Can underpowered (lower amp) PSU damage synth?

[hhuang9611]

Hi wonderful people at KVR,

I recently acquired a second-hand novation super bass station. Absolutely love the sound!

However, I noticed that the synth seem to be having flickering on LEDs when I power it on. It will go away after a few minutes. Upon close inspection, I noticed that the rating on the power supply was 9V-150mA, well below what says on the manual (novation PSU-4, which after some googling, seems to have a rating of 600 mA!). The power supply comes with the synth does have novation logo, but didn't specify for what instrument...

I haven't noticed anything else wrong with the synth, and luckily, the power supply seems to have survived (no fire yet). I have immediately turned it off and ordered a replacement power supply with proper rating (match polarity, 9V, and 1A).

My question is, would running the synth with underpowered PSU damage the SYNTH itself (I know it would be bad for the PSU for sure). I just hope the couple hours of playing the super bass station with underpowered PSU didn't sustain any damage to the synth...

[BONES]

I think you'll be OK. The instrument will draw as much power as it needs, no more. Underpowering it might affect it's performance but it won't damage anything.

[planetearth]

Hi wonderful people at KVR,

I recently acquired a second-hand novation super bass station. Absolutely love the sound!

However, I noticed that the synth seem to be having flickering on LEDs when I power it on. It will go away after a few minutes. Upon close inspection, I noticed that the rating on the power supply was 9V-150mA, well below what says on the manual (novation PSU-4, which after some googling, seems to have a rating of 600 mA!). The power supply comes with the synth does have novation logo, but didn't specify for what instrument...

I haven't noticed anything else wrong with the synth, and luckily, the power supply seems to have survived (no fire yet). I have immediately turned it off and ordered a replacement power supply with proper rating (match polarity, 9V, and 1A).

My question is, would running the synth with underpowered PSU damage the SYNTH itself (I know it would be bad for the PSU for sure). I just hope the couple hours of playing the super bass station with underpowered PSU didn't sustain any damage to the synth...

I don't think it will damage the synth, but you might hear distortion or other issues long before you would have otherwise. But if you only used it for a couple of minutes (and promise to never do it again!), your synth should be fine. As far as the new PSU goes, yes, the synth will only draw the amperage it needs. What's important is you've matched the voltage and polarity.

Steve

[hhuang9611]

I think you'll be OK. The instrument will draw as much power as it needs, no more. Underpowering it might affect it's performance but it won't damage anything.

Thank you! Good to know.

I don't think it will damage the synth, but you might hear distortion or other issues long before you would have otherwise. But if you only used it for a couple of minutes (and promise to never do it again!), your synth should be fine. As far as the new PSU goes, yes, the synth will only draw the amperage it needs. What's important is you've matched the voltage and polarity.

Steve

Thanks! I will also check carefully the next time I got a second-hand piece of equipment. I'm glad it's just underpowering issue actually, instead of mismatching voltage or polarity...

[mothra]

I can't tell which one is the PSU right now (its tangled up in the mess underneath my desk), but the BS2 can be powered by a USB port, it cant take more than 2A at max to power it. If the stock PSU is 650ma, and you're using a 1A supply, there might be something going on with the Bass Station itself. Amperage can go as high as you want, the synth is only going to take what it needs, it's the voltage that matters. That sounds to me like it's having issues elsewhere.

[ampetrosillo]

Don't worry. An underpowered power supply almost certainly won't damage the device it's powering, at least unless it fails. That amperage rating essentially tracks the internal resistance of the power supply, and that 150mA rating means that either the traditional transformer (heavy-ish, large-ish) or the switching mode circuit ensures 9V output or close enough up to 150mA, after which, in the case of a traditional transformer, the effective voltage at the device almost certainly goes down (and eventually, especially if the load requires a very high amount of current compared to the rating, the transformer might blow spectacularly because most of the power is being dissipated by the supply itself). A switching mode power supply will actually hold steady for quite a while since SMPSs are very good at regulating voltage (you might see, like, half a volt or one volt drop even with gross overloads) but then it will eventually POP! in a much safer way compared to a traditional transformer failure.

I actually did a test back in uni about this. The SMPS took, like, five or six times its rating before giving up.

Still, don't push your luck. Was the power supply very warm by any chance?

TLDR: don't worry.

[hhuang9611]

I can't tell which one is the PSU right now (its tangled up in the mess underneath my desk), but the BS2 can be powered by a USB port, it cant take more than 2A at max to power it. If the stock PSU is 650ma, and you're using a 1A supply, there might be something going on with the Bass Station itself. Amperage can go as high as you want, the synth is only going to take what it needs, it's the voltage that matters. That sounds to me like it's having issues elsewhere.

Thanks for the info. I think BS2 is a modern gear, especially compared to my SBS, so I think it makes sense that BS2 should be more resilient and stable. I'm worried that my SBS is, well, too old to be mistreated in any way, and plus, if something were to go wrong, I'm not sure how willing Novation would be to fix it...
Anyway, the underpowered PSU in question is rated only 150 mA, so I would tend to blame weirdness of the synth after start up on the underpowered PSU, which I hope would be the case

Don't worry. An underpowered power supply almost certainly won't damage the device it's powering, at least unless it fails. That amperage rating essentially tracks the internal resistance of the power supply, and that 150mA rating means that either the traditional transformer (heavy-ish, large-ish) or the switching mode circuit ensures 9V output or close enough up to 150mA, after which, in the case of a traditional transformer, the effective voltage at the device almost certainly goes down (and eventually, especially if the load requires a very high amount of current compared to the rating, the transformer might blow spectacularly because most of the power is being dissipated by the supply itself). A switching mode power supply will actually hold steady for quite a while since SMPSs are very good at regulating voltage (you might see, like, half a volt or one volt drop even with gross overloads) but then it will eventually POP! in a much safer way compared to a traditional transformer failure.

I actually did a test back in uni about this. The SMPS took, like, five or six times its rating before giving up.

Still, don't push your luck. Was the power supply very warm by any chance?

TLDR: don't worry.

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation! Luckily, my PSU has not popped. I didn't get a chance to see if it was warm, actually, because I put all the cable behind my desk, and when I realized the PSU was underpowered, I immediately start googling if it would be bad for the synth and unfortunately did not find any satisfying answers. So I asked it here. By the time I finished all these, it was about 20 minutes after the shutting down of power, and the PSU probably had cooled down and was not warm.

[BBFG#]

Once you learned what the proper supply is, why would take the chance?

Buy what it's supposed to have, otherwise, "the cheap may turn out expensive."

[hhuang9611]

Once you learned what the proper supply is, why would take the chance?

Buy what it's supposed to have, otherwise, "the cheap may turn out expensive."

Yep, totally agree. My new power supply is already on the way

[hhuang9611]

Just to confirm here. My new PSU arrived today. After hook everything up, the weirdness of the synth at the startup has completely gone! Now I can safely continue enjoying the synth!