user Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 After recently rewiring my gear I noticed that the screen and leds on my Elektron analog drive regularly flash on even though the outlet that it’s on is switched off. I’ve got 2 wall sockets that each have an 8 way power strip connected to them, each strip is pretty much filled up with wall warts and such, one strip has another small 3 way strip connected to it that powers 2 pedals. In between the 8 way and 3 way strip I put one of those outlet switches so I can keep the pedals turned off when they’re not in use... First I thought it must be the switch but after swapping it for a different type and brand the same thing occurs. Could I this be the result of power surges/peaks? The ad is the only device that shows this behaviour but I’m slightly worried about other gear also receiving possible surges and getting damaged over time. I realise this could be quite a complex question due to the many variables involved but any insights or ideas on how to troubleshoot this would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Sounds to me like the switch on your power strip must be defective. If there was a surge big enough to arc across a switch you'd know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thawkins Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 That's weird. I suggest you try taking gear away one by one from the hell of a mess you have created* and see if there is a breaking point where the Elektron stops blinking? * - that's nothing, I run half of my gear on a japanese power strip hooked to a step down transformer, at least one ground pin is just dangling in the air! And I sometimes feel current when touching metal parts of my gear too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 5 hours ago, thawkins said: That's weird. I suggest you try taking gear away one by one from the hell of a mess you have created* and see if there is a breaking point where the Elektron stops blinking? * - that's nothing, I run half of my gear on a japanese power strip hooked to a step down transformer, at least one ground pin is just dangling in the air! And I sometimes feel current when touching metal parts of my gear too. Yeah, I sometimes feel current when I touch the chassis of certain pieces of gear. Almost 100% sure it's a problem with my interface, though, and in 7 years across two apartments it hasn't caused any harm, so I live with it. The only thing I have on a transformer is the monitors I got from Nil a few years ago, but it's a step-UP transformer so it weighs about 8 pounds and gets pretty hot. But even with everything I own turned on I only draw about 500-600 watts at most and half of that's the computer (which never happens, I don't have enough inputs on the interface to use more than a couple things at once so in reality I use maybe 80 watts plus around 175-250 for the computer). Switching over to LED bulbs mostly offset what the gear uses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 You could start with one of those basic outlet testers that plugs in and tels you if there are any common witring faults like neutral and earth being switched. I don't think that kind of stuff would do what you're describing but it would be a start. Something like this but for whatever the power standard is where you are: https://www.amazon.com/Receptacle-Tester-Klein-Tools-RT210/dp/B01AKX8L0M/ I wouldn't recommend those little contactless voltage tester pens, IME they're so sensitive they find problems that don't exist. When I moved in to my current apartment about a third of the outlets showed voltage on earth with one of those, but none of them actually had any problems when the electrician came to look at them. It won't tell you about spikes though, but it really seems unlikely that a spike big enough to jump the gap in a switch wouldn't damage everything else (including the switch). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheatheman Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Yeah, I once calculated exactly how many watts I was using, it ended up being something like ~500W with everything on, and the most power-hungry thing? My monitor (screen). Turns out a home studio is nothing compared to normal household appliances. Last time I added everything up was 2016, but where I was living then was a bombed out former crack house 8 unit place, crumbling walls and everything. I would come in during a rain storm and my synths would be splattered with brown drops of something. for what it’s worth, my hardware area is either everything on or off. To be honest I think my monitors have been on for like 2 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Yeah, my entire synth rack draws 105 watts going by the rating printed on the back of the synths, so in real life it's probably less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
user Posted June 16, 2020 Author Share Posted June 16, 2020 Thanks for the replies everyone. I doubt it’s the switch. Think the thing to do is do some more reading and then get out the multimeter to see what I can see. 8 hours ago, sheatheman said: Yeah, I once calculated exactly how many watts I was using, it ended up being something like ~500W with everything on, and the most power-hungry thing? My monitor (screen). Turns out a home studio is nothing compared to normal household appliances. Last time I added everything up was 2016, but where I was living then was a bombed out former crack house 8 unit place, crumbling walls and everything. I would come in during a rain storm and my synths would be splattered with brown drops of something. for what it’s worth, my hardware area is either everything on or off. To be honest I think my monitors have been on for like 2 years. Yeah, I’ve been there, last place I moved my synths from I cleaned everything because there were white and brown spots on everything, mostly insect shit I think. I used to keep everything on but the room I’m in is quite small there is a noticeable difference in room temp if everything is on all the time. The cost is probably negligible but I try to save energy as much as possible anyway, maybe I should have picked a different obsession. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Totally unimportant but I was misremembering, glanced at the little display on the front of my computer and it's actually only drawing about 130 watts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
user Posted July 5, 2020 Author Share Posted July 5, 2020 In case anybody was wondering or runs into a similar issue in the future, here's my layman's take on it that will probably mostly serve to perpetuate misunderstandings and confusion. The issue seems to be caused by the power brick that I bought with my 4ms Row Power. The 4ms brick has been emitting a high pitched whine from day one, but according to a thread on mw most of them seem to do this and generally the bricks don't cause any issues. It seems like the electromagnetic field the 4ms brick creates is not only powerful enough to make it whine when not loaded but also powerful enough to magically switch on the analog drive at some interval when both bricks are within 20 cm or so of each other. I guess the em field created by the 4ms brick charges the capacitors in the analog drive psu and when they discharge it makes the analog drive appear if it's powering up for a split second? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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