Digitakt modified with internal battery

Elektron event is over, so I can finally reveal my internal battery-powered Digitakt.

Works for 5+ hours. Can power a second Elektron machine by simply connecting the DC inputs. Both will work for 2 hours then, good enough for a full live set. Charges with a standard Elektron power supply. It can be plugged in and removed at any time, no need to turn off the machine to move from battery power to wall power and back. A more powerful PSU may get an additional hour of play though. There are no visual changes to the device except for 200 grams added weight and no heat build up even when powering multiple machines at the same time. No changes to Digitakt circuitry were required, the whole thing is just soldered on top. Still the warranty is void of course.

I donā€™t have any specific plans to offer this as an upgrade yet due to logistics and all, but leave a comment if youā€™re interested.

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Really neat!

woahā€¦ really nice! I suck at electronics/soldering but someone making a kit/manual would be nice though, itā€™s a great upgrade.

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Sweet!

very interested!
I only use my DT with a battery pack so very much into your idea mate.
Thanks for the good work.

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great job.

  • is there a battery low light (green/red)?
  • is there an adaptor to daisy chain another unit whilst charging from PSU?
  • what battery did you use?
  • does using midi drain faster?
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Thatā€™s awesome. Only 200g extra weight and no soldering on the DTs circuitry almost sounds too good to be true!

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  • is there a battery low light (green/red)?

Nope. Can be added, but I wanted to keep Digitakt stock visually without drilling additional holes in it.

  • is there an adaptor to daisy chain another unit whilst charging from PSU?

Can be done, of course. Donā€™t have one yet.

  • what battery did you use?

LG M50 5000mAh 21700 type batteries. The best I could find.

  • does using midi drain faster?

5+ hours is my own stress test with ALL inputs connected and doing something. Midi, both headphones and line out included.

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no soldering on the DTs circuitry

No change to DTā€™s circuitry. The thing has to be soldered on to two points though or it wonā€™t be reliable.

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This is great! Iā€™d definitely be interested in a guide so I can do it myself.

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excellent.

is there tech to non invasively monitor battery capacity in the psu connector?

i think the only other thing iā€™d want to check is the projected number of charges of the LG M50 5000mAh 21700 type batteries.

Ohh, got it. Still, it sounds like a straight forward bit of soldering!

Blockquote is there tech to non invasively monitor battery capacity in the psu connector?

A standard voltage meter, yes :slight_smile:

projected number of charges of the LG M50 5000mAh 21700 type batteries.

It depends on how deep the battery is charged and discharged. If you use the standard Elektron PSU, you canā€™t really charge it to 100% to be honest, it stays around 92%. And Digitakt turns off at 10.89 volts while the battery can go down to below 9 volts. So itā€™s discharged only to around 40% every time. With this use scenario it should easily work for 2000+ cycles.

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Iā€™d be super interested in a BOM with guide, or a full kit if you wanted to offer. This looks awesome!

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Yes please please please share more pictures

I saw a photo of this on instagram and was flabbergasted. I thought ā€œwhat dummy connected the two power input jacks together?ā€ Amazing work there. Iā€™d be interested, if it also fits in Digitone. It would be very cool to be able to power Digitone & Octatrack without wall warts. Not critical for me, but still would be cool.

+1 interested in BOM and instructions! :slight_smile:

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really impressive
please provide more details or howto would be nice :slight_smile:
thanks in advance

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Smart!

Iā€™m on the fence about spending some time hacking 8 channel break-out box for DT using:
raspberry & this interface:
https://www.minidsp.com/products/usb-audio-interface/u-dac8

ā€¦using code from this repo created by some good soul from this forum:

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Nice! I wonder if DN has enough room inside for a mod like this, too.

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