Ansible & grid / power issues?

[Autogeneric]

I’ve just started, this evening, having what sounds like a similar issue with my Ansible/Grid combo. Having had them for about a year and a half, with no issues, I powered up my system and noticed a high pitched whining noise coming from all the audio outputs, indeed all the outputs it seems, in the case the Ansible is in. This only happens when the Grid is attached and seems proportional in volume to the number of lights on. Nothing has changed since the last power up.

I have four Doepfer LC cases, all of which are connected to a power conditioner. I’m going to try moving the Ansible to different case.

Are there any other recommended solutions to this? I’ve just rebuilt/reconfigured my studio to be as uncluttered as possible and I really don’t want to be getting an extraneous power supply and leads on display (and potentially DIYing something I don’t understand) to solve this.

[csboling]

Get one of these cables and a USB power supply, ideally 1A or so, like a phone charger you most likely have several of lying around.

[Autogeneric]

Thank you - I will give that a try.

[CLDSWM]

any luck finding something that works in the UK?

[CLDSWM]

ciao! did this work for you?

[cocco88]

yes, i used it for several month till i upgraded my power distribution

[CLDSWM]

which color wire did you cut from the data+ power male USB cable ?

thanks !;_)

[cocco88]

i used a premade Y cable

[swhic]

not really, I managed to find and offworld

[fourhexagons]

Hey,

I’ve always noticed this noise/whine when using the Grid with Ansible and my solution was to remove it in post using Izotope Rx. But now I’m putting together a system for travel that uses an Expert Sleepers ES-9 for both CV and audio and I think since it’s basically an audio interface inside of my rack, the noise floor has increased and so this whine has become an issue to be addressed.

Does anybody else experience this with Grid and Ansible? It doesn’t happen with Arc and Ansible, by the way. My power supply is the Intellijel TPS80w.

Here are some spectrograms to compare:

With Grid + Ansible

Without Grid + Ansible

You can see that the highest whine (around 18k) is present on both, but that all those additional ones are present down to 1k only when the Grid is connected.

[fourhexagons]

Many thanks to @ioflow who sent me a message explaining the Grid power issues. I see that it goes quite deep. Apologies for not reading enough beforehand. I’ll be trying out some of the fixes mentioned earlier in this thread and elsewhere.

[Deru]

Hey All,
I have a MakeNoise case that supplies 1.4 amps @ 12Vdc. On Modulargrid my rack (including Ansible) is showing 1376 mA @ 12Vdc.

If I plug in my Grid to Ansible the it will that add an additional 600mA, thereby throwing me over the power from my power supply correct? I assume this is right but would love a confirmation.

If that’s the case then I need to look for a solution to power my Grid from another source. So something like the Arturia cable or DIY solutions right?

Thanks!

And PS: Does anyone know how much power an Arc requires?

[ioflow]

@Deru

And PS: Does anyone know how much power an Arc requires?

power specs are available in the official ansible docs, in the power consumption section:

ansible

…and also answered here on lines:

Ansible standalone power rating

200ma is the max. it will typically be much lower. i don’t have a measurement in front of me for non-USB-powering, but i’d expect it to be under 40ma.

Ansible standalone power rating

If anyone needs it. Ansible power draw with Grid/Arc powered externally or no Grid/Arc connected. +12V 45mA MAX (everything maxed out, you’ll never hit this in practical use) -12V 21mA MAX Readings taken simultaneously with a Fluke 175 & Amprobe AM-520

[Deru]

Oh wow, so 200 is the max Ansible will take no matter what is taking power from it (ie even with a Grid attached)? I’ve read conflicting things on other posts in Lines, like Grid can take up to 600mA on it’s own when being powered from Ansible. Is that not correct?

[ioflow]

if it’s 5v-only power, e.g. plugged into a computer’s USB port, up to 600ma. running off 12v modular power, as it does through ansible: 200ma max, usually less, exactly as the docs say. still, ansible’s 200ma max puts you uncomfortably close to your PSU limit. makenoise supplies are not good for multiple high-powered digital modules of any sort.

Grids with Make Noise Shared System power?

in general the modules will draw substantially less than 600ma. the warning is really for a severely underrated supply. anything that gives 1A would hopefully have a graceful shutdown on overheat/etc. because honestly i find the switch annoying, needing to have an extra power cable. it’s fine if you can do something like the 4ms rowpower trick.

Maximum power consumption of grid / arc?

Not that wrong, 600ma at 5v boils down to a large part of that 200ma at 12v iirc. Someone with knowledge in ee please chime in.

Maximum power consumption of grid / arc?

keep in mind with ansible there’s no way to fully light up the grid. it’s mostly only partially lit.

[Deru]

@ioflow

if it’s 5v-only power, e.g. plugged into a computer’s USB port, up to 600ma. running off 12v modular power, as it does through ansible: 200ma max, usually less, exactly as the docs say

Ahhh, got it thank you!

And yeah, maybe I should rethink getting this close to the limit… But then again maybe I’m okay as Ansible usually takes less? Hmm.

[tehn]

use a separate power supply for the grid/arc, which will solve noise issues. and generally stay away from the power delivery limits unless you want to spend a ton of time debugging other inexplicable issues.

[CLDSWM]

So I got this Y Split cable -> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Delock-Y-Cable-USB-2-0-0-3m/dp/B009EAF0RU

When I open up the thicker data cable there were no separate cables? )you can see from attached images.

I tried plugging GRID to the DATA cable and the GRID was powered, this should mean that there is power on this cable.

Any help?? MANY THANKS!

[HateNames]

The separate cables are under that silver stuff. Just separate some of that weave off to the sides and you’ll see them.

[CLDSWM]

So which one should I be cutting? If its the one inside the silver stuff I’ll have to cut that as well which defeats the purpose?? thanks!

whats the silver stuff for?