The Definitive Connecting Power Thread

[DJMaytag]

Anyone tried the Endorphin.es Power module yet? A 2hp power entry module looks VERY appealing for a small case full of Expert Sleepers modules I'm working on. I only need 500mA max on the +12V rail and 200mA on the -12V rail. NO need for +5V at all.

[DJMaytag]

Anyone familiar with this line of products?

https://eskatonicmodular.com/

Cannot find any info outside of the site and Reverb.com

I have some brackets coming in the mail today. Erik seems like a pretty good guy.

I believe he goes by Needham Woodworks on Instagram, and he makes some pretty spectacular cases. He is most definitely an excellent woodworker.

I appreciate the reply, BUT - I'm asking about the power supply products.

Eskatonic = power supplies AND case hardware.

[RLK]

Anyone familiar with this line of products?

https://eskatonicmodular.com/

Cannot find any info outside of the site and Reverb.com

I have some brackets coming in the mail today. Erik seems like a pretty good guy.

I believe he goes by Needham Woodworks on Instagram, and he makes some pretty spectacular cases. He is most definitely an excellent woodworker.

I appreciate the reply, BUT - I'm asking about the power supply products.

Eskatonic = power supplies AND case hardware.

Yes.
But.
I specified Power Supply in the title in my post and this IS the "Definitive POWER SUPPLY Thread"

[DJMaytag]

Anyone familiar with this line of products?

https://eskatonicmodular.com/

Cannot find any info outside of the site and Reverb.com

I have some brackets coming in the mail today. Erik seems like a pretty good guy.

I believe he goes by Needham Woodworks on Instagram, and he makes some pretty spectacular cases. He is most definitely an excellent woodworker.

I appreciate the reply, BUT - I'm asking about the power supply products.

Eskatonic = power supplies AND case hardware.

Yes.
But.
I specified Power Supply in the title in my post and this IS the "Definitive POWER SUPPLY Thread"

Who looks at titles? You said (bolded) “line of products.” I’ll try to be more rigid about my responses in the future.

[DJMaytag]

Erik has gone FAR above & beyond what I would expect from someone to make a customer happy, and deliver what I'm after (a bracket for Vector TS-600 type rails that fits the narrow Intellijel format). I'm picky AF but trying to fit 4U into a prebuilt case without having to absolutely destroy it.

Erik is a perfectionist too, so I'd expect Eskatonic power boards to be top notch too.

[Tomorrow Sounds Good]

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help me.

I’ve just bought my second Doepfer case .

I plugged in Rainmaker . It powered up and then went off , fearing the worst I tried it on my first case and everything was fine .

Now I only have top and bottom red lights on bus board ?

Tried another module in 2nd case and that received no power either?

I’ve checked the fuse but don’t know what else to do , any help greatly appreciated

[Tomorrow Sounds Good]

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help me.

I’ve just bought my second Doepfer case .

I plugged in Rainmaker . It powered up and then went off , fearing the worst I tried it on my first case and everything was fine .

Now I only have top and bottom red lights on bus board ?

Tried another module in 2nd case and that received no power either?

I’ve checked the fuse but don’t know what else to do , any help greatly appreciated

To be clear the +12v led is not lighting up on all 3 rows?

[kay_k]

I have a LPZW WK1 that has only one row of 4 pins on the module but the cable has 2 rows of 4 on the connector... which side do I plug in? I wish this were written in the manual

sorry I haven't seen your post before.. short answer: doesn't matter as long as the while line on the module and the red line of the power cable match.

[Mark II]

Apologies if this is a strange/nonsensical question...

I recall coming across discussions online when I was first setting up the power for my rack, where people were talking about using XLR connection jacks for power on their cases. (ie. a power brick/transformer that plugs into the wall on one end, on the other end terminates in a male/female type XLR connector which would be then plugged into it's mate on the eurorack case itself.)

Is this a completely insane idea? If not are there any tutorials about such a process that anyone can direct me to?

I have a feeling this may be a situation where I may be directed to an electrical engineering course at my local college... but I seem to have managed to wire up a Doepfer A-100 DIY kit without too much issue this far! I just really want to have a jack connector of some kind because at the moment my rack is married permanently to the power brick and it makes for a bit of clutter/confusion when moving the system around.

I just finished doing exactly this:

IMG_1289.jpeg (163.15 KiB) Viewed 1114 times

IMG_1300 (1).jpeg (197.81 KiB) Viewed 1114 times

Connected the output of the power supply to a female XLR. Male XLR socket in the back of the skiff. Mind you, afaik there is no standard for wiring the -12V, +12V and +5V to XLR (or at least, I didn't find one other than the 48V phantom power for condensor mics) so you'll have to keep a good eye on which voltage you connect where.

[c0ntr4d1ct10n]

So the problem I have currently with a case I just built that supports 2 rows of 84hp is that I can't seem to find a power supply that can provide enough amps to power any combination of modules.

I have a uzeus, which provides 2A for +12V, which would be more than sufficient if all of the modules only used +12V, but it only provides 500mA for -12V.

Then I have a Row Power 40 which does provide more than sufficient amount of 1.5A for -12V, but only provides 1.5A for +12V. They claim to be able to power 4 rows of 84hp, but I can barely power my 2 rows (I am using a laptop 90W 15-19V 5A power brick).

Then I found a NLC diy power supply and the power limit seems to be based on the capacity of the AC power brick and not the supply module itself. Is this to do with it being AC and not DC or am I missing something?

[soon_come]

Anyone tried the Endorphin.es Power module yet? A 2hp power entry module looks VERY appealing for a small case full of Expert Sleepers modules I'm working on. I only need 500mA max on the +12V rail and 200mA on the -12V rail. NO need for +5V at all.

I'm also curious about this. May have to take the plunge and try it, but I'm a bit wary of newish power supply modules which aren't being widely used...

[Alliex]

Connected the output of the power supply to a female XLR. Male XLR socket in the back of the skiff. Mind you, afaik there is no standard for wiring the -12V, +12V and +5V to XLR (or at least, I didn't find one other than the 48V phantom power for condensor mics) so you'll have to keep a good eye on which voltage you connect where.

How did you end up wiring yours?

[Mark II]

Connected the output of the power supply to a female XLR. Male XLR socket in the back of the skiff. Mind you, afaik there is no standard for wiring the -12V, +12V and +5V to XLR (or at least, I didn't find one other than the 48V phantom power for condensor mics) so you'll have to keep a good eye on which voltage you connect where.

How did you end up wiring yours?

+12V to left, 5V to middle and -12V to right pin. 0V/Ground to Shield/Chassis. Thinking about rewiring to 4 pin XLR, so I ha a dedicated 0V pin. Finding shielded 4 core cable is an issue though.

[Graham Hinton]

+12V to left, 5V to middle and -12V to right pin. 0V/Ground to Shield/Chassis. Thinking about rewiring to 4 pin XLR, so I ha a dedicated 0V pin. Finding shielded 4 core cable is an issue though.

This is a really bad idea. XLR connectors are not suitable for providing power apart from <250mA, e.g. for an external controller. If you need over 500mA forget it. It's an even worse idea to use the common 3-pin type. Pin1 mates first so that should always be the 0V, but it is better not to use XLRs at all.

You cannot get enough suitable cable into an XLR boot, even with the extra large Neutrik boots. The test is to measure the voltage drop from the PSU to a module, if it is more than 10mV you are going to have problems. If you are going to use an external regulated PSU then it should be the type that has remote sensing and in which case you will need at least an 9 pin power connector, 13 pins if you have 5V too. It is always better to have regulation close to the power distribution.

[Graham Hinton]

A better power connector is the ITT Trident range.

[sagecircuits]

I built a 3u 84hp case a few years back using a Doepfer A100 Diy Kit #1. I'm now looking to build a second case to compliment it using the rest of the rails and bus boards, but I'd like to daisy chain the power from the first case to the second. Would it be possible to use XLR connections for this? Will an XLR cable be able to handle the +/-12v at 2.4A?

[Spindrift]

Hi,

I want to build a very small system, initially it is just a expert sleepers ES-3 and ES-6, and then no more than 3-4 additional modules eventually.
I basically want the IO right now and then add some processing modules eventually.

I would like as simple a cheap solution as possible to get started initially. Wife will not like a sudden €500 euro investment if I would get a powered case and the ES units at once

And I already have a Power One HAA15-0.8-AG I was planning to use for a small 15v system, but which should be possible to configure for 12v.

My question is if I even need a busboard to connect two modules only?
Seems easy enough to distribute power without, but is there circuitry on a busboard that is nice to have? Or should I just hook up a flying bus cable to the PSU?

[Underwood]

Hi,

I want to build a very small system, initially it is just a expert sleepers ES-3 and ES-6, and then no more than 3-4 additional modules eventually.
I basically want the IO right now and then add some processing modules eventually.

I would like as simple a cheap solution as possible to get started initially. Wife will not like a sudden €500 euro investment if I would get a powered case and the ES units at once

And I already have a Power One HAA15-0.8-AG I was planning to use for a small 15v system, but which should be possible to configure for 12v.

My question is if I even need a busboard to connect two modules only?
Seems easy enough to distribute power without, but is there circuitry on a busboard that is nice to have? Or should I just hook up a flying bus cable to the PSU?

A flying busboard should be fine. Konstant Labs also makes these that the PSU via 10pin directly to the modules. https://www.konstantlab.audio/shop/multiplepwr-cable/
There's also one for connecting only two modules but that's probably not a good idea when you plan to add more modules later. https://www.konstantlab.audio/shop/dobu ... x-10-pins/

All that said, busboards make life considerably easier as soon as you add more modules and you might want to read this thread.

[Spindrift]

Thanks Underwood, excellent info!

I don't think the PSU comes with OVP, so I think I should add some protection if it should go bad.

Now I'm leaning towards selling the PSU and just get a readymade solution. All together savings will be quite small I guess. I understand a linear PSU should be better than what you get in a small cheap case, but I'm thinking with such a small setup maybe I should not worry that much about power.

[apestate]

I just plugged in modules into a new custom case I bought -upon switching on, some of them are showing LEDs lit as if some CV modulation was plugged in when no cables are plugged in at all. Can this be caused by a module power cable plugged in the wrong way? Can it be caused by other things? Is it a power shortage issue?

[Midiot]

Here is my fav non-linear power supply.
It is either Melcher or Power One, or another name.
+12v
=12v
0v
Informative video, below.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCkwu7lSJZY

[PermafrostCat]

Quick beginner question about flying bus boards :
I'm wondering why some cables have a double female 16pin power plug, like the Top Top one here :
https://www.thomann.de/gb/tiptop_audio_ ... _cable.htm
Others have only one.

For instance, if I want to add this Tip Top flying cable in a Make Noise Skiff to add a few modules, I could only plug one of the 2 female plugs. Is there any issue of have the second one unplugged ? Why this design choice if having a single female gets the job done?

[malnourish]

I've looked through several threads here and I'll be honest I still dont feel like I've found a concrete answer or explanation so sorry if there's a better place for this, but I am currently running 2 60hp moog cases off 2 Endorphines power modules with flying busboards. As expected i've run out of slots for modules but still have plenty of power headroom available. I bought a couple 4ms multi power ribbon cables but, of course, its starting to get real messy in there. I want to move to a bus board, but I'm unclear on whether I can simply power a busboard by using a ribbon cable from my power module to the bus board or if there is a more involved process i'm unaware of.

This is the busboard i'm interested in: https://reverb.com/item/4606181-meng-qi ... blue-white

Any help would be appreciated. Next year I will be moving to a Trogtronic m202s but cannot take the plunge just yet.

[Shakespeare]

Disregard, figured it out.

[The_hitcher]

I just started building DIY modules and a lot of folks use a "bench power Supply" I can gather what that is by the name. However, not having one I use my rack. Can you damage your power supply in your case with a muffed up module? The magic smoke came out of one build so far but it had resistors in place in case power was accidentilly inverted. Is my power supply going to be okay? Tip top mantis case.