Elektron Musical Instruments

Wow thats allot less current than I thought!  My power supply is 
rated at 1.15 amps...lots of headroom there then :)  You are 
definatly right about the always on/always off debate...maybe someday 
there will be more information on which is "better" for your 
equipment...the same debate has been going on for years with 
computers.  The information I gave about the always on with the power 
supply comes from taking apart and fixing many on old pos radio shack 
wallwart :)  Many of them that I have repaird have had to have dead 
caps replaced...why they arent just transformers alone I still dont 
get...but then again I'm not an electrician...I just know how to test 
and replace components. :)

-Pas

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "daniel_elektron" 
<daniel@e...> wrote:
> 
> Uhm... We have actually not heard of many power supplies for the 
> SidStation breaking down. Maybe one or a few over the years, but 
> that's like a part of a percent of all the ones that has been 
> shipped out.
> 
> And I would say that the SidStation actually draws quite low amount 
> of current, only around 250-300mA normally (although we specify the 
> requierment a bit higher because the PSU's usually drops their 
> voltage a bit if you draw current up to their specification).
> 
> As for being "always on" that's not the whole true. Sure, the 
> transforming core is connected, but if there is nothing drawing 
> current in the other end that should at least in theory mean that 
> there is no effect developed. In practice however there is a small 
> effect generated because of that materials are not perfect. You 
> should only get a few watts out of it though, just enough to warm 
> your feets a cold winter day.
> 
> As a sumary: You should not need to exchange your SidStation PSU 
> regularily, even though you keep it plugged in the wall.
> 
> Daniel
> 
> PS. It's debatable which practice keeps your gear alive the 
longest -
>  if you keep them switched on, or if you switch them off an on on a 
> regular basis. If you keep it on all the time, the heat generated 
> might dry the capacitors up, and stuff in general might get older 
> more quickly. However, switching the stuff off and on gets the 
> components cycling between cold and warm, and that might tear them 
> even quicker! I think most studios with old stuff keeps them 
> switched on all the time. 
> 
> --- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "technoweeniepas" 
> <heitert@h...> wrote:
> > The power supplys are external and the sid station does use a 
> rather 
> > high amount of amps condidering.  It is hard to find external 
> > wallwart style power supplys that give a nice clean power source 
> so I 
> > can see the radio shack one referenced in the other reply causing 
> > issues.  As for the needing to be replaced every few years that 
is 
> > debatable.  The trick is thus...a standard power supply such as 
> those 
> > in a computer or most synths have a power switch that cuts the 
> power 
> > pre transformer and power supply...a piece of electronics that 
> uses a 
> > wallwart style of power supply can only shut off the power post 
> > transformer and power supply...this in effect means that the 
power 
> > supply is always on even though the synth is turned off.  The 
> longer 
> > a piece of electronics is on the greater the chance it will 
> > fail...thats just life...so yeah they burn out faster than an 
> > internal style but a good quality one should last quite some time.
> > 
> > -Pas
> >