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#471339 - 06/18/19 11:59 AM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: Dnj]
travlin'easy Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 12/08/02
Posts: 15556
Loc: Forest Hill, MD USA
Paul, many, many years ago I discovered that instead of purchasing a battery powered arranger keyboard, the best and least expensive option was to purchase in inexpensive DC/AC inverter. Than you just connect it to your car battery and you can still use your best 110AC powered gear. Thus one is available at Home Depot for $85.



Gary cool


Edited by travlin'easy (06/18/19 12:01 PM)
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#471342 - 06/18/19 12:04 PM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: travlin'easy]
tony mads usa Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 01/16/02
Posts: 14376
Loc: East Greenwich RI USA
Gary ... how much does that drain the car battery, say for a two hour gig?
thanks
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t. cool

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#471344 - 06/18/19 12:10 PM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: tony mads usa]
Dnj Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
Originally Posted By tony mads usa
Gary ... how much does that drain the car battery, say for a two hour gig?
thanks


you'll find out Tony when your car won't start after the gig.. rotf2

just teasing...I have one works great when you need ac power on the road cool2

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#471349 - 06/18/19 01:02 PM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: Dnj]
tony mads usa Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 01/16/02
Posts: 14376
Loc: East Greenwich RI USA
Originally Posted By Dnj
Originally Posted By tony mads usa
Gary ... how much does that drain the car battery, say for a two hour gig?
thanks


you'll find out Tony when your car won't start after the gig.. rotf2

just teasing...I have one works great when you need ac power on the road cool2


Good for you, but you didn't answer my question ... wink
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t. cool

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#471351 - 06/18/19 01:08 PM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: travlin'easy]
montunoman Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 10/20/09
Posts: 3208
Loc: Dallas, Texas
Originally Posted By travlin'easy
Paul, many, many years ago I discovered that instead of purchasing a battery powered arranger keyboard, the best and least expensive option was to purchase in inexpensive DC/AC inverter. Than you just connect it to your car battery and you can still use your best 110AC powered gear. Thus one is available at Home Depot for $85.



Gary cool


Dumb question : so you actually connect this to your car? What if your performing where you can’t bring your car in?
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#471358 - 06/18/19 01:35 PM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: Dnj]
TedS Offline
Member

Registered: 04/28/06
Posts: 805
Loc: North Texas, USA
Great tip Gary! I would say this inverter could be used with any 12V DC source. If a car battery is too heavy for your cart, a motorcycle battery should also work--but for a shorter period of time. I once played my BK-7m and Tyros 5 combo off of a computer backup power supply ("UPS") during a power outage. Supposedly my UPS was rated at 450 watts, but that's a peak rating and it only lasted 40 minutes. I would guess that my total current draw was 2 1/2 amps. I feel like they might have lasted longer powered directly from a battery, instead of going through the DC -> AC -> DC process of the UPS and in-line transformers. Obviously you would need the correct voltage and polarity. Also, NEVER try to save, edit, or do firmware updates when using this type of power. If you get a low voltage condition you could scramble the board!

Paul, Roland is my favorite brand. But the Casio CT-X3000 has a much better spec than the little E-X30 discussed here. It has Casio's newest acclaimed AiX sound engine. Rated to run 10 hours on D batteries, and probably more if you play sounds through a JBL Charge 3 or another battery-powered amplifier (and turn off the on-board speakers.)

Kabinopus, I don't know anything about Medeli. But I agree that this board wasn't developed by the Roland I'm familiar with. Even its chord recognition system is Yamaha's, not Roland's excellent Chord Intelligence. As you said, most likely "badge engineering."

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#471364 - 06/18/19 02:45 PM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: Dnj]
travlin'easy Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 12/08/02
Posts: 15556
Loc: Forest Hill, MD USA
Tony, the average car battery is about 48 ampere hours, which means at maximum load, the inverter draws about 9 amps, which translates to about 5 hours before the car battery would go dead with that amount of drain.

Keep in mind, however, that most of us use far less than 1000-watts of power with our full setup. For example, my Bose L1 Compact draws less than 150-watts when cranked up full. A typical mixer draws less than 20-watts. My PSR-S950 only draws 19-watts. So, for me, playing to a crowd of 150 or less ppl, with my full setup, I would draw 169-watts. Therefore, my total drain on the battery would be about 2 amps, which is less than the overhead light in the interior of the car.

Yes, most small motorcycle or tractor batteries would do a great job, though I have never tried using them for outdoors. In locations where I was not able to get the car/van close to the venue, I made a 100-foot long DC cable with heavy-duty battery clamps. I connected the inverter to the opposite end and it worked fine for hours on end, no car start problems - ever. I only used that long cable a couple times, though. Most of the outdoor jobs I performed, which amounted to about a dozen a year, the venue supplied me with 110-volt power.

For me, the biggest stumbling block of performing outdoors were seeing the keyboard's screen and buttons, which is a problem with every manufacturers keyboard I've ever owned. During the last 10 years of my musical career I insisted on some sort of dark colored canopy or gazebo to set up in. All of the restaurants and catered outdoor jobs complied with my request.

Now, when it comes to battery powered gear, most of which is powered with "C" or "D" cell batteries, the life of the batteries has always been quite limited. One of my first Yamaha arranger keyboards had space for 4 D-cell batteries. Usually, the maximum amount of playing time I could count on was about 1-1/2 hours at best before the batteries took a dump. Shortly after that, I purchased an inverter. I also have an inverter on my boat, which runs the TV, Microwave oven and a couple fans. The microwave sucks down a battery pretty quick because it draws 1,100-watts. The TV, however, only draws about 45-watts and it is a 21-inch LED TV.

Hope this answers some of your questions,

Gary cool
_________________________
PSR-S950, TC Helicon Harmony-M, Digitech VR, Samson Q7, Sennheiser E855, Custom Console, and lots of other silly stuff!

K+E=W (Knowledge Plus Experience = Wisdom.)

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#471367 - 06/18/19 02:52 PM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: travlin'easy]
tony mads usa Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 01/16/02
Posts: 14376
Loc: East Greenwich RI USA
Thanks, Gary
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t. cool

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#471394 - 06/19/19 06:51 AM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: montunoman]
Uncle Dave Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 12/01/99
Posts: 12800
Loc: Penn Yan, NY
Originally Posted By montunoman
I’m actually looking for battery powered KB for low key out door events. Maybe this would be a good choice?


Me too ... I'm getting a Korg EK-50 tomorrow. I'll let you know how I like it!

I'll have to pump my mic, and iPad into it thru the TC Perform VK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gapIKK-yhR8
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#471398 - 06/19/19 06:57 AM Re: Roland E-X30 Arranger Keyboard [Re: Uncle Dave]
Dnj Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703


Dave good luck with the EK50.....
you gonna put keys back in the act?

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