User guide

INSTALLING THE ULTRALITE-MK3 HYBRID HARDWARE
24
Bus power from a battery-powered laptop
The laptop is being powered by its own battery, and
the UltraLite-mk3 is being powered by its FireWire
connection to the computer. So the laptop battery
is supplying power to both the laptop and the
UltraLite-mk3. This is the most compact and
portable operating scenario. Running time is
determined by the capacity of the laptop battery.
For extended recording sessions, bring extra, fully
charged laptop batteries.
DC power supply
If you do not want the UltraLite-mk3 to draw
power from the computer, and AC power is
available, you can power the UltraLite-mk3 from
any standard 8-18 volt, 12 watt DC power supply
with any polarity (tip positive or negative), and
amperage as shown below.
Bus power versus DC power
When you connect a DC power supply, the
UltraLite-mk3 could draw power from either
FireWire or the DC power supply. So which source
does it use? The answer is: the source that is
currently supplying the greatest voltage. But in
practice, it doesn’t really matter because the only
situation in which you need to be concerned about
the UltraLite-mk3’s power draw is when you are
operating it with a battery-powered laptop. And in
this situation, the only available power is from
FireWire. In all other situations, the computer has
its own power, so it doesn’t matter if the
UltraLite-mk3 is drawing power from FireWire.
Turning off the UltraLite-mk3
To turn on the UltraLite-mk3, push the VOL knob.
To turn it off, push and hold the VOL knob. When
the UltraLite-mk3 is turned off, it is really in a sort
of “sleep” mode, where it still draws just enough
power to detect the power switch (a digital
encoder) when the UltraLite-mk3 is turned back
on. But the amount of power that the
UltraLite-mk3 draws when it is turned off is so
small that it has very little practical impact. If you
are running a laptop under battery power, and you
are in a situation where you are not using the
UltraLite-mk3 and you need every last bit of laptop
battery power, unplug the UltraLite-mk3 entirely
from the computer.
Voltage Amperage
9 volts 1.33 amps
12 volts 1 amp
18 volts 0.66 amps