I know very little about electronics, so this could be a dumb question but: will it be possible to mod the design to use batteries instead of the current power supply? The unit looks great but I would love to be able to bring it anywhere.
should be possible. the unit runs on dc power. it needs 600mA. voltage needs to be >7v for the regulator to be able to generate propper 5v rail but should not be > 9v so that the regulator does not get to hot.
i am no expert on batteries so i don't know what kind you would need. probably something big like a lead acid battery.
As loderbast said a voltage around 7.5V (not much less as the 7805 regulator need about 2V headspace to work properly) is fine. Its just that the Cortex Processor needs loads of Power, so be prepared your 2500mA Battery pack will only last for 2-3 Hrs.
to estimate battery life you just need to look at the mAh rating of the batteries. say the LXR uses 600mA, then a 600mAh battery would power it for 1 hour 1200 mA for 2 hours etc...
I would not try to rely on a power source, which could abandon me in the middle of a live set...and it's always the display which needs most power, in a notebook, mobile phone, a watch or whatever.
The LXR has a very small screen in comparison. And if you use OLED then power draw for the screen is even less.
I would guess that the Blinkenlights are the power hogs.
But, if you can get a big battery pack, of mod the LXR´s base to have batteries there, you could have a decent battery life for a gig.
If you buy those big batterypacks and just plug it in the LXR´s socket, you could use mains if needed and just have both.
As an example, plain 6 AA Ni-Mh rechargeables give out 7.2v 1300 to 2250 mAh. You can buy them from RC hobby sites like Hobbyking. That would pump roughly 2 hours.
But if you go for something more "modern" you can have this:
Sounds like it's very possible then. Not sure how to make the electronic adjustments to swap the batteries in, but I can research that. Might start w/ the easier route proposed by @SG88 and use an external battery pack.
Nice Topic. I´m following this since a while. Seems Battery Powered Devices are becoming more and more popular. The OP1 is an example par excellence how fun it is to have your "toy" handy with you. Espcially now in summertime...
sorry, back to the topic..
Here is my suggestion. Voltage are manually changeable ! via Jumper switches. It has a Input to plug in an optional Solar Power panel. I like that. I don´t own it yet. Kind of not cheapo and hard to get over here in Europe. Heard only good stuff from the Elektron-Forum guys, powering their units with that baby..
@monoaural: can't you just flip the cable´s tip to reverse the polarity? That is how it´s done in many power supplies.
As an aside, one could make a franken-battery for gear with an old laptop frame and a new laptop battery (or two?). The frame should have the battery charging circuit, and the battery would have plenty of juice for several synths.
If one removes heavy items such as the hard disk, motherboard and screen, one has a very light yet sturdy frame.
A custom panel for the output plugs and some solar panels on the top and you have a very nice, solar powered project to make!
today i try to feed LXR by batteries. I mount that power supply as you see on the picture: 3 x 2 AA accu box (2500 mAh). I calculate it to about 6-8h of pure fun Now i know what i would get on to vacation
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i am no expert on batteries so i don't know what kind you would need.
probably something big like a lead acid battery.
say the LXR uses 600mA, then a 600mAh battery would power it for 1 hour
1200 mA for 2 hours etc...
The eneloops are the king of rechargeables - get 12 and have over six hours of outdoor playtime
6x 1.2V @ 1900mAh