Xpantastic!

--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, "envia94" <akva@...> wrote:
>
> Hmm? Turning Xpander/M12 on and off several times daily in order to 
save the life-time 
> of the VFD displays may not be a good idea. By the way, how long is 
the envisaged life-
> time of these displays?
> 
> I'm considering this because I know that electronics may be kept 
turned constanly ON in 
> many professional studios, because it is a fact that chips and 
other components most 
> often fail when being switched on or off. I don't recommend, but 
you can prove this by 
> switching your gear on and of repeatedly very many times, heh, heh.
> 
> In the Guinness World Record Book there was mentioned that the 
oldest light bulb was in 
> a Firestation in Boston. If I remember correctly, it had been 
working without problems 
> since 1860s! The reason was that it had never been switched off. 
> 
> I wish the manufactures would more carefully recommend what is best 
for their synth. I 
> have only seen recommendations that you should avoid quickly 
turning the electronics on 
> and off, and, that you should remove the power in case the 
synthesizer is not being used 
> for a long period of time. Apple recommends Macs being switched off 
if not used for two 
> days or more, but I suspect that old analog instruments don't like 
being switched off so 
> often - unless they get otherwise too hot, which is bad too, 
ofcourse. This is a delicate 
> problem, but what is really best for an old Xpander or Matrix-12, I 
don't know. In any 
> case, I keep on switching them on and of on a daily basis, because 
I'm afraid letting them 
> on, if there are no-one in the house.
> 
> Any other thoughts?
>


You are correct. I should have been more clear. I would not keep 
switching the power on and off to save hours on the display. What I 
ment was, If your not using it leave it off. If your recording you 
would want to leave it on to stabilize the tuning anyway. 

I do not remember what the hours of life rating was on the displays,
but units that had been in the field for a year or so were much 
dimmer than new units. These units were on prety much 24/7  
 
The thing that scares me about my M12 is they use an early generation 
switching power supply for the 5 volts supply which are notorious for 
failing and taking everything else with them.

I think it's a good idea to turn everything off if your not going to 
be home for awhile, because you never know what may come down the 
power line. If you a scope on your powerline during an electrical 
storm (I use a 5000V scope probe) you will see huge spikes.
I have also sadly found that if your gone for a week or so, you 
better turn your water off too.

This is why light bulbs and other electrical devices fail on power 
up. The power on problem revolves around the line power phase angle 
at turn on. If your around the zero crossing point - no problem. If 
you happen to be near the top of the sine wave when you switch the 
power on you can generate one hell of a spike. Turning on a light 
bulb near the top of the sine wave can significntly shorten it's life.
I have an agilent power source/analyzer which can be setup to 
turn on at a specific phase angle, and I have proved this. If you 
want to avoid this problem there are devices out there called zero 
crossing detectors. These guys will hold the power off until the AC 
power is at the zero point, at which time the power is allowed to 
come on in a controlled way. One day I would like to add this to my 
home studio power.