Replacement UK PSU for my Rio Riot ???

Any ideas where I can get a replacement UK PSU for the Riot ??? Mine seems to have burned up.

Or what can I use as a 3rd party replacement ???

It's a real pain, I was going to take it with me on the train tomm. and it has no charge in it.

Thanks in advance.

Cris.

I imagine printed on the back of somewhere is the details on voltage and polarity. Unless it has some wacky connector then all you need is these details and a universal dc power supply.

I have an imported Riot, so I have a US PSU. I noticed that it outputs 5v at 2A !!!

I had a quick look around, the only DC PSU I can find that comes anywhere near that is the one I use with my Empeg at 1.2A. Will this make a big difference ? The cable doesn't match anything else I have, but I could just cut off the old one as it is fried anyway.

I was hoping to get hold of one of those weird USB leads at the same time ???

Cheers

Cris.

for something that supplies 5V at 2A check out the PSU's that come with USB hubs, you may need to do a little 'surgery' on the connector though.

Maplin do several 5V SMPS's which will do the job. Should be about £10-£15 from what I remember. You can probably find it cheap else where though.
Also, don't even bother asking the sales staff about it. Everytime I've been forced to shop there I've overheard the sales staff give out dangerous advice.

I had a quick look around, the only DC PSU I can find that comes anywhere near that is the one I use with my Empeg at 1.2A. Will this make a big difference ?

It may be just me misreading, but you're not thinking of connecting your empeg PSU to it are you??

The empeg runs at 12 volts & from the other post your Riot runs at 5 volts.... surely NOT GOOD

Cheers, Sim

The Compaq/HP iPAQ, Toshiba PDA's have a power adapter that outputs DC +5v 2A... could be ideal if you can change the end?

The PSU I use for my Empeg is a variable voltage job, so I could just set to 5v and it should be OK, but I would have to cut the end off, so it would then be useless for the Empeg.

Is there no Rio Spares Shop ???

Cheers

Cris.

Everytime I've been forced to shop there I've overheard the sales staff give out dangerous advice.

Good advice, but to be fair, our Maplins in Leeds has the one middle to old guy, who used to be a television engineer, who will take endless trouble to listen and make sure that you get the right thing. He is quite capable of selling you something half the price of what you went in to buy. I always hover around behind the displays and nip in quick when he is free.

Same as going to B & Q, who positively recruit those older guys who know how to do every DIY task in the universe.

If you go to Maplins and get the socket, that matches your Empeg power plug( I forget how many mm's it is), cut the plug off your frazzled rio riot unit, on a short piece of lead, and solder it to the socket, you've achieved the same thing without mucking up your Empeg power unit.

P.S. Do you want this new Wavefinder software, or what?

Yeah. Occasionally you do find one or two people that do know what they're talking about.
The one in Brighton when I used to go to it was quite bad though. A guy came in once and asked for some fuses. They didn't have the right amperage in stock but the salesman said that the next one up would do fine...
Also half the time they'd give me the wrong parts and it would be totally wrong. I'd get a bag of diodes or something when I wanted a few resistors. They're about the same shape so I guess they just weren't paying attention.

B&Q are a lot better than Homebase in terms of advice but aren't as flashy as Homebase. Homebase is a lot "cleaner" inside but seem to recruit mainly younger staff who are just there as a part time thing at sixth form. I normally try to go to the local DIY shop, they're a little more expensive but the guy that runs it seems to have done everything before and knows what to recommend.

B&Q are a bloody ripoff, I go to Wickes every time. The people there definitely seem to know what they're doing.

Thanks, totally forgot about the software for the Wavefinder.

I'd love to get hold of a copy, is the best thing for me to come and get it off you, PM me with address and whens good.

Thanks again.

Cris.

What software is this?

New drivers for Psion Wavefinder, that they have the cheek to charge £5 for, boxer already has a copy so I'm going to borrow it. Cheers Boxer

I still live in hope the bods at the beeb will realise that no one listens to 6 music and puts all the bandwidths back up to what they should be, barr humbug. My BBC ??? Kiss my arse

Cheers

Cris.

I fully expect the BBC to cram even more channels on the MUX given half the chance. We have been conned. For years they promised us "CD quality" sound with DAB (stereo stations were supposed to be 192k minimum).

Which they gave us at launch, which was wonderful. Now they have slashed Radio 4 to 128k at best with 64k mono some of the time. And the adverts now talk about "crystal clear digital sound". Tossers !

Sorry, rant over !

In reply to:

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I still live in hope the bods at the beeb will realise that no one listens to 6 music and puts all the bandwidths back up to what they should be

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I doubt it, the beeb would be seen to be withdrawing services, and we couldn't have that could we?

I would like to point out that it's not just BBC that does this, a friend of mine works for MXR digital and they're always keen to get extra services on regardless of the impact on quality...

I've got a WaveFinder as well. I've only ever got it going once and it's been duff ever since. It was under 2K but I upgraded to XP.
I'm not even sure my WaveFinder still works. There have been reports of the regulator and ADC chip burning out and needing to be replaced. Also the PSU is apparently underrated and turning off those LEDs helps... I'm not impressed to say the least with this Psion/Radioscape product. The fact they're charging for the new drivers isn't helping!

My brother-in-law's went completely dead, but I found a guy on one of the digital broadcasting sites, who fixed it very reasonably - if you want I'll see if my BIL still has the details.

Psion certainly have nothing to be proud of with this product, a good regulated 12volt supply certainly helps, as does a powered USB hub (particularly, I understand with XP) and removing the LED's also helps, if you haven't actually done it, a good description is here.
However, I found that none of these things helped as much as a good external dab aerial.
It still isn't 100% though, I only use it for timed recordings, which I edit with direct cut and download to the Empeg. You still come back to find a 0db file from time to time, so I've taken to doing a paranoid back up recording of the FM broadcast, on tape and if all fails, I retrieve it from radio player.

You may also find this useful.

I spent a lot of time last year campaiging on the bit rate issue, along with a group of other people, we got a letter from the BBC, admitting that FM was the quality way to listen, but all I achieved was getting the Radio Times to remove the phrase "CD quality".
At the time, I had a nice letter from Gillian Reynolds, after she wrote a "state of radio broadcasting" article without even mentioning DAB, in the Daily Telegraph, and she made a very good point that more people are taking to listening to the radio on their digital satelite dish, than are taking to DAB, and that can only increase with terrestial digital television.
To me, DAB is a dead duck unless Sony and other mass market hi-fi manufacturers take it up. It seems strange that, as far as I know, they've all gone for car HU's and ignored the domestic market.
It also seems to me, that if we accept that DAB is about diversity, not quality, an ordinary tuner just isn't going to hack it. What is needed is a set, portable, but with a hard disk, so that it has all the features of Sky Plus: Record one programme, whilst listening to another; Pause; Rewind; Start listening half way through etc.

I go to Wickes every time

They should be the cheapest, the way they screw their suppliers down, my arm still hurts from the half nelson, and I didn't get the business!
Boxer's law is: "How come, when you just need one small part to finish a job on a Sunday morning, you drive 20 minutes to the nearest Homebase, and the only empty hook in the store is the one with the part you need, not on it?"