Low voltage causing this?
bagman
Posts: 14
Just got back from the worst event in my life. This was a hall I had never worked in before and not sure if the place may have caused this with a voltage issue or my DRPA is simply defective. Several times during the evening my DRPA suddenly went into reboot mode...which as you all know caused a major POP over the system as well as a near heart attack to me and essentially destroyed the dance. The DRPA is less than a year old and has NEVER failed me for a second (worked perfect last weekend) until tonight. We did check all connections and no issues there at all. I am running a Furman PL PLUS (with the voltage meter display) and noticed that the voltage was well under 120 all night. Near the end of the evening I watched the voltage drop under 110 and right after that another reboot/reset of the DRPA occured. The DRPA didnt go black...the screen just went blank and scrolled the data like it does at start up. NONE of my other equipment in the rack ever blinked a bit all night. Im running 3 QSCs and my Yamaha mixer off the PL PLUS as well.
Is the DRPA very voltage sensitive?? Would this low voltage cause it to reboot like this occasionally or does it seem like the unit itself may be defective in some way? I will be setting my system up in my garage tomorrow to see if the voltage issue in that building was perhaps the culprit. Bottom line...I can ill afford to be blowing out speakers and/or ruining events like this. Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated.
Is the DRPA very voltage sensitive?? Would this low voltage cause it to reboot like this occasionally or does it seem like the unit itself may be defective in some way? I will be setting my system up in my garage tomorrow to see if the voltage issue in that building was perhaps the culprit. Bottom line...I can ill afford to be blowing out speakers and/or ruining events like this. Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated.
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Comments
gadget
Some older buildings have electrical problems. The plugs are worn out, causing arc jumps that cause voltage spikes and drops.
DRA
As for the UPS, yes it will constantly monitor it's own charge and keep itself up to snuff and ready. The smaller ones won't run the Driverack for long, 5-10 minutes, but all it takes is a few seconds usually. In a power outage situation the UPS only needs to maintain the power amps till amps are shut down. When the voltage falls below a certain point the UPS will take over (and a tone will sound). Shut down the amps if the power is out and then the DRPA. Then the UPS ...
I have had one running for about 4 years now...still works fine...
Gadget
??? What the heck ???
Mark
What is it you seem to be confused about here? I think the statement is pretty self explanatory, but I'll have another go at it...
I did make an error...A 300 volt amp (read that cheap, under $40) UPS will run the DRPA for up to 3 hours...Even if you had a DR 260 and a laptop it would run for about an hour... a tower with a 300 watt PS would run for less than an hour...
What I was referring to is the batteries inside the un-interruptible power supply are charged, and maintained internally...There is also voltage sensing and dc to ac inverters(turns DC voltage to AC voltage). When the UPS is called into action as in a power failure, it switches the input power from the Edison outlet to that of the battery/inverter circuit. The load on the UPS is directly proportional to the battery drain and as such, a device like the DRPA that has a 25 watt draw will run for a good long time. (as delineated above... but again your mileage may vary...) HOWEVER... hook up the amps... (DON\"T) and it will barely even turn on before it is exhausted... in short it's NOT designed to do that kind of duty, so don't even entertain the idea...and units that COULD are far too expensive to comprehend...(and you'd need a truck to HOUSE, and transport them) :twisted:
So while the DRPA continues on... well in excess of 10 years of service... with the same platform and the same limitations... I think the UPS solution has been viable for the shortcomings of this unit in that area...
G
A great solution to the problem!
Your first and second explanation is exact and beyond reproach.
Well explained, clear and precise
BUT again, what is this bit about?
Is this a strange American saying??
What is snuff all about??
Maybe this could translate to
choc a block, chockers
Anyway, I am shore that it you use a UPS
\"she'll be apples\"
Mark (From down under)
Ok, Now I get it...DOH... :idea: here is the hot poop on that phrase...
The snuff here is tobacco: nothing to do with the verb meaning to extinguish. Several colloquial phrases are recorded that used the word snuff, most of which date from the early part of the nineteenth century in Britain, when snuff-taking was still common, but less fashionable than it had been fifty years before.
The first meaning of up to snuff was somebody who was sharp, not easily fooled. This may have come from the idea of snuff being itself a sharp preparation, but perhaps because it was mainly taken by men of adult years and some affluence (it was expensive) who would be able to appreciate the quality of snuff and distinguish between examples of different value. The evidence isn’t there to be sure about its exact origin, though an early form of the phrase was up to snuff and a pinch above it, which at least confirms it did indeed relate to tobacco.
Whatever its origin, the meaning of the phrase shifted slightly after a while to imply somebody who was efficient and capable; later still it often meant that something was up to standard, or of the required quality. It was in this sense very similar to another expression of the time, up to scratch. This comes from prize-fighting, in which the scratch was the line across the floor that a contestant had to touch with his toe to indicate he was ready to fight.
I guess you can see that the last paragraph would hold true here...Now you might ask yourself ...\"self...how exactly did gadget figure that out\"? Well it was \"as easy as falling off a log\" I mean you wouldn't want the DRPA to \"go haywire\" and \"wreak havoc\" on your system so you ended up with \"diddly squat\"
http://www.brownielocks.com/wordorigins.html
Ain't the internet grand!
So here's hopin everything is \"right as rain\" \"down under\"
G
It is good to be educated by you folks over there, in the finer points in tobacco indulging. (don’t see it over here)
It is starting to cool down here. 16 deg Celsius
Mark
PS Thought Dra might of offered some commented on the subject
DRA
Ah....CHOO!
Spot
Well, I'm not really addicted to coffee
BUT
if I don't have it regularly, I get this really bad headache.
Mark
(PS I prefer to call it denial.)