daflewis

Sounds like that would work well... Oh dear, too much choice now!!

Ah, fair enough... Actually, on the subject of phantom power, that was another reason for wanting a power supply - the blender offers phantom power (perfect for my golden bullet mic) but that drains the batteries even faster!

A dc/dc converter - would that kind of do option 3 that silent fly was talking about?

Oops! Sorry, got a few posts behind there!

Hi flyfisher, Good point! Actually I am a little surprised that the raven labs can't be phantom powered through the xlr send on the back anyway.

Will do... It's very good to know about the mini jack shorting! Doesn't seem very good design given how good the raven labs stuff is in general... It makes me think that powering it through the battery connectors is the best option - I've already made some wooden blanks the same size as 9v batteries to keep the connector in place and i've cut a small notch out of the face of the battery boxes for the leads - this has worked well, so if the power supply you mentioned is suitable it may be i'm/we're in business! (especially if I can run the 2 units from that 1 supply) I'll get in touch with the company and check it out. Cheers! Daf

Hi Bassbod, Thanks for that - it looks very doable (I'm sure I can find the thread) will definitely check it out! Luke, yeh, I searched members for him after your post and his stuff looks really well made! Though, as has been mentioned, an off the shelf supply is probably a safer and cheaper bet... But thanks anyway - it's good to have another option (and I'll certainly try him if I need anything custom making) thanks for that

[quote name='daflewis' timestamp='1339496870' post='1689195'] It's kind of gone full circle - I'd been hoping to find a way to power them from one psu (or at least one psu each) but it looks like that's just not feasible... [/quote] Why do people have to get so self-righteous - I was simply exploring all the options!

I'm sure I can find that talkbass thread again with the technical data on it... I'll take a look and talk to my sparks friend about soldering that jack. It's kind of gone full circle - I'd been hoping to find a way to power them from one psu (or at least one psu each) but it looks like that's just not feasible... though the floating ground info is important - thanks for that and all the other advice.

thanks... again! The jack is apparently a 2.5mm stereo - i've seen a thread (on talkbass i think) about splicing together two 9v PSUs into the one jack so i guess it is also 9-0-9v. (the later ones also have a daisy chain facility to link the units together to power off the one supply - shame i only have one like this! ) i think the easiest, safest and as you say cheapest way is just to get six floating PSUs, six battery adapters and a couple of extra four gang sockets!! cheers!

Thanks flyfisher, i was thinking about using the 2 psu route for the ones with only batteries and having something made up for the one with the power input, but yes, i hadn't really thought about the costs involved in having one made. Can i check once more, if i want to use 2 PSUs they would BOTH have to have floating grounds? or was it only because i was trying to run both off one unit that it needed to be floating? Sorry for being dense....

Hi Luke, Who? - please excuse my ignorance... Is he like OBBM for cables? - I'll check out some of his posts... Thanks for that, Daf

Thanks for the concern brancini, but actually one of the guys i was thinking of is head sparks at the theatre, so we should be ok... (and it would have to be checked over by him and PAT tested anyway)

Hi Bertbass, I have some friends who are a little more handy with a soldering iron than me so i'll show them this - looks like a possible solution. Thanks for that.

ah, ok - good to know there's an easy way to tell if it's a floating ground... there have been a couple of on line discussions about splicing together two 9v supplies with a 2.5mm on the end - a bit above my soldering skills though! but yes, two individual supplies could work fairly easily for the battery clip ones. Ta.

Yeh, a +9v 0v -9v power supply with two battery clip ends would be great.... Anyone fancy making me one? or two actually! I know there'd be a load of other people after them too.... Bob gollihur (a big on line double bass site/shop in the states) said if I managed to find some way of powering the raven labs gear (both with battery and 2.5mm jack) they'd be very interested... Could be a nice little project for someone...

Thanks very much for the feedback steve - much appreciated... and really glad you liked them!

Hi Bassinmyface, Sure, give them a go - though innovation do make the point that none of their current strings will work with a mag (there is some ferrous metal in there but not a lot, so i think they're covering themselves) so there probably won't be a lot of signal.... If you feel they do work well enough it would be good to get the word out!

yes, i use rechargeables at the moment, but whereas alkalines will last a couple of weeks (i do 8 shows a week) the rechargeables only last maybe three days, and when they do go there's no warning which is a bit embarrassing in front of two and a half thousand people... add to that the fact that i have two of these units, and the fact that they aren't particularly accessible and you can see why i was looking into power supplies. the other problem is, as far as buying a power supply with a normal plug - the earlier raven labs (the ones that i have) don't have that option (they added a 2.5mm input on later models) Actually, i have a later raven labs pickup blender unit with a power input and i have tried to find a supply for that without success (though only maplins and the usual other suspects) so if you know where i could get one that would be useful anyway! cheers, Daf

Hi Flyfisher, Well, that's the best description of voltage i've ever had! thank you. and i get the idea about batteries being "floating devices" - i even got the bit that if you try to use a grounded power supply (or if batteries weren't "floating" for example) they would short, as one would end up connected to ground at both the + and - .... i think .... but this leads me to think that i was lucky not to damage the unit when i tried to power it with two feeds from the power supply - would that be right?

Thanks for that. I do remember seeing something about the raven labs power supply (now unabailable) being +9 0v -9v - not that that means anything to me.... Just like floating grounds - there should be an emoticon for "this is going straight over my head!" butI'm glad I asked before going and buying another power supply.... Still, if I run it with 1 battery in I suppose it'll at least cut my battery costs in half...

Hi all, I have a raven labs MBD-1 (basically a mini mixer) which runs on two 9v batteries. I had the idea that I could run it using a one spot daisy chain with battery clip adapters, but it won't work... It will work with one and a battery, but not 2 from the one spot. I guess this has something to do with the 2 feeds coming from the same power supply, but I wondered if someone could explain it to me? Also, am I ok powering it 1 and a battery? I don't know what effect the different voltages would have as the battery dies. Thanks in advance, Daf

[quote name='Mr Bassman' timestamp='1338398407' post='1673981'] The braided might work on the Yamaha which has too much sustain with some strings [/quote] Yeh, I think the braid would be your best bet.... Actually Owen uses the for jazz and really likes them I think...

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1338402580' post='1674084'] i used to be able to do that. I am still not entirely sure why I sold one [/quote] Yeh, and I don't think I actually bought that one either... unlike most of your other instruments