Portable Power Station for Going Unplugged

[MigueldeMaria]

An old gigging guitarist once told me, decades ago, "the older the guitarist, the lighter the gear." I can't say my gear weight has had such a smooth relationship to age, but I am starting to get tired of lugging stuff around, for sure. Another thing I'm getting tired of is hunting for power and taping down cords. So I'm thinking hard about getting back to going battery-powered.

I do have an AER Compact Mobile, although the batteries need to be replaced. But another issue is what do I do about pedals? Right now, I'm using Voicelive pedal, which is bulky and doesn't offer battery power.

This fairly new product, called a Power Station, has come to my attention. They appear to simply be lithium batteries with pure sine wave inverters.

Would something like this power a K10 and a Voicelive 3 pedal for 3-5 hours?

Anyone played around with this kind of thing?

Jackery Power Station

[jonfields45]

I am doing the occasional no AC gig with this:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It handles our QSC CP8 and everything else we want to plug in. It will handle high volumes for 3 sets and still report a full charge.

I was an electrical engineer and I've too many times on this forum explained why you only need pure sine wave for AC motors.

The above has the most robust Lithium Ion option which I think is worth searching for.

[MigueldeMaria]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

I am doing the occasional no AC gig with this:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It handles our QSC CP8 and everything else we want to plug in. It will handle high volumes for 3 sets and still report a full charge.

I was an electrical engineer and I've too many times on this forum explained why you only need pure sine wave for AC motors.

The above has the most robust Lithium Ion option which I think is worth searching for.

Excellent, that's great news. Thanks for the info, sir.

[wweiss]

Beaudens 166 watts will not power any of the K.2 series which run 2,000 watts
That's K8.2 K10.2 K12.2
Legacy K10 with 1,000 watts works!

Beaudens has been a great find. Able to take my rig to the park
Many thanks jonfields 45!!

[MigueldeMaria]

Originally Posted by wweiss

Beaudens 166 watts will not power any of the K.2 series which run 2,000 watts
That's K8.2 K10.2 K12.2
Legacy K10 with 1,000 watts works!

Beaudens has been a great find. Able to take my rig to the park
Many thanks jonfields 45!!

Interesting. Luckily I have the K10 and it's not an issue. I do find all these specs hard to understand. Why will a 166 watt station power a 1000 watt amp but not a 2000 watt amp? I had read somewhere that there will be an initial "surge" when turning on the speaker, and after that the power requirements are lower. Where do Amps and Volts come into play here?

One of these days, I'm going to have to get a pencil and paper and spend some time figuring out this stuff.

[gfsark]

I just got something similar from Amazon, meaning that its a purely lithium ion battery pack with inverter for 120 volt output, $184. https://www.amazon.com/Rockpals-250-.../dp/B075SSMR6K

This tiny box nicely ran my Bose L1-S for more than 3 hours. The entire set up, with preamp, pedals, amp, mics, guitars,tower, and separate base all being powered by this little box, really quite amazing. In theory, at full volume you’d only get about 45 minutes out of the pack, but who runs at full volume? The Bose is about 375 watt system...and the battery pack didn’t have trouble with the power-on surge...

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by MigueldeMaria

Interesting. Luckily I have the K10 and it's not an issue. I do find all these specs hard to understand. Why will a 166 watt station power a 1000 watt amp but not a 2000 watt amp? I had read somewhere that there will be an initial "surge" when turning on the speaker, and after that the power requirements are lower. Where do Amps and Volts come into play here?

One of these days, I'm going to have to get a pencil and paper and spend some time figuring out this stuff.

It depends on how hard you drive it and how you interpret QSC's specs. The 2KW is peak power (undistorted spikes) and their thermal design could probably only support 100 watts continuous average under good conditions.

I would look at QSC's 1/8 power line current spec for a better idea of what a DJ is going to need. If you are playing at conversation friendly levels, you can divide that current requirement by around 10. Nothing beats trying it and returning something that doesn't work.

The Beaudens is not suitable for a DJ.

[MigueldeMaria]

Just played for a charming backyard wedding in which everything was perfect except for having to share a circuit with three strings of lights, which blew a fuse with me still having thirty minutes to play. Since the circuit was overloaded, I ended up having to play acoustic for the last set!

I think it's time to get a portable power station.

[Methos1979]

We use a single Bose S1 Pro with a EAE StompMix X6 digital mixer and that's it. These two pieces of gear replaced ALL our other gear. Both run off internal rechargeable lithium batteries. We never use external power - even when external power is available. With the mixer or any preamp in front of it the Bose S1 gets very loud. We have a second one if we need more power or dispersion. The Bose weighs 15 pounds. The X6 weighs even less. We carry all our equipment in one trip. Setup is about 5 minutes. Two mics, one mic stand, amp stand, Bose, EAE, guitar and three cords.

I've got several reviews down in my sig line. Just click on the link and then scroll down past all the guitar reviews and the links for my Bose S1 demos are there. There is even a demo where I A/B the system with a QSC k8.2 that we used to have. We have since sold that and bought the second Bose S1.

There are also other new systems similar to the Bose coming out that are small, lightweight and offer battery power. It's a great time to be an 'old, gigging guitarist'!

[MigueldeMaria]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

We use a single Bose S1 Pro with a EAE StompMix X6 digital mixer and that's it. These two pieces of gear replaced ALL our other gear. Both run off internal rechargeable lithium batteries. We never use external power - even when external power is available. With the mixer or any preamp in front of it the Bose S1 gets very loud. We have a second one if we need more power or dispersion. The Bose weighs 15 pounds. The X6 weighs even less. We carry all our equipment in one trip. Setup is about 5 minutes. Two mics, one mic stand, amp stand, Bose, EAE, guitar and three cords.

I've got several reviews down in my sig line. Just click on the link and then scroll down past all the guitar reviews and the links for my Bose S1 demos are there. There is even a demo where I A/B the system with a QSC k8.2 that we used to have. We have since sold that and bought the second Bose S1.

There are also other new systems similar to the Bose coming out that are small, lightweight and offer battery power. It's a great time to be an 'old, gigging guitarist'!

Very cool, thanks for chiming in. I have noticed several other gigging guitarists in my field are just going with the S1. It is certainly on my radar when I'm ready to make the investment. Heck, if I'd managed to sell my Compact Mobile, I'd probably already have one.

The EAE Stompmix is a good-looking unit. I'm sort of looking out for something that fulfills these functions: Effects, One-Tap Volume Switching, Preamp, and Looper, for which I currently use a Voicelive 3.

[MigueldeMaria]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

I am doing the occasional no AC gig with this:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It handles our QSC CP8 and everything else we want to plug in. It will handle high volumes for 3 sets and still report a full charge.

I was an electrical engineer and I've too many times on this forum explained why you only need pure sine wave for AC motors.

The above has the most robust Lithium Ion option which I think is worth searching for.

I just pulled the trigger on this product. However, now I'm wondering, since I have the K-series, do you think I should actually get something with more wattage?

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by MigueldeMaria

I just pulled the trigger on this product. However, now I'm wondering, since I have the K-series, do you think I should actually get something with more wattage?

For simplicity, let's assume a switching amp is 100% efficient.

According to my power meter my CP8 draws roughly 12 watts of wall power blasting louder than I've ever used it at any gig inside or outside.

The Beaudens should provide 40 watts for three hours with good margin to spare. 40 watts is -4 dB softer than DJ deafening (100 watts) for that K series. 4 dB is perceptible but not a huge difference.

In theory, a K series is 1000 watts peak (it isn't because they use identical power amps for the tweeter and woofer which overstates the power) or 100 watts continuous undistorted (which would likely trigger thermal protection in less than ideal circumstances). A DJ wanting all 100 watts can not use that Beaudens.

Try it. For acoustic music it should be more than adequate.

[Monsum]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

There is even a demo where I A/B the system with a QSC k8.2 that we used to have. We have since sold that and bought the second Bose S1.

So practically in terms of loudness, is the Bose S1 comparable to the QSC K8?

[MigueldeMaria]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

For simplicity, let's assume a switching amp is 100% efficient.

According to my power meter my CP8 draws roughly 12 watts of wall power blasting louder than I've ever used it at any gig inside or outside.

The Beaudens should provide 40 watts for three hours with good margin to spare. 40 watts is -4 dB softer than DJ deafening (100 watts) for that K series. 4 dB is perceptible but not a huge difference.

In theory, a K series is 1000 watts peak (it isn't because they use identical power amps for the tweeter and woofer which overstates the power) or 100 watts continuous undistorted (which would likely trigger thermal protection in less than ideal circumstances). A DJ wanting all 100 watts can not use that Beaudens.

Try it. For acoustic music it should be more than adequate.

Thank you, sir. I will try it. I rarely even turn the volume past 10 or so.

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by Monsum

So practically in terms of loudness, is the Bose S1 comparable to the QSC K8?

According to Bose support quoted in this forum, the equivalent peak undistorted spec for the S1 is 40 watts. Even for our logorithmic hearing that is very noticeably less than the QSC, if you need it.