#1

I’m belatedly realizing that the 1400ma of +12V that Pittsburgh Move 208 provides for 208HP is really pretty anemic.

Are there reasonably simple ways to upgrade a case’s power supply, or would I be better off selling+replacing?

I see that someone made a modulargrid feature request to make power consumption an advanced search criteria:
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/forum/posts/index/869

Until that comes to pass, how are folks planning their racks? It seems like the only way at the moment to avoid nasty surprises is to simply overbuy on power capacity.

#2

I’m running into this problem at the moment too. I just had a couple of 208hp cases made for me and intended to power them with 4ms Row Power 40 (which I already have in a portable 6U, 104hp case), but I’m finding that the 1.5A +12V just isn’t enough. It seems crazy to me that there’s no difference between the Row Power 30 and 40 on +12V, but they say you should stick to the 30 for 3U and use the 40 for 6U. Seems absurd to have to have a Row Power 40 taking up 4hp in every row if you want to use any digital or other power-hungry modules.

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#3

Totally agree. That being said, I had kind of forgotten about 4MS Row Power, and that might be just the thing I need to keep this case rather than upgrading.

#4

I deal with the power issue by trying to buy cases with extra juice. I’m moving to the intellijel portable cases which currently come with 3k mA on +/- 12v and 1.5k mA on 5v, though +/- 12v is more important than 5v these days since most manufacturers have stopped developing modules that require the 5v rail.

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#5

been considering this:

http://store.synthrotek.com/Super-Power_p_645.html

3k / 2.5k / 1.5k

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#6

Oooooooooooooooooooh.

EDIT: watch that 46mm module depth though. It’s fine for my case, but would be too deep for some.

#7

Someone in the East Bay installed a pair of these in my Monorocket:

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/ps1-50w-12.html

I can introduce you.

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#8

I like them (4ms row power) a lot. I have a fairly large setup and I ended up with 4 of them. Two on one power brick and two on another. I spent tonight, fittingly, making new jumper cables to match the twos’s together (the old cables were about 20cm long and just got in the way. Cables getting in the way is a good thing with patch but not with power. The new ones are 8cm and much nicer.

Yes, 4 is probably overkill but my original setup was 4 boxes, bring-what-you-want-to-the-party whereas my new setup is static (it fills an old school drafting table’s storage area).

If I was doing it again, tbh, I’d probably do the same thing. I like being able to select power on groups that I use together, and was willing to pay the $$.

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#9

Been there. Ever since after a rearrangement I started my rack and had no lights, I don’t trust modular grid values anymore. They are mostly right though (possibly has improved).

I keep track of the power draw in an excel sheet now.

Also be aware that some power solutions are said to require “enough headroom”. It seems that varies a lot. Or it’s just a means of saying “overbuy on power capacity”, I don’t know.

Re 208: I would try contacting pittsburgh and ask them if they offer a retrofit with the new power supply. They once offered me this with a cell series case. It’s a different model yes, but worth a try. (hp is precious)

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#10

+1 for 4ms row power, some people won’t want it taking up space on a front panel but having a power switch and lights indicating if all different currents are sufficiently supplied right there on the front of my skiff is pretty useful.

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#11

lots of votes for row power!

hmm my system (6U 84hp) is currently at about 1300ma on the +12 - perhaps to close for comfort on the row power 40?

very related to power: anyone else have issues with high-pitched grid whine? i’ve noticed on my pulplogic zissou case i need to run the grid thru switch or ext5v when using it with ansible. a friend has a makenoise powered case and has the same problem with ansible. would be cool to compile a list of PSUs that are grid friendly.

#12

@shellfritsch I wonder if that’s related to this?

I asked @tehn to send me the necessary capacitor, and I still have it in a drawer, but I admit that I haven’t gotten around to this simple repair because I love my grid and I’m a little scared I might harm it. You’d think after all the soldering I’ve done in the past, I’d be more confident about it at this point.

#13

yeah i looked into that. opened up my grid and the capacitors are correct.

i think it’s related to wide range of available power supplies and transformers.

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#14

One noise issue I have been having is weird oscillations (sounds like a police siren) on some but not all ES-6 inputs. Might be a power issue or a fault in my second-hand ES-6? I guess I don’t really have a handle on the list of things that could add unwanted noise to eurorack signals.

#15

i’ve noticed a bit in my development case which has a fraptools silta at the moment but the case is also has lots of empty space for sound to escape. the rest of my cases are full and have 4ms row power which i’ve been happy with.

capacitor whine seems to be all over the place these days, i often noticed it with my macbook pro depending on what is on the screen…

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#16

i should clarify: the high pitched whine i’m speaking of is part of the audio signal, not acoustic.

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#17

…oh. i haven’t experienced whine in the audio signal but i also have an older grid as well (2013 maybe)