Pedalboard Power

JDOD

JDOD

therecordingrebels.com
What is the point in spending a shit load of money on pedalboard power supplies other than the fact they look nice?

I've got the cheap 1 Spot power supply which is just a plug 8No. 9V DC plugs coming off it and it works fine. The only drawback is that 8 power cables isn't quite enough.

I was just wondering what the percieved advantages are of the better ones made by people like MXR, FuelTank etc. Mooer also make one.
 
The only think I am concerned about is further branching off each of my plugs. The cable off the 1Spot is basically just branched in parallel. In fact the branched cable is attached the the underside of my board with the plug ends poking up through holes in the board. I was wondering if I start to run any risks if I add further branching - maybe sticking another string of 8 into one of the branches of the 1Spot.
 
JDOD said:
The only think I am concerned about is further branching off each of my plugs. The cable off the 1Spot is basically just branched in parallel. In fact the branched cable is attached the the underside of my board with the plug ends poking up through holes in the board. I was wondering if I start to run any risks if I add further branching - maybe sticking another string of 8 into one of the branches of the 1Spot.
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You need to be sure that the power supply can deliver the required current. Reckon on 300 - 500 mA per pedal on average and multiply by the number of pedals for a rough guide, then check that the PSU will cover that. Then you need to check that your second string of 8 will continue with the existing parallel wiring configuration - you don't want a series/parallel arrangement as that will reduce (halve?)
the voltage.
 
Greg_L said:
Just get another one spot. It'll still be cheaper than one of those Voodoo DC brick things.
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Could do, but then I'd have to plug in twice and have two power cables running to my board. I'm not in desperate need of more than 8, but I have filled all 8 slots at the moment. The pedals I have left over aren't getting missed though.
 
JDOD said:
Could do, but then I'd have to plug in twice and have two power cables running to my board. I'm not in desperate need of more than 8, but I have filled all 8 slots at the moment. The pedals I have left over aren't getting missed though.
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Mount a power strip to the board. Plug the one spots into that.
 
Yeah, I will do if I need to. So, what are the percieved benefits of the more expensive ones like FuelTank etc?
 
JDOD said:
Yeah, I will do if I need to. So, what are the percieved benefits of the more expensive ones like FuelTank etc?
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Some of them have independent or switchable outlets for pedals that require something other than the usual 9v. They can also be switched 110/220.
 
The voodoo pedal power has isolated outputs, and each of the outputs receives a nice clean and filtered power supply. Ive had a couple of pedals that didn't agree with my previous cheapo power supply, they would hum fiercely. But they love the pedal power. II think that they're priced way too high though, seems they could go for at least $50 less than they do. But if you've got a pedaltrain board, they mount right to the underside with a little drilling, keeping the look nice and clean.
 
What Tad said - noise. I've read that daisy chaining the 1-spot with some pedals ends up having a lot of hum or noise . The cheapest bulk supply is over $100, like Tad said, that's too expensive.
 
I'm fairly certain that the one spots aren't supposed to go over 8 connections because of a potential fire hazard if more that that are connected... Can't remember where I heard that though, it might be complete BS. :confused:

Actually, that ^^ is total BS.
1 spot website said:
Handles from one to well over twenty guitar pedals (1700mA max!)
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So you should be fine with another extension...
 
pikingrin said:
I'm fairly certain that the one spots aren't supposed to go over 8 connections because of a potential fire hazard if more that that are connected... Can't remember where I heard that though, it might be complete BS. :confused:

Actually, that ^^ is total BS.


So you should be fine with another extension...
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Yeah, the OneSpot, while inexpensive, is far from cheap. It is much more than a typical wallwart. It is regulated and filtered with current limiting and short protection. You can hang as many pedals off the thing as you want and when it can't provide enough current anymore it protects itself by shutting down instead of burning up. It is, though, still a daisy chain which creates a ground loop and also can allow some really poorly behaved pedals to dump noise onto the power supply which might affect other pedals. Neither of these is a problem unless it is, of course, and if you're not hearing any unreasonable amount of noise from the chain, you're good.

The next step better is basically a parallel daisy chain with an individual cap across each "link". This can help keep some of that noise from a naughty pedal from effecting its neighbor, but doesn't help the ground loop.

Better still is actual transformer isolation of all of the outputs, so that they're not sharing ground through the power supply, and the loop is broken.

Better even is when each of the transformer isolated outlets is both regulated and filtered seperately. This pretty much ensures that one pedal can't fuck with another and should be the quietest possible solution. This is almost necessary when you're doing multiple different voltages and/or providing both AC and DC outputs.

For most things, a daisy chain works fine up until you run out of current. I don't even bother with regulated supplies for most things. Just one big filter on the DC input from a relatively hefty 9VDC supply and a smaller filter on each output has worked reasonably well for quite a while, except that this won't be protected from shorts or pulling too much current, and I have burned things. Be very careful of any "spare" connectors on your daisy chains! The outside of that barrel is the positive voltage, and if it touches the chassis of some pedal that's plugged into the same chain, it creates a short. The OneSpot will safely shut down, but other things might not be so well protected. At best, none of the pedals will light up (because they're getting like 0V supply), at worst the wallwart itself will light up...on fire.
 
mjbphotos said:
Someone on another forum pointed out this PS: Godlyke - 2000mA, $30 kit comes with all sorts of extra cables.
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It's funny. That page says "...including up to 3 Line 6 modelers" by which I assume they mean things like the DL4 et al. Of course, those "modelers" all want 9VAC at 1200ma... ;) I don't think you can hurt anything by trying it into one of those guys (The opposite is not safe. The 9VAC supply for these things will kill other pedals really quick!), but I can't imagine it would work very well, and two of them would be over the 2A that this page claims as the limit despite what the package says. Hopefully it has current limiting and protection. Besides that, it's more expensive and has less "links" on its chain than the OneSpot.
 
ashcat_lt said:
It's funny. That page says "...including up to 3 Line 6 modelers" by which I assume they mean things like the DL4 et al. Of course, those "modelers" all want 9VAC at 1200ma... ;) I don't think you can hurt anything by trying it into one of those guys (The opposite is not safe. The 9VAC supply for these things will kill other pedals really quick!), but I can't imagine it would work very well, and two of them would be over the 2A that this page claims as the limit despite what the package says. Hopefully it has current limiting and protection. Besides that, it's more expensive and has less "links" on its chain than the OneSpot.
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Too true! I dont' have any Line6 pedals anyway. I remember hearing they are always na issue to use because of the AC current they need.
 
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