Audioroot e-smart K-art... Experiences?

[thenannymoh]

I haven't read tonnes of testimonials about the Audioroot e-smart K-art.  I'm a big fan of my two audioroot bag distros, and the K-art appeals to me with its monitoring and heavy use of Hirose connections (of which I've invested already). But I'd love to hear more about how it fares after years of use, and how nicely it plays with other brand portable battery options (like the PSC pelican life etc).  Thanks! 

[Constantin]

I love it. That’s because I love buttons and lights and screens with important information in them. And because I actually make use of the buttons by switching things on and off. The battery meter is great and once you have calibrated your individual batteries the display is actually really useful. I don’t need smart batteries at all with this, although the K-art is compatible. I have the heavy Audioroot smart battery in a case, but I don’t use it, because it’s heavy and doesn’t really fit into my cart. Instead I use a couple of the Remote Audio Lifeboxes. 

So all if that is great, I haven‘t had a single hiccup with that thing. 
However, two things I don’t like: 

the K-Art is really difficult to mount on a cart - on my cart anyway. I have everything screwed into place, and that thing was possibly the mist difficult. 
More importantly: all outputs are regulated at 12V. And I think it’s actually a bit less. When I had it new, my 788T would sometimes turn on without issue, but suddenly it starts switching frantically between buil-in battery and external supply. Like really fast. I couldn’t do anything else. I had to remove all power to turn it off. Ir sometimes the recorder would just completey and suddenly die. Took me some time to figure out that I had to lower the voltage threshold for external power supply in the menu setting. Set it to something like 11.5V and then it works fine. 
I just played around with a Scorpio for a few days and it turns out it doesn’t fully boot when it’s just powered by the K-Art. I have not been able to find out exactly why that is. You have a few external power settings, but you can’t adjust the actual voltage. If I use a different power supply to boot the Scorpio and then remove that, I can then run the recorder from the K-Art alone. Or when I clip on a battery in the back it works too. That’s a bit annoying and I wish Audioroot had included at least one unregulated out or the option to set the voltage output on one or two outs. 

Anyway, overall it’s a great piece of gear

[vins]

It’s a great piece of kit. On my K-ART I could choose if I wanted to regulate output 1, 2, 4, 5 as an option. I have 1 & 2 regulated only. 
I think if you are using a power supply you want to have it slightly higher than your battery voltage so when power is connected it chooses the highest voltage which is the power supply. Otherwise it will run the batteries down then swap to the PSU.  
I’ve always had great service from Antoine too. 

[Constantin]

6 hours ago, vins said:

It’s a great piece of kit. On my K-ART I could choose if I wanted to regulate output 1, 2, 4, 5 as an option. I have 1 & 2 regulated only. 

Really? Ok I did not know that. I just bought it online and was never given any options. Anyway, I‘ve learned to live with it

[Constantin]

9 hours ago, vins said:

I could choose if I wanted to regulate output 1, 2, 4, 5 as an option. I have 1 & 2 regulated only. 

Turns out if may be similar on mine. At least when I tried the XLRs just now, output 3 is unregulated and the Scorpio is happy running off that one it seems. Most of the Hirose are regulated, too, but I can’t test them all at the moment. Anyway, it’s good to know that this can be specified at the time of purchase - if you’re not in a hurry like I was

[Jim Rillie]

I have one, have been using it for about 4 or 5 years now. Mine is not regulated AFAIK (no options). The ability to turn stuff on and off individually from the K Art switches is great for regulating the cart current draw, and the power meter is great, just like the smaller boxes. I also  have a BGDh with battery cup hard-wired for the doc setup. Never had any voltage issues, maybe because none of my outlets seem to be regulated. After all, most of the professional quality equipment we use already has its own regulation built in so to speak.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Jim Rillie
Correction

[ao]

i had my k-art delivered with output one set at 15v.  cantar x1/x2 liked having a higher voltage and that is why i chose that.  when the x3 arrived,  it liked having a higher voltage, but now with software updates and the ability to dial in voltage thresholds, the higher voltage is less of an issue. 

 

for some time, i had been looking for an led lightsource to plug in to the usb connectors on the front face of the k-art.  finally found these:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0179CK3LC/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_9ALxFbRFEPHKJ

on my smaller (gun and run) cart,  it acts as a lightsource for my cantarem mixing surface, located below.  the link above is specific to canada.  search to your own geographic region.

[Constantin]

On 9/13/2020 at 7:37 PM, ao said:

for some time, i had been looking for an led lightsource to plug in to the usb connectors on the front face of the k-art.  finally found these

 I have used various LED lights and most run on 12V. So I have just added a Hirose and plugged it into one of the outlets. Now I have a light switch!

[RadoStefanov]

On 6/13/2020 at 3:57 PM, Constantin said:

I love it. That’s because I love buttons and lights and screens with important information in them. And because I actually make use of the buttons by switching things on and off. The battery meter is great and once you have calibrated your individual batteries the display is actually really useful. I don’t need smart batteries at all with this, although the K-art is compatible. I have the heavy Audioroot smart battery in a case, but I don’t use it, because it’s heavy and doesn’t really fit into my cart. Instead I use a couple of the Remote Audio Lifeboxes. 

So all if that is great, I haven‘t had a single hiccup with that thing. 
However, two things I don’t like: 

the K-Art is really difficult to mount on a cart - on my cart anyway. I have everything screwed into place, and that thing was possibly the mist difficult. 
More importantly: all outputs are regulated at 12V. And I think it’s actually a bit less. When I had it new, my 788T would sometimes turn on without issue, but suddenly it starts switching frantically between buil-in battery and external supply. Like really fast. I couldn’t do anything else. I had to remove all power to turn it off. Ir sometimes the recorder would just completey and suddenly die. Took me some time to figure out that I had to lower the voltage threshold for external power supply in the menu setting. Set it to something like 11.5V and then it works fine. 
I just played around with a Scorpio for a few days and it turns out it doesn’t fully boot when it’s just powered by the K-Art. I have not been able to find out exactly why that is. You have a few external power settings, but you can’t adjust the actual voltage. If I use a different power supply to boot the Scorpio and then remove that, I can then run the recorder from the K-Art alone. Or when I clip on a battery in the back it works too. That’s a bit annoying and I wish Audioroot had included at least one unregulated out or the option to set the voltage output on one or two outs. 

Anyway, overall it’s a great piece of gear

 

On 6/13/2020 at 3:57 PM, Constantin said:

I love it. That’s because I love buttons and lights and screens with important information in them. And because I actually make use of the buttons by switching things on and off. The battery meter is great and once you have calibrated your individual batteries the display is actually really useful. I don’t need smart batteries at all with this, although the K-art is compatible. I have the heavy Audioroot smart battery in a case, but I don’t use it, because it’s heavy and doesn’t really fit into my cart. Instead I use a couple of the Remote Audio Lifeboxes. 

So all if that is great, I haven‘t had a single hiccup with that thing. 
However, two things I don’t like: 

the K-Art is really difficult to mount on a cart - on my cart anyway. I have everything screwed into place, and that thing was possibly the mist difficult. 
More importantly: all outputs are regulated at 12V. And I think it’s actually a bit less. When I had it new, my 788T would sometimes turn on without issue, but suddenly it starts switching frantically between buil-in battery and external supply. Like really fast. I couldn’t do anything else. I had to remove all power to turn it off. Ir sometimes the recorder would just completey and suddenly die. Took me some time to figure out that I had to lower the voltage threshold for external power supply in the menu setting. Set it to something like 11.5V and then it works fine. 
I just played around with a Scorpio for a few days and it turns out it doesn’t fully boot when it’s just powered by the K-Art. I have not been able to find out exactly why that is. You have a few external power settings, but you can’t adjust the actual voltage. If I use a different power supply to boot the Scorpio and then remove that, I can then run the recorder from the K-Art alone. Or when I clip on a battery in the back it works too. That’s a bit annoying and I wish Audioroot had included at least one unregulated out or the option to set the voltage output on one or two outs. 

Anyway, overall it’s a great piece of gear

 

Maybe you have too much DC cable voltage loss.

[Jim Rillie]

I don’t think we have had Constantin’s issues with the K art. I am thinking the outputs are not regulated and anything works as if it was getting whatever the main batteries feeding the K art have voltage wise . Generally  we used V lock Blueshape batteries with adapter plates cabled to the K art.

 

Our K art 

Still works well, one of the on lights burned out. it’s nott in use theses days due to working with much smaller carts than we used to. Even our biggish cart doesnt  need it with a PSC 12 pack which has lots of Dc distribution built in.

[RadoStefanov]

1 hour ago, Jim Rillie said:

I don’t think we have had Constantin’s issues with the K art. I am thinking the outputs are not regulated and anything works as if it was getting whatever the main batteries feeding the K art have voltage wise . Generally  we used V lock Blueshape batteries with adapter plates cabled to the K art.

 

Our K art 

Still works well, one of the on lights burned out. it’s nott in use theses days due to working with much smaller carts than we used to. Even our biggish cart doesnt  need it with a PSC 12 pack which has lots of Dc distribution built in.

In my experience less voltage is related to cable size length and physical distance from the battery.

[Constantin]

Well, by now everything works very well. Turns out I did have an unregulated output on the K-Art and on it I now have the Scorpio. Everything runs very stable now and I really like this setup. 

[RadoStefanov]

What kind of cable from battery to the K-Art? And how long?

 

[Constantin]

2 hours ago, RadoStefanov said:

What kind of cable from battery to the K-Art? And how long?

 

That’s a good question. I did have cables that were either too long or too thin, as I have quite a distance to cover from battery to K-art and they wouldn’t work properly.
I need to look it up as I am not near my cart at the moment