Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Discuss all non-Boss pedals here!
User avatar
Dirk
Posts: 214
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 1:28 pm
Location: Netherlands
SBZ: Double Platinum
Bossarea: Double Platinum

Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by Dirk » Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:48 pm

So, I got this little powerbank from Thomann, called the Harley Benton powerplant.
It can charge the battery of ones smart phone, but it can also power your pedalboard.
Thomann claims it has a 10.000mAh capacity, and so far it has not failed yet.
It came fully charged, I played 2 gigs and at least 5 rehearsals with it and according to the led's
it's still halfway full.
Now, I only have a small board with only 4 pedals that don't require a lot of power, but still I find it
mighty impressive.
It's very convenient, you don't have to look for a 2nd outlet in some bars or run a long power line to the front of
the stage, because it's a battery, it doesn't hum, it's dead quiet.
The future will have to dictate it's life span of course, but generally, I love it.
Anybody else like powerbanks to power their gear?

https://www.thomann.de/nl/harley_benton ... erbank.htm

User avatar
Gasgano
Posts: 280
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 12:27 am
Location: Montreal, QC
SBZ: Silver

Re: Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by Gasgano » Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:06 pm

39 EUROS?!???! This is line 5 times less than a Volto from Pedaltrain (for litterally the same thing).

Holy moly if that works as well as advertized this is a BIG BIG BIG winner for smaller boards. I love my Volto (despite the pricetag) for the bass board (only 4 to 6 pedals, low current draw). For a smaller board I definitely recommend a powerbank.
"People who are late are usually in a better mood than the people waiting for them to show up."

User avatar
SteamAbacus
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 10:43 pm
Location: London
SBZ: Silver

Re: Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by SteamAbacus » Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:15 pm

That's a good price, especially as it comes with all the accessories.

As I mentioned in my pedalboard post, I have been using a DIY battery pack with a small 4-pedal board for the last couple of months. I made two - one with 6 normal AA batteries (nominal 6x1.5V = 9V) and a second for rechargeable batteries with 8 (nominal 8x1.2V = 9.6V). I've used them on three separate gigs now (one, a VERY rudimentary outdoor festival setup) and the convenience of not having to get power to the front of stage, and the speed of setup, means I'll probably keep using battery power.

It'll be interesting to see how good the Harley Benton unit is regarding multiple recharges - will the capacity slowly degrade over time if it isn't run to fully discharged before each recharge? (I would want to charge it fully before each gig for peace of mind)

I am tempted to pick up one of these HB Powerbanks.

I still like the idea of my 6xAA unit for a backup - you can always buy some batteries somewhere but you can't always wait 5 hours for a recharge.

User avatar
Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 107
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:33 pm
Location: Chicago
SBZ: Silver
Bossarea: Silver

Re: Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by Admin » Wed Sep 12, 2018 11:50 pm

I agree SteamAbacus. I wish they had those years ago when I played at my old church. We were always one outlet short, and had to run a 100 foot extension cord outside to the next nearest plug. We had no time for setup or tear down. That thing would have saved a lot time. The life span, and having peace of mind of a fully charged unit is definitely concern though.
Dirk, please keep us updated of the longevity of the unit.

User avatar
Dirk
Posts: 214
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 1:28 pm
Location: Netherlands
SBZ: Double Platinum
Bossarea: Double Platinum

Re: Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by Dirk » Fri Sep 14, 2018 5:34 pm

Will do.

sclitheroe
Posts: 273
Joined: Sat Aug 18, 2018 2:11 am
SBZ: Platinum

Re: Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by sclitheroe » Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:51 am

SteamAbacus wrote:
Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:15 pm
It'll be interesting to see how good the Harley Benton unit is regarding multiple recharges - will the capacity slowly degrade over time if it isn't run to fully discharged before each recharge? (I would want to charge it fully before each gig for peace of mind)
It's lithium ion, so not running to full discharge is actually way, way better for it.

Two worst things for Lithium based batteries - draining below 20-30%, and charging to 100% (yep!) - the best, best thing you could do for maximum lifespan would be to pull it off the charger at 80%, and not drain it below 20-30%. This would be fairly easy to do, since it looks like it has 5 LED's to indicate charge status, so you could charge when it drops to one LED lit, and pull it off at 4 lit.

That's not a very realistic use case, of course, so the next best thing would be to never run it below 20-30%, and not leave it sitting fully charged at 100% for extended periods of time - since you are gigging, an easy way to do this would not be to recharge it until it needs it (low charge), and not recharge it immediately after a gig and leave it sitting like that for days or weeks on end - charge it to 100% the night before or whatever. If you did need to store it longer term (weeks, months), discharge to 50% would be ideal in preparation for storage.

Ultimately, at that price point, I guess it doesn't matter _that_ much - you're going to get a couple years out of it easily no matter how you treat it. But if you want it to last the longest possible time reliably, the points above are worth considering.

-Scott

User avatar
SteamAbacus
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 10:43 pm
Location: London
SBZ: Silver

Re: Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by SteamAbacus » Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:10 pm

Thanks for the info, Scott.

Idews
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:12 pm

Harley Benton power plant little review

Post by Idews » Thu Jan 10, 2019 6:17 pm

Anyone have an opportunity to try the Rivera Rock Crusher Power Attenuator yet? Thoughts?
Attachments
101.gif
101.gif (3.14 KiB) Viewed 12772 times

User avatar
Dirk
Posts: 214
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 1:28 pm
Location: Netherlands
SBZ: Double Platinum
Bossarea: Double Platinum

Re: Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by Dirk » Fri Jan 11, 2019 6:42 pm

I can inform anyone here that the Powerplant just got it's 2nd charge ever... :lol:
That's not bad for a battery lasting 6 or 7 gigs, and numerous rehearsals powering 4 pedals in 6 months time, isn't it?

Seriously, that thing would not empty! I did run it on it's last legs just to see how much life I could suck out of it, but that's impressive.
Well worth the 40 euros I paid for it if you ask me.

User avatar
laurie
Posts: 1633
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
Location: Canada
SBZ: Multi Platinum
Bossarea: Multi Platinum

Re: Harley Benton power plant (little review)

Post by laurie » Fri Jan 11, 2019 7:22 pm

Dirk wrote:
Fri Jan 11, 2019 6:42 pm
I can inform anyone here that the Powerplant just got it's 2nd charge ever... :lol:
That's not bad for a battery lasting 6 or 7 gigs, and numerous rehearsals powering 4 pedals in 6 months time, isn't it?

Seriously, that thing would not empty! I did run it on it's last legs just to see how much life I could suck out of it, but that's impressive.
Well worth the 40 euros I paid for it if you ask me.
Nice to hear of a well engineered solution...

Post Reply