Cacophony Forums

Back in 2015 Mackie introduced Freeplay Personal a very useful small venue sound system. I purchased one and after four years it needed a new battery. A simple solution was to order a new replacement Li-Ion  battery. Not so. Originally it had options for AC power, D cell batteries or a custom Mackie Li-Ion battery. I opted for the Li-Ion power source. Although the claim was 10 hrs it only lasted about 7 hrs. After about 4 yrs it needed a replacement since it only lasted 1.5 hrs. Simple solution was to replace this, not so. The search provided replacements for 6800mAh and the original 5200mAh from an distributor called  Cameron Sino. ShenZen HENZENS Technology Co. Limited is listed as the manufacturer. The results was clear and repeated several times. The new 6800mAh lasted 1.5 hrs and the 5200mAh lasted all of 1 hrs. I'm going to open up both units to find the truth but the results are clear. The Cameron Sino product is a SCAM. The original Mackie product is claimed to be available at Sweetwater but if the label shows CS send it back. I have since replaced this with a much better solution that has given me 18 hrs of usage and is rechargeable. EBL "D" batteries made from LD-NIMH (Low Discharge) rated at 10,000mAh. Caution previous "D" cells were AA cells in a "D" cell enclosure and a capacity of about 2200-2800mAh you don't want these. The cost is also lower at around $45 at Amazon vs $70 Li-Ion at Sweetwater. A  no-brainer and future proof with the industry standard "D" cell.
Cheers

Why not future-proof yourself and go with Dave Schumanns Mixing Station. It works for the DL32S. If you then change equipment you may not have to learn a new software package. As to a new version of MF good luck it hit the magic V5 in Mackie's world its the end of life. For more info see:
http://cacophony.aspinock.com/index.php?topic=1648.msg18878#msg18878
Cheers

To be clear, your mixer won't stop working, but parts, etc. won't be available. This is standard for just about every electronics company - Avid often publishes their end of life products, and 10 years in music tech is a long time.  No plans to replace my DL1608; if it dies, then I'll think about it, but it's working fine on MF 5.0

No surprises here. I expect the DL16S and DL32S to soon be on that list thus marking the exit from the digital mixer market. From the leader to nothing in ten years, what a feat!
For history here is the list today before it's gone.

"Product Discontinuations

Effective May 1st 2022, the following products are now discontinued. New and existing purchases under warranty will continue to be supported.

    DL1608
    DL32R
    DL32R Dante Card
    DC16 / AXIS System
    SRM Professional Series
        SRM550
        SRM650
        SRM1850
    PPM608
    PPM1012
    SP260 "

Cheers

The Soundcraft UI series (12, 16 and 24) are all controllable via iPad or iPhone or even Android device. In fact, any device that will run a html webpage will be able to control the Ui's