Gary75 Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 My Receptor has been lying under the bed for months. It froze up on me once and that was enough live to put me off it. It was plugged in a typical pub power supply with amps and what have you going in. Anyway, I had it upgraded from Rev B to C after it happened, but shortly after I dropped out of gigging for health reasons and never got round to testing in the field. Now I'm back into it, I'd like to dig it out again. At the moment the bandleader and I are sharing SV-1. He has it, and I'm controlling with Kurz on top of organ. Reliable, but I think the Receptor could do a lot for us barring failure. Are computer based gear much mote prone to dirty line voltage than hardware? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoodyBluesKeys Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 In general, yes. Short interruptions in power can drop a voltage to a level where the digital circuitry quits, and the unit reboots. Big difference was that older hardware keyboards would just drop out for a second or less, but reboot time is a lot longer - this is true of many recent workstations - my PC3 takes 10 seconds or so to boot back up - which seems an eternity in mid-song. A small computer type UPS (uninterruptible power supply - it switches to an internal battery) is sufficient, not all that expensive, batteries last a couple of years then need replacing. You don't have to run your PA stuff on it, a 1 second interruption or less is not real noticable - a 10 second to 2.5 minute interruption is a pain. Howard Grand|Hamm SK1-73|Kurz PC2|PC2X|PC3|PC3X|PC361; QSC K10's HP DAW|Epi Les Paul & LP 5-str bass|iPad mini2 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLearman Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Laptops have a fantastic built-in power protection: an enormous capacitor called a "battery". While not intended as a surge/brownout protector, it does work great for that purpose. The power brick is also a helpful link in the protection chain. Surge protectors are always a good idea and affordable to boot. With a laptop, that's really all it should need. I realize that's not the answer to your post, but it's here for anyone who sees the thread topic and wonders about laptops. Now, laptops aside: In general, the answer to questions like this depends on the risk/price ratio. First level is protecting your investment in your gear; all you need for this is a typical power conditioner, which will protect against surges and shut off completely in the event of a brown out (underpower). Second level is protecting the gig, and only you can answer the price/benefit question. If you're playing small local pubs and there's an obvious power glitch, crowds are pretty understanding. If you're playing an arena, things might be different. Third level is protecting your ego. For some of us, no price is too high. For others, any price is too high! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary75 Posted June 12, 2011 Author Share Posted June 12, 2011 Thanks for the input guys, I have had a look at a UPS and come up with this which should help http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE325%2DUK&total_watts=200 It's a stepped sinewave, but it still has to be better than some of the rubbish pubs are sending down the line. Any opinions on the above recommendation. It's only 4kg which is a huge benefit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoodyBluesKeys Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Power supplies in most gear today work well for short to moderate durations with stepped sine waves, since the supplies use switching technology. I have a pair of very similar units (except for the US 115 volts) at church - my PC2 and Electro 3 are put on them. We had a couple of brief drops this morning. I have another that I carry on a gig unless I'm playing somewhere that I'm pretty confident of the power. Like you say, only 4kg of weight - worth it for the peace of mind. Howard Grand|Hamm SK1-73|Kurz PC2|PC2X|PC3|PC3X|PC361; QSC K10's HP DAW|Epi Les Paul & LP 5-str bass|iPad mini2 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillplaying Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Yes if you've got one. O/T - On the subject of laptop batteries - I disabled mine after running some latency checker thingy recommended on the NI Kore forum (R.I.P. Kore) - it did seem to run better. Fewer random rice crispie crackles and inexplicable lock ups. Google DPC latency checker if you're interested. I'm the piano player "off of" Borrowed Books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgoo Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Laptops have a fantastic built-in power protection: an enormous capacitor called a "battery". While not intended as a surge/brownout protector, it does work great for that purpose. This is fine & dandy unless you happen to have an audio interface that isn't bus powered. Once that thing power cycles, you'll likely need to reboot to the Laptop to get it to recognize the driver again. (At least this is the case with my POS M-Audio FW 410.) Custom Music, Audio Post Production, Location Audio www.gmma.biz https://www.facebook.com/gmmamusic/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westom Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 It's a stepped sinewave, but it still has to be better than some of the rubbish pubs are sending down the line. A UPS connects its load directly to AC mains. It switches to battery during a blackout. A stepped sinewave (dirtiest power) is output only when powered from its battery. Cleanest power is when connected directly to AC mains. Stepped sine waves can be harmful even to small electric motors and power strip protectors. And is ideal perfect power to all electronics. Because electronics are routinely and required to be so more robust as to not even be harmed by a UPS output. Steped sinewave tells you what not to power from a UPS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLearman Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 I'm familiar with DPC checker. If disabling the battery reduces latencies, someone seriously fouled up some MOBO or software design! However, foul-ups do happen. :-/ I did have a laptop that failed miserably running audio off battery alone. Never did figure out why. Regardless, you have a good point. It's a good idea to test to see what happens. I also have seen laptops that breeze through a power failure like nothing happened, and laptops that go catatonic for minutes when power fails. Also, good point about audio interface power cycling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 ... I did have a laptop that failed miserably running audio off battery alone. Never did figure out why. ... I have found that some laptops don't supply full power to the USB bus when running off of battery. This could be part of the problem. We realized it at work when we bought some USB powered scanners. They worked fine in the office but when clinicians tried to use them when visiting homes the scanners did not work. When going into the homes the clinicians were depending on battery power. This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLearman Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Interesting. However, I was using built-in audio. It would really break up; applying power fixed it. I had my system set to run full blast on battery, but perhaps there was some power-saving feature that got missed, either by my config or by the code that handles it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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