Solution to Surges,Spikes,Sags and Hum!! ALL IN ONE

[Skiroy]

i HAVE BEEN DEALING WITH THIS ON GOING ISSUE AND BEEN USING ups UNITS BUT THEY KEEP DYING AND ITS EXPENSIVE AND ANNOYING. Sorry for the caps I just looked up LOL.

Anyways Sodderboy had suggested these 2 units.

http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=IT-20_II


http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=2137

I see that these are great protection for Surges and Spikes but my questions are.


1. Do the have batteries in them or other technology to protect from sags? I do not want to change batteries anymore.

2. Isnt it bad to have that many plugs(that much current) plugged ultimately into one wall outlet plug?

3. As far as the spike/surge protection is it as good as opto isolation and does opto isolation protect you from lightning strikes?

4.Finally when choosing a UPS how do you go about selected the right wattage for your equipment?

 

[hobiesound]

don't have any answers to your questions but just want to point out that hum in equipment can't be solved by ups's. It's a problem that's caused by badly manufactured equipment, bad interfacing of equipment and/or bad wiring/poor layout of the mains supply of the building.

if you're a member of the aes look up a few tutorials on hum and buzz, interfacing and pin 1 problems on the aes.org site.

greetings,

Thomas

 

[nielsk]

For what you describe you need a constant voltage transformer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_regulator#Constant-voltage_transformer to feed the entire studio,
a world apart from the Furmans and actual value for you money... but in Fl. you still need a UPS! Ask me how I know
Nothing else protects from actual outages. Whatsa matta? Don't yer batteries last 2 years? Anything more than that is a bonus!

 

[Skiroy]

For what you describe you need a constant voltage transformer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_regulator#Constant-voltage_transformer to feed the entire studio,
a world apart from the Furmans and actual value for you money... but in Fl. you still need a UPS! Ask me how I know
Nothing else protects from actual outages. Whatsa matta? Don't yer batteries last 2 years? Anything more than that is a bonus!

Im not so worried about noise and I dont have a huge amount of equipment that I run all at the same time. So can you recommend one of these constant voltage transformers your talking about? Where do I get a good one and can I get one that just plugs into my wall?

And as far as FL,I am assuming your referring to lightning, My power company installed a surge arrestor for the main power supply for my house. these are not enough to protect from lighting?

A UPS is the only option for lighting?

 

[envelope]

check out surgeX technology for voltage suppression inrush current elimination UPS etc etc etc....


www . surgex . com


the link to the 'knowledge base' on their website has detailed information (no self sacrificing MOV.'s, to begin with)

 

[PRR]

> My power company installed a surge arrestor for the main power supply for my house. these are not enough to protect from lighting?

Nothing will protect you from a direct-hit or some near-misses. Thor can boil a 60-foot tree in a microsecond, he laughs at puny electronics.

Fortunately direct hits are very rare even in FLA.

For the sorta-near-misses, a professionally installed fusebox surge absorber is very good protection. For stuff not near dirt (such as studio gear), you might add a $39 surge-strip at the gear. That setup (fusebox and load) will reduce 99.9% of hits to survivable levels.

"UPS" is un-interruptable power. When the power company goes down, it run on batteries, engines, etc.

UPS does not mean lightNing protection (except that in a hit-and-blackout event, if your gear survives the hit, the UPS will power through the blackout until the batteries fade).

That $1600 MONSTER seems to be mostly a voltage stabilizer. In my former life, I had 107V some times and 127V other times. It affected my max-power measurements on amplifiers; I had to correct for the wall-voltage not being the assumed 120V. Neil Young seems to know if his amp is getting 117V or 119V (and of course, Neil mostly plays MAX POWER). For "music reproduction" amps not worked to heavy clipping, I doubt it should matter 110V or 125V. If your utility swings are wider, or your gear is hyper about its voltage, you might want a voltage stabilizer. The Ferro-resonants are the classic iron-age devices. Heavy hot and hum. Monster probably uses an elecronically switched autotransformer or some form of HF switcher buck/boost, to bring 80V-140V all down near 120V. At that price it sure better have a few $1 MOVs coils and caps to clean elevator-motor hash and other crud, but you can get that without the voltage regulation.

> Isnt it bad to have that many plugs(that much current) plugged ultimately into one wall outlet plug?

In my other life I had 42 things plugged into one outlet. About 37 of them were small wall-warts pulling say 11W average each, 400 Watts. 200W for PC, 100W for lamp, 700W is not a heavy load for a 110V 20A 2200W circuit. (Then the 900W laser printer, and the 1400W coffee machine, and then I got in trouble.)

 

[pucho812]

if the monster is anything like other monster units I have been in contact with, it outputs a square wave. No bueno

 

[Skiroy]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230620324454?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_716

What about using this thing?

I use cheap h7um eliminators that plug into the wall outlet. They seem to work well. I have a Surge protectors installed onmy house from the power company and I have power strips and Furman power conditioners on all my stuff. So I am hoping that will protect it against spikes generally. I checked my grounds with that little 3 prong tool you can buy from radio shack.

I guess than my last concern is brownouts,which I hear are very bad for electronics and honestly I think is my main issue here.

So If I get a couple of these.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230620324454?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_716


I should be good to go right?

 

[Skiroy]

right?

 

[nielsk]

When recommending a ferro-resonant / capacitor type constant voltage transformer and the ever present need for a UPS in FL., I was not referring to lightning related problems. It takes real surge protection equipment to deal with that. It is common here to experience spikes from lightening that are very evident in audio lines, and quite fond of taking out hard drives (this is the lightening capitol of the world).
For lightening protection, I recommend the type of instantly resetting surge protectors used by radio broadcast facilities, surge protected outlets and surge protected power strips. 
The power here in Fl. is notorious for transient drop outs, brown outs  and voltage fluctuation. Add in noise introduced outside of your studio (how about that neighbor with the arc welder...), and it is quickly evident that the loss of a hard drive with 100s of hours of clients paid time on it is well worth the cost of replacing the batteries in your UPS every 2 years.
It is rare for a studio to be able to afford a sine wave regulated output, fully online UPS large enough to power the entire facility, & a ferro-resonant constant voltage transformer can work excellently at riding out & smoothing sags, brown outs, and spikes for the non computer gear. Luckily for us, they are no longer commonly used by the primary client (large computer systems) they were built for, as UPS systems are now cheap and easily available & computers got small, so you can score a large C/V transformers surplus for a fraction of it's original cost.
I have yet to use a solid state AC voltage regulator that didn't introduce as many problems as it "cured". Power one up on a variac and move the voltage up & down, & find out what it sounds like in your studio when it does it's switching...

 

[Skiroy]

I guess I am still not understanding why I need a constant voltage transformer AND a UPS. Isnt this redundant? I understand the UPS will keep your PCs powered to shut them down properly but I am not concerned with that. So in this case do I have to worry about a UPS if I go with the constant voltage transformer? I am a noobie so please simplicity is appreciated.

Also is the transformer in this link good?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230620324454?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_716

 

[PRR]

> brownouts,which I hear are very bad for electronics and honestly I think is my main issue here.

Do your lights burn dim?

I've had about no problem working with 105V or with 126V.

What _IS_ your problem? PC re-booting? Dim lamps? Stuff dying "for no reason" when there is a lighting storm within 20 miles? Ground wires burnt-off?

Are you competent to measure your wall-outlet voltage without being shocked or burning down the house?

 

[nielsk]

You need to total the wattage rating (usually printed on a tag by the fuse) of everything in your studio that will be fed by the power conditioning, add at least 10%, and that will be the minimum power rating of the service needed. On a computer based system it is usually much more than one might assume (remember that you need EVERYTHING on the computer system protected, monitor, interfaces, drives, and so on...).
The idea of using a C/V transformer & a UPS is, say the total load is 10,000 watts. 75% of that is analog gear. Rather than spend $$$$$$ on a UPS big enough to supply the entire load, a 10kW Transformer feeds the power panel, and a 2.5kW UPS feeds the computer. This also adds a second layer of protection to the computer, and reduces the UPS work load, increasing it's lifespan.
When looking for a Constant Voltage Transformer, you need one that is Harmonically Neutralized. This is what deal with transients. see http://www.ebay.com/itm/SOLA-23-13-060-2-Constant-Voltage-Transformer-Harmonic-Neutralized-Type-CVS-60VA-/230677020227?pt=BI_Circuit_Breakers_Transformers&hash=item35b56bfe43 for an example.
Of course, it needs to be sized to your requirements.

DO NOT rely on any residential lighting surge protector, most are one hit devices, and most do not tell you if they have died.
As I said, several layers of pretection helps. A instant reset device on the main service, then surge protected outlets, then surge protected power strips. These things are not expensive, and can save you a fortune.