I live in Canada so I ordered from the US eStore. Along with my extra Empeg I ordered an extra AC Adapter. Anyway the new one is HUGE!

The new one that I ordered as an extra:


The dimensions are: 5 1/4" x 2 3/4" x 1 5/8" or 13.5cm x 7cm x 4cm (+/-)

The one that comes with the unit:


The dimensions are: 2" x 1 7/8" x 1" or 5.5cm x 4.5cm x 2.5cm (+/-)

Now by looking at the dimensions you can see the new one is HUGE! The one that comes with the unit plugs directly into the wall. It fits perfectly in my carrying case. The extra one I ordered is half the size of the unit!

Now if I knew the new one was this big I would not have ordered it! Should I phone SonicBlue and see if they can do anything for me? Or are all the extra supplies this big?

my mk2a came with a large brick

Notice the "brick" is capable of 3.5Amps @ 12v where as the other one is rated at 1A. I guess they ran out of small ones.

I think all the replacement ones are that large as I have the same one. I assume everything on the replacement should fit into the case with exception of the IEC cable. Besides, you shouldn't hang out with anyone that doesn't have a bunch of spare IEC cables anyway.

I have a few Rio's but I never looked at the power brick that came with them. Both of yours say 12 Volt DC. My Empeg MkII came with a 15 Volt adapter, and I use a spare 13 Volt which works also. However, the last time I used a 12 Volt on my MkII, the VFD would go blank when the hard disk spun up. Maybe this issue was fixed on RioCar?

Man, I like the one that came with the unit! My player came with the third, traditional style adapter that you find with most cordless phones (at least here in the US). It's okay, but it doesn't fit in my case very nicely, and I think that's a big reason I don't use my case all that much.

I would try to get one like that but obviously the ones shipping as extras are not what I'm going for.

On the same subject, I remember Hugo saying at one point that 1A, 12V power supplies were easy to find. At one point I looked all over my house, and couldn't find a single one anywhere near that rating out of about 20 of them. Radio Shack also only sells very large-cased, very heavy adapters, yet the one that ships with the empeg is the same rating, but MUCH lighter and smaller. I don't get it.

I ordered a second power supply as well, thinking/hoping it would be as nice and small as the one that shipped with the unit. I got that exact same brick.

Had I known, I'd have scavenged a brick from some other device.

Hey -- at LEAST the brick part doesn't hang on the wall!

!@#$

Yep that's what I was hoping for as well! Cause I've seen adapters at Radio Shack and around my house, but nothing quite as small as the one that came with my first Rio Car.

I guess I'll just use the brick under my desk and carry the small one with me.

IOmega also use the same small package as the Riocar adapters for their newer Zip drives (and I bet their supply also varies from batch to batch). At only 9 volts though. As long as I have one small one I'm fine. The larger one is fine to keep plugged in at home - just use the small one as your portable.

Bruno

there's lots of them on the web. an elementary search turned up these, among many others:

http://www.rpelectronics.com/Default.asp?Main=/English/OnlineCat.asp?Menu=/English/Content/Categories/CatM_68.asp%26Detail=/English/Content/Divisions/Div_68_050.asp

http://www.timco-computers.com/acadapters.html

http://www.neodymsystems.com/n_order.shtml

http://www.google.com/search?q=AC+Adapter+%2B12VDC+1A

etc

This one works very well as a number of people on this bbs (including myself) can attest. It is not as compact as the one you show in your picture, but it is a lot smaller than the "huge" one you have. It is inexpensive, and the vendor is reliable.

tanstaafl.

Blimey, I don't know where they found those ones. Looks like quite an over-spec'd and expensive power supply. My guess is they are used with some other SB product - webpad maybe.

Rob

Yep that's what I thought, since the small one is only 1A. The extra one is powerful enough to power my NEO!, not that I'll EVER use that again :)

They're used on the *mumble* that isn't out yet, rob. Yes, they are 3.5A, so they're *way* overkill, but they were sitting in stock doing nothing so I approved them for use with the car player :)

Hugo

Your 12v supply drooping during HDD spinup (what was the current rating?) would explain the blanking display.

Anything 12v+ is fine, as long as the current capability (~1.2A max on 12v, or 1A at 15v) is there.

Hugo

They're used on the *mumble* that isn't out yet

Interesting, does this mumble have your teams software on it? 3.5A is a pretty hefty amount of current. Anything pulling that much would be competing with the HSX device or not running an arm chip I would think?

-Mike

No comments, sorry!

Hugo

Is it bigger than a bread box? :)

Bruno

Oddly enough, the 40W power amp I just picked up for my docking station (all-in-one dock..) is a 3.5A brick.. got me all excited, as in "great, it will power the empeg too!". But then I thought it through.. 40W / 12V = 3.3A just for the amp. Not enough juice for both (at peak usages).

-ml

What amp and where did you get it? Also, how about some details on this home dock of yours? :)

Bruno

>What amp and where did you get it?
>Also, how about some details on this home dock of yours? :)

Well, the amp is just a simple black box affair from Active Surplus (Toronto), with "Audiophile" as the brand name. It's a little plastic box whose contents consist mostly of heatsinks, and a small amount of circuitry, with an LED and volume knob on the front. Powered by a 12V converter from 120VAC. Twin RCA jacks on the back for inputs, and a SIN connector for speaker outputs. Very simple, very basic, about C$40 or so.

The Docking Station is based around the hollowed out shell of my R.I.P. 1979 Alpage ("Ask us about Alpage", aka "Alpine") cassette deck that recently bit the big one. This metal shell holds the amp, docking sled, Tuner, both power cubes, AC on/off switch (the original from the cassette deck), and one of those nifty "solid state relay" things so that the Empeg can turn the amp off/on as it goes in/out of standby. It's also got holders for the ethernet and power cords, so that they plug in automatically as the empeg is slid into the docking sled.

The front panel is all chopped up for the sled and whatnot, but I plan to cover it with a 1/2" or so of nice cherry (wood) for good looks. I'll post pics of the important bits later on in the week.

-ml

So it looks like I'll have to drive down to Active in the near future. :) I've seen some ok-looking metal chasis at a couple of electronics places in Mississauga that I'll be taking a look at for mounting everything as well.

Bruno