Gear Notes

Some operational notes on the gear we use. This is really for quick reference when out in the field to save us from looking for manuals.

 

AKG Condensor Mic C1000S

AKG C1000S

Battery life: 120 hours

Phantom Power. When using Phantom Power, the battery is reserved.

LED:

  • Red LED will Flash on and then stay off during a power up. This means that the battery is good.
  • If the red LED stays on - the battery is low with one hour remaining.
  • No LED indicator when on Phantom Power. 

 pdfAKG_C1000S Manual.pdf

 

BOSS WL-20 Wireless Guitar

BOSS WL20

Battery Life: 10 hours

Battery Charge time: 4hrs

Wireless Range: 15m

Wireless Band: 2.4 GHz

The Receiver (PA side) can be used while charging. The Transmitter (instrument side) cannot.

When the transmitter and receiver is physically coupled together (like when charging), the unit will stay in standby mode and use battery power. When in standby mode, the BATTERY/POWER indicator flashes every 8 seconds. Over time the batteries will go flat - so best to detach the units to turn off the units.

The (grey) WL-20L does not have incorporated "cable tone"... and will sound brighter. It is best for active pickups and will give the exact tone of the instrument from the instrument's jack (without a cable). 

If linking is lost... insert the transmitter into the receiver to link.

LED:

  • Green 8sec Flash: Standby mode.
  • Green Solid: Battery full.
  • Yellow: Battery low - 2 hours remaining.
  • Red: Battery Low - 30min remaining.
  • Blue: Connected.

Problem with the Boss WL-20 - Dropouts

If you use the WL-20 with a digital mixer like the Behringer X18 - the 2.4G Modem will cause dropouts. This is because the Modem is interferring with the WL-20. This is particularly an issue when using two WL-20's - there isn't enough 2.4 bandwidth.

To rectify, use a 5G modem and turn the 2.4G Modem off.

Also before using the WL-20, plug the transmitter into the reciever and wait 10 secs for the unit to scan for an available frequency.

Problems with the Boss WL-20 - Clicking sound

The Boss WL-20 does not work well with the transmitter plugged into preamps (or active pickups) - particularly the preamps in guitars. You can get a cyclic clicking sound (noise). I've found this on the Washburn Acoustic guitar - and the Ubass.

So use this transmitter with passive pickups, ie: pickups without batteries.

More info: 

 pdfBoss_WL-20 Manual.pdf

 

 

JOYO Wireless Mic MW-1

JOYO MW1

Wireless Band: 5.8GHz ISM (5.725 GHz - 5.875 GHz) (5G: WIFI CH 144 - 175) 

No Channels: 4

Wireless Range: 30m

Battery Life: 4 hrs

Phantom Power: No. Good for Dynamic Mics or self powered Condenser.

LED:

  • Blue Ring: Battery Good
  • Red Ring Flashing: Battery flat.

Long press the power button to pair.

Also long press while powering on to see the battery level via the channel indicator LED's.

pdfJOYO_MW-1 Manual.pdf

 

GLiNet Slate Router GL-AR750S-Ext

Slate Router

The 2.4G WIFI band is usually flooded with other portable devices. Hotels can slam the 2.4G band by installing multiple strong WIFI routers that take up all the bandwidth. Sometimes at places like the Markets, vendors flood the 2.4G band with their POS hotspots. Bluetooth is also competing in this bandwidth, using between 2.400 and 2.4835 GHz.

So we generally use 5G for the mixing desk tablets.

The problem with 5G is that, even through there are supposed to be around 80 channels, most WIFI routers only use a small number of these channels due to National broadcast restrictions. Unfortunately with this modem (and the TPLINK Archer D5) - the manufacturer has become complacent and doesn't really understand, or care, about Australian regulations. They end up restricting their modems to use just a few 5G channels.

Some 5.8G gear (like JOYO wireless mics or some wireless Guitar systems) will use the 5G "Band 4" below. This leaves us with "Band 1" for the mixing desk - which is a lousy 7 channels that can be hogged by a single completing 80MHZ WIFI router. 

  • Band 1: Channel 36-48 (Available)(OK for US)
  • Band 2: Channel 52-64 (Not selectable on this modem for AU)
  • Band 3: Channel 100-144 (Not selectable on this modem for AU) (OK for ZA... hint, hint)
  • Band 4: Channel 149-165 (Available)(OK for US)(But channel 144 - 175 clashes with 5.8G ISM gear)

In AU, channels 118 to 128 are used for other services and should be avoided. Idealy, 5G Ch 106 with 80mHz is probably least used.

An upside of 5G having it weaker range, if there are a lot of competing routers, just get close to your WIFI router and you'll get a strong enough signal to take control of the desk again. With 2.4G, sometimes you can't get a good enough connection, even when you are right up close to the mixer!

More info of WIFI Frequencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels

pdfGLiNet Mini Modem Manual.pdf

 

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