Porta03 power supply question...

[levon]

hi all, great fourm you have here. Definitely one of the first places i stop when im looking for answers. One day, hopefully, i'll have some of those answers as well, but on to my question.

I just aquired a pretty beat on Porta 03mkII, sans manual or psu. Thanks to this very Message Board, i found the spec's of the psu Here from This thread. I was able to scrounge up several roughly similar adapters around the house. One being a Radio Shack Multi-Adapter which is rated at 800mA, the adapter from my cordless Shure Microphone (#ps20 12V/400ma, re-wired neg tip) and for fun a yamaha pa-1 (12v/300mA re-wired neg tip).

Starting from the bottom up, absolutely none of them "worked". With all of them the tape would "play" but no sound what-so-ever came from any output. The closest would be the Shure DC adapter, which when "playing" the tape, running the Line Out into my Mixer, with full gain, did infact produce what could pass as very very feint unintelligible mess.

My question is, am i going to have to find, and shell out for, the ps-p2 adapter, or is there a suitable work around? 12volt Lantern Battery? Dosen't have to be pretty, Just fishing for sugestions (or a place to find cheep ps-p2 adapters).

Thanks again, and sorry for my first post being a trite question (the obvious answer is "the reason its not working is because you have to use the right adapter for the machine, c'mon...")

-levon

[The Ghost of FM]

I would try a couple of 6 volt lantern batteries wired in series to achieve the required 12 volts,(assuming the Porta 03mkII actually needs 12 volts?

Is there a voltage legend written on the back of your unit that states it is, in fact, 12 volts? ....If so, try the batteries, fresh new ones, and see if it works from that. If so, go forward and order the correct adaptor. If still not good, the 03 might make for a suitable boat anchor for a smaller water craft like a raft!

Cheers!

[levon]

Hiya, thanks for fast response!

Im pretty sure its 12volts. The back says 11-15 Volts, and the manual *for its cousin the 02) claims it requires 7 watt's, which would put the Amps at a hair over .6, correlating with the ps-p2 adapter (see link) that tascam firmly recommends.

The unit dosen't actuly "take" batteries per say, but one could fashion it. I did spend some time looking for a Ps-p2 adapter, but sure enough, ebay seems to be fresh out...and i can't seem to turn one up on the net (finding only "out of stock", or absurd price like 40$....). And im afarid that if people are selling them for that high, that tascam's price (providing support has one or can track one down) will be just as bad. I'd go scour the pawn shops, but unfortunatly, im hours away from any. Any sugestions?

Just seems wierd tho, that slightly under and slightly over powering it dosent even make it blink, squak, chirp, or squeal...all things which id imagine a distressed peice of kit might do towards me...

and i fear is a bit to light to be used as an anchor bookend, perhaps... thanks again!

-levon

[levon]

I got a response from tascam this afternoon. Looked pretty automated. Told me the Parts # for the PS-P2 is #3E0151011A, and its 25$ + tax + $4 for shipping, the catch is it's on backorder, and no idea when it will be in. The lady that responded also mentioned nothing about what a suitable equivalent would be (suprise suprise).

Ebay is still dry, but i did find one here and its 25$ before shipping as well... and in a wild attempt, Sonic State's classifieds had nothing either.

Anyone know where to find one of these buggers any cheeper? i fear that if i need to spend 30$ on an adapter to get it running, the unit may as well be "totaled", since i dont think its gotta be worth too much more then that.

-levon