[nyc_paramedic]

Nick,
Thanks.  I am so bad at recharging though; years ago I even had Vinnie (red wine) redo my Squeezebox ps he made me when I kept sending it back for new batteries cuz I would mess up.  Finally had him make it ac. 

I am rethinking and restating my issue.  I have no pushback on spending $250-350 for a good linear PS....but only when I have determined that Alix is my new long-term (whatever that means these days) server solution.  Those shootouts and a/b comparisons are a couple weeks down the road.  In the meantime i was hoping for something I could put together that would at least allow the Alix a fair fight in these comparisons.  So..maybe rechargeable lithium is the right choice right now....hmmmm.

Edit:  oops, lithium isn't recharegable.  $18 for every 5 hours will add up...

Use some Alkalines for now. Compare that to the switching wall wart.

You could also snag a cheap linear Elpac on eBay.

[jtwrace]

Why not use what I use (and others) for my Tube Buffer?




Finished:

[ted_b]

Use some Alkalines for now. Compare that to the switching wall wart.

You could also snag a cheap linear Elpac on eBay.

I must be looking in the wrong areas cuz "elpac linear" on ebay brings up three DIY (il.e no power cord, etc) power supplies, only one which is between 7-19V, and all of which are more than TomS's recommended .5A.  What are the limits/specs of a ps of the Alix?  Did I miss this on the thread, sorry?

[nyc_paramedic]

I must be looking in the wrong areas cuz "elpac linear" on ebay brings up three DIY (il.e no power cord, etc) power supplies, only one which is between 7-19V, and all of which are more than TomS's recommended .5A.  What are the limits/specs of a ps of the Alix?  Did I miss this on the thread, sorry?

The specs for *voltage* on the Alix is 7 to 20 volts. You can use any supply that is in between that range.

As for current, it doesn't matter if a power supply can supply more than .5 amps (or 500 milliamps). If the Alix draws 250ma playing 16/44.1 FLAC and your supply is rated to 25 Amps then your Alix still draws only 250ma from the power supply terminals.

My Alix is connected to a 13.8 volt 10 amp ham radio supply (for now...) and all is well.

Simply, if you find a supply you like but it offers more than 500ma of current you'll be just fine.

[TomS]

The specs for *voltage* on the Alix is 7 to 20 volts. You can use any supply that is in between that range.

As for current, it doesn't matter if a power supply can supply more than .5 amps (or 500 milliamps). If the Alix draws 250ma playing 16/44.1 FLAC and your supply is rated to 25 Amps then your Alix still draws only 250ma from the power supply terminals.

My Alix is connected to a 13.8 volt 10 amp ham radio supply (for now...) and all is well.

Simply, if you find a supply you like but it offers more than 500ma of current you'll be just fine.

I used a little bigger supply (2a) mainly because my Audiophilleo1 is USB bus powered 5v and has an OLED display on the front that draws a fair amount of current by itself (300-400ma).
 

[nl12048]

Can you actually hear a difference using another powersupply?

[nyc_paramedic]

Can you actually hear a difference using another powersupply?

To whom is that question directed at?

[ted_b]

The specs for *voltage* on the Alix is 7 to 20 volts. You can use any supply that is in between that range.

As for current, it doesn't matter if a power supply can supply more than .5 amps (or 500 milliamps). If the Alix draws 250ma playing 16/44.1 FLAC and your supply is rated to 25 Amps then your Alix still draws only 250ma from the power supply terminals.

My Alix is connected to a 13.8 volt 10 amp ham radio supply (for now...) and all is well.

Simply, if you find a supply you like but it offers more than 500ma of current you'll be just fine.

Thanks Nick, got it.   

[nl12048]

To whom is that question directed at?

To whoever wants to answer

[jrebman]

Ted,

Also, if you ever wanted to power something like one of the HRT music Streamers down the road, they will take another 350 or more mA of current, so again, no harm in going to an amp or more.  a 9v 1 amp supply will be perfectly suitable, allow some overhead for current regulation, and will generate less waste heat -- anything over the 7 volts will be burned off as heat only.

BTW, congrats on taking this on and getting it working -- I know it's not your field, and linux can be somewhat overwhelming to non computer types, so it's great to see that you stuck with it and made it hppen.

-- Jim

[ted_b]

Jim,
Thanks.  Yes, I just ordered a Parts Express regulated 2-12V 6 way 2A power supply with a connector kit.  Oh, and realized I have a Kingrex PSU (12.9V) that powers an Acoustic Revive RR-77 and likely is overkill quality there, so I'll use one or the other.  Thx

[ted_b]

Question:
Does Voyage MPD, and/or one of its clients, support the notion of plugins as it relates to DSP (EQ, room correction, etc)?

[mgalusha]

Question:
Does Voyage MPD, and/or one of its clients, support the notion of plugins as it relates to DSP (EQ, room correction, etc)?

While there are likely things you could add the Alix has only 256MB of ram and not a lot of CPU power. I don't think it would be optimal.

[ted_b]

Mike,
Funny you mention that.  You beat me to the punch in that I was going to add to my question along the lines you are addressing.  That is, following the philosophy of a music client/server architecture, with this minimalist dedicated (and low power cuz that's all it needs) music server, there might be a DSP engine with some horsepower, like an application server in the corp c/s model.   Heck it could do DSP for multiple tasks from multiple servers...say some coming from an HT server (surround processing) for all we know.....anyway, just dreamin.   

[nyc_paramedic]

Question:
Does Voyage MPD, and/or one of its clients, support the notion of plugins as it relates to DSP (EQ, room correction, etc)?

You would do that on another high-powered machine, which could also be your NFS server, then send the stream to MPD on the Alix. I believe MPD supports PCM streaming from one server to another.

[JDUBS]

Question:
Does Voyage MPD, and/or one of its clients, support the notion of plugins as it relates to DSP (EQ, room correction, etc)?

You have seen the Alix mainboard, right?  That should be all the clue you need to answer that question.   

Jim

[nyc_paramedic]

You have seen the Alix mainboard, right?  That should be all the clue you need to answer that question.   

The size of the board, if that is indeed what you were talking about, really hasn't got anything to do with its ability to do DSP, etc.

There are some very nice PC104, 3.5" and 5.25" boards out there with some very fast processors and tons of RAM that would make a very nice MPD single board server. Some also come with FPGA's. They do cost a pretty penny though.

[JDUBS]

I was actually referring to what's ON the board.  The Alix is great in a pure streaming role, but you can't expect much else out of it (audio-wise).

Jim

The size of the board, if that is indeed what you were talking about, really hasn't got anything to do with its ability to do DSP, etc.

There are some very nice PC104, 3.5" and 5.25" boards out there with some very fast processors and tons of RAM that would make a very nice MPD single board server. Some also come with FPGA's. They do cost a pretty penny though.

[nyc_paramedic]

I was actually referring to what's ON the board.  The Alix is great in a pure streaming role, but you can't expect much else out of it (audio-wise).

Yup, you're right. It can't even do 24/96 to 16/44 re-sampling on the fly.

[ted_b]

So my Parts Express (band-aid until I decide) regulated ps showed up.  It has settings for, among others, 7.5V, 9V and 12V.  Do I care which one for the Alix, as they are all within spec?
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=120-536