1 Topic by JoshM

  • JoshM
  • JoshM
  • Recording Engineer at Burnt Orange Studio
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  • Registered: 2007-08-13
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Topic: Power Quality - How does the NION handle brown out situations?

Hi everyone! There has been some questions lately about NION and how it handles different power situations.

First, the facts:
1. The power supply in the NION is a standard Mini-ATX 300 Watt power supply. So, if you find yourself in a sticky situation, you can readily swap it out with another mini-ATX or a standard ATX (if you don't need to fit all the screws in the cover).
2. The power supply will hold the NION online for about 250-500 mS in the event of a momentary outage. (in other words, what happens if, for some reason, a few cycles get dropped from the incoming power supply?) This provides PLENTY of switchover time for typical UPS devices to engage their battery backup.
3. The NION utilizes a "worldwide" mini-ATX power supply. This means that it is supposed to work (and is, in fact, rated to work) with line voltages from 100 to 240 VAC, at 50-60 Hz.

Now for the interesting stuff...

The NION will actually operate with a line voltage of 40 VAC. Of course, the current draw goes up accordingly as the voltage goes down. It will attempt to run when the line voltage is about 25 VAC, but it will not operate reliably until the line voltage reaches about 40 VAC. Switching power supplies are pretty amazing!

By the way, the same holds true for the nControl.

Good luck and have fun out there!

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

JoshM's Website

2 Reply by Chandru R.

  • Chandru R.
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  • From: Singapore
  • Registered: 2007-09-19
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Re: Power Quality - How does the NION handle brown out situations?

Hi Josh,

How does this power supply unit handle momentary power surges or for that matter when incoming power supply
exceeds 240V AC. What would be the absolutely safe upper level limit ?

Appreciate all advise.

Regards.

3 Reply by JoshM

  • JoshM
  • JoshM
  • Recording Engineer at Burnt Orange Studio
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Re: Power Quality - How does the NION handle brown out situations?

Good question! Let me try to set a NION on fire with over-voltage on the line cord and I'll report back with my findings.

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

JoshM's Website

4 Reply by JoshM

  • JoshM
  • JoshM
  • Recording Engineer at Burnt Orange Studio
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Re: Power Quality - How does the NION handle brown out situations?

Well, I connected a NION to a really big Variac set to 111 VAC.

While monitoring the internal voltage rails via the front panel, I started turning this Variac up.

As expected, the voltage rails did not wiggle the slightest bit as a adjusted the input voltage from 111 VAC through 240 VAC.

In fact, the voltage rails did not wiggle at all, even when I maxed out the Variac at 289 VAC.

This disappointed me because I was hoping to see one of two things:
1 - Power supply senses over voltage and shuts down.
2 - Power supply shorts from over voltage and trips the circuit breaker, whilst letting the smoke out.

Since I didn't see either one of these things happen, I am left with the feeling that my test was inconclusive. However, it was nice to see that a NION will function with the mains power between 40-285VAC. Though I would expect diminished life expectancy on the part of the power supply when it is operated outside it's specified operating range.

The information provided in this thread is intended for informative purposes only and should not be mis-construed as an indication of the manufacturer's support for running MediaMatrix products outside their specified voltage ranges. All efforts should be made on the part of the installing organization to provide solid and steady mains power to all products.

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

JoshM's Website

5 Reply by GregL

  • GregL
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  • Registered: 2008-09-03
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Re: Power Quality - How does the NION handle brown out situations?

Josh,

The next mad scientist thing to do would be to stuff 208 / 240 into the variac primary, then turn it up.

Not that I've ever done that before...

Greg

6 Reply by Fergy

  • Fergy
  • MM Tech Support
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  • From: The Home Office--Meridian
  • Registered: 2007-08-15
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Re: Power Quality - How does the NION handle brown out situations?

We thought of plugging a variac into a variac, but we decided we had enough fun for the day.....But we really did try to make the magic smoke come out.

Make it intuitive, never leave them guessing.

7 Reply by JoshM

  • JoshM
  • JoshM
  • Recording Engineer at Burnt Orange Studio
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Re: Power Quality - How does the NION handle brown out situations?

GregL wrote:

Josh,

The next mad scientist thing to do would be to stuff 208 / 240 into the variac primary, then turn it up.

Not that I've ever done that before...

Greg

Greg-

That particular variac is hard wired to a 208 service, which is why I was able to get almost 290VAC out of it. Had it just been plugged into your average 120 VAC outlet, I would probably not have gotten over 166 VAC, given that most variacs have a limited boost range.

Special props go to the amplifier engineers... they really didn't want to open the variac up all the way, but did it anyway because I asked them to. So, special thanks to them!

I'm still annoyed that I didn't get a fault of any kind, however. I wonder if there is a 480 service in this building anywhere that I could connect a variac to... hmmm...

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

JoshM's Website