Just upgraded: Hiface EVO!

[57gold]

Is there a unit made that holds the lithium batteries, has a cable to plug into EVO and automatically recharges the batteries when low?

 

Understand that Gordon at Wavelength has a battery recharger in his Wavelink and Jkeny, the Hiface modster, has an option for his upgrades with batteries that charge when unit not in use.

 

[Purite Audio]

57, we commissioned some Lithium packs and chargers to supply with the EVO, the Lithium battery option is my favourite option so far.

Keith.

 

[kamil]

Try This:

 

http://www.redwineaudio.com/products/black-lightning

 

[57gold]

For a battery + a recharger + a couple of connectors.

 

Seems a little cheeky.

 

[barrows]

One can get everything they need for a battery supply from batteryspace.com. One of their 9.6 volt packs should work great, and you can pick up a smart charger from them as well. Their packs come with built in battery management, so no worries about wrecking your LiFePO4s by fulling discharging them.

 

[57gold]

Barrows, But I'm not exactly sure which unit would work...even after following the link you so kindly attached.

 

Will the appropiate battery pack have the cable and plug to attach to the EVO? Or will I have to have one manufactured?

 

Thanks.

 

 

[barrows]

need to source the correct plug to fit the DC input on the Evo. The battery packs come with wires attached. Electronics suppliers sell the plugs in many different sizes, of course you could just cut the one that comes with the Evo off and hook it up to the battery pack. The 9.6 volt packs should work fine, any of them will easily supply enough current for the Evo (the LiFePO4 batteries can supply huge amounts of current). I would get the 3000 mAh size battery, this should run the Evo for many hours on a charge.

 

[Purite Audio]

The Lithium pack/charger we commissioned has the correct connections fitted, we consulted with Marco ( M2Tech) and the battery people to create a cell which would play continuously for at least 14 hours and recharge quickly.

Keith.

 

[rodelius]

Hello Keith,

 

Will your pack/charger work as an integrated solution or require manual replacement of the batteries once their charge is gone?

 

I really like the Red Wine Audio Battery PSU solution. One of my phono preamps uses the same approach and it works great. However I find the Red Wine Audio a bit overkill and expensive for this.

 

Does anyone knows of any other battery-based PSUs with the auto charge/cycling feature? I could even buy and assemble a kit or even design the pcb if a good and reliable schematic shows-up.

 

 

 

 

 

[rodelius]

Looks great. Unfortunately no dealer in my area and a bit too expensive.

Thanks anyway.

 

 

>> Try This:

>> http://www.redwineaudio.com/products/black-lightning

 

[barrows]

Battery packs from batteryspace.com come with battery management boards installed, and the chargers they offer are all "smart" chargers. So maintaining the batteries with this type of setup is a no brainer: LiFePO4 batteries do not like to be fully discharged, the onboard battery management will cut the batteries output before they are fully drained. At that point one can connect the charger and the charger will charge the battery pack until it is fully charged, then the charger will cut off the charge current automatically. You could easily wire the battery pack and charger into a small case; I would fit a switch that shuts down AC supply to the charger when listening, as these chargers are switch mode and one should really avoid having the charger powered up while listening.

 

[audioengr]

"Does anyone knows of any other battery-based PSUs with the auto charge/cycling feature?"

 

See:

 

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=81514.0

 

[57gold]

Can't be the materials. All made from off the shelf stuff; batteries, management chip, recharger, some switches a tin box, I think?

 

All basically custom made, low production units so like buying a custom made suit? Same cloth, 2 to 3Xs the price.

 

Still, one battery unit is 1 and 1/2 times the cost of an EVO, the other 2 and 1/4 times?

 

The EVO is cutting edge assync/multi rez technology with 2 BNC (one clock in and one spdif out), AT&T, AES/EBU, USB, IS2, TOSLINK and RCA connectors...and a power supply (the identified weakness).

 

Guess if I was consistent, I would never have bought some of the cables I own.

 

[rodelius]

Hello Steve. Yours (as well as RWA one) are beautiful units that seems to be well designed and built, but I can not find any reason to spend one grand on something like that. I mean... something that I will use only as a battery for an USB-SPDIF interface.

 

FWIK, an automatic battery supply can be built for two hundred bucks or so and when in battery mode, it will supply power as clean as any of the hi-end commercial units shown here.

 

I mean something like this but with only one battery:

 

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/power-supplies/107051-battery-powered-psu-implementation.html

 

I will study this UC3906 implementation and will post If I find it easy to build.

 

But... What I really wanted to know was if somebody knew any battery-based PSUs without the usual high-end audio price tag. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[audioengr]

You can certainly build something with less frills that is more dangerous. I prefer to sell something that will not burn someones house down. Remember the laptop fires from well-known manufacturers. IMO, charging a LI pack is not a wise idea. Any battery in the pack can short or take more charging than the other batteries, causing overheating and fire. There is nothing to balance-out the pack.

 

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

 

[barrows]

LiFePO4 battery packs from batteryspace.com come with battery management boards built in. The battery management balances the pack during charging, cuts of output power before the batteries are too deeply discharged, and protects the pack against shorts or too high current loads. Additionally, the recommended chargers they sell are "smart" so the packs get charged to capacity then the charge current shuts off automatically. Building a DIY battery supply with these components is quite easy, and safe. I am running a pre-regulated supply with one of these packs to my B-II DAC board with excellent results.

 

[57gold]

Like me, how about this unit?

 

http://www.powerstream.com/PST-MP3500.htm

 

Has ability to add second battery pack and manages battery charge and depletion.

 

Not sure about voltage versus current versus watts...skipped out of physics in high school. Barrows or other EE types care to comment?

 

Thanks.

 

[I. G.]

This is LithiumIon, not LiFePO4.

 

[57gold]

too.

 

This unit runs computers, cameras...but not an Evo?

 

Sorry if I sound clueless...I am when it comes to this stuff.

 

[I. G.]

No, of course it runs it, just LiFePO4 considered better for hifi than other battery types.

 

[rodelius]

Hey 57gold, it could be what I was looking for but I wonder if it toggles automatically from charge mode to battery mode once the battery is completely charged and vice versa. I bet it doesn't.

 

 

 

[57gold]

Charges and runs off AC at same time, stops at full charge and gives warning when low. Looked at manual, which was written by a person who is not an native English speaker, which seems to indicate that one would have to unplug to run on pure battery...but, I may have this part wrong.

 

Since previous posts, have tried reading up on batteries and so far understanding that 1) LiFePO4 is best for powering digital audio and safes; 2) Lithium Ion, good but less so and some safety issues; and 3) SLA sealed lead acid, less good than LI Ion, no safety issues. EE guys, this right?

 

[I. G.]

Lithium Polimer is the worst from safety viewpoint. Burned down a couple of houses.

 

[rodelius]

The PowerStream is a nice unit, that I could use for many things, but besides the possible lack of auto-mode, all those built-in DC/DC converters cannot be harmless to the sound IMO, at least not when it runs on AC.

I think I'll stick to lifepo4 packs until I get a good psu. :-)

 

[Torero]

Could the Evo work with a 12.8v LiFePO4 battery?

 

The Evo has 15VDC max . This LiFePO4 battery has a voltage: 12.8 V (working) 14.6 V (peak) 10.0 V ( cut-off)