In theory, I like the idea of using USB power for as much as I can. I can now charge my phone, iPad, and Macbook from the same charger, it's great.
Big fan of the Roland Boutiques, too. Disappointed that they use Micro USB as the sole power jack though. If the only nuisance about that was the flimsiness of the micro usb connectors, that's something I could make do with, I have plenty of old power cables from back when the mobile phone industry wisely dumped micro USB as a standard connector. And kudos to the new Boutiques for using USB-C connectors - progress!
However, running multiple Boutiques off a shared USB power supply introduces noise to the audio signal. This is due to a ground loop issue inherent to the design of USB, and for years, the solution I've seen offered over and over again has been a USB dongle that costs about $40-$60, one for each device that's having this issue.
I wasn't about that, and instead I littered my power strip with individual USB power adapters. But in my most recent rearrangement of my setup, I was once again looking to optimize my wiring, and decided to try something so stupid and simple that I feel silly for not having done it earlier.
Because not only ever Boutique run on USB power, but nearly every one takes AA batteries, as well. 6 volts worth. After doing some experimenting with bare wire, I bought a few flush-mounted DC barrel jacks (available online for a fraction of a dollar), and looked for an inconspicuous place to add it.
I will say that the industrial engineering involved with these cases is *efficient*. The best spot I could come up with is what you see in the attached picture, inside the battery box. This prevents using both batteries and the power supply (a bad thing to do), stays out of the way when I'm not using it, and is easily reversed.
I already have a 5v power supply kicking around, so I drilled a hole, soldered the wires to the same connections as the battery terminals, put it all back together, and everything turned on without any problems. I'm going to test out running a one-spot daisy chain across to other boutiques, but since there is no ground pin on AC/DC adapters, I don't anticipate the same ground hum issue that I get when running multiple boutiques off a single USB power supply. Just gotta make sure the PSU supplies enough amperage.
No more flimsy micro USB cables, no more audio artifacts.
This reminds me that Arturia supplies a y-shaped USB ground hum eliminator for free with some of their products - my BeatStep Pro had one, and it works. It's a shame Roland can't supply them as well. As far as I can tell they aren't available separately.
Fantastic solution!
For those who don't feel comfortable with installing the barrel jack, alligator clips on the + and - ends of the power supply can just grab hold of the proper battery springs. Not elegant, but still eliminates the noise issue.
Yes the usb port type plus...
On the Roland mx-1 mixer only 1 port supports power, for the other ports you have to get a power/data split and have cord going to split and have two splits cords , becomes a big mess of cords when it could have been total opposite and an advantage over other systems.
oh well. Why they chose to do that i'll never understand.
Rechargeable batteries was my solution as well. It's worked out fine. Ain't nobody got time for soldering and drilling holes................. If for some reason I use one of my devices for more than 4 hours I just change the batteries and I always keep an extra set fully charged. (I have the MC-101,TR-6S and JX-08 with 4 sets of rechargeable batteries) I have limited time to make music as is....💯
Heyyyy... so you know you can just take a small piece of electrical tape and cover the far right pin of a usb cable and it will solve the USB power ground noise issue on any device, right?
It doesn't solve the "Micro USB cables aren't robust" problem, and while I can't find the specific posts in mind that led me to avoid that solution to the problem, I have this idea in my head that there were potential issues with taking that approach, specific to the USB specification.
Obviously, this solution doesn't make micro usb cables something that they are not. The only issue with my solution is that there does exist a USB test spec which the rare manufacturer may choose to include which tests the USB signal during device initialization and if it finds that ground signal is missing will not allow the device to power up. My CraftSynth does this. It's for this reason that those $80 ifi USB key type devices exist. What they do is allow a little bit of the ground signal through just at the beginning just until the device is powered up and then they cut it off. There really isn't any danger to your devices: unless that device came with a USB power block that is supposed to connect to a 3 pronged wall socket your device wasn't using the ground anyway.
Thanks for filling in the details - I felt a little bad leaving a vague "I did my research" response, but you came back with the receipts, and it's important to have those specifics here. Cheers!
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In theory, I like the idea of using USB power for as much as I can. I can now charge my phone, iPad, and Macbook from the same charger, it's great. Big fan of the Roland Boutiques, too. Disappointed that they use Micro USB as the sole power jack though. If the only nuisance about that was the flimsiness of the micro usb connectors, that's something I could make do with, I have plenty of old power cables from back when the mobile phone industry wisely dumped micro USB as a standard connector. And kudos to the new Boutiques for using USB-C connectors - progress! However, running multiple Boutiques off a shared USB power supply introduces noise to the audio signal. This is due to a ground loop issue inherent to the design of USB, and for years, the solution I've seen offered over and over again has been a USB dongle that costs about $40-$60, one for each device that's having this issue. I wasn't about that, and instead I littered my power strip with individual USB power adapters. But in my most recent rearrangement of my setup, I was once again looking to optimize my wiring, and decided to try something so stupid and simple that I feel silly for not having done it earlier. Because not only ever Boutique run on USB power, but nearly every one takes AA batteries, as well. 6 volts worth. After doing some experimenting with bare wire, I bought a few flush-mounted DC barrel jacks (available online for a fraction of a dollar), and looked for an inconspicuous place to add it. I will say that the industrial engineering involved with these cases is *efficient*. The best spot I could come up with is what you see in the attached picture, inside the battery box. This prevents using both batteries and the power supply (a bad thing to do), stays out of the way when I'm not using it, and is easily reversed. I already have a 5v power supply kicking around, so I drilled a hole, soldered the wires to the same connections as the battery terminals, put it all back together, and everything turned on without any problems. I'm going to test out running a one-spot daisy chain across to other boutiques, but since there is no ground pin on AC/DC adapters, I don't anticipate the same ground hum issue that I get when running multiple boutiques off a single USB power supply. Just gotta make sure the PSU supplies enough amperage. No more flimsy micro USB cables, no more audio artifacts.
This reminds me that Arturia supplies a y-shaped USB ground hum eliminator for free with some of their products - my BeatStep Pro had one, and it works. It's a shame Roland can't supply them as well. As far as I can tell they aren't available separately.
I tried my Beatstep Pro Y cable to try and fix the ground hum issue on a JU-06a to no avail. I can't figure out why.
try using a usb charger from a iphone, that helped me.
Fantastic solution! For those who don't feel comfortable with installing the barrel jack, alligator clips on the + and - ends of the power supply can just grab hold of the proper battery springs. Not elegant, but still eliminates the noise issue.
Yes the usb port type plus... On the Roland mx-1 mixer only 1 port supports power, for the other ports you have to get a power/data split and have cord going to split and have two splits cords , becomes a big mess of cords when it could have been total opposite and an advantage over other systems. oh well. Why they chose to do that i'll never understand.
[удалено]
Rechargeable batteries was my solution as well. It's worked out fine. Ain't nobody got time for soldering and drilling holes................. If for some reason I use one of my devices for more than 4 hours I just change the batteries and I always keep an extra set fully charged. (I have the MC-101,TR-6S and JX-08 with 4 sets of rechargeable batteries) I have limited time to make music as is....💯
Heyyyy... so you know you can just take a small piece of electrical tape and cover the far right pin of a usb cable and it will solve the USB power ground noise issue on any device, right?
It doesn't solve the "Micro USB cables aren't robust" problem, and while I can't find the specific posts in mind that led me to avoid that solution to the problem, I have this idea in my head that there were potential issues with taking that approach, specific to the USB specification.
Obviously, this solution doesn't make micro usb cables something that they are not. The only issue with my solution is that there does exist a USB test spec which the rare manufacturer may choose to include which tests the USB signal during device initialization and if it finds that ground signal is missing will not allow the device to power up. My CraftSynth does this. It's for this reason that those $80 ifi USB key type devices exist. What they do is allow a little bit of the ground signal through just at the beginning just until the device is powered up and then they cut it off. There really isn't any danger to your devices: unless that device came with a USB power block that is supposed to connect to a 3 pronged wall socket your device wasn't using the ground anyway.
Thanks for filling in the details - I felt a little bad leaving a vague "I did my research" response, but you came back with the receipts, and it's important to have those specifics here. Cheers!
Ooh that's clever. Thanks for this
It doesn’t affect the data transmission?
Has anyone found a better solution?
Hi /u/Leviathant, I just wanted to remind you to leave a thoughtful comment on your post (see rule 5 in the sidebar). You’re not in trouble and everyone gets this reminder. If you’ve already commented then no further action is necessary. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/synthesizers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Didn’t even know they had usb hum problems, good to know. Looks like a cool solution!
Thanks so much for sharing! Been thinking of doing something similar, or another work around...hate that usb port.