Running gear off a generator

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Running gear off a generator

Hey guys,

Ive been told i can take my gear and come mix at a psytrance party out in the middle of nowhere, everything is run off a generator.

Im just wondering if you guys got any advice about running gear of a generator, what should i be taking to make sure my gear doesnt get fried ?

Cheerz

2

I would say have a surge protector & power conditioner. Or just a power conditioner if it has a built in surge protector

3

The following are all the different types of POWER issues that can be present at any one time. The “cleaner” your power, the better your chances of avoiding these issues.

The easiest way to avoid these issues is to have a “buffer” between you and the power console. An ‘online’ UPS avoids many/all these issues through basically putting a power ‘firewall’ between the power and your equipment.

However, most likely you’ll be fine with a surge protector. :wink:

  • Power failure — Total loss of utility power, with possibility of severe transient conditions upon failure and/or restoration: Causes electrical equipment to stop working (transients may cause permanent damage).
  • Voltage sag — Transient (short term) under-voltage: Causes flickering of lights.
  • Voltage spike — Transient (short term) over-voltage i.e. spike or peak: Causes wear or acute damage to electronic equipment.
  • Under-voltage (brownout) — Low line voltage for an extended period of time: Causes overheating in motors.
  • Over-voltage — Increased voltage for an extended period of time: Causes light bulbs to burnout.
  • Line noise — Distortions superimposed on the power waveform: Causes electromagnetic interference.
  • Frequency variation — Deviation from the nominal frequency (50 or 60 Hz): Causes motors to increase or decrease speed and line-driven clocks and timing devices to gain or lose time.
  • Switching transient — Instantaneous undervoltage (notch) in the range of milliseconds to seconds: May cause erratic behavior in some equipment, memory loss, data error, data loss and component stress.
  • Harmonic distortion — Multiples of power frequency superimposed on the power waveform: Causes excess heating in wiring and fuses

edit: Yes there are different kinds of UPSs. Offline are the kind you commonly see at your local computer store. An Online one means it’s the battery that is always feeding your power (at a constant/consistent rate, and not the walljack, the wall only charges the battery. no ‘switch on’ like the offline styles.)

4

Thanks for the info guys :slight_smile:

5

I’ve played at Burning Man several years in a row, just about every gig running from a generator, and the only problem I ever had was a generator shutting down trying to deliver too much wattage because someone had lowered the voltage regulator. I made sure to use a decent power APC strip with surge protection and ran my gear through that before plugging it into a Hum-X that I plugged into their system & it’s been fine.

I would definitely be sure you have good environmental protection for your laptop, though – a pad cooler, out of direct sunlight, canned air if it’s dusty, etc.

6

Cool one mate! I am sure you’re going to have a ball!

And tips, I think they already said all. :wink:

7

make sure you have some extra petrol. ive lost my dvs cd in some bloody cdjs because it ran out of petroll… never got them back…