cool little device to power your FS2 scratchamp (and more)

Hey eveyone,

I haven't been on the forums in a while - my company just got a High Definition video production truck and we've been really busy playing with it and working out all the bugs. Hopefully work should settle down a little bit soon (I could use some sleep)...

But until then, I just wanted to let anyone who uses the FS2 Scratchamp know that I found a great little device to power it using just a firewire cable.

http://www.nyko.com/nyko/products/?i=63

I went to play an open turntable night last week and when I got there I found out that my power supply for my SA2 was busted. When I came back from my last trip to California, the power supply must've got crushed in my luggage and the wire was broken off at the strain relief. Luckily, I had my six emergency compilation records and was able to play my 1/2 hour set on vinyl only.

Anyways, I found this neat little guy at Comp USA for $24.99. It sold as an iPod charger so you can use your docking cable to charge your ipod anywhere, but basically it just puts out 5v power into a USB jack and 13V power into a Firewire jack.

It is smaller and lighter weight than the power supply that came with the SA, and to top it all off, it works on 100-240V 50-60Hz power so anyone traveling internationally would not have to worry about what kind of AC power you are using. And I don't have to worry about the wires breaking, because it just uses a firewire cable - if the cable ever goes bad, all I need to do is buy another FW cable and toss the old one in the trash. And the plug even folds up inside so there is no prongs to bend or break off in travel.

I will do further testing to see if it puts out enough Amps of current to power my SA2 (using the firewire jack) and also power my portable hard drive (using the USB jack and a mini USB Hub) at the same time. If so, that lightens my gig bag even more!

The only improvement that would make this thing better would be if they had the power plug fold out on the side so it doesn't take up more than 1 outlet of space on my power strip.

 

I'm guessing the FireWire iPod charger that Apple once sold would do the trick to...

 

I'm not sure if that would work because I don't have an iPod or apple's charger to try it with.

I believe standard iPod charging voltage is 5 volts, but it should charge with up to 12 volts DC. If Apple's charger puts out more than 9 volts into a standard 6-pin firewire cable, then yes, it should work to power the FS2 Scratchamp.

 

The standard Ipod power supply does work, but I have not tried it in public yet. At home it holds up well, and does give me enough power to run my SA2 wich has a broken A/C power input. It seems to be my only choice unless anyone else knows how to get power to the scratchamp.