Portable Battery Pack for Tempest?

[Trevor Refix]

I thought there was a thread about this, but I searched and couldn't find it. Does anyone use a portable battery pack with their Tempest? I bought an Op-1 this year so I could make beats on the road and it's been fun and all but I never use it in my studio so I feel like the work I do on it just sits there. If I made some beats on my Tempest on the other hand, I'd be set

I'm looking at one of these: https://www.omnicharge.co/

Thoughts? Would one of those omnicharge devices even be powerful enough? (it says selectabe voltage from 1v to 24v, and either 13600 mAh or 20400 mAh. Uh, which honestly doesn't mean much to my brain.

[John the Savage]

Hey Trevor,

You might be thinking about the old forum.  As I recall, there were a couple threads on there about batteries.  Hold on, let me see if I can even find the old forum, never mind log-in (smirk).

Yep, here you go:

http://dsiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7214&p=65112&hilit=battery#p64988

http://dsiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5348&p=46041&hilit=battery#p44047

http://dsiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=4680&p=37426&hilit=battery#p37426

That's all I could find.  Good luck, the forum crashed on me three times just doing the search.  Aww... Memories (smirk).

Cheers!

[Trevor Refix]

Thanks John!

Ok, I had some electrician friends help me out, and here's what I discovered:

15 V battery pack: http://www.bixnet.com/bp170.html

electrician friend:

"Because your tempests power supply is so inefficient, you put 75 W in and it only delivers 26 to the Tempest. If you can hook up that 15 V one mentioned above, then it would give you six hours. But if you plug your tempest adapter into 120 V on that unit yes it would give you two hours"

So in other words, if you used that above unit and made / had your own cord to connect the two (so you don't have to use the Tempest brick), you'd get 6 hours on a charge. Using the Tempest brick connected to the unit would give you 2 hours.

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

I don’t understand...If you get this you’ll have six hours battery juice for Tempest?And i see your friend says “if” you can hook up”...

[Trevor Refix]

I don’t understand...If you get this you’ll have six hours battery juice for Tempest?And i see your friend says “if” you can hook up”...

Yes, 6 hours if you use a power cord to directly connect the Tempest to the unit as oppose to using the Tempest power supply plugged into the unit (which would only give you 2 hours) . The Tempest power supply is very inefficient in terms of power in/out ratio, but this battery pack does the stepping up/down itself (instead of using a wall wart to do it), so if you get a simple cable that fits into the Tempest and into the same 15v spot on the adapter, that would give you 6 hours.

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Ye but can you ask your friend about the specs of the other cable you’re mentioning so we don’t get another inefficient one?Also any stores in Europe selling this?

[Trevor Refix]

Ye but can you ask your friend about the specs of the other cable you’re mentioning so we don’t get another inefficient one?Also any stores in Europe selling this?

I think the cord would have to be a homemade / custom one. Anyone that's a competent electrical person could do it (not me). It's just a power cable with 2 ends on it that are both the little round style (like the end that goes into the Tempest). The actual battery pack unit handles the work that in the wart on the Tempest cord usually does. I know even less about Europe power supply, sorry, but are you asking if that battery pack is available there or the cord?

 

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Yes where's available to buy it..

[Trevor Refix]

The 2 links I posted above are the 2 I've been looking at - both ship online so should be available anywhere. No idea about European etc compatibility though

https://www.omnicharge.co/
http://www.bixnet.com/bp170.html <------ this one seems to have more juice and would last longer

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Wow i’m loving that omnicharge it’s so compact and perfect for Tempie!
How many hours lasts the battery on this one?

[Trevor Refix]

Wow i’m loving that omnicharge it’s so compact and perfect for Tempie!
How many hours lasts the battery on this one?

From my friend: "Because you’re tempests power supply is so inefficient, you put 75 W in and it only delivers 26 to the Tempest. If you can hook up that 15 V one (http://www.bixnet.com/bp170.html) right to the Tempest and bypass the Tempest power wart,  then it would give you six hours. But if you plug your tempest adapter directly into the 120 V connector on that unit it would only give you two hours."

It looks like the Omni20 is about 1/2 the size/power of the other one, so the numbers would be roughly half (1 hour going through Tempest adapter wart or 3 hours with custom cable)

[Tundrah]

Damn. If I was to buy this, I'd have to be 100% sure it was safe. If it's safe, then I will get one!

[dsetto]

Please report your results. Good luck.

[Tundrah]

So, has anyone been able to get a battery for the Tempest yet?

[Trevor Refix]

So, has anyone been able to get a battery for the Tempest yet?

I still haven't got around to it, but I don't see why the power packs I posted above wouldn't work. They should only get smaller, cheaper, and more powerful in the coming years too. I ended up grabbing some battery powered gear instead (op1, Deluge) and realized that portable music making actually doesn't suit me at all haha. I may still get around to trying it someday though

[Shanesplanet]

So, has anyone been able to get a battery for the Tempest yet?

Ive run mine off a battery pack many times for hours, over the course of a handful of years. Sadly, the pack I use is not for sale anymore, but specs are specs. I did the math at one time and calculated how many hours, and then real world tested. It came out pretty close. The tape I put on the back of my tempest says "5 hrs max batt". I went thru a phase once of testing the MAH output of all my devices and putting it on the back. Now I run lotsa stuff from batteries and a powerfactorII. Dont get polarity wrong, or youll be buying voltage regulators or worse. The packs I found, can be set at 9/12/16/18V. Ive found that most pedals (and the tempest) run lowest noise floor on batteries. Obviously its because straight DC is superior with no grounding or conversion ripple. These packs have usb 5-6v outs also. Its sad they dont make em anymore. 16v is well within the tolerance of the tempest VR. It can run on 12V, but its dim and doesnt like it. I won't accept any responsibility for you damaging you equipment, but electricity is not magic, and the parts in a tempest for VR is common humdrum parts. Assuming you do the math and dont mess up... Anyhow, I have been known to velcro 2 packs under the tempest. 5 hrs per, so I have a backup.  Heres 2 of them. Tempest and Timefactor go like pbj. The TF uses so little, when i velcro 2 under  the tempest (foam side down, velcro up), i power my delay off one and tempest off other. Delay uses so little that I can theoretically get about 9 hrs of tempest and delay between the pair. Its just math... The pack says 23000mah, but im betting thats at the 5-6v outlet.