Anybody use the new(ish?) Harley Benton Powerplants?

prowla

Tadragh1 said:

prowla said:

Calling them power plants is a bit fanciful - they're just fan-out boxes powered off wall-warts.

Not exactly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OeFVq3VaMo

Wall-wart in, multiple DC out.

Jonathanthomas83

Tadragh1 said:

I've just received the Harley Benton Powerplant Iso-2 PRO. My tone has better clarity with this supply than with the previous one. It is small and does the job. Good cables, too. Powers my Pigtronix Echolution at 18V with no problems.
There is one problem, though - it does not play well with my Arion flanger. The flanger introduces a terrible amount of noise switched on while powered by the Powerplant. My previous supply or just a simple external one do the job without introducing the additional noise. Bummer My guess this is not the problem of isolation, but rather the parameters of the current itself. I tried different power slots and cables, but no improvement.

That's a shame, I wanted one for my new 18v Retrosonic Flanger...I wonder if it'd affect that one too.

Tadragh1

Arions do have noise issues sometimes. I'll try to measure the output from the supply vs. the output from my other supplies.

Tadragh1

Harley Benton Iso-2 PRO update. After 2 weeks, the frigging thing just... stopped working. Red light comes on and that's it. Returning it ASAP and back to looking for a proper PSU. Oh man, what a POS.

distressed

Recently bought the ISO-2 pro off the Thomann, and everything works well except the strange behavior with old Marshall Guv'nor, which sounds thin and weak, so I had to power it with One Spot adapter individually. Any ideas on that?

-x-GF-x-

I just posted this in another thread, but I'm interested to know more (and it's likely I'm making a mistake someone could point out to me).

I'm just getting started in all of this, and have basic electrical knowledge, but from what I have read I am struggling to see the value of expensive power supplies. If you have any sort of USB battery pack, then for £5, from somewhere like AliExpress you can buy a 5v-to-9v converter cable (£2), a daisy chain (£1) and a USB meter (£2 - which you might not need - but in case your power pack has an auto-off and you need something to keep drawing a small load to keep it on).

I'm probably missing something obvious, but wouldn't that be a better power supply than anything running off the mains?

paulmapp8306

USB Power banks arnt isolated outputs.   No difference from a nice juicy 5A wall work and splitter cables.   Causes (or can cause) hum, hiss etc.  This is particularly bad if the unit your driving has a floating 0v.   You need isolated and regulated power.

USB power is by far the noisiest as well and the least regulated.  Its by far the worst way of powering anything remotely sensitive - and mains is better.

I did give one a go (USB Power bank with high current outputs) as I need quite high current at 12v which most supplies dont do (as well as the juicy wart plus splitters).  

By far the best Ive tried for voltage options, and more importantly power are the Cioks.  If you need more juice (and they already give 660ma at 9v and 500ma @ 12v on all outputs) you can parallel the outputs.  I have the DC7 and DC4 powering one pedal, a midi patchbay, an LED light strip and 3 synth modules, with an output spare.  Clean, noise free, highly reliable, stable - something USB supplies just arnt.

-x-GF-x-

paulmapp8306 said:

USB Power banks arnt isolated outputs.   No difference form a nice juicy 5A wall work and splitter cables.   Causes (or can cause) hum, hiss etc.  This is particularly bad if the unit your driving has a floating 0v.   You need isolated and regulated power.

USB power is by far the noisiest as well and the least regulated.  Its by far the worst way of powering anything remotely sensitive - and mains is better.

I did give one a go as I need quite high current at 12v which most supplies dont do (as well as the juicy wart plus splitters).  

By far the best Ive tried for voltage options, and more importantly power are the Cioks.  If you need more juice (and they already give 660v at 9v and 500 @ 12v on all outputs) you can parallel the outputs.  I have the DC7 and DC4 powering one pedal, a midi patchbay, an LED light strip and 3 synth modules, with an output spare.  Clean, noise free, highly reliable, stable - something USB supplies just arnt.

There's too much colloquial and marketing language in there for me to decypher! 

paulmapp8306

Which bits exactly?  apart from juice - ie current.  

-x-GF-x-

paulmapp8306 said:

Which bits exactly?  apart from juice - ie current.  

I guess that most if not all the terms are in that last line - "Clean, noise free, highly reliable, stable - something USB supplies just arn't"

Can you clarify what you intend to mean by each of those terms? I'm no expert in the slightest, but what difference are you highlighting between "clean" and "noise free"  and in what way is USB power "unreliable" or not "stable"?

paulmapp8306

prowla said:

Tadragh1 said:

prowla said:

Calling them power plants is a bit fanciful - they're just fan-out boxes powered off wall-warts.

Not exactly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OeFVq3VaMo

Wall-wart in, multiple DC out.

But isolated dc out, andceach op srperately regulated.   Thats not what a fan out box does, they would privide  unisolated outs and unregulated which is far from the same thing.

Crazed_Fandango

This thread just saved me £59.

GoFish

I would think that the newer one would be better:

Harley Benton PowerPlant ISO-3AC SAG Modular

What a mouthful! - Tis also £59.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_3ac_sag_modular.htm

LionAquaLooper

I'd like to get the ISO-Pro 1 - but max output is only 2000 mA and won't be enough for my needs.  HX FX alone is already more than half of that, and i've got a Boss SY200 and an RC500 on my board as well. 

Bit weird having 8x 500ma outputs but it can only handle 2000 mA max.  .  

euan

Oh that has a 12V output for linking their other ISO power supplies that don’t have IEC plugs. So I could take my ISO Pro 2 and add and extra 4 input while adding in IEC power rather than the annoying wall wart. 

Disadvantage is 1A output and the ISO Pro 2 needs 2A but if I run power hungry stuff off the modular it’ll be grand. 

LionAquaLooper

GoFish said:

I would think that the newer one would be better:

Harley Benton PowerPlant ISO-3AC SAG Modular

What a mouthful! - Tis also £59.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_3ac_sag_modular.htm

According to the specs it says "the total output power must not exceed 21.6 W".  

Anyone know why on this model (and the ISO-5 Pro and ISO-2 Pro), the total load limit is measured in Watts, but on the ISO-Pro 1 it's mA.  Current draw (mA) is what people would want to see because its what's measured most in terms of powering FX pedals isn't it?  No one puts wattage requirements on the back of stompboxes.  Is that a mistake on Harley Benton's part or am I missing something?  

GoFish

It must be a mistake. 21.6 Watts is a strange formulation.

TimmyO

I think as soon as you need (actually need based on daisychaining causes issues with what you’ve got) isolated outputs the unpopular truth is that it’s time to spend a frustrating amount on well made stuff.

For me at different times that’s been a bunch of the Gigrig stuff, or a Cioks supply (an Adam for a Nano board and a DC7 for a larger one). It hurts at the time but the payoff is just not needing to worry about it thereafter 

Grangousier

I think the watts thing is because the outputs have variable voltages, and of course current draw varies enormously too. 21.6W is the maximum power available and it's distributed between the outputs at different voltages and currents.