Trouble with Synthrotek Deluxe Power in new rack (-12V flashing, not coping with moderate demands)

Hi,

I just built a new rack:

and powered it with:
• Synthrotek Deluxe Power module
• 2 Doepfer bus boards, 1 4ms flying bus cable
• power brick

Unfortunately, when switching on the rack, the "-12V" LED of the Synthrotek Deluxe Power Module is flashing and so are my Verbos modules' LEDs. When removing modules, it turns out that the Synthrotek only works for around 4 modules, when attaching a 5th, I get the flashing again.

Huh? The Synthrotek should provide WAY more power than needed by the modules.

This does not seem to be dependent on which of the distribution boards/cable I use, and not on specific modules (whilst the 2 oscs seem to be the most demanding ones).

Any idea what could be the cause here? As I said, the Synthrotek should provide multiples of the actually needed power...

thanks & greetings,

Tom

I also use the same power supply, and have faced similar problems mainly when using the Flying Bus.
I switched to the Noise Filtering Power Distro board and miraculously this corrected the problem. This is powering 2 rows of 104HP using 2 distro boards daisy chained via the molex cable. Has worked like a charm. Also, if you plug your ribbons in backwards you will also get the flashing lights thing. This is a protection mode that it goes into to prevent you from frying your modules, so I would examine that as well..

Hope this helps, good luck!

It's definitely the SynthRotek / MeanWell causing the problem. There are no ribbons connected backwards. The two Doepfer bus boards are fine as well, I just tried removing my Doepfer DIY power from another case and used it to power the installed boards on the new case and everything works fine, with lots of modules being happy.

Hi there,

I had the same thing happening when I started to assemble my first rack just about three months ago. I am using the Synthrotek Deluxe Power with two of the Noise Filtering Distribution Boards. After having installed just a few modules (way below what the Deluxe Power can handle power-wise), the -12V LED and the LEDs on the modules were constantly flashing and the system became unusable. After lots of testing I figured out that the WMD Pro Output module was causing this.
I hope the guys at Synthrotek don't mind if I post the response I got from them after asking for help via email, since this might be helpful for you as well:

Reply from Synthrotek: "I believe what you are experiencing is the power influx when you first turn on the system. Each module has capacitors in it that need to charge, so when a module is first turned on, it will draw more current than what they will when they are running. I believe that the Pro Output may just have a large influx, or really big caps that take a lot of juice to fill up, and the Deluxe Power module may not have been able to keep up with how much it wanted."

This was most likely what was happening in my rack, since the WMD Pro Output has two insanely large capacitors on its backside. Since removing the Pro Output, I didn't have any problems with the Deluxe Power anymore.

EDITED Jun 21st 2016, 06:00

EDITED Jun 21st 2016, 06:00

I've experienced similar problems with the Synthrotek Deluxe Power. The influx capacitance of the WMD dual VCA by itself is too much for the power supply to handle. It won't run properly with that module plugged in by itself. I also have intermitten issues with the Deluxe Power behaving as if I'm drawing too much power, but I've checked the voltage and I'm way under capacity. The USB power slot shorts out the system, not matter how small the power draw. Customer service hasn't been much help either.

EDITED Jun 21st 2016, 05:59

Hi,

I am having the same problem with a case power from synthrotek. I use a case power blue(which is their most powerful one) + 4 low noise distribution bus boards. When i start plug in around 10 modules they start flickering and the +12 v rail light is slightly visible. Is there any efficient way to test which module draws too much?

I think one at a time is your only option. You could try removing one at a time instead, but it may not help find the outlier your looking for. It felt a little silly to limit my case because of a power supply so I ended up with Trogotronic power. Its not a fancy linear system or anything, but it sounds better and can power a system with tube modules. I think the less % of total draw your system is for its power supply the better.