My Minitaur gets very hot after 20 minutes of use

[zoranb]

Hello, I purchased Minitaur a week ago. It gets very hot after 20 minutes of use, and even hotter after one hour. I have been in a store today, and checked one demo unit - after 20 minutes of being powered up, it was warm, and not too much.

I know this is an analog synth, but my unit is simply producing way more heat than usual.

Does your Minitaur become hot in 20 minutes, or only warm ? Is this normal ? Should I replace it ?

There are no other problems (aside that I can't get editor to work). And it sounds fantastic.

Any reply will be appreciated. Thank you,

Zoran

[till]

I never noticed, that it gets hot here.
Where is the hottest pot on yours?
Are you using the wall wart that came with the unit?

[zoranb]

The whole unit becomes very hot, very quickly (like Korg Mono/Poly, for a lack of better comparison). If you lift it, the bottom is the hottest. I was trying to find any answer on the Internet last night, and I have a couple of guesses so far:

- possibly faulty power adapter (I checked, it is the one shipped with the unit, by Mega)
- adapter it's not faulty, but it cannot handle the current in the apartment, which I assume at this point is unclean.

I will try plugging unit at work, and see if it gets hot there as well.

I was considering buying different adapter, or power "conditioner", but it's costly shot in the dark, as I do not know what the problem really is.

Thanks for the reply.

[zoranb]

I took Minitaur to work, and left it plugged in for 45 minutes. The unit was mildly warm, exactly as in the store. So something is wrong with electricity supply in my apartment.

So I purchased APC Back-UPS 550, and plugged in Minitaur in UPS side. The difference is hard to notice, synth runs very hot after one hour, maybe few degrees less than what it used to be.

The next thing I will try is one of those Monster power centers for power conditioning. I hope it makes a difference. I will update the thread in couple of days.

[till]

I would check, why the power at your home is different. Measuring the mains there is less expensive as power conditioners. Maybe something is so off the specs at your home, that it should be checked by a professional electrician. Maybe it's dangerous.

[thealien666]

Yes. Have the landlord contact an electrician and have him check the mains power in your building.

I lived once in an apartment that had a power distribution problem coming from the cities power grid. It was confirmed by the landlord and he contacted the power company. They came and replaced a faulty power transformer on a pole just in front of our building. It was delivering slightly over 130 volts of power to my apartment ! (here in Canada the normal acceptable power supply is between 110-125 volts ac) I was replacing light bulbs quite often as they were failing prematurely from the over voltage.

I also had some electronic equipment that was behaving strangely before they fixed their problem. Sometimes, my TV would refused to turn itself off, or on. I'd have to "reset" it by unplugging and plugging it back in.
I've also had a CD player die on me (under warranty fortunately) during that period.

The Moog Minitaur works from 12 volts DC. But internally, there are additional voltage regulators that brings this down to other voltages needed, like the 5 volts dc for digital circuits and such. The input of those regulators can take anywhere from 12 to 25 volts dc. The difference between the voltage at the input (what your original Mega Minitaur PSU supplies) and those regulators voltage outputs inside the Minitaur must be dissipated as heat. The higher the input voltage on the power connector, the more heat the Minitaur will generate.

If you have access to a voltmeter, or a multimeter, you can check the voltage coming out of the original Mega PSU that came with your Minitaur when you're in your apartment (by connecting the probes on the connector at then end of the wire that plugs in the Minitaur). It should read 12 volts dc or slightly above. If it shows more than 15 volts dc, then you definitely have a mains power issue in your building.

[synthaxe]

Mine gets pretty warm. I own a lot of guitar tube amps and to me those get hot, the Minitaur does not. If you Minitaur gets HOT you may have a problem.