Pedalboard Power Supply

[James K]

Hi,
I'm planning on building a power supply for my pedalboard. It will need six 9v DC outputs. What I want to know is, is there any advantage to individually regulating each output? i.e. having a three pin regulator for each output fed from the supply after the filter caps. Alternatively, should I have one regulator and then individual filter caps on each output?

I know that it would work with just one regulator feeding all outputs without individual capacitors but I wondered if I would get lower noise by using individual regulators.

Thanks
James

 

[ashcat_lt]

I don't know that extra regulators will help with noise, but I would definitely go with some individual caps, preferably right across the output jacks or at least as physically close to the jacks as possible.

The power supplies that I've built don't bother with the regulator. I use a small series resistor in series with a power diode and then a really big cap to ground with smaller caps across each individual jack. Not claiming it's the absolute best, but I've never had noise issues where the power splitter itself was the culprit. That could just be luck.

 

[ecc83]

Personally I would use regulators, they can cut ripple far more than any practical CR filter but that is not my main point.

Be careful how much capacitance you slap onto supply rails. Go too far and the power factor gets very bad and the mains transformer can suffer. Ok if there is some series R or a diode but don't get carried away directly at the bridge rect' cathode!

Dave.