Metric Halo Discussion Forum: MIOConsole

Re: Big problem here [message #86099 is a reply to message #86098]

Thu, 26 June 2014 00:39

bj
Messages: 668
Registered: July 2011

Senior Member
Administrator

You could use a battery pack. Thunderbolt simply does not provide as much bus power as FireWire did. Part of the power is consumed by the FireWire controller and the thunderbolt controller in the adapter; there is only about 7-7.5W of power available on the output of the Thunderbolt adapter; the ULN-2 requires at least 8 Watts; so there is no way to power the ULN-2 from the TB->FW adapter. So -- just to be clear -- it is not the ULN-2 -- it is the TB adapter; as you saw, things worked as expected on the native FW port.

Depending on how long you want to run for via battery, you can work with a pretty small battery pack; for example, if you get a 9v Lithium battery (which is the size of a 9v), you can probably power the ULN-2 for about 1-1.5 hours.

Something like this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/922934-REG/bescor_bcs_ bmepic_bm_li_ion_battery_bm_cgr_auto.html

would power the ULN-2 for about 10-11 hours. There are many options like this. Look at B&H's listing of battery packs to get an idea of the options:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Battery-Packs-Belts/ci/372 2/N/4028759421

Note that a lot of these have 4-Pin XLR power outputs that you can plug directly into the 4-Pin XLR Power input on the ULN-2.

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