Power Conditioner?

[Arn C.]

Howdy All,
    I have played out a few places where our power has been drained from our equipment. (ex:  One place we played there were two coolers hooked to the same line we were using(only line available) and while we were playing, the coolers came on and drained our equipment, pedals wouldn't work correctly, distorted, etc..)
    We just played this past Saturday (volunteered out services) at a Riun for Life Cancer gathering and there was a dj about 400 feet away hooked into the power we were using on our stage, everything was fine, until he decided to fire up his gear(while we were still playing) and same thing happened, drained us of our power.

Can someone direct me to what I could use to keep the power up on our equipment.

Thanks a Bunch!
Peace!
Arn C.

[vanhansen]

Another circuit.

[R.G.]

Van's right - there is no "circuit" that will keep the power up to your equipment except another source of power. If you're going to be playing outdoors far away from other power sources, there are only two good answers, a short term one and a long term one.

Short term:
Buy a ferroresonant regulating transformer (also called a constant voltage transformer, or DVT) big enough to power your band. This will coast your band through short term blips like other equipment turning on and off. It will weigh upwards of 100lb for powering an entire band.

An extension cord from a different AC power circuit might help, but long power extensions have their own sets of problems.

Long term:
Buy a motor-generator set with enough power to run the whole band. After the Y2K scare has abated, some of these are pretty cheap. You'll need 5 to 10kW. Test the thing with the band's real equipment before you accept gigs using it... but you knew that already, right?

[petemoore]

Addinga question posing as a statement...different amps seem to 'brownout' more/faster than others...
 Heavy Duty Extension cords ... worth mentioning.
 I'll take my heavy duty 50' ext. cord, and cut it in two/add Heavy Duty plugs, much easier to handle that way, most of the time I only need 25' anyway...50 footers are hard to handle, 100 footers are rediculously unruly.

[Arn C.]

Thanks for the info!!!!  I think I will get a constant voltage transformer!

Peace!
Arn C.