Powerbanks for portable setups

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

I thought this would be way simpler, but apparently not. I’ve tried two powerbanks with a pretty basic setup of an Arturia Minilab 3 and 1010music Lemondrop.

I’m guessing these things aren’t made for powering musical devices, so my bad for not doing the appropriate research, I guess they are for ‘charging’ not powering … my stupid impulse.

The most recent one I bought was the Viking PN-962PD 20000mAh, it would power the 2 devices for about 4-5 minutes before messing up.

Can anybody recommend something of a similar size or anything that would be guaranteed to work.

Thank you for any help.

#2

Lots of great power bank threads already

https://www.elektronauts.com/search?q=Power%20bank

Edit: this is a good one, old, but still going strong.

#3

Thanks, I looked through a bunch of those previous threads and thought there could be something simpler for 2 usb devices.

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#4

In my experience they all power musical devices just fine. What none of them do is power multiple musical devices without causing a ground loop which causes buzzing. One battery per device has always worked perfectly for me. Of course ymmv.

#5

Anker is decent. I use it for my SP 404 MK2 no issues.

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#6

I use a Baseus Adaman 65w with a Birdcord 12v usbc adapter, and a couple of barrel splitters. Works great, even with mixed power requirements, for instance I’ll run DT+DN off of usb-c, and a UA Dream 65 amp simulator with a 9v Ripcord. Last night I was using it to power Moog Mother32+DFAM and a Digitakt together for like 3 or 4 hours, it was great fun.

#7

Let’s simplify this thread, I don’t want to power multiple Elektron devices, I don’t want to power a single SP404, I want to power the Minilab mk3 as a MIDI controller and a 1010lemondrop. Nothing else.

The two usb power banks I’ve tried. Most recently, the the Viking PN-962PD 20000mAh would power the two devices simultaneously on separate ports, for a few minutes, then would turn off one of the other.

I’ll try the Anker next, for something everybody says is so simple and covered so many times, it’s surprising that there isn’t a single simple answer yet. I’ll report back after trying the Anker.

#8

I’m far from an expert on this, but I think I understand that USB-C devices with the right cable can ‘negotiate’ with the right kind of power supply (‘PD’ power) to draw higher current or a different voltage. I wonder if this is related to what’s happening with you ?

I could be barking up the wrong tree completely … really needs someone who understands this ‘PD’ stuff to chip in and comment.

#9

I’ve used this Anker one to power an OT and launchpad pro MK3 simultaneously and it works well, never used it long enough solely on that to run out, but for 2hr+ and still showing half the charge LEDs, so guess it would get to 4-5 hrs

So almost certainly will do what you need

It’s charged by micro usb, which I don’t care about, but maybe an issue for you

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#10

Thanks for the help all. I’m terrified the problem might be the Lemondrop …

#11

When it powers off, does it power back up again shortly after? I’m powering my Lemondrop and the Novation Launchkey Mini MK3 without issues from these ones:

This can power the both of them for hours on end - no problem. What cables are you using? If I jerk around with a inferior quality cable, it could make the power to ie the Launchkey drop out, which makes the Lemondrop power off. So before trying anything drastic, I’d look into the quality of your cables.

Looking at your powerbank, it matches mine almost 1:1 so I wouldn’t be worried about that side of the issue.

How does the Lemondrop work if you power it from a computer?

#12

It does exactly that … I tried all sorts of cables … waiting on the Anker powerbank now which will hopefully sort it out.

#13

Have you asked this on the 1010 forums? There’s a huge thread in powernanks over there.

#14

Thanks for the help all, I think I finally got it figured out by using only usb c to usb c cables.

After troubleshooting I got it to run with the Lemondrop on its packaged cable and the Minilab on usb c to usb c, but now I’ve switched them all to the same connectors.

Also, I’m sure many people already know this, but it’s definitely worth investing in a good usb power connector to charge these power banks, makes it much faster. In some cases after repeatedly trying there were some power banks that wouldn’t even charge at all from lower quality plugs.