Any electronics experts in here? Since the OTO BOUM doesn’t have a power switch, I accidentally left it powered on overnight. That’s not the problem, the problem is that I covered it with 2 double-sided quilted nylon covers. So, naturally, it got very warm / hot overnight. Was still powered on this morning. Didn’t smell anything abnormal but now I am worried that I could have damaged the unit. It wasn’t so hot that I couldn’t touch it or anything… but it was pretty hot. Anyone know if I should be worried about the unit? I will do a sound test once it cools down.
I typically baby the shit out of my gear and this type of incident always makes me feel paranoid that the unit took damage.
most modern electronics can handle temps above 70°C if not higher so you should be fine! let it cool off and don’t make a habit of it but you’re probably all good
I think what had me freaked out was that the manual says the max operating ambient temperature of a room should be 95 degrees Fahrenheit. From touching the metal chassis, it felt like a laptop running a decently intense CPU process, so the chassis was probably somewhere around 105-115F when I touched it.
I have Bim, Bam, & Boum plugged into 3 outlet power strip, that’s connected to a smart plug. I use a voice command to turn on/off my “Oto Rack.”
I can also turn off from the phone, so just in case something is left on I can always review before sleeping.
Also, I have left it on overnight in the beginning and have not seen any issues from it. I think that happened maybe 3 years ago now? These things are well built!
I’ve seen YouTube videos of Boomer generation studio guys arguing that all of your rack mount gears should be left on overnight. I forgot why but there is some useless anecdotal information for you
I’ve heard the same before too… but our electric bill is already insane!
So far, also no issues with powering anything on/off for my stuff.
I always consider that my stepfather was a gigging musician so everything was turned off after rehearsals and shows. For the things he’s kept, it all still works decades later.
I think I’ll go with “turn on the arm and a leg” as I’ve made a very irresponsible purchase lately
To the main point @Alex I think you’ll be perfectly fine. This all reminds me of back in the day when I’d intentionally overheat my XBOX 360 in towels to temporarily fix the red ring of death. Must’ve done it over a hundred times.
I’m not an engineer or anything, but I assume the 95 F operating temperature is requested so that the unit can still cool itself without any active cooling. I don’t think the thing is going to catch fire if you use it at 96 F.
I also don’t leave my gear powered on , but the thought process (I think) is that especially with older stuff the tubes are the parts most prone to failure and that’s partly driven by heat cycles (as the tubes heat up, different parts expand at different rates). So if you leave it on (especially in a studio where you might have overnight sessions with only a few hours of downtime until the next morning) then the few hours of time left running is not as bad as turning the unit off and letting the tubes fall out of operating temperature. Then having to turn them back on and wait for them to warm up. Theoretically, less heat cycles means less stress on parts.
