Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Other Stuff => Other Topics => Topic started by: MRJacques on April 29, 2019, 09:51:45 am
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Hi all!
We love doing guerilla gigs with our band but we're getting sick of dragging a generator with us everywhere.
So I've been looking into portable 230v AC "power banks".
Some examples are Lifepowr A2L and Xtorm Bricks. Especially the Lifepowr advertises that you can run an amp on it without worry. My first concern is ground seeing as how everything is isolated in the box, which means that the ground connection runs to the guitar and to me.
My second concern is obviously if it has enough juice to power my amp continuously for an hour.
Lifepowr specs: 230v, 27000mAh, 100w continuous output.
Xtorm brick: 220v, 21000mAh, 80w continuous output.
Amps: Hiwatt DR103 (240v) and two Fender Bassman 50 (240v) (Obviously, every amp gets it's own powerbank)
Thanks! <3
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looked quick, nice glossy pics, but spec were sorely lacking.
If it's a modified sinewave invertor kinda thing, I've tried amps with them and they can be quite noisey. I used a 3.5kw battery/solar unit to power a "demo" booth, the players were less than enthusiastic when I said "ignore" the hum, it's just the portable power unit.
I had no worries about grounding, but then I didn't have a mic n guitar and someone in-between. Bottom line, test drive it 1st.
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looked quick, nice glossy pics, but spec were sorely lacking.
If it's a modified sinewave invertor kinda thing, I've tried amps with them and they can be quite noisey. I used a 3.5kw battery/solar unit to power a "demo" booth, the players were less than enthusiastic when I said "ignore" the hum, it's just the portable power unit.
I had no worries about grounding, but then I didn't have a mic n guitar and someone in-between. Bottom line, test drive it 1st.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we're instrumental so no mics.
The ground issue is because we often play on grass, rarely playing on concrete or solid ground.
Noise is something we're used to because of the generator, same principle applies I guess.
I would imaging that your setup probably had more noise when you connected more stuff?
Haven't got a clue wether these powerbanks are better designed, they seem relatively new.
Could go about and just buy one to test it but don't have 170-220 euro laying around to just test something. :sad2:
Thanks for sharing your experience!
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Those modified sine waves can be pretty rough - even in the 85% range. Notice all the "musical instruments" were all solid state or had wall warts. The higher the efficiency, the less notches in the wave. The higher the efficiency, the more $$$$. I'm not sure what the threshold efficiency would be for low noise, again, you may need to test drive. I wonder if a place like Batteries Plus (or the Euro equivalent) would have something like these? You could drag your amp in and tell them, "No test, no sale!". These folks, Powkey, supposedly have pure sine wave systems. Might be able to get a good deal going direct? Certainly verify the specs for your voltage. Here is a 120v 60 cycle spec example on Amazon. Good luck! Let us know what you find!
Jim
http://www.ledpowkey.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Powkey-Portable-42000Mah-External-Smartphones/dp/B0713XJBG2