Circuitbenders Forum
Circuitbenders Forum => Circuitbending discussion => Synths & Samplers => Topic started by: tonal on April 16, 2006, 06:31:20 PM
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:P ok so you bend a keyboard . i want to bend a yamaha pss31. then after your happy its not shorting and safe is it then possible to run it by the adaptor of the mians rather than batteries..or is this still taking my life into my own hands :o
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Unless someone with more electronics knowledge than me can come on here and convincingly explain why, i really wouldn't worry about running things from 9 volt adapters or similar. When people give warnings about not messing with mains powered kit they are mainly referring to kit that plugs straight into the mains supply without an intervening adapter. Most mains powered kit that doesn't have an external adaptor will have an equivelent internal transformer that takes the voltage down to managable levels, the main danger being that there are places before the transformer where you could accidently get a nasty dose of voltage and without testing you can never be quite sure what kind of voltages you are dealing with in the circuit.
If a bit of kit has an external adapter, unless something is very seriously wrong with that adapter, you know that on the end of that cable you'll only be dealing with something that wouldn't even give you a shock, let alone kill you.
I have the deepest respect for voltage having taken some pretty nasty jolts in my time but i've never had a shock from any bit of circuitbent kit powered from an adapter.
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:D thanx heaps for the advice very informative and helpfull.will keep posted as i progress on the pss31 .later
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Hello, as far as I know (not that experienced but bend almost 20 pieces now) Made a circuit bend SA6 with only 6 bodycontacts for glitch choas and 2 pushbuttons for other glitch. As I was further poking around a managed to break the batteryconnection i guess internally because can't run this synth with batteries anymore, so now I always use my ac adaptor with the bodycontacts. I know it's not that safe cause after playing bodycontacts for about 30min you can really feel it in your arms (i do) I Think that voltage from current is bad an not that filtered enough, it brings crap with it, so batteries are in my opinion way better, but expensive cost when it comes to circuit bending, testing, sampling,etc.
work for the future: my first speak 'n read, Yamaha shs-10, Alesis HR-16, Casio MT-540, realistic reverb, Casio Pt10, VL-1, Sa1, SA100,SA10, and all those weird clonekeyboards out there..
Collecting things is easy:) but finding time to bend this all is another question:)
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In reference to crusty paul's bit about electric shocks
Another point to consider about voltage, is capacitors.
They come in all shapes and sizes, and most on any low voltage equipment would do you little or no harm whatsoever if they discharged a stored current.
HOWEVER! The larger ones (which usually look like small sliver drinks cans) can give you something to make you take notice of, and very quickly.
You see - a capacitor is a bit like a battery, in so far that it stores a charge.
Unlike a battery - they don't send their stored power out in a regular way, it's all at once.
I've got stung by a pretty big capacitor discharge once - and it really hurts!!!
So yeah - just as others have said, anything runing from an adaptor would pretty much be ok...
as long as you're aware of certain possible dangers from types of circuit.
if in doubt - check it via a small hand held multi meter.
Hope this little bit of advice helps you.
I don't want to frighten you into not wanting to circuit bend things - just be aware of these things.
Let's be honest, it's better to lear from somebody elses bad experiences, than to learn from your own.
;)
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:Dthanx for the advice. one of the capacitors on my pss31 has burnt out , so this advice is great. cheers