Battarypack Electribe EMX

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Sun May 11, 2008 9:36 pm

and just in case you're going to comment on me saying that you have an autistic-thinking brain, here's the definition of literal thinking, an effect of being autistic.

Autistic people (especially those with Asperger's) take metaphorical things literally. This can either be not knowing the difference between literal and metaphorical or sometimes even just making a joke.

snakey · Post by **snakey** » Sun May 11, 2008 10:36 pm

Not trying to pour fuel over the flame here, but I just took an old broken MIDI cable and broke off the middle pin to see if I could fit it into the adapter jack of ESX. It works.

Look, can we stop the pointless fighting and get this over with? MIDI cable is just another cable - any cable can be used to transmit data OR power, provided that it is not too thick/thin. (resistance issues)

Now I'm trying to figure out what pins on the MIDI cable should be connected to this power drill battery I have here. In another word, which pins on the adapter corresponds to hot/cold. (I don't think there's a ground - speculating, of course.)

So will you guys help me (and other people who want to sit at a park on a sunny day and drop beats) figure this out? I have all the things you mentioned, Ruso, but unfortunately I don't have the multimeter to test out which pins are the powered ones.

Thanks and peace

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Sun May 11, 2008 11:12 pm

electribes are ac, which means the power it normally takes always alternates... I think, although I've never tested it could've just been complete coincidence but I don't think it matters which way.

As for which pins, I answered that in my last reply. There shield does nothing so ignore the shield wire.

I think a lot of midi cables have a shield cable, and two more actual wires inside. If that's the case with the wire you're using it should plug right in.

But do make sure your battery is a 10 volt... Or else you'll blow a fuse in your electribe and will either have to pay korg or do some manual soldering

(I bypassed mine a long time ago)

Borg · Post by **Borg** » Mon May 12, 2008 12:35 am

snakey wrote:Not trying to pour fuel over the flame here, but I just took an old broken MIDI cable and broke off the middle pin to see if I could fit it into the adapter jack of ESX. It works.

Now I'm trying to figure out what pins on the MIDI cable should be connected to this power drill battery I have here. In another word, which pins on the adapter corresponds to hot/cold. (I don't think there's a ground - speculating, of course.)

Welcome snakey!

Great to have another dude contributing to the solution of this.
So it's finally confirmed - a midi cable works. Thanks for that!

Now, for the hot/cold issue:

n3ldan wrote:However, you were unclear as to how you have it wired. This is how the pins are numbered in a 5 pin DIN cable, such as a MIDI cable. I know it seems weird but that's just the way it is. http://pinouts.ru/connectors/din5dm.gif

The pins are, starting all the way on the left at 3 and going counter-clockwise: NC, DATA, SHIELD, +5, NC. I'm assuming you clipped off pin number 2, the center pin. That means the remaining pins are 3,5,4,1 in that order. If you could tell us how you connected those 4 pins to your battery I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.

Don't know what "NC, DATA, SHIELD, +5, NC" means (except for SHIELD), but maybe you do?

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Mon May 12, 2008 2:07 am

I just told you that I already told you how to wire...

here's a diagram I drew up:

Borg · Post by **Borg** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:46 am

Sorry. I just didn't get what you were saying about the wiring.

Thanks for the diagram!

rtizrtiz · Post by **rtizrtiz** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:40 pm

ease up now ppl,

i recently jacked up a baterry pack from 6xAAA type "finger" batteries, that is 6 x 1.5 =~ 9

the esx adapter shows, that it produces 9v AC, battery pack creates 9v DC - if you put the DC through the AC/DC conventor, which obviously must be inside the esx, it is able to boot up the esx. The OS booted up and loaded, i was able to select patterns and everything else, but there was no sound - so i figure that there is not enough power in the batteries to drive the Tube Amp.

The solution then should be to use higher current capable batteries or wire around the Tube Amp, so no power is lost in the tubes.

It is not possible to get precisely 9v out of the batteries, because there is a power loss due to the inner Resistance of the batteries.

any sugestions....

MagpieIndustries · Post by **MagpieIndustries** » Mon May 12, 2008 6:24 pm

how do you open up the electribe to see, do you need to remove all the knobs to lift the faceplate off? Is this difficult/dangerous? Can you see the power supply section once the faceplate is removed?

snakey · Post by **snakey** » Mon May 12, 2008 6:31 pm

Borg wrote: Don't know what "NC, DATA, SHIELD, +5, NC" means (except for SHIELD), but maybe you do?

Thanks for the warm reception, and what n3ldan quoted was the arrangements of pins on a MIDI cable, and what each ones are used for. It's not the arrangements which we need for ESX power, however...

If Ruso is right in his diagram... I'm not accusing anyone anything, but it seems fairly odd for an electrical appliance to use 2 pins for - and +... especially considering that it's AC driven. I'm just being extra careful, wouldn't want to blow my beloved ESX over it. Thanks, Ruso, though, for the diagram - I'll be sure to test it out.

rtizrtiz wrote: the esx adapter shows, that it produces 9v AC, battery pack creates 9v DC - if you put the DC through the AC/DC conventor, which obviously must be inside the esx, it is able to boot up the esx. The OS booted up and loaded, i was able to select patterns and everything else, but there was no sound - so i figure that there is not enough power in the batteries to drive the Tube Amp.

That seems to coincide with what Ruso said earlier, about needing more voltage to drive it - but I'm wondering if mA output of the batteries combined together is not the issue here. I think in theory DC should be able to power ESX with or without the AC/DC converter. You'd definitely be needing something more powerful to drive the amps, I'm still trying to figure out which battery I should use for it.

I think with our combined efforts we should be able to get this done sooner or later - or so I hope.

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Mon May 12, 2008 7:56 pm

nono not more voltage... I produced the same results as him, you simply need more power....

I think my original idea of lap top battery is still the best option... I haven't had time to continue with power tool battery yet but I'll see how that goes.

rtizrtiz · Post by **rtizrtiz** » Mon May 12, 2008 8:06 pm

more power - more - MORE

Borg · Post by **Borg** » Mon May 12, 2008 8:30 pm

So how do you get more power without increasing the voltage? Sorry, but I hardly know anything about electrics.

snakey · Post by **snakey** » Mon May 12, 2008 8:40 pm

Power = wattage. W = Amp x Voltage... so we'd have to up the total ampere output, keeping the voltage at ~9 V - 10 V. And as for your laptop battery idea, Ruso, the laptop I'm currently on has a battery clocked at 19V. Not too sure if that'd be a safe thing to try.

rtizrtiz · Post by **rtizrtiz** » Mon May 12, 2008 10:44 pm

Power = I x U,
where I - current and U - voltage

Borg · Post by **Borg** » Tue May 13, 2008 12:08 am

Oh. Alright.

Well, I'm looking at this laptop battery. 10.8V and 6600mAh. Pretty decent, eh?

Just one thing. If I bought it, how in the name are you supposed to charge it without a computer?