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What the bloody h**l is the current draw of ARP 2600?
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:58 am
by rjd2
service manual? nope.
user manual? nope.
ACTUAL UNIT? nope.
PSU? nope.
this is ridiculous. i dont think ive ever seen a synth that didnt at least print the current draw and operating voltage on the actual unit's name plate in watts or amps.
does anyone have this number? thanks much if you do.
Re: What the bloody h**l is the current draw of ARP 2600?
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:22 am
by Maschinengeist
Damn easy to find out.
First, measure the watts it consumes. Apply the Olm's Law: I= P/E, where I is Current, P=Watts, E=Voltage. I will be in mA. The voltage is the incoming one (from the wall-wart= 120V). To measure the wattage, about everywhere you can buy a wattage measuring thingie (popular these days to know what this or that eats up).
The thingie is nothing fancy. You plug stuff in and into the wall-wart. It has a little counter on. Not expensive.
Re: What the bloody h**l is the current draw of ARP 2600?
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:12 pm
by cornutt
If it's more than 1A, I'd be surprised. I hardly ever see a synth that consumes more than 40-50 watts. Try looking in the power supply to see if it's got a line fuse -- the value of the fuse will tell you what the upper limit is.
Re: What the bloody h**l is the current draw of ARP 2600?
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 6:06 pm
by rjd2
thanks, guys. (my DVM doesnt measure current, that's why i was a*s out on it.)
cornutt, that dawned upon me last night as i was staring at the thing. i popped it out, its .5A.
anyway, i guess it's moot now: i was considering dropping a new power-one linear PSU in it, but i have since decided to just replace the voltage regulators and power transistors in the old one, and have nothing digital in the unit whatsoever.
Re: What the bloody h**l is the current draw of ARP 2600?
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:13 pm
by cornutt
rjd2 wrote:anyway, i guess it's moot now: i was considering dropping a new power-one linear PSU in it, but i have since decided to just replace the voltage regulators and power transistors in the old one, and have nothing digital in the unit whatsoever.
Sorry, lost you there: a linear PSU shouldn't have anything digital in it. It works just like the old one: xformer, rectifier, regulator, caps. Perhaps you were thinking of a switching PSU, in which case I agree with you; I wouldn't put a switcher in a vintage analog synth either. (Although I have seen a mod for the Chroma which replaces the factory PSU with a switcher.)
IHMO, fooling around with broken power supplies is usually not worth the trouble. You fix one thing, something else goes. You wind up replacing the whole thing one part at a time.
Re: What the bloody h**l is the current draw of ARP 2600?
Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:23 am
by rjd2
cornutt-really? i was told there was a digital element to the power-one linear supplies. sounds like i got some wrong info? well, i already bought the parts today for the old PSU, so i guess i should try that first. i was thinking i would save myself trouble with a $75 unit. i guess i could still go that route...
Re: What the bloody h**l is the current draw of ARP 2600?
Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 3:48 am
by cornutt
rjd2 wrote:cornutt-really? i was told there was a digital element to the power-one linear supplies.
I buy Condor open-frame linears, which are pretty much the same thing, for my modular. Nothing digital about 'em.