any 4 channel will be mics on 1&2 and sbd on 3&4.

Ran some test with this yesterday recording the stereo in my office.  2 channel phantom, bluetooth off, lights on 3.  I got 8 hrs and 50 minutes!

I did have an issue though.  I have the 4 sled AA in as backup.  When the usb battery died it did not automatically switch to the AA's.  I did not see it happen but when I came back in to check the mp6 had an error on the screen that said "stream access error".  Behind that there was another error about usb but I couldn't see what it said.  I should have taken a picture.  I charged the usb battery overnight and this morning if I pull the cable out it switches to AA just like it should.  So not sure what happened or why.  Card is a 32gb SD branded card and was far from full.


edit:  testing again to see if it does it again.  should know in about 7 hours........

[fanofjam]

I got a couple of there HyperGear batteries for a song and have been using them with great success. Around 7 hours on a single charge and the red/black version can be had for $23 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KYUDAN4?ref_=pfb_29fjld6id8h4dnhiae7j64kjk55k&tag=hydfbook0e-20&ascsubtag=pfb-P01-V01-O5-T1-HI-4DCJUB&th=1

Great battery. Got about 7 1/2 hours. 2 channel. Lights and LED’s down to 1. Nice small size. Using it with a 1 foot cable. Very happy.

Just got one today and love the size!  Got the right angle c > c posted a while back and they show green on the mp6.  I have an Anker PowerCore+ 26800 which is great but it's big, heavy and overkill except for once or twice a year.

Has anyone run 4 channel with these?  Not way for me to really test that at home.  I don't have 2 sets of mics so any 4 channel will be mics on 1&2 and sbd on 3&4.

Ran some test with this yesterday recording the stereo in my office.  2 channel phantom, bluetooth off, lights on 3.  I got 8 hrs and 50 minutes!

I did have an issue though.  I have the 4 sled AA in as backup.  When the usb battery died it did not automatically switch to the AA's.  I did not see it happen but when I came back in to check the mp6 had an error on the screen that said "stream access error".  Behind that there was another error about usb but I couldn't see what it said.  I should have taken a picture.  I charged the usb battery overnight and this morning if I pull the cable out it switches to AA just like it should.  So not sure what happened or why.  Card is a 32gb SD branded card and was far from full.


edit:  testing again to see if it does it again.  should know in about 7 hours........

You might want to also take a look at the sd card and verify that the whole file was written properly.  That error message seems ominous.

[Gordon]

it did.  I transferred it to my pc and looked at them.  of course the wave just ends when the battery died but it's there and intact.

[rippleish20]

I was holding off posting until I got everything sorted out but I also had an Anker battery failure and unfortunately it damaged my Mixpre3.  The battery was a new Anker Powercore 20100mah (not the plus model) connected via the dual usba > usbc cable.  What's strange is that I'd already used the battery three or four times prior to this...but after the failure I did realize that the battery had been  a bit funny...one time I used the battery to record with and then after the show when I tried to use the battery to play the recording back it was dead...even though I'd just recorded an entire show with it with no indications that the battery was even low.  Anyway on the day of the failure, I was in my car the day after I'd taped and was attempting to play the recording back through the aux jack on the cars stereo system.  Powered from this battery, the mixpre started up fine but a short time later the battery started smoking. Of course I quickly unplugged everything.  The battery was obviously shot after that but I didn't have a means to check the mixpre3 until I got home.  Sure enough when I got home I discovered that it was damaged. 

The battery short took out the usbc port and the green-yellow-red lights around the fader knobs.  Otherwise the unit still works fine from the rear power terminals.  This happened last week so I haven't yet contacted either Anker or Sound Devices.

That sucks. I'm surprised it damaged the mixpre.

 

[Gordon]

I got a couple of there HyperGear batteries for a song and have been using them with great success. Around 7 hours on a single charge and the red/black version can be had for $23 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KYUDAN4?ref_=pfb_29fjld6id8h4dnhiae7j64kjk55k&tag=hydfbook0e-20&ascsubtag=pfb-P01-V01-O5-T1-HI-4DCJUB&th=1

Great battery. Got about 7 1/2 hours. 2 channel. Lights and LED’s down to 1. Nice small size. Using it with a 1 foot cable. Very happy.

Just got one today and love the size!  Got the right angle c > c posted a while back and they show green on the mp6.  I have an Anker PowerCore+ 26800 which is great but it's big, heavy and overkill except for once or twice a year.

Has anyone run 4 channel with these?  Not way for me to really test that at home.  I don't have 2 sets of mics so any 4 channel will be mics on 1&2 and sbd on 3&4.

Ran some test with this yesterday recording the stereo in my office.  2 channel phantom, bluetooth off, lights on 3.  I got 8 hrs and 50 minutes!

I did have an issue though.  I have the 4 sled AA in as backup.  When the usb battery died it did not automatically switch to the AA's.  I did not see it happen but when I came back in to check the mp6 had an error on the screen that said "stream access error".  Behind that there was another error about usb but I couldn't see what it said.  I should have taken a picture.  I charged the usb battery overnight and this morning if I pull the cable out it switches to AA just like it should.  So not sure what happened or why.  Card is a 32gb SD branded card and was far from full.


edit:  testing again to see if it does it again.  should know in about 7 hours........

Tested again and this time I was sitting here when it happened.  Seems when the battery starts to get really low (1 bar) but not dead the power requirement is not enough to power the mixpre.  The two errors are as follows:

USB Power Source is not compliant
Use battery power instead?

OK   Quit

before I could hit ok I got this:

SD Warning
Stream access Error
       OK

When I hit ok it goes back to the usb error, hitting ok does not switch to battery as the stream error comes up again.  Then it shut off.

This happened at 8 hr's and 46 minutes and the bar on the battery at one which indicates less than 25% power remaining.  So again it seems that when the battery was super low it couldn't provide enough wattage.  That makes sense but not sure why that kicks up the "Stream access error".

Wave file wrote correctly till it cut off at the end.  The very end it "flat lines" as the battery power drained.  Battery light was green the entire time.

If this isn't going to cause problems I'm fine using it and just remembering to never push it past 8 hr's which I never need anyway.


I have not tested my Anker PowerCore+ 26800 to see if the same thing happens when it gets too low.  I plan to tomorrow.

[larrysellers]

This is good information. Thanks for sharing Gordon.

[Gordon]

This is good information. Thanks for sharing Gordon.

Have you tested yours?  wondering if the same thing happens to others.

[larrysellers]

Running it now.

This is good information. Thanks for sharing Gordon.

Have you tested yours?  wondering if the same thing happens to others.

[Gordon]

Thanks! I got the Anker running now as well.

[ts]

I got a couple of there HyperGear batteries for a song and have been using them with great success. Around 7 hours on a single charge and the red/black version can be had for $23 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KYUDAN4?ref_=pfb_29fjld6id8h4dnhiae7j64kjk55k&tag=hydfbook0e-20&ascsubtag=pfb-P01-V01-O5-T1-HI-4DCJUB&th=1

Great battery. Got about 7 1/2 hours. 2 channel. Lights and LED’s down to 1. Nice small size. Using it with a 1 foot cable. Very happy.

Offer $13 and you will most likely get one at the link below.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/332185773381?_trksid=p2055119.m570.l6346&_trkparms=gh1g%3DI332185773381.N101.S1&autorefresh=true

Thanks again!

[Gordon]

Running it now.

This is good information. Thanks for sharing Gordon.

Have you tested yours?  wondering if the same thing happens to others.

did your's die gracefully and switch to aa?  or errors like mine?  As you may have seen in the other thread I had my mixpre lock up while testing the ankar last night.  finished the test  today and it didn't lock up and it died gracefully switching to aa.  no idea why the hypergear didn't.  I only need 8+ hours once or twice a year so if it's safe to run for 3-4 hours at most I'm ok with that.  just scares me with all the issues I'm having.