Karaoke Forums

Well, there I am in the middle of the California desert, running my 400,000 song karaoke show off of a 3500 watt portable generator.. (Not mine)

As luck would have it, the generator had been running quite a while doing other things..
(Lights, laptop Powerpoint show with a DLP projector, etc)

So now, I'm up to sing a request, and boom, the lights go out.. audio, external hard drive, stage lights, Mirror ball, Stripper pole lights, the whole ball of wax..

Nine thirty at night in the desert is DARK!

I never did finish that song.. Butt with some gas, we carried on til 11..

I think a UPS is to be added soon..

did a nine hour dj show in October that went on without losing power. A week later my AMplifier stopped working. NOt sure the two are connected even though there was a weird lowering of volume in one speaker at the DJ show which was the first time something was out of the ordinary. Tested the amplifier yesterday and it still works. Makes me think it was the cables.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Okay, finally a technical topic I almost know something about--if only because we live off the grid and on generator/solar power. And I actually don't claim understand all this, only know how we have to run things at our place.

First, a 3500 watt generator might not have a voltage regulator to protect your equipment from power surges. You have to get up to the more expensive, 7 or 8,000 watt generators before that feature is usually added. UNLESS you have one of those new Honda generators that has a pure sine wave inverter built in made especially for running sensitive electronic equipment.

As to sine wave, which I do not claim to understand, some electronic equipment is sensitive to what kind of waves the generator/inverter puts out. Most are modified sine waves unless you have the afore-mentioned Honda that I covet but can't yet afford. I think the main problem with this is either the equipment won't turn on at all or you may get buzzing which doesn't do damage but is annoying. (I get this info from the Real Goods Alternative Energy Sourcebook.) I would think the main problem would be the uneven cycling or the power surges, as mentioned.

The other thing about generators is they don't put out even power until you let them run a few minutes. Then you add the loads a bit at a time. So you could conceivably fry your equipment or the generator if you just jump right in with your singing the moment you turn the thing on.

Someone who actually knows more about this will probably elaborate and say how stupid I am but I thought I would throw out those few things to get the ball rolling. I have read post before where hosts mention before that they were going to try to run a show off generator and I think it would be important to rent one that has the power regulation feature--which still isn't fool-proof if you burn up a brush or have some other problem.

This all ties in with my experience -- sounds to me like you know what you are talking about. I use a cheaper 8KW generator, but it's main purpose is to run a 3500KWh UPS that has 20 computers attached. Even then, we have to make sure we load the generator for a while before attempting to use it for the UPS. And we have to put the UPS in "power tolerant" mode.

The sine wave thing relates to transients -- really it is clipping by another name. If there are too many connected directly to electronic equipment, the power supply ends up putting spikes in the 5V (or 3.3v nowadays) power going to the electronic circuits. This can and will cause anomalous operation.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

A QUALITY power conditioner will solve any future problems without any need to upgrade your generator.

However, you must do your homework to know the difference betweena good and worthless conditioner.


Now about those 400,000 songs. With all of the money that you must have laid out for them you could probably affoord to run an AC line out to the desert, I fugure.....

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

You know, I just re-read the original post and somehow missed the joke that all that happened was they ran out of gas...... very technical..... (guess I was replying more to the second post).......but the tragedy of the whole thing had to have been losing the lights on the stripper pole. The stripper pole?

No joke, they have had karaoke at the Wild Horse Saloon (aka Brothel) in Nevada and some friends went and a lady used the pole while they were singing. Then the manager or madame would put $20 bills in the singers clothes after they sang. I don't know if they still have karaoke there but it sounds like you could be the guy to revive it.

How did you get 400,000 songs on your 6 discs?

I guess they missed the lump in your cheek JD where you planted your tongue

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Jd- thanks for the laugh, dude It made my day. Sorry for the problems, though. I only hope that I can be that funny when s**t like that happens to me. And I know it will, someday.

Good catch sweet thing..

When trouble hits, you have two choices. Laugh or cry..

All good info..

The main difference between a quality generator and a poor one is Honda and Pep Boys.

A/C power is a sine wave type of power, trouble occurs when you try to rectify it to 12 volts.

Cheap rectifiers only use 1/2 wave components and the remaining 1/2 wave A/C can leak into the DC side.

Two common types of UPS are the buffer type and the isolation type.

The buffer uses a battery to adsorb spikes and such, and when you lose A/C, the circuit switches over to an inverter that supplies A/C from 12 volts DC. The speed of the switch is based on the price you pay.

Isolation type is full time inverter, regardless of A/C supply. No spikes can get through..

My problem was no gas..

................... ..........

....stripper pole lights?.........

It was dark out..

It was dark out.. Hello?

ok, ok.....

I did have another issue..

My buddy Andy kept creeping over to the laptop to bump his song up in the queue.

This only happened when I got up to pour another draft..

The rat bastich knocked the audio output cable 1/2 out, and I ended up with one channel sound.. Figure that one out in the dark..

Damn, the guy was drunk I think..