Hi I was wondering if anyone has used this power bank to power the OT with a ripcord ?
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OT MKI or MKII? They have different voltage requirements.
But yes, either one should be fine as long as you have the correct cable - you do NOT want to send the wrong voltage or polarity to your beloved OT.
You could probably get away with a cheap MyVolts Ripcord but I’d suggest getting a SongbirdFX Birdcord adapter and run it off the USB C port, its more reliable (at least in my experience, and I spent a good amount of time trying this stuff out for more portable travel systems)
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I ordered a Songbird for my mk1, realized they weren’t compatible, and then ordered a mk2 to go with my Songbird.
And it was recommended i buy this for the combo:
Amazon.com: Baseus Power Bank, 65W 20000mAh Laptop Portable Charger, Fast Charging USB C 4-Port PD3.0 Battery Pack for MacBook Dell XPS IPad iPhone 14/13/12 Pro Mini Samsung Switch : Cell Phones & Accessories
Apparently it’s important to have PD compatible battery.
ah I thought IQ3 was compatible with PD but yeah the Baseus 65w is what I have anyway haha
so which Birdcord adapter for the OT mk2? 6v?
Is what I got for the mk2 after speaking with Dieter at Songbird.
There is another than works according to this guy as well:
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PD cables are great, but always make sure the power bank will deliver the voltage you need over PD. The PD cables are different from earlier cables - they have circuitry which tells the power bank what to deliver. Older cables do the conversion (from 5V USB-A) themselves.
I couldn’t find what voltages that Anker bank supports, but often that particular brand has not supported 12V. Baseus usually does. Mine does. But always check.
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So out of curiosity can someone link a specific battery model that they use with the birdcord 12v for an octatrack mk2 ?
Would this one fit ?
Sorry this is a bit unhelpful because you can’t seem to order the specific powerbank anymore -
but hopefully the numbers they list in terms of amps-out will help you find a powerbank that works…
(it is the one I use for my octatrack + digitakt- just with the 3A port). Also I’m not using the PD Birdcord, but the previous 12V model. I’ve previously used it with other random older 10000mah powerbanks to power my digitakt & it’s always worked, for what its worth.
As I understand it, the non-PD cords transform the voltage output from the power bank up to the rated value. When a power source is designed to give 5-10 Watts (e.g. batteries sold as backups for your phone), you get barely any As after transforming up to 12v for an Elektron… but can you tell me if you use a “big” power bank that can potentially offer higher wattages, do the step-up cables still manage to deliver the higher amperages?
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I can’t test it atm, but I can try this one over the weekend and let you know.
does this qualify as a “big” power bank? (I’ve not used it with the old-style birdcord yet)
And if it does power the OT, I hope that answers the question about delivering higher amperage… (I don’t have anything to measure etc)
P=VI so as voltage is stepped up, current decreases. Amperage will never meet the pre-converted rating, but it will be better than a phone backup as it starts with more juice. I think that’s how you’d describe it but I’m not a particularly good resource for this so you’ll have to verify.
not factoring in any other current drop due to components I think this should be accurate where 5v has 26,800mah:
approx 11,200mah at 12V
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This was roughly my concern… but about “amps the synth receives”, rather than the mAH the battery can supply.
So… this is what I’d like to understand (and don’t know how to research 'cos I’m old and stupid and hate the internet):
- my device (e.g. an Elektron) draws 1.5A and needs 12v.
- my battery supplies (e.g.) up to 10W, and 5V (thus up to 2A at 5v)
- the cord transforms 5V → 12V
- presumably the device draws the 1.5A it needs, but the battery only supplies 5V - so it’s giving out 7.5W of power. The cord transforms up to 12, and only gets that 7.5W to work with, so it ends up supplying 12V at 0.6A and my Elektron wont turn on
OR
- maybe instead the pull from the device is always 18W (the rated 1.5A and 12V)? And the battery can’t provide more than 10W, so that’s (10W/12V=) 0.833333A getting to the device?
I dunno.
I’m actually only asking so we have a worked example in the chat. Personally, I bought a battery rated to supply 12V using USB-PD and the 12-PD Birdcord (the Baseus one Birdcord suggest on their web page), so I don’t have to worry about doing maths myself any more. I’m just interested.
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Upon startup is (usually) when a healthy device draws the most power, there’s a surge and that’s usually what the device draw is rated for, the maximum amount it will pull at any one time. so:
device requires: 1.5A @ 12V = 18 watts
in the case where battery is 2A @ 5V = 10 watts
Voltage is stepped up from 5V to 12V
yields 830MAH (9.96 watts) @ 12V
you need a minimum of 4AMP (20 watts) @ 5V
to yield 1.6AMP @ 12V after the buck conversion.
This is theoretical as it does not take into account any loss due to components or other factors but this is the basic need for a person trying to get from 5V to 12V with 1.5AMP required.
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Anker batteries tend to omit 12V PD support for some reason, so I wouldn’t recommend them for this, even though I have found them to be reliable.
I’ve been looking into Ugreen, as their big 145W battery does support it, and Baseus is not available here. But I haven’t bought anything yet.
It lacks the faster charging of Anker batteries though, which is why I’ve been hesitating.
If I recall correctly, it has 60W charging via PD 3.0 vs 100W via PD 3.1.
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So I started hunting around for some more options from known-brands that I can buy here, and it looks like Belkin have two that would work:
-
BPB001 which is 10,000 mAh (18W)
I think its 12V 1.5A output should be sufficient to power the Octatrack MKII. -
BPB002 which is 20,000 mAh (30W)
This supports 12V 2.5A, which should even handle a Syntakt.
They only have one USB-C output and are rated for a much lower wattage than the 145W Ugreen power bank, but that’s all you need to power an instrument like these, and they are a fraction of the cost.
I don’t know whether they support simultaneous power over the USB A and C ports though. A lot of smaller power banks don’t.
If you pick one up, make sure it’s the PD version.
Belkin also sell 10K/20K power banks rated for 15W (they have two type-A ports on them) and those do not support PD - which is required to output more than 5V with a basic adapter rather than using a boost converter.
French amazon gives me this result when pasting in BPB001, all good ?
These ones:
The one you linked is: BPB006btBLU
The French Amazon site lists several models not available in my region, so I haven’t checked all the specs.
And the 20K battery is 50% more expensive there.
Belkin seems good about providing details on their site though, as others (like Anker) were a pain to find details on whether they support 12V or not.
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I’m gettin this powerbank for my OT mk2 & ripcord.
could I connect ripcord to output 3 or would out 1 or 2 be correct?
output 3 = 1.5a @12v 22.5w max 
Ripcords… aren’t great. Get a 12v PD adapter cable for Out 1/2 and be happy.
I have a set of ripcords for DT/DN and its very inconsistent if they actually work when both are plugged in. However, the 12v Birdcord and a 3-way splitter has ZERO issue running both of those, AH2, and a Keystep 37.
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